OLA visit, pt. 1 - a bum leg

The kids and I yesterday after school went to OLA, the children's home we work alongside. This top picture is of myself holding a little baby named Mary, but I am sitting beside a boy named Kenneth. I don't know if you can see in this picture that Kenny has a bum leg. His left foot comes directly out of his hip and his right leg is definitely shorter than for an average 2 year old, but it has all its working parts. Even though his leg is not fully operational as we would find ours, he is quick and can move and function pretty well to get where he wants to be. He uses his arms and his good leg to support his movement while his other foot scoots behind the motion. He does it easily and with no regard to anything different. He has always been the only crawling child there since we have been living here.

But, what yesterday we found interesting is the last picture is a girl named Mary, she is the baby being held by the older girl Esther. Mary has been living here since last summer. Her story is sad as she was brought to the home by someone who just dropped her off and she had some scars on her legs from apparent abuse when she was just born. She was probably no older than a few months when she was brought to reside at OLA.

Mary is just getting to the age of crawling. Actually yesterday Gus and I noticed her crawling for the first time. She is so precious and so cute that we were thrilled to see her getting bigger and stronger with each visit. This time; however, Gus said, "Mom, does Mary have a bad leg as well?" I said no and looked over at her curious as to why Gus would ask this question. And sure enough we watched her crawl to get to different rooms and

she was scooting exactly how

Kenny scoots. Using one leg for the whole job of movement and just scooting her other leg behind her, not using it at all.

I was intrigued as I became aware Mary had only one example of crawling. It was Kenny. So, she was watching him crawl and assumed that is how it is correctly done. She; however, has two very strong and capable legs. As Gus and I were watching her and Kenny playing and scooting around I realized that probably so often we all crawl around like Mary doing what we have been shown, but not using our two capable "legs". We are scooting when we were meant to be crawling. We are selling ourselves short because of whatever excuse we choose to give ourselves verses using all that we have been so richly given. I am not only reminded to continue to evaluate what I am doing in light of what I have been given, but also as to what stops me from functioning well? What fears are keeping me from trying something new? I don't know, but as I continue to evaluate, I am grateful for Kenny and Mary as they have become reminders to me of God's grace and mercy to me personally.