Samuel and Paola - A New Beginning

Samuel and Paola - May 2009

Many of you have probably read about siblings Samuel and Paola on our blog or newsletters during the past year and a half....we’d like to give a heartwarming update on them!  Samuel and Paola arrived at Rivers of Mercy in May 2009.  We never find out much detail about the children’s lives before being brought to us, but we know that Paola and Samuel lived with their mother and  younger siblings.  They often had to ask their neighbors for food in order to eat and their mother sometimes left them alone for days at a time.  At ages 8 & 9, they had never before attended school.  When they were brought to Rivers of Mercy, they were separated from their two younger siblings. 

Several nights after they first arrived, I discovered both Samuel and Paola crying in their beds in their respective dorm rooms.  I brought them both to the living room and hugged and tried to comfort them as best as I could.  The best way I knew to comfort them was to tell them about their Heavenly Father who loves them so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for them.  He was the Father who would never leave them, cared for them, and had a perfect plan for their lives.  As they cried softly and sincerely, Samuel and Paola prayed with me to receive Christ into their hearts as their personal Savior.  This is what would fill the void of sadness in their hearts.  This is what they had been yearning for.

Over the year and a half that Samuel & Paola were with us, their relationships with God became real to them.  They had a true desire to know God more and listened attentively during the Bible lessons.  We witnessed fruits of the Holy Spirit in them.  Their faith in God is what carried them through disappointments and hardships, like when they realized that they would never be able to return to their mom, and when Samuel was hospitalized for five days due to a painful infection in his knee and faced the possibility of having to undergo surgery.  They remembered the Bible story of Joseph and the memory verse that we attached to it: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).  They trusted that God knew what was best for them, that He had a perfect plan for their lives, even though they might not understand it right now. 

Then one day recently, we received a sudden and unexpected phone from DIF informing us that they would be picking up Paola and Samuel from school within the hour, because they were being adopted.  Our hearts stopped for a second.  We couldn’t imagine what it would be like here without them.  They had never even met their adoptive parents.  And, I didn’t even get to say goodbye.  But we had to trust, just like Samuel and Paola, that God knew what He was doing.  Several days after they left we gave a social worker two children’s illustrated Bibles to take to Samuel and Paola.  We had written personalized messages and our contact information in them.  Several days later, we received a phone call, and were surprised and delighted to hear Samuel’s voice!  To make a long story short, we were able to visit Samuel and Paola at their new home and get to know their new parents! 

Beto and Samuel

Paola and Yari

Their New Family

We took their two best friends from the orphanage to visit them as well--Beto, Samuel’s best bud, and Yari--Paola’s.  We all had a great time as Beto and Yari helped Samuel and Paola unwrap their Christmas presents that we had taken them.  Their new parents are very loving and are pouring their lives into their new children, whom they are so proud of.  They have taught their new father (who plays guitar and piano) several praise songs that they used to sing with us here at the orphanage.  Their parents told us that every day Samuel and Paola read their Bibles that we gave them--in fact, one day, we called Samuel and Paola just to say hi and asked them what they were doing.  Their response?  “Reading our Bibles.”  It is moments like these that make all the exhaustion, stress, and hard work of living at and running an orphanage worth it--seeing how these kids’ relationships with God continues on even after they leave here, and realizing what a powerful testimony to their families they are.  Glory to God for how he has transformed the hearts and lives of these children and others!

Our visit to Samuel and Paola's new home