When my husband and I went on our first short-term missions trip to Nicaragua, we were so touched by the people there. We went for six weeks and I was only home for a few short days before I missed the people and the lifestyle that we had met and learned while we were there.

It did not take us long to decide that we wanted to make Nicaragua our permanent home and decided to apply to take over as caretakers of the one of the small orphanages that we had the great opportunity to visit while we were there. It was a great day in my life when we found out that we were accepted.

Three weeks later, armed with short term insurance to cover our medical costs, we were on our way back to what would soon become home. The nine children at the orphanage stole our hearts very quickly and it was as if they were our own children.

This was many years ago and our “children” have all grown up now. The orphanage was shut down as there was no longer a need for it, but we knew we could not leave our South American home.