How can a mother do that?

I have been here for a month and a half now and during this time we have gotten 5 new kids. Three are infants the youngest was a day old her mom left her in a trash can and some kind people found her and brought her to us. She just recently got out of the hospital she was in there for two weeks. When there is one of the kids from our orphanage in the hospital someone has to be with them 24/7 since they dont have parents to sit with them. I had the opportunity to do a nightshift with the little girl. It was definately a long night I was there from 7 pm to 7 am you spend the night there. I didnt really sleep much I think I got like 3 hours of sleep no joke. The doctors wouldnt let her eat because she was vomiting earlier in the day so they just give her an IV. I didnt know what to do for her she was so hungry so I sat up all night holding her and used the top of the bottle the nipple kind of as a pacifer to get her to sleep. I dont speak spanish very well and so I didnt know how I was going to communicate with them. I did my best to speak as much spanish as I knew and tried to understand as much as I could. It was a pretty cool experience how I could communicate with the nurses. I spoke in my broken spanish and got through the night. Luckily there was another mom in the room she helped me out quite a lot especially when I had to go to the lab to bring a sample down to them and later had to pick up the results. The hospital the kids stay in is a free hospital there are usually four kids in a room it was quite the adventure. I just dont understand how you can carry a child for 9 months and then the minute you have he/she you dump he/she in the trash. Being able to care for these kids has taught me so much, I am so grateful that I have a mom and a dad.

I get to be apart of the kids life for a short time but during this time I have had the chance to see kids learn how to sit up, crawl, smile, and even walk. I am trying to teach the older kids to say my name. There is this one kid in particular not very many of the voulnteers like him because he is a trouble maker but man I love that kid. Sure he doesnt always behave but is so cute. In the morning when we go to wake them up he always has a smile on his face. He reaches out to me through the bars in the crib and says "Mommy" I am trying to get him to say my name when he does it is so cute it doesnt really sound like Jena but at least he is trying. It is going to be hard to leave these kids sure they probably wont remember me but they have made sure a difference in my life. I know that I have people that will always be there for me. These kids dont have that sure they have the nuns and the workers but all they really have is each other. Being in Ecuador has for sure taught me so many things I didnt know about myself before. You are basically on your own here and you have to rise to the occasion to get things done.