Last Friday, Love & Hope Children’s Home invited the families of our children to spend the day at the pool with us. This is a yearly event where we celebrate family, healing and Christmas. We call it Love & Hope’s Convivio Familiar, or Family Reunion.
This year, our Convivio Familiar was held at Los Chorros. Los Chorros is made up of pools fed by naturally filtered rain water that falls from the cliffs and hills surrounding the pools. The water is crystal clear, fresh, cool and clean. There are even little fish that live in the pools. If you stay still for long enough, they come nibble on your feet.
Most of the Love & Hope kids had special family members present: mom, dad, aunt, cousins, sisters and brothers. All of the kids had a great time running around together, playing in the pools, running under the waterfalls, trying to catch fish and having water races. We eventually stopped to eat lunch and rest for a while, but afterwards, we enjoyed the pools into the afternoon.
Around 3:00pm, we loaded up the cars and took everyone to the park. There, the Love & Hope kids gave their families Christmas gifts that they had personally shopped for. We do this every year, and the kids always do a great job of buying things that their families need: cleaning supplies, toiletries, sandals, food, special treats, etc. We were also able to give each family a basket of food staples and goodies, thanks to our friends at Focus.
The families of our children are very important to Love & Hope Children’s Home. Our mission is not only to raise the children living in our home, but also to foster healing within their biological families. The parents and siblings of our children visit on a regular basis, have “parents’ school” and therapy with our psychologist, and when possible, attend school events. Love & Hope regularly supports the families of our children with food staples.
We love seeing the Love & Hope kids being able to interact with their families and hope that one day, they will be agents of positive change within their families and in El Salvador. Please pray for our children and their families. Please also pray for Love & Hope Children’s Home as we seek to provide a Christ-centered family atmosphere for our children!