The Boys

 Sometimes we just have to take a leap of faith. The faith in this case meant believing that if we took the boys and their mother into our program, funds to meet their needs (read former post here) would appear before us. It sounds biblical, but it is the reality of running a nonprofit. 
Meanwhile, the messages from Roland kept coming:

” Their mom Navia told me that a person/persons of the community there they lived made a decision that her sons were maltreated, their mother told me that some people of the community had misunderstood not knowing that the boys have this skin disease, and that there people of the community were afraid that it could be contagious, also she told me that her daughter was malnourished last year. I think the mom and her sons were at the hospital since December till early February. There is a court date on April 9th for the judge to decide to take the children because they don’t understand the disease and they think it is abuse.”

So we leaped. This family had all of the regular FFF issues and more….malnourished children, no income, a missing father. But they also had gifts…a hospital director who was willing to help us fight the courts to allow the mother to continue to parent her children, and they had the greatest ally ever; Roland, who was already emotionally invested in helping this family. 

Roland’s notes continued:
“And I also have a medical certificates that Dr Julio C. sent to me that I will print and give to their mom. He wrote one document for each boy, I asked him for these documents that can help their mom.   
I will tell you if a document can be necessary to show the judge that the boys have a disease and are not mistreated. She has documents signed by the hospital director of the national hospital of the city of M., there he wrote that the boys are not mistreated, I have a copy of one of these documents that he wrote.”

We were hooked. Grinding poverty does not lend itself well to happy stable households, especially when there is only one parent. Navia was strong enough to look unfavorable odds right in the eye and try to do her best for her sons who were going to need every bit of strength she could muster. She needed exactly what our name indicated; freedom from worry and friendship. 

Matthew in Colorado sent $200. This allowed us to get the boys to the doctor for an accurate diagnosis. I will write more on this in another post.

Food Supplies from Matthew’s Donation

Trip to pharmacy for skin lotions

For now, we have a new family, a lot of faith and an unknown future. The judge could decide to ignore the documentation showing that we intend to help this mother and her children. The boys have an auto immune disease that would be a medical challenge in the states much less in Guatemala. For now, we will do what we should do anyway, and take one day at a time.