Goodbye

This morning at 9 a.m. our fired empleada showed up to beg for her job back. It was so sad. She was crying so much and then I started crying and then John was about to tear up. It is so hard to have tough love at times when you know it is hurting someone, but yet at the same time know that it is the best for everyone involved. She was crying so hard, it just broke my heart. We affirmed our love for her over and over, but we also had to discuss the events that led up to our decision (which by the way we had already repeatedly discussed). She took full responsibility, which is a rare thing in this culture. If you think it's hard firing someone in English, I can assure you it is 20X harder in a foreign tongue.

One of the things that I was thinking was that we have now had 3 empleadas. 2 of which we have had to let go for different reasons. And everytime we have always ended things on good terms with lots of hugs and kisses. Our workers spend about 16-24 hours weekly in our home, so they see the inner workings of EVERYTHING - the good and the bad. The fact that Maria was so sad to leave our family is, in my mind, a testimony to the Glory of Christ in our Home. It is often not easy to live set apart or differently than the rest of the world. My prayer has always been that our workers would enjoy being here and that they would feel the love we have for one another and for them. As sad as it was to see her sadness, I knew that God had been glorified over the past year that she worked for us or else she would've left with her middle finger up while slammin' the door and dusting the dirt off of her shoes. I feel like a failure on so many levels every single day as a Christian. Even letting her go made me feel like a failure, but at the same time I could truly see that it was the best decision and also that we had been really good to her and God was given honor through her time here. And in some small way that helps ease the sadness.

***Please pray for Maria as she is going through a lot right now and needs direction as well as a stable job. She currently has two other homes she works for so it is not like she is without work completely.