Missionaries of charity visit 2

You may remember last week that I visited a hospice type place, run by a group of sisters and working to look after children and adults suffering with HIV and other debilitating diseases.
Well, this morning I went again, our team was a little smaller but 2 of us did go to spend time with the children again. We were fairlly well mobbed as we arrived, and decided to try and focus our attention on the slightly younger children this week. There were a few more ladies around helping today, but still the ratio was 4 to 35 kids age from a few weeks to 10 years (most falling in the 1 year to 3 year bracket).
So much of what we do is just giving out love and affection to the children. We decided to take fewer activities and sing some songs. The kids just liked us being there. It was particularly hard because the kids can at times be a little violent to each other in order to get our attention, they all want to be on your lap. It's hard to shout at them when really you are the only one on one attention they ever get, how can you say no to them? so we did our best to cuddle and involve a few children in what we were doing.
A little later I went to assist one of the sisters with feeding the smallest babies their milk. There were 4 all in cots and so clearly crying for their lunch! They were able to have their bottles but because of lack of hands the bottles were propped up on blankets if they couldn't hold them. It was so nice to be able to pick up a little one and feed them their bottle properly.
Several of the kids you could feel their body temperatures were so hiigh because they were sick. You may remember from my last visit I mentioned a tiny boy who had disturbingly low tone in his limbs who was clearly quite poorly. I looked for him today and he wasn't there. He may have gine home or to hospital but sadly I fear the worst may have happened. That's what makes leaving the kids in this place so tough! The sisters clearly care so much but there are limits to what they can do. I just simply went and loved and cuddled the children, not a huge sacrifice to me at all, (in fact I couldn't have been happier doing much else!) but to these kids, absolutely a crucial act of kndness.