When You Love the Least of These

Miz N is at church camp this week.
2nd and 3rd graders have day camp
From 8am to 8pm
Monday through Wednesday.
And I miss her,
A lot.
I admit.

But, the dear Mission folk running camp
Are my friends whom I've meet
Over the past year
Volunteering with Mission Kids
As I am the large group storyteller
Every Saturday night at 4:30.
And they are all watching out for her
And loving on Miz N
And are as hooked as I am
On my little brown-eyed girl.

I love arriving and getting reports of her day
Her antics
Her learnings
Her heart.

Today I dropped her off
Knowing I would be picking her up early
To go to one of her weekly visits with her mom.
I offered to drive her,
And Little Man,
To the visit
So they wouldn't be in the car for 2 hours each way.

As I was in the driveway
To go and meet Little Man's temporary foster family
The phone rang
And I was told the visit was cancelled.

I had to call my friends at church
Explain to them that I wouldn't be picking Miz N up
And we decided together what to say
How to approach the situation,
If/When she realized I hadn't picked her up.

It was hard for her.
When her mind was busy,
She was good.
But as soon as there was down time,
There was frustration.
There was confusion.
There was sadness.

And my Mission family loved on her
As I would love on her.
As God calls us to love on His children.
They listened.
They kept her busy.
They showed her she had value.

When I picked her up
So many people
Again
Stopped me to tell me about her
About her personality
About how much fun she is to watch process
About how they are helping her look pass her pessimistic tendencies.
About how she seems to not be paying attention,
But is catching everything and questioning it all.

I've learned that
She is known as the Karaoke Queen
And is getting pretty famous.
She comes home and sings me the songs
But honestly,
She is so off-key I can't figure out what song she is singing.

I learned that today,
During chapel,
She put it together that God is her Father.
And that means that she is His daughter.
And that she is a LOVED daughter of the King.
(She kept announcing her new 'ah-has' to the ministry leader.)
Now that the knowledge is there,
I pray it begins to settle in her heart
And bring her peace.

I learned that she "hated" water day.
Everyone said she had a blast,
But she tends to focus on the one negative thing
And then obsessing on it a bit.
Thankfully,
Everyone humors her and loves her for who she is
And helps her look for positives to focus upon.

I learned today that she passed out snack to all 80 kids,
Which she corrected them and let them know it was only 79,
Since she was the 80th. 
Hee, hee.
Got to love the way her mind processes.

Praise Report:
-I got to visit with Little Man and the dear couple that are caring for him until my license is renewed.  They are amazing, believers in God's will, and able to care for Little Man until I can bring him into my home.  They have fostered babies and toddlers for six years and just spending a little time with the foster mom gave me all kinds of insights she learned about Little Man in just 24 hours.  God is good!
-A sweet family donated a crib, two car seats, and two booster seats to me today.  I was able to get the crib all set up and it is ready for Little Man whenever God opens that door.

Prayer Requests:
-An email was sent to the licensing department at 10 am this morning asking them to expedite my license renewal.  My dear friend, neighbor, and foster mom extraordinaire license went in Monday, with similar request for expedition, and was approved within 29 hours!  Praying for the same! 
-Miz N has a lot of fears and negative thoughts that make getting to sleep so hard for her.  Last night, the Lord lead me to share the verse "The Lord is my strength and my shield" from Psalms 28:7.  We repeated it about 20 times today.  Please pray that it begins to sink into her heart and mind when she is faced with a variety of fears and negativity.
-Miss A has a home to move to, but she can't move there until Monday.  Please pray that a different placement (maybe my good friends?) could open their home to her while we wait for my license renewal and to return from Michigan.  (There is no way I can take her - I could never afford another plane ticket.)
-To piggy back on that last statement, and to put it bluntly, money is crazy tight.  I am trying to be responsible and not go crazy with buying things, and trusting in donations and gifts to come, but it is hard and summer money is always tight.  I know God will provide, but it does bring me panic.