Most 8-year-olds aren’t contemplating how they can help the world, but junior Isabella Lee has been going on mission trips to Mexico since then.

This winter break, she volunteered at orphanages in Tijuana, Mexico to help the children through an organization at her church, the Fellowship.

The volunteers organize many activities there to entertain the children, but since they are in the middle of the desert, they have to get creative. Some activities include painting, having a party for the kids, playing the guitar, and making bracelets.

Lee also contributed to the orphanage with simple things like washing the children’s hair. She said that these actions show that there are more ways to give than just the common materialistic methods.

Lee’s 11 different mission trips have affected her life greatly including her trip over the summer where she lived without electricity and a limited water supply. Lee also visited a local city dump and noticed the great amount of appreciation and joy from the people there even though their situations aren’t remotely close to the typical American teenager.

“The joy that I see over there is crazy to me,” Lee said. “Even the kids, they have beautiful hearts even though their parents have rejected them, or they have been neglected by society in a sense.”

Lee and her family have always been interested in adoption, but they have had a few troubles along the way. Lee noted that it is difficult to adopt from Mexico, so her family originally took in foster siblings. Her father’s state of cancer worsened, and they had to discontinue for a period of time. Lee’s father’s most recent scanning thankfully came back clear after surviving pancreatic cancer and cancer in both of his kidneys.

The option for adoption was raised again when Lee and her mother went back on a trip this past winter break. Her mother was the house mom for 46 little girls in the orphanage. As Lee and her mother felt a connection between themselves and the children, they looked for any information on how they could adopt.

Their most recent development is waiting to hear back from lawyers in Mexico. Lee said that she would be extremely overjoyed to have a successful adoption with the kids she knows and loves.

Chemistry teacher Mrs. Cara Vaughn is not surprised to hear about what Lee is doing.

“She has a heart of gold,” Mrs. Vaughn said.

Even as an 8-year-old child, Lee wanted to help the world, and those around her agree that she has impacted many lives and changed some children’s worlds forever.