Darling child, you have taught me about life

By Yong-Chen Lee 

I remember it was when I just started working here at Cathwel Service, one day I saw a little boy around the age of 3 who was just sent here and he was weeping quietly. I knew he had just been separated from his family and it broke my heart to see him like this. He had the saddest look in his eyes and all I could say was, “I know you are hurting.” He broke into a loud sob immediately. After a few minutes, he started to calm down and then he came over to me and touched my hands very gently and shyly, he smiled at me.
I have not worked here for long but that incident left me deeply impressed. I don’t have a lot of opportunities to spend time with the children here, but they have taught me the most important things about life whenever we encountered.
Every child here has a story of his/her own. They were all taken here when they were very little. Cathwel is a very strange place with strange faces for them and I can’t imagine how difficult and frightening it must be even for adults, let along kids at the young age of 3 or 4. To live with totally strangers and try to make it a home for them must be extremely challenging not just for the children, for the caretakers as well. After all, you don’t see so many children at around the same age in a normal family, so many of them desperate for attention and loving care all at the same time. 
Facing such drastic changes, each child has his/her own way to cope with the new environment. Some quietly accept it, some are especially good, and a few of them would constantly get themselves in troubles or are very emotional. 
A little boy once took something very small from me and hid it in his pocket. He appeared to be very happy the entire day and kept patting his pocket. When it was time for bed, the thing he took from me was taken out. He came over to me and kissed me on the cheek and told me in a very serious tone “I kiss you!”  And I felt so sad that I almost cried. I knew he didn’t steal from me just to take possession. He just wanted to establish a relationship between us.
It breaks my heart to see children at such young age to suffer so much. Thankfully for all the loving caretakers year after year devoted their heart and soul to care for these children. And thank God for given me such an amazing opportunity to be a part of this big family and learn so much about life from all these lovable and wonderful little human beings!