Father’s Day

A couple of weeks ago l had the tremendous privilege of spending Father’s Day in an orphanage in Nicaragua, part of the team included two of my children, Ethan and Mia. As I watched my own children playing with the children in Nicaragua I noticed a lot of similarities and not a lot of differences. All of the children had smiles on their faces as they played together. All of the children had a safe place to call home. All of the children desire the same things, love, attention and security. Seeing my children and the children here in Nicaragua playing together brings warmth to my heart. Over the last seven years I’ve grown to love and appreciate my Nicaragua family and I am so proud of the way they have taken ownership and responsibility of so many little ones who need so much.

As a father I feel the life lessons that my children have gained from their peers in Nicaragua will change them from the inside out and will impact them hopefully for the rest of their lives. This trip was so much more to me than a short term mission trip. As a father who has been visiting the same children for six years, it is like coming home, I want to see how “my kids” are doing, what are their needs, what are their accomplishments. When I saw my daughter Mia, who was adopted from China with medical needs, playing with these children, it felt like the continuation of a story that has been a reoccurring theme here in Somoto, Nicaragua. The story is the rescued becoming the rescuer or the orphan becoming the found son or daughter, and then the acting father and mother.

I want to say thank you to Mia and Ethan for making this year’s Father’s Day one that I will cherish for a long time to come.