Without a Mother

     Today as I was driving and listening to the radio, and then while I was in Wal-Mart, there where reminders of Mother's Day everywhere. There's nothing strange about that, because it's coming up very soon. But I kept having a weird feeling in my mind like I was forgetting something. I knew I hadn't forgotten about my mother, so I figured I was just frazzled from being in a crowded store. Eventually I got home, turned on my computer to write this blog, and everything clicked. I saw my Honduras pictures and realized that this holiday suddenly has a whole new meaning, because now I have met many children who do not have a mother. Some of them may have lost a mother to death, and some to abandonment and other various situations, but regardless of the reason, all of them are living as children without mothers. I'm not trying to say that they are not being taken care of at all. They have workers that do the best they can, but no one can fully replace a parent.
     They don't have someone to always kiss their scraped knees when they fall, or to make sure they are tucked comfortably into bed at the right time every night. Their basic needs are taken care of, but they don't know what it's like to have the special extra attention that a mother would probably give. No one is there to take pride in their accomplishments and console them in their sorrows. No one to worry about them and discipline them, and to love them unconditionally in the way mothers can. They don't have a mother to do for them all the things that my mother has always done for me, and thinking about that made me really sad.
     It's hard to know where to go with this, because I don't have a solution to this problem. I don't have an idea that will make it all better, and I don't think anyone on earth is capable of that. So where do I go from here? I could just say that they don't have mothers and that's really sad, the end, but that doesn't seem right. I think that this is one of those times where I have to realize that while I can't fix the problem, maybe in some way I can make it a little better. When I return to those children this summer, I can remember the feelings I had today and put extra effort into loving them and paying attention to them without rushing. I can remind them that God loves them like a parent would, and that they are never alone. And I can show you, my readers, a little sliver of insight into the lives of these children and ask you to maybe think about them at this time that is all about something so special and influential that sometimes seems so basic, but that they do not get to have.

I wanted to put as many faces as I could into one place so that everyone could see the children I can't stop talking about.