Part 6: The Last Day

I woke up Friday knowing that it would be the last day that I would get to enjoy being with everyone at the Galilean Home. Normally, after breakfast, I go straight to The Angel House to be with the babies. However, it was that time of month and I felt absolutely awful. I felt like I should rest up a little before going there, so I went back to the Mary & Martha house for a nap. I felt kind of bad for doing so, but sometimes you need to rest when you should. Too often, we are so busy that we forget to take care of ourselves, and then we burnout. You can’t give what you don’t have; and I certainly couldn’t offer my heart and my strength to anyone until I had time to rest and be restored. Besides, I hardly left those babies all week except for when I was eating or sleeping. So, I took a two hour nap.

When I woke up, I felt considerably better. And, oddly enough, I had been missed lol. Linda asked me right away where I had been all morning and claimed that the dead had awakened lol. One thing’s for sure, the “dead” felt more alive after the peaceful rest! I felt like I could be fully present after having recharged a little.

Other than the break for lunch, I was there all day until it was time for the big cookout at Jeff and Dawn’s place that evening. They had a farm with lots of animals; including a cow named Ginger (yeah, I know, the same name as the nickname Mitch calls me lol). We all had a great time, and we celebrated James’ birthday. I took a lot of pictures with everyone so I could always remember them. It just didn’t seem possible that the trip was nearly over and that this would probably be the last time I would get to see them for a long while.







Maggie and I walked the hilly roads back to the Galilean Home so we could see the babies before they went to bed. I didn’t think the tears would start coming yet, but they did. I had to try hard to keep from bawling as I spent some final precious moments with them - especially Na’Sean and Lyric. I got to play with Na’Sean a little bit and I put him to bed. I gave him lots of kisses and told him how much I was going to miss him. All he could do was smile at me, and bring his face close to mine. He rested his forehead on mine, smiled, laughed, and was just so super cute!! I could barely make myself put him to bed. I gave him more love and kisses as I put him down, and he just smiled more and more.

The tears came the most as I sat in the rocking chair with Lyric; feeding him his bottle. The flood gates nearly burst open. I kept telling Maggie, “Do something stupid so I can laugh at you.” I was just hoping that laughter would be an antidote for the tears. I managed to hold it together, but just barely.

We finally left The Angel House and went back to the Mary & Martha house. Some of the volunteers were there, and we entertained them (and ourselves) with our silliness. Maggie has the funniest laugh, and I did whatever I could to keep her going!! ;) However, it didn’t last the whole night. I went to say goodnight to her after I got out of the shower, and she was a mess. It reminded me of how the volunteers had said that the first hour at the prison, the Mamas are so happy. Then, the second hour starts getting quiet and somber as they realize that their time is almost done and they'll have to say goodbye to their babies. That's how I felt. We had laughed it up a lot and tried to have some fun, but now it was our "last hour". We both cried together a little while and hoped that it was out of our system. The week had gone by so fast! In the morning, we would be going home already..….(to be continued).