Delivering (another) baby

[Written June 23rd]

I glanced down at my watch and thanked God that it had to be our last door-to-door for that day because our time was coming to an end. We went down a road we had never been on before and saw an older couple sitting outside cooking– probably their one and only meal for the day over hot coals.

I trudged up to the house with Pastor and a few of my teammates praying that someone else would take over because I honestly didn’t feel like talking anymore (door-to-door evangelism is not my favorite). We sat down on a bench opposite the man and his wife, who was lame. Their front door was open and I saw a tiny foot poking out from underneath a sheet. I have developed a serious obsession for babies and said “Oh! I see a little foot in there! Can we hold the baby?” The older, sweet man, Joel, went inside to get the tiny baby and hand her to us. I thought it odd that an older couple had such a tiny baby, but was more concerned about getting it into my arms. Pastor was translating the story of the baby that Joel and Annette began to tell us.

I was admiring the baby and holding her too-tiny of an arm gently with my comparatively huge hand while my heart began to shatter hearing her story. She was malnourished and sick with malaria. Pastor was translating that the mother of the baby tried to kill the baby girl by putting her in the latrine–which is a 15 ft hole used for a toilet in the ground. The mother’s sister found out her plans to kill the newborn, so the sister took the baby home with her. The sister’s husband didn’t want to keep the baby, so the sister traveled to a different village with baby in tow. The sister and 2 month baby girl ended up on Joel and Annette’s doorstep explaining the story. The sister asked Annette to hold the baby and said that she would be right back. The sister never showed up again and Joel and Annette have had the baby for the past four months now.

Annette has a permanently injured leg and has a hard time getting around on her rusty, worn down crutches. Joel has been busy taking care of her and the baby. They don’t have much money and the baby has been living off of cows milk. Samali has malaria but they don’t have the funds to get into town to see a doctor. She is very underweight for a six month old, has limited muscle movement, and obviously was not getting any better.

We asked Annette and Joel if they wanted help in finding the baby an alternate place to live. Their faces lit up with hope. It was obvious Joel and Annette loved Samali, but they also knew they couldn’t care for her. They asked people at their church to help out, but no one was willing to take the baby into their care. Joel and Annette were stuck with no options.

We began our research that day. Another Pastor mentioned Sanyu Babies Home. Within a matter of days, Ginger, Amanda and I were heading into the busy city to check out the home. We met with the administrator and took a tour of the home. It was absolutely amazing–I felt like I had a little piece of heaven that day being around 50 babies from the ages of one day old to four years old. We were told that most of the babies get adopted and that’s why four is the oldest age. They take in abandoned and abused babies and we were horrified at some of the stories.

Sanyu is an amazing home with a solid staff, great accommodations and Christian values. We went back to the home of Joel and Annette to let them know we found a great place and they told us they wanted to start the process the following day. The administrator gave us instructions for the process of getting Samali into the home, which we were told would only take about six hours. But T.I.A. and six hours turned into two very long, drawn out days.

Without going into boring details, we finally got Samali safely into the care of Sanyu Babies Home last night. She will be treated for malaria and taken great care of to get her the right nutrition and care for her small body. There was also a team of people there from California, which was comforting for all of us.

Selfishly, through the long process and interaction with the less than friendly (putting it nicely) social worker, I wanted to quit the race, adopt Samali and head back to America. I was really frustrated that she had already been passed around because no one wanted her at only six months old and mad that the social worker was skeptical of our involvement with the whole situation. I looked at Samali while we were trying to work things out with the social worker and seemingly getting nowhere, and I saw Jesus in the baby’s eyes. I realized I was being prideful trying to prove to the social worker that I was right, and she was not doing her job the way she’s “supposed” to.

We were arguing over petty things when the real issue was caring for the baby. We all just wanted what was best for Samali. Bible verses about caring for orphans were flooding my mind. I realized I was being overcome by the situation and not letting Jesus overcome. Jesus wants the best for Samali and we all feel very at peace and confirmed that the best for her is Sanyu Babies Home.

Join me in prayer for this precious baby girl. Pray that she will get healthy and get the proper care and attention she needs. Pray that an amazing family will take her into their home and that she will grow up to be a strong woman after God’s heart. I realized that God answered our prayers again (read my blog about the baby delivery from Kenya) about delivering a baby. While it wasn’t the dramatic front-yard baby birth as last month in Kenya, God led us to Samali to deliver her out of her harsh living conditions and into a caring baby home and hopefully into an awesome family.

We visited Samali the day before we left Uganda after she had been in the home for a few days. She had already been dedicated at the church and was cleaned up looking amazing! We got to spend a lot of time with her and I rubbed her back in her very own crib as she fell asleep. I will post pictures of this beautiful girl as soon as I can!