With the directors of Healing Faith, Dave has been leading teams who visit from the US on malaria education days. These are long days of walking for miles, visiting homes in the village one at a time, hanging nets, documenting who has been covered and teaching about malaria. On these days, due to vehicle space, and not wanting to overwhelm the kids quite yet, the kids and I have been staying back at the house.
A friend of mine mentioned a baby home that she visits, and invited us to join her. We went one time, and the kids fell in love. They want to be there constantly. We have been visiting a few times per week, and the "aunties" who care for the babies are very welcoming. All of the Mc kids are incredibly helpful, and they do such a great job with all of the children in the orphanage. There are children ranging in age from newborn to 5 or 6 years old, some with severe special needs, and some completely typically developing...if such a thing exists in an orphanage.
I love that the kids love going, but it is hard on my heart. We continue to visit, and God is absolutely working in our time there.
Some of the children with special needs are immobile, several cannot sit up on their own even though they are 2 or 3 years old. One of those children is a little girl who is 2 1/2 years old named Esther. She is a real-life starving child in Africa. She has the stereotypical dirty face with flies,weak, scrawny arms and legs, and she can barely hold her head up, yet all day she is left lying on a blanket on the hard ground. What is absolutely atypical though, is this precious girl's smile! It lights up in such a big, wonderful, dimply way!
Many of the kids can be found running and playing happily, but God drew me to this child.
I have virtually no experience with special needs. I have no experience with orphanages. I can not speak the language of those caring for this child. I need God to guide this in a big way. If there is some way that I can help here in my time here, I want to be obedient to that. If I can provide nourishment in some way, or get her medical care that might help, I will, but I need to be acting in the center of God's will. I will not act on emotion or logic or to comfort my mama heart. It is so complicated, in so many ways.
Esther has a mom and a dad, who she had been living with for the first 2 years of her life. I don't know anything about that life or what went wrong, but her mother decided at some point, for some reason, that this beautiful girl was possessed by evil spirits, and she needed to leave their home.
3 months ago, they brought her to this orphanage. I have met Esther's father. He came to visit her, which the "aunties" say happens often. She was such a happy girl when her father was here. He lit up at seeing his little girl. I pray for restoration. They need each other.
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