St. Placid Orphanage

I love staying home with BJ. Being a stay at home mom in another country adds a certain dynamic to our relationship. There are so many life lessons presented to us daily. We have such a great opportunity to reach out to others and to experience a different culture. One of my favorite places that BJ and I have visited is the St. Placid Orphanage.

This particular orphanage has about 40 young children ages birth through 10(?). Most of these children still have one parent (or two) but the families just cannot afford to raise the children. When the child gets to a certain age they either go back home to help with income or they go to another orphanage for older children.

BJ and I went with a small group of ladies to the orphanage. We went in the late afternoon, just in time for tiffin (snack). We were there for about an hour and a half. The entire time we spent outdoors in the little cement playground area. BJ was a little overwhelmed at first since there were SO many children who wanted to see him. I did spend the majority of my time just making sure BJ was okay so I was not able to spend as much time with the children as I hoped. But I loved every minute of it!

Tiffin time!

The children LOVE when the "Aunties" come.

One of my favorite moments was when BJ was playing with the children. They would mimic every move and sound BJ made. They were all laughing and having fun!

We told stories to the children.

This little fella took hold of my heart. He was crawling around in a shirt and cloth diaper. So little and tiny. He let me hold him for a little bit too! Heaven!

BJ wanted to hold him too (hence the crossed arms...cuz that's how you hold a baby). The little guy wanted nothing to do with that!

The children also colored pictures. BJ was showing the younger children how to color!

I had to get my picture taken with these little ones.

Every once in a while BJ would need a break from the activity. This play house was his hiding place. He would shut the door and just stand there for a minute or two. I'm so glad that he recognized that he needed a "moment" instead of breaking out into a tantrum!

Most of the children have their heads shaved, both boys and girls.

Everyone wanted to show off their drawings!

This girl was so sweet. She kept covering her face with her drawing. I had to trick her so I could get a photo of her face :)

This precious sweetheart is only a month or two old. She was just dropped off at the orphanage that morning. Her father had run off and her mother could not take care of her anymore. The poor darling looked so scared. I held her for about 5 minutes but had to give her back because she was VERY frightened. Oh, my heart.