March 2014 Month 7
This month we worked with preschoolers and hospice. I was the teacher’s assistant to 20 preschoolers. Those children had me second guessing about having 14 children of my own (eight adopted and six biological). Hey! Don’t be afraid, I am happy with as many as God will give me.
It was snack time and there was this little boy who left the room because he did not have food to eat. The teacher called him into the class and told the other five-year-old students that the boy did not have anything to eat. One by one these small children started to share their food with the boy that had nothing. One child gave the boy an apple.Another child gave the boy half of his sandwich.And a little girl gave the boy half of her drink. The boy ended up having so much food that when it came time to clean up to go and play he was still sitting there eating.
That little boy had a twin brother in the other classroom. Their father, who fathered eight other children, too, was killed while trying to rob a fast food restaurant. He was known as the “ladies’ man” because of how successful his robberies were. He robbed big name stores and got away with a lot of money. Whenever one of his ladies would get pregnant he would leave her, and once she gave birth she would drop her child at his mother’s house and walk away. Gone from that child’s life forever.
The grandmother is now taking care of his children, which means she has to find work to provide for them. For the few weeks I was in Swazi, I had the privilege to be a part of those precious children’s lives. I witnessed the Good Samaritan story play over and over each day. Even when we brought food to give the boy with no food, there was still a child giving his or her food to him.
I began to think about the children and how there were about 43 four and five-year-olds in the Care Point, and most of them are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS. Their parents are gone and yet life still goes on. I wanted to give them as much love as I could while I was still there. I wanted the holes in their hearts to be filled with the love and care that they so desperately needed.
Our mornings were spent with these precious gifts, and our afternoons were spent at the Hospice Center, which is more like a halfway point for patients. When the patients leave the hospital, before going home, they are admitted to the Hospice Center. They are allowed to have one caregiver, and this caregiver learns how to take care of the patient. We were told that the Hospice has a 80% success rate, which is amazing.
Rachael and I met Florence and Gideon at the Hospice Center. Florence is learning how to take care of her husband while they are there so that when they get back home she is an expert at it. Our first day there, Florence told us that her husband loves music about Jesus. So Rachael and I sang to him and the smile and reaction on his face melted our hearts away. Let’s just say we had a little bit of tears in our eyes. As we went to leave, he waved to us goodbye and also mouthed the words.
For the weeks that followed, Florence and Gideon became sort of like a family to us. We laughed together, danced together, sang together, and just experienced many good times together. We were there for just a few weeks, but those few weeks brought life to the sadness that loomed over the Hospice. A hope in knowing that there is still life after death.
Swaziland is the place where God had me go to the hard places. It’s the place where the light he shared with me in South Africa became so hopeful. I went to the place of forgiveness. Family means the world to me and when it came to the point where it felt like it would be torn apart, I felt so much pain. The time my sister and I needed our family the most they decided to abandon us. The time where love, trust, compassion, protection was needed, they decided, instead, to give abandonment, pain, bitterness and anger. What I grew up to know was no longer true, and anger and resentment resided in my heart. If it was not for the family that I have now, I am not sure what would’ve happened to us. Through my adopted family I’ve learned that Agape (Unconditional love) is the foundation of any relationship.
I gave up on trying to reconcile things with my birth family since my failed attempt in December 2012 when I was rejected. There seemed to be no hope. I sat down and thought it is dead. There is no more life for me there.Then GOD, in the field of Thailand, told me that there is still life. I didn’t believe it. We went to South Africa and I had to go to some of the hard places. Places that felt likeI was having surgery without being put to sleep. Then, in Swaziland, God began to really dissect and re-stitch the pain in my heart. It was at 2:38am in our living room in Ntabas, Swaziland where, after spending some time with God, I saw that there is life after death. This new season of my life is going to be different. I am no longer going to allow abandonment to define who I am. I gave it all to Jesus. What was meant to destroy me has given me strength.
It is never too late to start over. This is our new beginning.
My Preschoolers!
Mrs. Florence and I
