Marcos

Marcos. The name in itself carries a lot of meaning for me. A year ago today, just hearing his name could make me cringe because of how difficult he was to care for. He was constantly screaming and crying at the top of his lungs, afraid that he was being abandoned again anytime I left the room or his line of vision. Try to imagine a 4 year old who never stops screaming and crying and chasing you around.... yeah that was him.

But a solid year later - Marcos is calmer and actually a fun little guy. He has a lot of energy, loves playing dress up, doing puzzles, reading books, playing with playdoh, swimming in the pool, coloring pictures and riding bikes. This was his first ever year of pre-school. He has very nice handwriting and actually enjoys doing his homework whenever he is assigned some.

Marcos was the carrot during his pre-school's food and nations festival

My best attempt to prevent a scar from forming on his forehead... he later placed this bandaid behind a toilet in his dorm only to be found by me literally 3 weeks later. He had done a really good job hiding it on the wall.

Playing hide and seek at McDonalds. This was right before he and Alex decided to go "looking" for me in the McDonalds DRIVE THRU!!! I started looking for them and they had run downstairs and were literally outside running through the drive thru - I about had a heart attack but then forced myself to laugh about it.

Aside from everything about Marcos' behavior changing completely - the other biggest change I've noticed in Marcos involves bedtime. Bedtime used to be awful for us all. The 14 boys wouldn’t get into their beds, if I could them there, they wouldn’t stay still, and they wouldn’t stop talking. These days though, Marcos for example loves our new bedtime routine. The 4 pre-school aged boys and I read a few books, brush our teeth, go to the potty and I tuck each one of them in individually into their beds. I pray over Marcos and ask God to protect him from bad dreams and we thank God for making Marcos perfectly – how special, kind, beautiful and intelligent he is. I tell Marcos that my favorite day of the week is the day that I get to take care of him all day – it’s the honest truth. I love being with his dorm full of crazy emotionally hurting little boys. I tell him that I love him and I kiss his forehead about 20 times. He smiles and you can literally see through his eyes, his little heart just melting at the thought that someone actually wants him. I actually like him. I recently learned about the science of mirror imaging. Apparently, when I look into one of these child's eyes and we are face to face - they can sense my mood or emotions. We can send fear, empathy, playfulness or love to a little child’s brain. When I tuck Marcos in and tell him how much I love him and love being with him – his brain literally can pick up the love in my heart for him. That’s why he just melts and goes right to sleep. No fighting at bedtime. They go to sleep within minutes, each child, one at a time. It’s incredible.

Marcos, I love you little man. You need to grow up knowing a Mommy and a Daddy. Psalm 68:5-6 say, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing." I pray that God gives you a family and a home.