Accepting Reality and Watching Answers Sprout

I'm recovering from a "cold" that has been passed around the mission from resident to resident.  I usually feel like I share everything with them anyway- food, ideas, conversation- now germs.

I found out this morning that one of the residents who I am friends with is having to get his leg amputated.  And another one who had left the mission for a better life is coming back to the mission at the end of the month.

Both of these are bad news to me.  I don't want my friends to have health issues, and I don't want my friends to take steps backwards.  I want them to do well and move forward.  And the residents are my friends.  There is a lot of heartbreak at the mission, and I am trying to learn how to deal with it.

One day I will be having a great conversation with one lady, and I will feel like we are really bonding.  The next day I find out that she got kicked out for breaking the rules one too many times. Will I ever see her again?

I think the reality of where I work hit me today.  The people staying here have hit rock bottom, and they had no place else to go so they came here.  For food, for shelter, for support.  Staying here is no one's first choice.  It is not a "free ride", nor is it luxurious.  It does not enable, and it does not look glamorous.  It is not an excuse to not work, it is a place to survive until things get better.  I'm sure many people disagree with this, but I'm seeing it first hand.  No one wants to be instituted, and the types of oppression that I see these people living under are dreadful.  And I think that's one of the main struggles- oppression.

But I think there's a way to care for the people in front of me without living in denial of life's hardships that we all face.  I can be joyful and positive and encouraging.  I want to accept the reality of the problems in front of me, rather than living in oblivion and pretending like everything is perfect.
I want to understand and be patient with others, rather than decide that I have them figured out and walk away.  There's always so much more to the story.

There's a way to love them that I haven't learned about yet.  Somehow, slowly through the process of living, existing, and coming to work each week I have learned how to mesh with these people.  I prayed for guidance to say things to them that make their days better and give them hope.  I wanted my prayers to be answered instantly, but they are being answered slowly and thoroughly.  It's like waiting for my seeds that I planted to grow.  They sprout, but so slowly...