Sexy and We Know It

Bright and early on Saturday morning, I woke up to volunteer at a foster care farm in the countryside of Dollerup, Germany.  On the ride there, I learned the foster care system in Germany is very different than the foster care system in the United States.  In Germany, foster care is more of a permanent solution instead of a temporary stopping point for children.  For example, some children are placed in German foster care when their parents die and they have no other family to take care of them.  The foster farm I went to had 7 children, ranging from 12 years old to 20 years old, living on the farm.  I learned during introductions that there were 3 girls and 4 boys, and the oldest boy had lived on the farm for 8 years. 

My group's task for the day was to complete 2 service projects, build a wooden soccer goal and paint a mural on a barn wall, and then spend time playing with the kids.  I chose to join the painting group (having flashbacks to painting the girls' walls at the Miracle Garden Orphanage in India the whole time) and had a blast!  While painting the rainbow mural, I was able to talk and bond with Dilan and Alina, 2 of the girls living in the foster home.  These 2 girls were the cutest and most hilarious pre-teens ever!  We had to wear plastic paint suits so we didn't get any paint on our clothes, and Dilan and Alina kept saying how sexy we all looked!  And once one of the other girls started singing the "I'm sexy and I know it" song, they proceeded to sing that song for the rest of the time we painted!        
        When we finished our mural, we headed out to the soccer field to play a game of soccer.  Actually, I should say that most of my group played soccer.   I actually sat on the sidelines with Dilan and Alina to take pictures and swing on this really cool rope swing!  I was really impressed with how high the kids could swing on the rope because you'll see in the picture how high (or more accurately, how low) I was able to get on the rope.  When the soccer game was over, it was time to leave.  Even though we only spent a few short hours at the farm and had a pretty significant language barrier, the kids were SO sad to see us leave.  Dilan must have hugged me 15 times before I got on the bus and kept saying "I love you, I miss you!" And, Dilan and another boy, Jonas, kept climbing onto the bus to tell us not to leave.  If that's not heart wrenching enough, when the bus started driving away, all the kids joined hands and blocked the bus from leaving.  Some even laid down in the middle of the driveway!  It was beyond adorable.  While driving away, I couldn't help but be amazed at how much of an impression we made on the kids in such a short time!  We only built a soccer net and painted a mural, but it made the kids SO happy.   And while we were painting the mural, the kids wanted all of us to paint our hand prints and our names on the wall so they wouldn't forget us.  Not only will the kids at the foster farm never forget us, I know I will never forget the kids.  After all, Dilan and Alina wrote their names on my arm so I would never forget to add them as friends on Facebook!