Emotional Overload

Today was a difficult day, a good day, but still difficult. This morning we visited a Compassion project in Kigali. It has 316 children attending there. 55 of those are orphans. 54 of the orphans live with extended family members and the only reason that the family members have been able to take them in is because Compassion is helping them. Without Compassion those 54 children would have no one. One of the children who is 17 years old lives alone.
We were a little disappointed at first because the children were not there today, but the parents were! Wednesday at that project is a day for the families to come for bible study and to ask questions about their children. We went into the church to meet the families. We had no idea the emotional experience we were about to encounter. The director had us sit up front and told the people (about 150 of them) that we had come here and adopted the baby we were holding. The excitement that errupted was unbelievable. They were chapping and cheering and laughing. He went on to tell them that we were here with 9 other families who adopted 12 children and the excitement kept growing. He told them how we celebrated Carington's birthday before we even met her and there were even louder cheers. The people couldn't seem to fathom what they were being told. Then he asked us to get up and say something! We weren't quite prepared for that. I don't really remember what either Greg or I said but I do remember the laughing and excitement when I stood and said, "muraho" (hello). The people are so amuzed when a muzungu attempts Kinyarwandan. The director asked if anyone would like to offer a prayer for us and a woman stood. She reached both arms toward heaven and through sobs praised God and praised His spirit for leading 2 muzungu's to come to there country to save a child. As she continued praying all the people began to cry and wail loudly. I've never experienced anything like it. After this another woman got up and talked about how God has a plan for every life. She said that this baby does not know that her plan is to have 2 white brothers, but that is God's plan for her! When we left the church many of the people were still crying. As we drove away one of the Compassion workers was still sobbing. Our translator said the the people just could not comprehend how God would lead people from America to come and adopt their children.
OK, as if all that was not enough we got to go visit the orphanage this afternoon. We got to see the crib were Carington spent her last year. There was another baby in it already. We were able to thank her caretakers and meet many of the other children. We also met many of the elderly that are cared for there. We did not stay long because it was difficult for the older children to see their friends with parents and know that they did not have any themselves. We are so thankful that our daughter will not spend any more time as an orphan. I just wish that I could say the same for all the other beautiful children that I saw today.