Darilo has quickly taken the place of Marcos and is currently one of the top loves of my life. Darilo arrived with his little sister at Villa Martha (an orphanage we go to every week that I talked about in one of my sponsor letters) in March and hardly talked. I was first touched by him because I could see the pain and loneliness he had inside of his little 4 year old heart. He didn't say a word other than "si" which means "yes" and was hardly ever found running around with the other children. This went on for two or three weeks and my heard ached and ached and I wondered if he would ever be able to say any other word or play with the other children.
One day I went to Villa Martha with Mayte, a Peruvian girl who is now on mission in the Phillipines, and we started to play a simple game with a group of children, which included Darilo. The game was whoever could say a word that started with whatever letter we said got to wear my sunglasses until the next round. All of the other kids were really good at this game and Darilo never said anything. The others quickly got bored with this game, gave me back my sunglasses, and went to go play on the playground equipment. Darilo stayed with Mayte and I and we tried to get him to say
SOMETHING, ANYTHING just to prove he could. He finally repeated the word "zapato" or "shoe" and I can't tell you the joy I had in my heart. I wasn't sure if he realized what the word meant, but he at least repeated something! I left that day with a kid in a candy store look on my face and was super excited to tell everybody about my little friend who had made a big step that day.
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| Darilo playing the drum |
Since this day, Darilo has advanced immensely in his talking abilities and now is able to have a small conversation. Just yesterday, he was asking me what things were called and was thirsting for more knowledge. We often think that the children of Villa Martha don't realize when we are gone or don't remember who we are, but Darilo also squashed that thought to the ground yesterday when he came running up to me with arms wide open to give me a huge hug letting me know that the time I spend with him means something to him. I hope he knows that he is loved not just by me but by Christ as well. I am so excited to see how he grows in the little time I have left here.
