God's Will Be Done

For the past four days I have been going to a baby hospital where one of the little ones from the orphanage was placed after a coma. He is very small for a seven year old and doesn't speak due to his Cerebral Palsey. It is so sad to leave him there in the hospital after only a few hours of visit. Thankfully he is getting better. Today there were no more IVs or oxygen masks and his Godmother was able to feed him with a spoon!

I was playing with an eleven year old autistic girl today and one of her care givers walked by and told me that she was a very bad girl. Twice the eleven year old put her hand on my throat tightly. I'm not sure why she did this. Perhaps she likes to feel the vibrations in my throat when I speak, but I need to be on gaurd when I'm with her. I felt in a new way how misunderstood she is today. She seems to function best with lots of physical intereation and very few words. When I communicate with her I try to include a physical direction to what I'm trying to say. For example, if I say "No" I also shake my head "No" and wave my finger in a way that also means "No." I heard from another volunteer that this is a better way to communicate with autistic children. A teacher for autisic children in the US said autistic children respond better if they see a picture of what they're to do, rather than through hearing a verbal command. I am hoping that body language can be a physical picture for this girl. I've heard that autistic children only process about 20 percent of the words they hear.

Please pray for a new boy who seems practically normal who has come to the orphanage. He is about six years old, and I've heard a rumor that he's autistic, but he speaks which means he's at a much higher level than our other autistic children. Because this orphanage is more difficult than others for children, I pray that God will open up a way for him to be at another orphanage if that is better for him. God's will be done.