A Steele Blonde in Cambodia
A single mom of 30 kids – at age 23
She’s petite. She’s blonde, and she’s from Kentucky. She speaks fluent Khmer, runs an orphanage of 30 kids in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and is the single mom of a two-year-old. She’s not flustered, she’s grounded. Katherine Steele is just that – a woman of steel.
Money ran out when the owner couldn’t maintain pleasure and keep food in his stomach – or the kids fed. The orphanage folded.
Temporary house parents stepped in to care for the children while some were turned back to relatives in their villages. Katherine sought Randy Fleming’s counsel at Water of Life, a boys’ discipleship dormitory.
“I could never have done this alone,” Katherine says. There are tons of Christian organizations and churches in Cambodia – and all over the world. “We love Jesus, and we need to join forces.”
At 23, Katherine opened “Children of Hope” under the Water of Life umbrella. The original orphanage also used the word “hope.” They kept hope for stability but also because every time people visit Cambodia, God gives them the word hope; the people have none.
Even with help, being a mom to 30 kids is a challenge. “They all have different needs. They all express emotions differently. Some fight, some crawl all over you desperate for love.” But Katherine humbly and confidently says, “I’m not the answer for them.”
God recently reminded Katherine of her first visit to Cambodia when she was 17. “I held them and said ‘I can’t hold you all of your life, but I want you to know that you have a Father in heaven who does hold you and loves you,'” Katherine explains. “I didn’t come to be their answer, to be their Savior. I’m just the arrow. ‘You need God!’ They think if they had a family all would be okay.” Just like any of us may think – if only I had this, I would be happy.
Dinner time at Children of Hope.
As if watching after 30 kids isn’t enough, Katherine is in the middle of legally adopting a 2-year-old, Joshua. While the old orphanage was still in operation, the owner learned about a woman in Siem Reap who wanted to throw her baby away. Katherine, at the time, was praying about adopting a 7-year-old girl. She went to visit this young woman who was her same age. The story was that the woman’s husband had left and she had no money.
In Cambodian culture, boys aren’t worth anything. Girls are workers and are dowry makers; boys are troublemakers. Katherine pleaded with the woman to keep her son. “I told her just because I’m white doesn’t mean he’ll be better off,” Katherine says. “She told me, ‘but you’ll love him.'”
Katherine did all she could to encourage the young woman to keep her son. The landlord even offered to lift the rent, and Katherine said she would supply milk for three months. She left her, praying the woman would change her mind.
The next day as Katherine turned to her Bible in church, the Lord showed her a verse “a year from now you’ll embrace a son.” Could it be? Was she about to embrace a son?
Only a few short days passed. The mom didn’t want her son. Katherine embraced Joshua as her son. As time went on, she learned more of his story. His mom had never been married. She had taken a pill to kill him and done drugs throughout her pregnancy. Through all that, he survived and is thriving now. He is a miracle baby.
Joshua’s mom continues to visit, at times expecting payment for him after seeing how healthy and strong he has become. “She thought I’d give her $40 – no way! I’m not paying for your baby!” Katherine says emphatically. “I will take him and love him, but I will not pay you for him.”
Kids are sold frequently in Cambodia for as little as $10. Pimps purchase them and get them hooked on drugs to keep them close. Children of all ages are trafficked but of particular interest are those ages 0 to 13. Little girls age five are prime real estate. There are certain districts in Phnom Penh that if the brothel has a green door, it means there are children available inside.
Joshua’s biological mom could still take him legally even though she’s tried to kill him and given him away. For a year and a half, Katherine has battled for legal custody and adoption papers. Laws keep changing, and she is tossed from department to department.
Everything stands against her – she’s young, she’s white and she’s single. But the Lord is on her side. And she’s resolved to follow the rules without offering bribes.
Katherine is hopeful the final papers will come next month (May 2011) and anticipates the day she can take Joshua to visit her family back in the States. She has not been back to the States to see her parents and siblings for a year and a half – and none of them have met Joshua except over Skype.
Pool time in the courtyard equivalent to a backyard.
With each new day, though, Katherine is determined to enjoy what God has given her and give freely as she has been freely given. Still, a joyful resolve and foundation in the Lord doesn’t mean challenges escape her. This is no longer a short-term mission trip, but ‘real life’ requiring day in and day out commitment to love the Lord and these children.
What are her biggest challenges?
“Discipline.” She laughs. “And patience. I feel like I’m always disciplining. There’s 30 of them. ‘Don’t hit your sister.’ ‘Don’t curse each other.’ I’m getting on them for eating out of the trash. My 3-year-old is in the trash can.” But that is all they know.
Cambodian culture says that if you are pregnant you are last to eat. The same goes for any mother – she is last to eat and usually gets little. Women don’t receive the proper nutrients they need when pregnant, and poor nutrition only continues with a lack of or variety of food as the child grows.
Parents don’t feed milk and cheese because if dairy products hurt them they assume it must hurt their child. Most of them grew up in the jungle and didn’t have cows, thus any dairy comes as a shock to their system. Even when instructed to give milk powder, they cut the ratio in half.
Little Joshua is proof enough that milk does a body good and a well-balanced meal, a home full of love, and God’s amazing grace can grow any miracle baby strong.
And Katherine is a reminder to follow God’s calling despite age, finances and other obstacles. We’re not all called to start an orphanage, but we are called to love God and obey Him.
Katherine is certainly an arrow – a neon arrow, a bright light – pointing to God in a land who has forgotten to look up. There is hope, still, Cambodia.
Points to Pray for Katherine and Children of Hope
-Continued strength, wisdom and discernment in raising the children.
-Increased love for the Lord.
-Adoption papers finalized for Joshua – and a visa to visit the States.
-Health and protection for the children and staff.
