In our last two letters we told you about Mari and her children, Leslie, Ricardo and Milagros. Ricardo was baptized at our Christmas party. Soon after Milagros was born, he came down with chicken pox. The common childhood illness can be fatal for fragile children like little Ricardo. When we arrived at the clinic on Saturday February 7 we received word that he had gone home to God. Through your generosity we were able to make the various payments involved: settling the hospital bill to get the body released, the funeral, the cemetery plot…Cristina handled all the arrangements and Fr. Denny went to the home with several of our Santo Niño mothers on Sunday for a final blessing before the interment. This is the second son Mari has buried in thirteen months.
We have welcomed several new children to the project. Jazmin is nine years old and has cerebral palsy. Her family recently received a simple two-room home from the group Siguendo los Pasos de Jesus (Following in Jesus’ Footsteps). The director of the group is a catechist from a parish in El Paso and they work in a remote colonia that we pass by every time we leave Juarez. She accompanied the family to Santo Niño for the first visit, a trip that took more than an hour because the family truck only manages 25 mph! After lunch that day we had Magda, one of our older students who uses a wheelchair but has normal upper body mobility, help Jazmin with some of our educational toys. It was a match made in heaven. Yesterday Jazmin told her parents, “Vámonos a la clinica!” (Let’s go to the clinic!) She was so happy with the exercise therapy, the games, and especially her turn in the Jacuzzi! “Que rico!” (How rich!) she exclaimed as she splashed among the warm bubbles. Despite the distance we know her parents will make the effort to bring her regularly and we will no doubt receive other children from the distant colonia as word gets around.
As the day winds down it is not uncommon for us to be invited to receive a treatment from a trio of our therapist-moms. After a lovely face massage Sofia places a lavender-scented eye pillow that darkens the room and heightens the other senses. One feels the hands of three women, whose lives are filled with such challenges, sensing the needs of the body, mind, spirit. One hears women's laughter, chatter, and children shouting and playing. There is activity all around but profound stillness within. This is when we experience the love that is Santo Niño. This is “the full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, poured into your lap…” (Luke 6:38)