Jesus and sign language

I love that there are hispanic kids everywhere named Jesus. In my mind, this little boy at the orphanage in Obregon named Jesus (hay-soos) emulated qualities of the Jesus (the scriptual one, my brother and friend) I am most familiar with.

Jesus was about five or so, another little boy I adored. The first day we went to the orphanage the kids were in their version of "school." Me and my new friend Whitney chose a class to go "help" in. And by "help" what really happened wasn't help, it was more like "distraction." The teacher tried desperately to keep the children's attention but they were all too excited that the American kids were here to be with them. Whitney and I tried our best to "help" them in "school" by cutting out pictures in school books and pasting them on a sheet of paper and doing poor versions of math problems with the kids. Mostly, the teacher surrendered (and seemed happy and relieved) to let the kids swarm around us and beg over and over again to sing "John Jacob Jingle Hymer Smith..." in both English and Spanish...they loved it. "Juan Paco Pedro De Lamor..." They then asked us to sing more songs in English for them. So me and Whitney became an unstoppable English-singing duo. From Twinkle Twinkle Little star to The Wheels on the Bus. It was fun and the ninos were captivated.(I adore Whitney by the way, she became the "American" best friend I needed on the trip. One of a kind, and doesn't stop making me laugh myself silly. That's my kind of gal.)

My favorite moment was when Jesus came up to me and tapped me on the leg, and when I looked up he had his hand high in the air waving the "I love you" symbol at me in sign language. I of course waved it right back at him. He became my little buddy. He was at my side during art, science and any other project we did with the kids. It became a game for Jesus I think. Every time I saw him he would give me a bashful grin and wave "I love you" at me. And duh, I obviously loved it. He was just like the Jesus I know and love. He loved me unconditionally and didn't care what anyone else thought, he just loved me and wanted to show me...and I loved that.

Jesus was sitting at the table at lunch calling out my name trying to get my attention and waving "I love you," and I was just as eager to smile and flash I love you right back at him. Each day I was at the orphanage he would find me and wave to me, it warmed my heart.

My very favorite was when we were leaving the orphanage one day, there is one of those rolling chain-linked fences, we would walk out and several of the kids would line up along the fence and yell to us until we left. We were standing outside the fence waiting for Eric (the orphanage owner) to take us home and the kids were shouting from the fence. My friend Andrea (who speaks Spanish) grabbed me and pointed in the direction of the fence and said, Holly he keeps calling and trying to get your attention. Behind the chain fence I saw Jesus wide-eyed and smiling at me waiving his little "I love you" to me before we left. Again...heart warmed.

I love Jesus (both of them!), I love Mexico, and I love the hearts of children.