Patricia, a refugee.

Today Leann and I went down to see the big refugee camp in town. We'd heard there were 6,000 people living on the soccer field and we went to see this new section of "town" that's now part of our community. In many ways it was what we expected, but in many ways it was not. We walked around and talked with people and played with kids. As I walked from "tent" to "tent" all I kept thinking was, "this is their home now, this is their home now, this is their home now." But still, kids were kids, ladies were sitting around talking and doing each other's hair or feeding their children. Little boys were flying kites. Many people were injured.

There was one little girl I talked to quite extensively. Her name is Patricia.

Her family called me over to talk to them while I was walking by. She is 5. During the earthquake her house fell completely down. She was injured on her head and hand. Her face was very scraped as well, and starting to get infected but they told me that a doctor was looking at her every other day and changing her bandages. I didn't quite get the whole story as to specifically how she was injured.

I told her that I had a 5 year old son. Then her mom asked me how many kids I have. I told her I have 3 American kids, but that I also have an orphanage where I have 5 Haitian kids. Her face perked up right away and she started to hand me the 7 month old (pantless) baby boy on her lap. She said, "Oh, I am glad to meet you. I need to give you him. I can't take care of him anymore." I told her that I was sorry but I couldn't take her child. She asked why. As you can imagine, there were a million reasons swirling in my brain, but I just pulled out the easiest one.
"My orphanage only takes in kids between the ages of 5-12," I said. "We don't accept babies."

At this she pointed to her older son sitting next to her and said, "Okay, I understand. Then you can take him."

*sigh*

I explained that I couldn't just take her son. I told her that I knew things were very difficult but that I could tell she loved him very much. She asked me if I would think about it. I told her I didn't think I could take her son, but I would think about it. She asked me when I would come back. I told her I didn't know, but that I would try to come back again to visit. And I will. But I cannot take her child.