What I see...

I just saw a homeless man try to rip a blue Gatorade from a young man's hands.

I listened to a 17 year old mother talk about dropping to the floor the night before with her five month child, because a gang war was going on outside her front door.  She says she would love more than anything to move, but that earning $15 every 15 days, for 40 hours of work, just isn't enough to pay her own rent.

I looked into the glazed over eyes of a 13 year old little boy who just got out of a month sentence in jail for bringing a revolver to school and threatening to kill his teachers...I could feel the pain in his words as she shared that he had watched his father be brutally murdered the year before. 

I held a sick, malnourished 3 month old child, who is still the size of an infant, and felt my heart break as I tried to console his hungry sobs, and tried to control my own emotions as his mother told me that due to her nutrition, she no longer produces milk... And one bottle worth of watered down formula lasting them a day just doesn't suffice. 

I listened as two teenage girls full of promise told me there father wasn't going to let them study next year, because they were now women, and women are supposed to be in the house. 

I watched a puppy that resembled cooper running frantically in a torrential downpour, trying to find somewhere to hide, and when I tried to approach it... It became even more terrified. It took everything in me not to cry, imagining the fear of that poor pup, and what had happened to make him so distrustful. 

I was disappointed by someone in whom I have put a lot of faith... And my taxi took the long way home just because he knew that this "Gringa" didn't know any better. 

But then, at the end of the day, I sat down with my group of teenage girls.... Six tender hearts who two months ago were simply acquaintances, yet now have become sisters. Six sweet souls whose realities are unimaginable, yet who have clung to me and to one another... Pouring joy, friendship, strength and hope into one another's lives. Their giggles, their love, and their support of one another is incomprehensibly heart warming.

I got home and received a text from Joselin, the 17 year old mother who has completely wrecked my world, saying thank you... For all that I have done for she and the girls. For being the only person who has ever believed in her, fought for her, or inspired her. And that because she can never repay me for the friendship I have given her, she knows that God will through His blessings in my life. And she hopes we are friends forever. 

I have been told time and time and time again that if I can just touch one life, just inspire one child, just bring an ounce of hope into one home, then I have served my purpose here in Costa Rica... As my time here is coming to a close... I see in my little girls, but mostly in Joselin, my purpose here in this world. Guiding and bringing together these desperate lost children who are longing for nothing more than to be loved. 

At the end of the day... There's a lot of ugly in this world... Violence, addiction, poverty.... Sadness, hate, But there's a simple, clear, easy cute for it all... And that cure is love. These six little girls make that very clear.

Caroline