“Oscar! We’ve been waiting for you!”

Oscar was born in the town of Teupasenti 21 years ago, the youngest of 7 siblings. It took his family a couple of years to realize that he was not acting like typical children his age. They visited a local doctor who confirmed some of their concerns and were sent to a specialist to receive an official diagnosis.

This was a big economic blow to an already very needy family, but they traveled 3 hours one-way by bus to Tegucigalpa to Hospital Escuela where Oscar was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.

The family continued to travel every month to the hospital, where they received some basic instructions on how to best care for their son.

Once Oscar’s mother, Leonarda, understood what Down Syndrome was and how to interact with her child, she gave thanks to God for her “special” boy and showered him with the love and care that he needed.

When Oscar was two years old, his family moved to Guaimaca where his father found work as a cargo truck driver. Under the loving care of his family, Oscar made progress, and it was a day of celebration when he walked at 4 years of age!

When he was 8, a local organization sponsored Oscar to attend their school for children who are differently abled. This allowed him to enter Kindergarten and he continued there learning and growing until, at the age of 10, he spoke his first words!!!

It was around that time that the family received some hard news. The organization that had helped him make so much progress was shutting down. And to make matters worse, Oscar’s father was in an accident while on a cargo haul that left him confined to a wheelchair. Leonarda, who already had so much on her plate, now also took on the role of breadwinner for the family by selling tortillas.

During this difficult time, Leonarda started to overhear the neighborhood children talking about the fun they had and the food they ate at the local CarePoint. This caused her ears to perk up.

The pandemic had made it almost impossible to sell her tortillas. There were many days when the only tortillas that were prepared were the ones Oscar ate at home accompanied by a little salt. Oscar, upbeat as usual, took the lack of food in stride, although his stomach rumblings sent him into the kitchen to ask his mother if there might be a little more. Leonarda would smile and say “a little later”, waiting for him to run outside before allowing her tears to flow.

She was a strong and hard-working woman, but there seemed to be no light at the end of this dark pandemic tunnel. This news about children being happy because they had a full meal was music to her ears. Could it be possible that she could find new hope in Nueva Esperanza?

One day, Leonarda took Oscar by the hand and they walked in the direction that the children had come from. The saw a big sign in bright colors announcing that they had arrived at the Children’s Cup Nueva Esperanza CarePoint. Going around the corner, they were met by laughter and children running and jumping to a game. And what was that smell? That wonderful smell of food made Leonarda’s stomach growl like it had a mind of its own.

When Leonarda paused taking everything in, Oscar pulled away running toward the action. As he ran, Leonarda noticed that the woman in charge did nothing to hold him back. On the contrary, she welcomed Oscar with open arms like he had been there forever.

With that, Leonarda turned away. For this strong woman that innumerable times would cry bitter tears alone could not bring herself to let others see the tears of joy that now streamed down her cheeks.