Visiting Abish Susanna's

 On one of our first evenings in Campemento we arranged to visit the home of our sponsored cutie pie - Abish Susanna.  She lives within walking distance to the daycare, so Cece (who runs the daycare), Angelica (our translator), & the five of us trekked over with a gaggle of little friends who follow the gringos anytime we leave the center.  Susanna's mom welcomed us into her home, which was a room inside of her mother's house.  Susanna's mom, her 7 year old brother, her 14 year old sister, & herself all live in one small room (maybe about the same size as Judah's bedroom) with two twin beds & a dresser.  Susanna shyly opened the gift that we brought her... a few outfits, a couple pair of shoes, panties, a baby doll, & a backpack.  My mom had also shopped for her big brother & sister - the sister wasn't at home but her brother lit up at the sight of his new soccer ball.

Through our translator we asked Susanna's mom if she had any family needs that we could help her with.  She said that for a long time she had been saving to buy new beds for the family because both metal bed frames had broken (you could see the old mattresses sagging in the middle).  She hasn't been able to get ahead enough on her income to buy new beds... she makes $76 a month cleaning houses.

It was wonderful for all of us to meet Susanna's family - and we were so excited that her mom was allowing us to do this small thing for their sweet family.  The next day Bobby took us to one of Bread's micro loan participants who owns a woodworking shop & in just a few days he had the beds built & ready to deliver.  The beds didn't actually fit through the doorframe of the house, so we then hired the carpenter to take them apart & reassemble them inside.

I'm so thankful that Bread allowed us to take our sponsorship relationship to another level.  I know it made a big impression on the girls to see Susanna's situation outside of the daycare - and I pray that all of our hearts are changed... I want to remember her mom's eyes when she looked at her little girl, her willingness to invite us into her home on short notice & share with us humbling details about their finances, and the joy on the kids faces when they opened their gifts.  For the rest of the week Susanna grinned at us with her cute overbite with her backpack on & her babydoll tucked under her arm.  Love that girl!

walking back to the daycare with our tag alongs

explaining to our carpenter that we needed a Honduran length bed, not a gringo bed

Mae learning to play marbles with Christian - he lives across from the daycare & hopped in the taxi with us - still amazes me that they can just take off across town with white strangers!

Susanna with her big sister & brother.  A rain storm kept us from delivering the mattresses later that day, but the Vaughn family in the next Bread group did that for us a few days later.  Thx Vaughn's!