"NO COMIMOS TORTA!"

Although this happened several days ago now, (or actually, more than a week...) this moment was so dear, so touching, I just had to capture it. But again, sorry for the delay!

Last Tuesday we celebrated "Dia de Ninos." Unfortunately, there in the US, we celebrate only Mother's Day and Father's Day. Here in Bolivia, though, we also have Kid's Day.

And it's a really big deal.

As volunteers, we were in charge of planning a huge event for the kids at the Hogar, and honestly I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea. It just seem like a lot of work. Planning games, decorating (and they like their decorations here...) making a meal for 50 people, and woring from 8-11:45 in the morning and 2:30-5:00 in the afternoon... yeah, there was a lot to do. However, it all turned out really well. The games were fun, the dinner was delicious, and the kids (already full from candy and cake in the morning and afternoon) gorged themselves for yet a third time, and returned happily exhuasted to their beds after a very full day.

Knowing they had all returned home and gone to bed, I stayed a little later and helped clean up. Then, of course, I began talking with some of the other university kids, and we began making plans for a huge camping trip that we were planning, ironically, for this weekend. All that to say, though, that I'm sure I didn't make it to bed until at least an hour after the kids returned home, so it was quite a surprise to walk into my room and see little Ines sitting-up happily in her bed, playing with her "prizes." And the first thing she said as I was entering, with her eyes enormous and her eye-brows raised, was "No comimos torta!"

Yes, earlier that evening, after returning home from school with at least a thousand goodies, I had packaged a left-over piece of cake in a little plastic bag and set it by her bed for "later," which (I thought was quite obvious), meant "tomorrow." However, at 10:00 at night, Ines looked at me in shock and said, "We didn't eat the cake!"
And it being Kid's Day and all, I decided to spurge. "Oh my gosh, we didn't eat the cake!" I returned, also mimicking shock.

So we had a little party. I got two forks from the kitchen, (and a banana, because I was hungry for some real food...) and we shared her piece of cake. Then she also got out her little half-way filled bottle of soda, and was so eager to share- every-other sip -that we drank that too. Then her little zebra needed a bottle, so we 'imaginarily' filled up up the empty soda bottle with milk and gave that to her baby zebra. Then the baby zebra wet the bed, so we had to 'change his sheets.' And so on and so forth. I think you get the picture.

But it was really a beautiful moment. So dear, so special for the both of us, but probably even more so for me. Oh thank you Lord for little children. Surely they are the ones who recieve the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessings from the Blessed,
Kristi