The first time I met Leiton, he had the biggest grin on his face. He came running into the orphanage in Ecuador in his school uniform, and promptly showed me that he knew how to undo and do up his blue tie. I couldn’t speak Spanish, he couldn’t speak English. It didn’t really seem to matter though, he was just proud to show someone his skill. I smiled big and high fived him before he headed to his room to get changed.
At lunchtime, Leiton made every effort he could to talk to me. I finally figured out he was asking which country I was from. When I replied Canada, that trademark Leiton grin came back to his face. He had obviously heard of this country before and was pleased to have met someone from so far away.
He jabbered away over lunch, figuring I’d catch on I suppose.

Later that day, I got a chance to interview him through a translator. Leiton  told me he’s eight years old and wants to be a doctor when he grows up because, he said “it helps people.” The smile did not leave his face the whole time we chatted. I asked him why he smiles. “Because of the family I have here,” he replies.

The director of the Montanita Verde Children’s Home tells us that 8-year-old Leiton and his 18-month old brother Justin arrived at the orphanage just over two months ago.

You’d never guess the backstory of this seemingly happy child.

Leiton and Justin’s grandmother reported their mom to the authorities as an unfit mother. Justin didn’t have a birth certificate, Leiton had never gone to school.

Turns out, their mother is a prostitute by trade. She’s had quite a few abortions. She drinks, even through pregnancy. Other family members are not much better. Grandma is with a man who is an open drug abuser and drinker, the uncle is a transvestite, and the social system in Ecuador has  decided the best people to take care of these two young children is with complete strangers than with anyone from their own family.

Leiton and Justin were the first kids to come to the second home set up at the orphanage. House parents Pepe and Karen tell us when they came in, Justin had cysts on his face from bites that hadn’t been cleaned properly.  When the brothers first came, Leiton would start crying and hit his head repeatedly against a wall when disciplined. Now, Pepe can talk to him, tell him he did something wrong and he listens and apologizes.

They put Leiton in school when he moved into the orphanage and he is learning to write his alphabet and form them into words. He can’t write his name yet, though he could spell it for me. Justin, meanwhile, has really connected to Karen and Pepe like parents. He cries when Pepe goes to work and excitedly runs to him when he comes home. The boys are learning to trust and accept love and be in a safe home.

In only two months, the director and the house parents agree they have seen dramatic change in Leiton and Justin. And for the boys, they are learning of Jesus Christ’s love not just through the teaching in Sunday School, but through the actions of the Montanita Verde Children’s Home.

Siblings Carlos, Eugene, Tanya and Justine were abandoned by their father when Justine was just a young child. Their mother was mentally unstable and had tried to kill herself numerous times. The Christians who run the children’s home were called to take care of the children as there was nowhere safe for them to live.

Montanita Verde Children’s Home opened its doors to the brothers and sisters. There, they got to attend school, they were fed and loved, told about Jesus Christ and in that time the three older siblings became Christians.

But the story gets better. Their mother Sarah began counselling with the local pastor and his wife. She became stable mentally and started hearing of God’s love. She too became a Christian. The courts deemed her fit to take care of her children again and after two and a half years of living at Montanita Verde, the family was reunited.

Sarah was baptized this last Mother’s Day at the church where her children attended, where the pastor has been counselling her and where their family was transformed. She praises God for bringing her children and her back together, and thanks the Montanita Verde people for helping her family in their time of need.