Mind hack and more love than most Americans have ever experienced

The 2 hour bus ride from Guadalajara to Colima I’ve made 7 times before. It was as if all the previous trips were practice for this moment.  The whole trip was smooth like butter. 

Many people in the USA asked if I was scared to go to Mexico, especially alone. I can honestly say that there hasn’t been a single moment that I was scared in any way.  

However I was full of apprehension and anxiety. 

The thoughts started to pour in:

What will I do at the orphanage?

How will I possibly help?

Will I be a burden?

When things are unsure, my mind tends to race to the extreme. A good trick I learned is when you place yourself in the future and you are full of anxiety, don’t stay in that time period. Continue further into the future (in your mind) and stop 6 months, 12 months or even years past the event. 

At that point you can look back at the moment that you are concerned with. Looking back is always easier for me than looking forward to that stressful moment.  It’s a good mind hack, you should try it the next time you’re stressed about something that’s coming up.

My best guess on this sign is: established 1992 with only 10 children, now we have 150 children in 13 houses. 

When I arrived, the children all hugged me, every single one of them and then they continued to hug and touch me.  Most of them remembered me, all of them were happy to see me. 

There is something so pure about the love that these kids have. I wish I could bottle it and bring it back for you. They know how to love  and they know the power of touch in Mexico. 

Have you ever been in a situation where more than one child was speaking at once? Now imagine that 3-4 are speaking another language. They are all trying to help you understand what each is saying. After 5 hours of this with the kids, my mind was a complete mush. I was spent. So I did the proper thing you do in Mexico and took a nap for 2 hours.

Afterwards, it was back to being loved on for the rest of the night. There was never a time that I didn’t have 2-5 kids around me speaking and interacting with me. These kids are not starved for attention, I just think they have so much love pouring out of them that it overflows everywhere. 

Every single time I return from Mexico I say “I need to hug more!”. I’m one day into a month long trip and I can already tell that I’m gonna rename February to “Hug Month”. 

What if we were more like them? 

What if we were so full of love that it poured out all the time?

Monday was Constitution Day, so no school. The 5 or 6 adults and I lined up and had to pick kids like you are picking teams. I didn’t like the process at all as there is always kids that don’t get picked till last and that always makes me sad.

I grouped up with Jaquie (my friend that’s 20, she is also a leader and is also attending university, she’s been there since she was 3) and Arian, the very intelligent boy that I sponsor.

They both speak English, so that’s a plus

Our group walked to the store for treats and watched a movie (in Spanish with English subtitles) on a laptop.

Of course I napped during the movie