Instead of looking at Caty as a reject, the girls hovered over her. They helped her dress, organized her personal items, and played the beautician; they helped in any situation. I loved watching them fix her hair with little braids. After a manicure treatment, she strutted with her hands out in front of her. One time she marched into the office, foot and toes pointed out, and said, “Look, look, Mamma Carroll.”
“Caty, they are beautiful, and so are you,” I replied. She danced out of the room with sparkles in her eyes.
The beginning had its hard times.
“Caty, it is time to go upstairs and get ready for bed.” Caty looked at me and back toward the floor, but didn’t try to get off the couch.
“Caty, it is time to go upstairs.” The other girls had left for their bedrooms, but Caty didn’t budge. I took her arm and nudged her toward the stairs. I felt a solid resistance. I realized stubborn as a mule would be added to the list of issues we would face. I lifted her face and looked into her eyes, but she refused to connect with mine.
“Caty, you are God’s beautiful creation. He loves you, and we love you. He brought you to our home so you would be safe and be part of this family, but being in a family requires obedience. So I’m asking you to obey and go upstairs.” I prayed for the Lord to help Caty act on what I said. I didn’t know if she understood my words, but she rose and, like an inchworm, moved up the stairs to her bedroom. Unfortunately, we would see a repeat of this behavior many times and not always with positive results.
I watched Caty settle in with our family, showing the maturity of a toddler. She needed help with many activities, including taking a shower or brushing her teeth. The girls taught her to eat with a spoon and a fork, but she preferred her fingers.
Her deep needs kept me pondering what we could do with our limited staff and abilities. I knew the love and security she felt influenced her positively, but I wanted to see healing. Could this be the result of drugs before birth? We needed to know what damaged her brain functions and what could be done to correct or heal those areas.
One day, all the girls except Caty went on a retreat to San Pedro. I thought this would be a good time for the interns and me to take her to the new mall for an outing. The stores were on the second level, and I braced myself as I looked at the escalators. Caty had never seen such machines, and her round eyes and big grin encouraged me to take the risk.
“One of you girls step in front of us so you can help if needed,” I said. I hugged Caty around the waist with one arm and grabbed her hand with the other so we could step together. I held her back to keep her from stumbling as we moved onto the escalator. She shrieked, and everyone in the area turned to see what had happened. Our girl laughed all the way up, to the delight of the observers.
From there, we went to McDonald’s for lunch. “Caty, would you like a hamburger and french fries to eat?” Her eyes glowed, nodding as if she had just entered Heaven. I passed the food to each girl from the tray. We had barely finished praying when Caty dived in and devoured everything within a few minutes. I guessed she feared her food would disappear. We returned to the orphanage with a reluctant youngster. The afternoon wore me out, and I longed for a nap. But not Caty; she wanted more action.
Visiting teams brings excitement to Shadow. The kids look forward to times of playing games, doing crafts, listening to teachings, and developing family relationships with people who treat them special. Caty’s ears perked up when she heard that a team would be coming because she had her favorite people. Even though a year might have passed since the last time she saw a friend, Caty immediately nuzzled up to their shoulder when that person returned. She stuck like glue until departure time.
It surprised me when English popped out of Caty’s mouth. One time a team brought the girls back from an excursion. Caty jumped out of the van, did her little half-wave, and said, “Good night,” in clear English. It tickled us to see her developing in the language area and becoming bilingual.
We stood in the cool breeze shaking our heads. Didn’t the kids finish the school term a few weeks ago? We continued to ride the zip line of time and today was the first day at Liberty Christian School. The director, Carina Aguilar, took up the theme that the children were blessed to have an opportunity for education. That went over the heads of many. I thought about the freedom they inherited to be able to attend school. People paid for that freedom with their blood, sacrifice, and through tribulation. My prayers went up that the population present at this open ceremony would see and feel the depth of the word “blessed.”
