Little Girl Found

by Vig


Casa Guatemala, Rio Dulce, Central America, Orphanage where I met this precious child

For reasons still yet to be determined, I have never married and I have never had children. Resolving that I would not have children has proven to be much more difficult then resolving the marriage part - especially when I came very close to being a mom. In 1996 I went to Guatemala for two months to volunteer at Casa Guatemala orphanage on the Rio Dulce River. It was hard work but the kids were amazing so it was well worth it. One small girl stood out amongst all the little children. She was three years old and had the biggest sparkly eyes I had ever seen. She lived in adverse conditions but was so full of life, it was bursting out of her. The kids were grouped together by age and she was apart of the group called Los Ninos. The volunteers called her the Head Nino because she was definitely the leader - always in charge of her peers. She was wonderful and she stole my heart.

A month after I got back from Guatemala, I received a phone call informing me that she had just become adoptable and asking if I was interested in adopting her. I was ecstatic and extremely interested and started the adoption process immediately. International adoption is a very expensive endeavour and I didn’t have a lot of money, but friends and family wanted this to happen and were helping out in whatever way they could. The Canadian government however was not as helpful and was blocking the wee girl’s adoption to Canada. She had a syndrome that would require medical care and since this country has socialized medical care, they felt that one little girl would cost the government money. They offered to allow me to cover the cost of her medical care, but I could barely afford her adoption. For almost a year it was a roller coaster ride. I would hear she would be arriving in six weeks and then something bureaucratic would happen. At the end of almost a year, the government’s final decision was that it was a high-risk adoption, which they would not allow. I was devastated.

About three months later, I began to receive phone calls from a family in the US who was interested in adopting her. They wanted to know everything they could about her. Her medical condition did not prevent them from adopting her, because they had medical insurance through work. They eventually did adopt her and I was able to come to terms with it as they were a wonderful family and she would grow up in a loving home. I kept in touch with them for about five years, but eventually lost contact.

Earlier this week I received a friend request on Facebook from a teen-age girl whose eyes I recognized right away in her profile picture. The little girl has come back into my life. And I am beyond the moon and the stars that she has.

So to you, my fine feathered friends, I pose the question, have you ever had someone who has had a huge impact on your life disappear for what you thought was forever, and then have them reappear unexpectedly?