Joyce.

I stare at Joyce, on of our orphanage girls who is 7 & in 1st grade. She works so diligently on her paper and concentrates on all she is doing. I can only imagine what must be going through her mind as she takes her English exam. Because Joyce doesn't speak english. When I talk to her she just laughs and wants to play with my camera. How in the world is she supposed to take an exam written in English?

I have no idea but girl is trying.

I love Joyce for so many reasons. The main one is that out of my week and 4 days of being with her, I've seen her not smile maybe once. That means she's been smiling 99.9% of the time I've seen her. That is one joyful girl. She reminds me of the joy the Father has for me when He sees me. She is also a beautiful picture of the children Jesus talked about. You know the ones that would enter the Kingdom of Heaven and sit at his right hand? Yeah, Joyce will totally be there.

In case you would like to fall in love with Joyce too -

So who knows where Joyce will go or what she will grow up to be but I know that she has 31 brothers and sisters and a LOT of mom's & dads & aunties (me!!) who will make sure she is successful! We are all cheering Joyce on and everyone chips in to help her with her english. By the way, Joyce took an English reading exam the next day with me by her side to mark her paper. I marked her with 44 out of 50 words correct with reading. She may be quiet but she has the loudest heart I've ever seen. Joyce inspires me and the most conversation we've ev er had was - "How are you, Joyce? - "Fine." Good thing smiles are universal. [sorry that was kind of cheesy, I'm fine with that because it's true].