Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A Beautiful Story

When Munni first came home, she would talk about her friends from her room.  I was able to piece together that there were 4 little girls who formed a "family" while living in the orphanage.  One of them was still there when I brought Munni home and I advocated for her on Orphan Sunday.  Recently, it has been confirmed that she has a family!!!  She is not home yet but there is indeed a family pursuing her!  The oldest of the Fab Four arrived home in January 2012.  They were kind enough to take pictures of Munni when they were there to pick up their daughter.  Those were the first pictures I ever saw of Munni Bird smiling :)

 And then there was Meena :)  She was the youngest of the bunch.  Munni must have said her name 100 times a day.  It was to the point that I called my caseworker and asked her about Meena because I seriously considered adopting her if she was available.  It was clear that Munni had an incredible bond with her and that she was like a little sister to Munni.  I found out that she too, was already home with her family.  Turns out that her family is very similar to mine - another single mama who is also a teacher.

I learned that Meena is deaf.  Munni told me that Meena couldn't talk.  And yet, Meena was Munni's best friend.  Even though they couldn't use words to communicate, it was obvious from the way Munni talked about her, that they loved each other very much.

Well, one thing led to another and I was able to find Meena's mama, Colleen, on Facebook.  It was so incredible to be able to show Munni pictures of Meena with her family!  We found out that she also has an older brother!  We connected via telephone and talked for hours.  I was able to share with Colleen details about the orphanage that she had never been able to learn from Meena.  She also shared with me that Meena was never taught any sign language at all while living at the orphanage.  Munni had told me that Meena didn't go to school, but I thought that was due to her age because she is 3 years younger than Munni.  Here was this beautiful, spitfire of a little girl, just languishing in an orphanage with absolutely no language.  Colleen is a teacher for the hearing impaired and is deeply entrenched in the deaf community where they live.  Once she got Meena home, they hit the ground running teaching her how to sign.  Turns out this little peanut is brilliant!

Fast forward to last autumn.  A couple of weeks into the school year, I discovered that there was a hearing impaired boy in Munni's class.  He had a full time interpreter with him.  Munni was stuck to her like glue.  Every day Munni would come home and show me a new sign she had learned.  She would incorporate the sign she was learning into our conversations.  In fact, she has learned more sign language than Spanish!

About two weeks ago, Colleen and I talked and figured out that we could meet halfway for a reunion.  Once we had everything confirmed, I told Munni.  She was ecstatic!  Every day she would ask me when we were going to see Meena.

That day was Tuesday.

I filmed the girls when they first saw each other again.  To see Meena running joyfully towards Munni made me cry :)

We spent the day at the conservatory and gardens- watching the butterfly release, splashing in the water, climbing in trees, running across open fields.  It was a perfect day for childhood memories to be made!





Beautiful Meena!




The key hole was a big hit, can you tell?

Meena has the perfect "duck" face- the envy of all selfies!

Beautiful girls, beautiful friends!

I think Meena was climbing something when this was taken!  Colleen and Connor!

Beautiful family!
 Colleen and I kept saying to each other how blown away we were to watch Munni and Meena.  They were running around, squealing with delight, and beaming with joy!  These two precious girls who had been passed over time and time again.

Guess what?  God put them in their perfect families for them :)



 Meena has some serious upper body strength!  I couldn't believe all that she could climb!




I am still in awe of how God continues to write this story for these two beautiful princesses!  And I love how he cares more than we could ever imagine.  The fact that Munni was in a classroom learning sign for a year, just blows me away.  To be able to see these two friends finally be able to communicate in the same language was nothing short of beautiful!  Even when I thought the story was "over" by Munni being home, God was not finished.  He showed us how much he loves these girls - that he would bring things to pass so that one day they would see each other again, they would talk, and they would know that their friendship will continue for years to come!