The Little Ones

How grateful I am for God's children.

How grateful I am to BE one of God's children.

Each is precious.

Each is unique.

Each is special.

"... wherefore I love little children with a perfect love, and they are all alike and partakers of salvation."

-Moroni 8:17

My recent travels gave me the beautiful opportunity to interact with some of God's children across the world. It was such a blessing to see their smiles, feel of their happy spirits, and be on the receiving end of their warm hugs. Their are some seriously big hearts filled with a lot of love in these tiny little bodies.

Miss Casey made an adorable special friend at our clinic in Fiji :)

Major highlight of my trip was this moment right here. As I checked the heart and lung sounds of all the children at this primary school, I would finish by putting the stethoscope into their ears so that they could listen to the sound of their own heartbeat. The looks of enlightenment and amazement on their faces as they listened was... unforgettable. Priceless. Rewarding. Incredible. Inspiring. Its an experience I will absolutely never forget.

Everywhere we went with big groups of kids, we tried to teach games that they could play later on with their friends. We played LOTS of quack-diddly-oso/down by the banks (wow i've never tried spelling that before... its not easy) which the kids just ate up. They loved it.
On this day in Eua we entertained these kids for hours playing those clapping games, along with (attempting) to teach them the cup game.

Teaching the 16 kids on this tiny island how to play the clapping games. We hope they remember the songs that go along with them!

The little boys love to play marbles. So fun to just sit back and watch them.

This sweet little girl quickly became my bud. She plopped down in my lap and the rest was history.

Wherever we were, the kids loved to have their picture taken so that we could turn the camera around and they could see themselves on screen. Thats definitely something they easily have in common with American children. They loooove seeing themselves :)

Teaching in the schools was easily one of the highlights on this trip. All in all we met hundreds and hundreds of kids ranging from about 3-years-old to high school age.

The day at this preschool was pretty rough. We could barely get these munchkins to crack a smile. We even made one girl burst into frightened tears when we were playing London Bridge is Falling Down... oops!

Ahhhh they are all just so beautiful! I couldn't get enough of them!

It doesn't matter where we are from, or what we look like. It doesn't matter if we are rich or poor. It doesn't matter if we are shy or quickly befriend strangers. It doesn't matter if we have perfect bodies or if we fit it with everyone else. 

We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father who wants the very best for us. I know that that is the truth. I'm thankful for these Tongan children who helped remind me of those truths and filled me with more happiness than I could have ever imagined.

Quick shameless shout to my absolute favorite kids in the world! Aka the ones who call me Aunt Nettie :)