Mr Cheeks aka Anthony..

*Before I even begin to talk about Anthony I need to let you know something very important. I've already claimed him as the future husband to my beautiful niece Millie Opal so don't get any ideas once you fall in love with him. He's claimed. :) *

Anthony was brought to Starfish when he was 2 weeks old. He is now 3 months old. He had a severe case of thrush when we first received him from the orphanage and was not taking in any fluids and was very dehydrated. He is missing his little hand. It looks as if his hand never formed while he was in his mothers womb so we call his cute arm his "nub". He spent the first week of his stay here at Starfish in the hospital because of his thrush in his mouth and we were afraid he wasn't going to make it but he's our little miracle baby.

If you haven't caught on to why we call Anthony "cheeks" yet I'm afraid I can't spell it out any easier than in this picture. He wasn't very excited I had the camera out to take this picture but I'm so glad I caught this picture. He's precious. Anthony was named by a British volunteer and she named him "Anthony" but in the UK they pronounce his name "Antony" (without the H) so that made for fun conversations while we "Americans" called him Anthony but the British volunteers called him Antony. 

Not everyone can be as cool as Anthony with his cute big cheeks but you can't blame me for trying. Anthony now is eating everything in sight! His nannies joke that he eats every hour as much as all of the other children eat all day. He now has 4 chins people, 4! We are going to have to change his name into "chins" instead of "cheeks". Anthony is precious and a genuinely amazing baby. 

 To think that his family might have given him up because of his little arm or "nub" as we like to call it. And it's one of the many things that makes our little Anthony even more precious to us. I've learned a lot of things while living here but I've learned so many spiritual lessons through these babies. I love these babies so much, but I love them even more for the things that might have caused them to be abandoned in the first place. Whether it is a facial deformity or an illness, these issues just make the child more loveable in my eyes. 

I find myself thanking God for their little things that make them "special" or "unique". I find myself looking at what someone might look at with horror or disgust (in this country) and find it a desirable uniqueness. And a beautiful part of what makes these children who they are. They are defined by their illnesses or deformities but they are a part of what makes them uniquely beautiful.

And in those daily moments I think about what I must look like through our Fathers eyes. I think about what spiritual facial deformities I might have acquired along the way in my life, or what "ugliness" that I carry with me due to my own bad decisions or mistakes. And how when other people would look at me and say "She's a hopeless cause, or she's not worth saving, or she's just not beautiful". And our Jesus looks at us and says we are beautiful because we were made in HIS image. And He loves us even more with our scratches or deformities because they help tell a story of what led us to Him. 

So thank you Jesus for every child here. Thank you for the things that make them different. Thank you for loving every one of us no matter who may have found us "undesirable" in our pasts.