Her legs are made for walking.... (6)

I received an email with the question, how is it going with Gloria? Gloria is a little girl of maybe 3 or now 4 years old. She has been in our home before, then her mother passed away and she is staying with her grandmother. In January this year we decided to take her back in Amecet, Gloria has a problem with her legs and we wanted to help with that. Gloria is also HIV+ and is on the ARV medicines. She is doing very well and she is hardly sick. Only the legs... I have been writing about this journey before, this is number 6 in the serie. We took her to a specialist in Kumi (1 hour drive from here) she got made special splints for her legs, it didn't work, then she got her two legs in plaster for 3 weeks, it looked better, but very soon the legs went to it orginal shape. Again back to the doctor and you can read in the blog of June 22th (Tears and laughter) that we didn't get good news. There was no improvement and there will not be much improvement in the future, that is what the doctor said to us. Then Gloria should go back to the village in this shape??? I felt so sad and what would become of Gloria in the village, who would carry her around when she is 20 years old (if she would make it?) So Gloria is still with us in Amecet. We started to try to make her more verbal and to make the most of her abilities. We got some volunteers who got a heart for Gloria and they started to train her. For example in potty training, in talking, in singing, in spending time with her seperate. It really brings fruit!!!!! Gloria is more verbal, she can talk better, she moves around more (with or without her walker) and she can be a whole day dry!!! They have really a lot of patience with her!

But what I saw yesterday, I want to share with you... Gloria had crawled to the slide and climbed up the little stairs, then she slided down at the other side, you should have seen the big grim that she had on her face, she was so proud of herself!! And when she was down, she crawled around and again went up the stairs, and so and so on. This was the same Gloria as the Gloria from January, only sitting, no playing or moving. Now she is determined to have fun! It really was almost a wink from God, an encouragement from Him. I have been worried about Gloria, what to do with her, we can't keep her for ever, she also needs a family where she belongs. I have faith that something will come around the corner for Gloria! And for now? We just enjoy the slide!!!!