Gabrielle

Alrighty, this week we went to Vallejo, CA and it was super fun! On Saturday we worked at the Vallejo Outreach just working the kids section of the whole thing, which was pretty cool. Then on Sunday we did two children services at Church on the Hill, which is where we helped with Mega Sports Camp, pirate themed of course! Basically because we performed Jonah, which I’m proud to say that I played the part of Bratty Patty, although I screwed it up pretty badly, especially the second time. Oh well, you live and learn.

So during Mega Sports Camp I was entrusted with the 5 and 6-year-olds for soccer! The kids were so cute and on the last day a little boy named Adam made me a thank you card with a picture, which he drew, of me putting a gold medal around his neck, it was so cute! There were also two sisters that Gianna and I fell in love with. Their names were Ava, 5, and Analysse, 7. They were two of the cutest little girls that I have ever met. I’m not really sure what their story is, but every day their dad would pick them up with a baby. Then on the last day Analysse asked me if we would be at church and I had to tell her that we were going back home on Friday. So she asked where we live, and I told her in Arizona, she responded by saying that her mom goes to college in Arizona. I tried to figure out what city she was in, but Analysse didn’t know, I asked if she thought that she lived in Scottsdale and she asked me if there was a college in Scottsdale. I told her yes and she said that she was maybe there. She proceeded to tell me that her hair looked like hers; she wears glasses, and has a black backpack, just in case I saw her. My heart was going out to those two sweethearts. Ironically enough, on the last day Ava told me about four times that I looked like her mom. So at the end of the day we had to immediately get in the vans so we could get Esosa to the airport on time. I hugged Ava and then Analysse, not even realizing that Ava was crying! Analysse looked up at me and said, “My sister is crying because she doesn’t want to watch you go.” I looked at Ava, dropped all that I had, kneeled down and hugged her for as long as I could, until they told us to get in the vans. I simply can’t imagine what was going through her head if I looked like her mom, her mom was in Arizona, and now I was leaving to go to the exact same place that stole her mom from her. I wanted so badly to take those two sisters with us and go find their mom, but as you can imagine that simply wouldn’t have worked out. I guess that is just one way you can tell that we touched those precious children…

-gabrielle

now that i have H E L D you in my own A R M S , i C A N N O T let go . . .

Filed under: i hope that i can make a difference..., trips on June 29th, 2008