The following are based on true stories that I have come
across in the past few years that deserve to be told: (disclaimer- the pictures are not of the child the story is about for protection of privacy)
Try to put yourself in their place and see the world through the eyes of an orphan….
The wetness around you is thick. The stench is so pungent
that it hard to take even just one of the 40 breaths you require a minute. It
is so dark all around you- it just validates the evil that has happened to take
place in your short life. Those your age desperately need warmth and soft
blankets swaddling them, but you freeze as you lay completely naked in the
viscous stench. Others that are as fresh out of the womb as you couldn’t last
as long as you without anything in their belly… but you have a just enough
strength to let out occasional weak cries- desperate pleas for help that seem
hopeless in this hole you are in. You never once have been held with love. You
were not wanted; your mom couldn’t afford to feed you because she couldn’t even
really feed herself. Naked, hungry, cold. In the bottom of a privy. And you’re
just barely a day old.
Now imagine you are a common man. An odd sound is coming
from the outhouse, and quite honestly it is one you just can’t ignore. You swear
it sounds like a baby’s cry, but it is so faint that it is hard to tell. A few
steps from the door cause your stomach to jump to your throat and your skin to
become clammy… the source of the sound is undeniable now. Anything but this.
Peering over the ledge of the seat, you can barely make out the baby lying in
the muck. Little fists pulled up to its face. And like an angel sent from God,
you lower yourself slowly into the sewage to snatch the newborn from certain
death. This baby is nothing but thin skin and tiny bones. You have no idea, but
the warmth of your arms has changed everything for this tiny life.
This time it was a happy life. You weren’t like those kids
who didn’t have a mom and dad that ran in the streets. Well, you weren’t at
least until a hurricane wiped away everything that brought you joy. It took
your mom’s smile when you’d dance. It stole your dad’s dedication to bringing
home food for your family every day. That hurricane even took your sister you
loved to tease until she was furious with you. Oh, to have her be angry with
you again… even just once. It took everything from you. You wandered the
streets in a daze a while, but eventually found yourself at a place where they
take in kids like you. Kids with no one left. They feed you, have a school you
attend, and give you a safe place to live within the walls of the compound.
Sometimes people visit, and you watch as all the other kids rush to them with
delight. Some days you even join in their joy of those people who radiate the
love back, but today is different. Today you just feel sad as you watch the
other kids play and laugh with the visitors. You sit as far out of the way as
you can and your heart breaks watching the visitors hug the other kids with
huge smiles. You can see it as clear as day in your mind as you remember your
mom’s face light up when she’d take you in her arms. She’d tell you how much
she loved you, just as your sister would come to try to jump in. She always
annoyed you so much back then, so how can you miss her so much now?
One of the kids on the bench must have drawn a visitor with
a long flowing skirt in, because she’s walking over to your table. Your sad eyes barely meet hers, and you fight back tears because there is something in her
gentle eyes that reminds you of your mom. Before you realize it, she sits down-
next to YOU! You can’t raise your face to her right now, because you’ll know
you’ll start to cry and she shouldn’t be distracted by you when all the other
kids are so happy to see her. The girl with the tie die shirt and green skirt
does something next that you are not sure you’ll ever forget. She wraps her
arms around your skinny frame, and she just holds you. You try to be strong at
first, but you melt because you’re just eight years old after all. Seconds are
all it takes for the tears you held inside so long to start flowing, and your
soft sobs are just loud enough to catch her attention. She doesn’t say anything
at first, but then it comes… in desperately broken Creole, she asks you why you
are sad. In a sobbing whisper, you say, “Paran mwen te mouri”. Her embrace
strengthens as she realizes what you said--- your parents had died. Her showing
up that day and holding you close in her arms prove the words she says next as
she tells you God loves you.
Now this time it would be enough if your only problem was
that you were dangerously malnourished at three months of age. But your story
of how you got to this point of starvation is the real clinch. It is truly a
story of tragedy, one that is sure to cause people to have to take a deep
breath. Your mom was just a child herself at 15 years old when she was raped by
the man who was living with her mom. When the story surfaced as her belly grew,
it was horribly distorted and the man accused this sweet girl of seducing him.
Instead of her mom defending her daughter, she was thrown out to the streets so
this evil man could stay. Homeless and desperate, your mom did the best she
could with the best attitude she could for your first few months of life, but
starvation overtook both of you. You were the size of a newborn after months of
not growing, and she knew she had to save you from dying. She brought you to a
place for babies just like you. Though it hurt so much to leave you there, she
saved your life. God’s destiny for you is far too great to miss.
Final story…
You were the curse. Yes, in this land of voodoo and
witchcraft, you were it. Why were you the cursed one? Well you just so happened
to be the second baby in the womb. Nothing more, nothing less.. that’s just the
way it is. Your mom hid that she had twins from everyone she could, and only
takes your sister in public so people don’t know she’s cursed. Your sister is
plump with health, but your emaciated frame is a result of only getting the
leftovers, if any. You are hidden, shunned, and punished endlessly for your
curse. If only you knew that just a country away that twins were a
blessing—dressed in matching dresses and bows. Your stuff would be purple, and
all of your twin sister’s stuff would be pink. If only you knew that because of
this horrible belief that you are cursed, your immune system would be so
dangerously destroyed from starvation that a common bout of diarrhea would take
your precious life just months from now. Yet when you reach Heaven’s gates, you
will learn just how cherished you are. For the very first time, you will never
go hungry again. You will never feel like you don’t matter. Never ever again
will you feel cursed, for you were created for greatness in Heaven you never
could have fathomed. You will discover that God loved the weak and powerless
like you so much that He fiercely commanded people to defend you so many times
in His book you never got to read. You will discover God whose love lasts for
eternity. You will finally experience the truth of Psalm 27:10- “For my
father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.”
“If you can’t feed one hundred people, then feed just one”
–Mother Teresa
“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is
not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So,
spread your love everywhere you go.” –Mother Teresa
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what
he cannot lose.” –Jim Elliot
