Ashley Julia holds a very special place in my heart and her family lovingly refers to me as her clothing sponsor. Here is how that came to be . . .
I met this family shortly after I moved to Guatemala in 2015 while doing a home visit. Little did I know that we would continue to cross paths over the coming years. They live around the garbage dump and Anna is a single mother; and at the time of this first meeting, she had 5 kids. The family struggles, but the mom is a hard worker and would go into the garbage dump every day to try and find ways to make money for her family. I can not imagine how overwhelming life must be for that mother. Her sister helps out watching the kids while she is working, otherwise, I'm not sure what she would do or how she would be able to provide for her family.
I continued to see this family at the clinic and on other home visits in the community. The staff at the clinic knows them well and help this family as much as possible!
Just over 3 years ago, Ashley Julia was born into this family.
After Ashley was born, the mother said that she was going to sell her to a neighbor because she couldn't take care of her. If you knew the statistics here in Guatemala about child abuse and sexual abuse amongst girls then you would understand my horror and concern for a baby to be sold to somebody - who knows what her future might hold. The staff at the clinic tried to rally around her - making home visits, bringing food and baby items, and just praying with the mother and trying to be an encouragement to her. As time went on and Ashley remained with the family, she became part of the family and loved by everyone - much to my relief, the mother was no longer thinking about selling her!!!
We were able to go visit her after she was born. It was a very difficult visit because she was in dirty clothes, her umbilical cord was infected, and there were chickens and cats running around the very cluttered house. But, she continued to thrive!
The picture below is with one of her big sisters - who was often the one caring for Ashley when she was a baby.
It was easy, and fun, for me to go to the "goodwill" store and find baby clothes and other baby items in good condition for just pennies and gift them to her. Ashley was often clothed in very dirty, torn up clothing, but as soon as I would give her mother or aunt new clothes, they would change her right away and put on her "new" outfit. So, I continued to buy clothes for her as she was growing.
I started to wonder if they just throw clothes away when they are dirty. I mean, how would you keep clothes clean and washed if you lived in a house without running water???
I never asked though, because it doesn't really matter, it just made a little bit more aware of how difficult and hard life is where they live.
Sometime in May of this year, the family started reminding me that Ashley was going to turn 3 in July. I kept asking what day, and they couldn't tell me the day - but they knew that it was in July.
I would have loved to throw her a real party with a big cake and games and a piñata, but it just wasn't possible. Instead, while doing a home visit, I took a cake and a present (which included 3T clothing) and a cute birthday hat and surprised her with a little birthday celebration 🎉 🥳 🎉 🥳
Surprised she was! In fact she was so surprised by 12 people crowding into her house and all the attention being on her that she hardly moved the whole time that we were there! Thankfully I remembered to take my polaroid camera with me that day and was able to take a picture of her and her family that could stay with them so they could remember
her 3rd birthday!!!
