Cuando Ames

     We spent this week working with seven of my favorite human beings at la Casa de Esperanza (House of Hope), a children's home for abused and neglected kids. Our time there consisted of hours of soccer, gaga ball and keep-away, drawing requested pictures of trading card characters, dancing the robot, waltz, and Thriller, making bracelets, playing guitar, letting them win there way out of English class and use our cameras to take millions of pictures...and un montón de piggy back rides. Cuando Ames
     I can't believe we were only with those kids for two weeks and I can't believe how much they opened up to us in such a short time. Day one, they were too cool for school and could point out infinite flaws in any one of us. They didn't want to play games. They didn't want to show us what they were drawing. Some of them didn't even want to talk to us. By the end, they would beg to play gaga ball (and Temple Run). The last day, I left with 4 drawings from the kids. I was actually allowed to read, copy, and share a poem written by the oldest boy (15), Henry (pictured below):

Cuando Ames

Cuando ames, no digas, "te amo," si aun no sabes amarte a ti mismo. Cuando ames, entrega todo lo que a ti quisieras que te den.
Cuando ames, no juzgues y digas lo hago porque te quiero.
Cuando ames, aconseja con el corazón y no con la mente. 
Cuando ames, no le des la espalda ni digas que lo haces solo. 
Cuando ames, no mantengas mentiras por mantener una amistad. Cuando ames, recuerda que en la amistad, no hay mentiras.
Cuando ames, nunca dejes de decirlo si el corazón te lo pide. Cuando ames, grita tu amor y expresa tus sentimientos y emociones. Cuando ames, entrega todo lo que el corazón te dicte y nunca retengas nada.
Cuando ames, da gracias a Dios que puso lo mas hermosos sentimientos en tu interior. 
Cuando ames, recuerda que el amor es libre y limpio y que solo corazones llenos de gozo se pueden dar. Cuando ames, no reniegues de tu amor ni maldigas el sentimiento.
Cuando ames, dedícate amar y a cuidarlo. 
El amor no llega todos los días.

Cuando ames, que tu voluntad y tus fuerzas te acompañen y que el amor recorra cada milímetro de tu sangre.

(My English translation)

When You Love

When you love, don't say, "I love you," if you don't know how to love yourself the same. When you love, give everything you would want to be given to you.
When you love, don't judge and don't say, "I do this because I love you."
When you love, take advice from your heart and not from your mind.
When you love, don't turn your back and don't say that you're doing it alone.
When you love, don't maintain lies to maintain a friendship. When you love, remember that in friendship, there are no lies.
When you love, never stop saying it if it's what your heart asks of you. When you love, shout it out and express your feelings and emotions. When you love, release everything your heart narrates and never hold anything back.
When you love give thanks to God that he put the most beautiful feelings inside you. 
When you love, remember that love is free and clean, and something that only hearts filled with joy can give. When you love, don't let it become bitter and don't hate the feeling.
When you love, dedicate yourself to that love and to taking care of it. 
Love doesn't come around every day.

When you love, your will and your strength accompany you as the love runs through every millimeter of your blood.  

     If it's possible for your heart to dance, I'm pretty sure mine did when I read that. How incredible it is to see a 15 year old boy with so much love to pour out to his two biological brothers, to his 14 brothers and sisters in the house, to the helpers who stay at the home with them, to four gringas who come to hang out with them every day for two weeks, and to all his brothers and sisters in Christ who he alluded to in a different poem he shared with me. And you can see it too. In his eyes, in his smile, in his brotherly rough-housing, you can see how deeply Henry loves. I've been asking God daily to teach me how to love like He loves and help me to do so. Then I read that poem.
     Wow, talk about God speaking through people! I'm still trying to figure out what it means to love, what it looks like and what it feels like, and I can see God revealing pieces to me little by little. It's incredible. It's terrifying. It's amazing. And it's heart-breaking. To say goodbye to those kids yesterday was as hard as it was to say goodbye to my best friend when she went to college. And that was hard. But it's a part of love. It's the part of love that absolutely sucks (for lack of a better word), but it's necessary and makes every second worthwhile.
     It was such a blessing to meet, hang out, and fall in love with those kids over the past two weeks and a humbling reminder of how much I have to learn--especially from children.

--Brynne