Visitor's Day

Visitor’s Day, this past Sunday, was definitely the hardest day I have had here so far. Due to the fact that children are not adopted from NPH it is mandated that family members be allowed to see the children two times a year. So…two times a year the children get all dressed up in their best clothes and put on smiling faces and eagerly await their visitors for the day.

All members of the staff at NPH are asked to work on visitor’s day and everyone is given different tasks. Some volunteers walk around and take notes and make observations on the interactions between families and the children, others take pictures, others man the bathrooms, and some are down in the sections (where the children live) hanging out with the kids while they wait. I was assigned to be down in the girl’s section watching movies and playing games with the girls while they wait for their name to be called and to head up to see who is here to visit them.

Some children know that they have no family, they have either been abandoned or neglected, and as sad as it is they do not expect anyone to come see them on visitor’s day.  Other children have family or godparents who they may see over Christmas or at the visitor’s days throughout they year. Despite NPH’s best effort to try and figure out who has visitors coming for the day and who does not it always ends up getting mixed up.

Visitor’s Day started at 9:30 and parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and godparents came through the gates looking and waiting to see their little girl or boy. As the day continued the children’s names are called and they are brought up to see their visitors. Little by little less and less girls are in my section and the time is getting later and later. Some girls are still hoping and waiting that someone is coming to see them. I tried to distract them and play games and listen to music, but their eyes were glued on the door waiting to hear their names called.

As lunch came around there were still six girls in my section who had not had visitors, but they were not giving up hope. They continued to ask….”visitor’s can come after lunch too…right?”. The tías and I looked at each other knowing that no one was coming to see these girls and none of us had the heart to break it to them. As two o’clock rolled around and the girls who had been out all day with their visitors started to return and it hit the other six girls in my section that the day was over and no one had come.  That’s when the tears began, the nice outfits came off, and the nicely braided hair was taken out. It broke my heart to see them hurting like this. I have grown to love each of my girls so much over the past three months and I found myself being angry with their families and with NPH for making them go through this. No child should have to feel the way these girls felt at the end of the day last Sunday.

All I could think about as I walked back to my house was how lucky I am to have the people in my life that I do. You all know who you are and I love you all more then words can express.

As you can imagine I am not looking forward to the next Visitor’s Day in the fall.