Is this not the cutest baby you have ever seen? When I saw her, that was my very first thought.
She was and is take my breath away cute. I just wanted to snatch her up and snuggle her close.
Instead, I smiled and kept walking, following our group into a home visit.
As we stepped out of the home visit, my friend Kristen was trying to chat with this dolly and her momma. At first I thought the mother wanted Kristen to take her photo. But when she didn't seem satisfied with a simple photo being taken, Kristen called Helina over to help translate.
Helina spoke with the woman for a bit, and then she told us it was time to go.
We obeyed.
As we walked down the dirt road, Kristen asked Helina if she would mind telling her about the conversation she had had with the baby's mommy.
Helina said, "The mother was telling you that her husband had died. She had no way to care for her baby. She wanted you to take the baby."
Silence followed for a moment. I do not know what Kristen was thinking, but my heart was screaming. It was screaming something like, "God this world is so messed up. How can a momma be so desperate that she offers her gorgeous baby to a woman she has only known for 30 seconds? The only way she could possibly think Kristen is more equipped to parent than she is is that she is wearing western clothing and taking photos with a camera that is worth more than this Ethiopian mother will make this year! This is not OK!"
(I do not point out Kristen's camera to shame her. I may or may not have a camera that is worth more than hers. I am simply pointing out the obvious wealth even the simplest possessions allude to when we walk the dirt roads in Ethiopia. Things we do not think twice about purchasing will never, ever be possible for many Ethiopians to buy. I do not consider myself a rich woman, by any means - but the standard in which I live is nearly unheard of in Ethiopia. It is both humbling and devastating.)
After the silence of about 5 footsteps, Kristen quietly asked Helina if she would be willing to share with us what she told the mother. Helina gave a decisive nod and replied confidently, "I tell her that she can keep her baby. She should bring her baby to Jemo, register for the program, and we will help her. She not need to give baby away. We will help her."
Then she paused and looked both Kristen and myself in the eye and asked, "That the right thing to say, no?"
All I could utter at that time was, "Helina, that is THE reason that I am here."
As I continued to walk in silence and blink back tears, my heart was completely totally grateful. Helina's words were the answer to several years worth of my personal prayers. You see, as an adoptive mom of an Ethiopian child, I am eternally grateful that I am able to parent my son. I feel confident that, in his case, adoption was the best option. I have no doubt that God chose to place him in our home. I would do anything for our son, so would his dad. And so did his Ethiopian dad.
Yet, as a part of Joshua Gebeyehu's adoption, my heart broke for Ethiopian parents that were forced by extreme injustice to relinquish their children. Mommies and Daddies who longed to parent, but were unable because there just was NO way to provide for them. That is just wrong. It is totally unjust. It is something that should never, ever happen. At that time I started researching ways that we could work toward justice.
This partnership with Children's HopeChest is an answer to my prayer for justice. It enables children to stay with their families. It enables momma's to feed their little ones, to send them to school, to take them to the doctor. It restores dignity. Down the road, this program will help to stabilize the community through capitol projects and eventually it will work to create very needed jobs within the community of Jemo. It makes it possible for Helina to look a young desperate mother in the eye and say, "You can keep your baby. Bring her to Jemo. We will help you."
Isaiah 1:17 says "Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."
This partnership with Children's HopeChest is living that day by day. It is a beautiful thing, and I am forever grateful to be a very small part of it.
Thank you Jesus.
