A Story

Hallie has a blanket on her bed that means a lot to me.

When I was in Ecuador with OSSO, some of the other volunteers and I had an idea one night that we ought to get the hand prints of each of the babies in the main orphanage where we worked. We had all become very connected to these children and felt like we needed some tangible way to remember them. At the time, we were only allowed one picture at the end of our three months, and it was a group shot of us and all the babies. So of course we felt like we needed something more.

We found a little fabric shop where we were able to buy a bunch of white fabric, which we then spent an evening cutting into hundreds of squares for each of us to have one hand print of each of the children. We re-arranged the shifts for the next morning so that the four or five of us heading up the project were able to go to the orphanage together.

We thought that the nuns likely wouldn't approve of our idea to hand print each of the children, so we were on a secretive mission. When I think back on it now, it's kind of funny that we thought we needed to be so secretive about it. I doubt the nuns would have cared, but who knows.

The process was chaotic to say the least. A few set up shop in one of the play rooms with the huge stack of squares, paint of different colors, and paintbrushes. The others of us took each baby, one at at time, into the room to have their hand painted and then placed on the square 12 times before taking the baby back to get into the bath tub (ahem, sink) and then getting them dressed for the day. Babies don't cooperate well with having their hands painted and then spreading their fingers out to make the prints look nice, just so you know. Considering that, what we actually got was pretty amazing.

We managed to get them all done (30 babies or so x 12 squares each) and onto the regular schedule for the day and I don't think anyone even noticed. Crazy.

I treasured my hand prints when I came home, but they just sat in a stack in my room before my mom was kind enough to make a quilt out of them for me.

I love this quilt. It reminds me of each of the special children who were and are a special part of my life. I don't have any idea where most of them are- though I do know of a few who were adopted. Even though MF has always felt like "my child", each of these kids took over a corner of my heart as well. The experience I had in Ecuador changed my life for the better and it was all due to the experiences I had with these amazing children. They would all be 5-8 years old now...and that is just crazy to me.

I want MF to have this quilt someday. Here is her little hand print, the very first one on the quilt. I hope to be able to tell her stories about each of the other hands on the quilt, friends she had in her first home. Friends who taught me amazing things. Friends who mean so much to me still. I look at each of their little names and funny memories pop up, pictures come to mind. For example,  I can't sing or hear the song "Michelle" by the Beatles ("Michelle, my belle, these are words that go together well, my Michelle...") without thinking of my friend Beth singing the song to one of the little girls there, who seemed to be particularly unliked by a lot of the staff. Who knows how having someone care about her enough to sing to her each day has impacted her life?

So many memories. Can you tell I am just eager to get there?