Do you see me?

I like today.  I was up at 4, a bit early yes, but a great time for coffee and Bible study.  My little peanut went to sleep at 6 last night, slept though his bottle and diaper change, refused to wake up and play, and then slept until 6:45 this morning.  I processed a few things in the study that I'd been avoiding, drank my coffee, and went to Maison.
I've had a lot of office-y type things to do lately, which means I've been missing my kiddos.  I needed to take pictures of everyone, but I can never seem to catch the toddler room when everyone is a)there, b)awake, and c)not covered in toddler goo.  I hit the jackpot this morning.  They were all so excited to sit in chairs to have their pictures taken that I was in and out of there in less than ten minutes.  That may be a new record.  And I left with all my clothing intact, another feat rarely accomplished during picture sessions.  I headed to the baby room to take some pics there.  Those babies are always sleeping (at least when I need pictures!)  I started playing with a few of the awake kiddos when the nurse came to get me.  I was instantly afraid something happened to one of the kids and we needed to go to the hospital.  Instead, I found a weeping birth mother, crouched on the floor in the hall with severe stomach pains.  She described it as 'gaz' the generic term used here to describe a stomach ache.  Gaz can be caused by heartburn, stress, eating too late at night, not eating at all, etc.  Her gaz was because she was hungry.  She hadn't eaten in over a day.  She had no money to get food, no way to stave off the hunger pangs consuming her.  Her crying really threw me off though.  I've rarely seen this display of emotion unless something truly tragic has happened.  I talked to the nurse, I explained that the woman doesn't have a house.  That I didn't know where she had slept last night.  That I was concerned that someone had violated her, and could the nurse please talk to her?  She did, to find that the tears were caused by severe hunger.  I brought the woman some crackers and water, as the lunch food wasn't finished yet and we don't have a cabinet of 'quick-fix' foods at Maison.  She ate the crackers, downed the water, and laid on a bench.  My heart was aching for this woman.  She has nowhere else to go, no one else to ask for help.  She lives in Cite Soleil, and there is massive gang fighting there right now.  So bad that people don't leave their homes for fear of catching a stray bullet.  Many innocent people have died this week in these gunfights.  Every time I looked at her thin frame my heart beat a little faster, it broke a little more.  She is so young.  Her parents died many years ago, so that she raised herself.  She has little to no education, though she would like one.  She dreams of attending primary school classes held for adults.  She knows this isn't supposed to be it, but she can't quite see past what is to dream a little more for what could be.  She wants to stay where she is, to live in the same neighborhood.  She is too afraid to move away and be alone.  We fed her today, made sure she got home.  But what about tomorrow?  And the day after?  How many young women in Haiti are in the same position?  I know quite a few.  They keep coming back, and coming back and coming back.  Knocking at the door, asking if I see them.  Do I know they are there?  Do I see who God made them to be?  Do I see their potential?  Yes to all of these questions.  I so strongly desire to know how to better minister and help these young women.  I am waiting and listening.