Just Another Awesome Night in Hogar

This is why I’m here. This is why I’m here. This is why I’m here. I LOVE my hogar. I adore my tías and my girls. I rushed home from last weekend’s retreat (more on that in a future blog) to get back to the Ranch and spent my evening off on Sunday hanging out with my hogar just because I wanted to. We had talked at the retreat about the appropriateness of asking kids to tell their life stories. I felt that as volunteers, we should let the kids approach us. On Sunday, two of the girls shared with me. One of them had just returned from a family visit. She came back with a photo of her mother’s funeral. She was only two when her mom died in childbirth, losing the baby too. Later, at the evening bonfire, I sat next to another girl who had asked me advice. It led to her telling me how she lost her parents. Just 5 years ago, the whole family was in a car accident. The kids and mother were thrown from the car in time to see the car explode. Her mom died a week later in the hospital. This young lady is such an amazing, resilient person; I held her hand, cried alongside her, and told her how proud her mom would be of her. I was so touched that she trusted me enough to tell me that I’m even reluctant to post this, but it just completely embodies why I’m here. Hogar is my absolute favorite place on the Ranch to be. Whether Saravia is telling me how much she likes that I now speak “puro catracho” or Sheila measuring my waist to make sure I’m getting fatter or crawling into bed with Magda to whisper secrets, this place just does something to me…and it’s magic.