Mandla

 

This is a blog that’s going to be hard for me to write. I’ve been thinking about this boy a lot lately. His name is Mandla and I met him in Zimbabwe when my team worked with the Sandra Jones Center. 

 

While we were there Mandla and I got close. He’s 10 years old and he has one of the sweetest personalities I’ve met. He latched himself onto me about halfway through the month and whenever he saw me would come and give me a hug or wrap my arms around him. 

When he accidentally got kicked in the stomach while he was playing some of the other boys, I was the one he went to for comfort. When we taught dance class, I was the teacher he wanted to learn from. When we watched a movie in the hall, I was the one he wanted to sit next to. We were best mates and my heart broke over and over again for this boy.

There were times when my teammate Hannah would hold me as tears streamed down my face because I wanted to adopt him. Times I spent trying to come up with a way that that would be possible. 

You see, Zimbabwe doesn’t let foreigners adopt. You have to have residency in Zimbabwe for 5 years before you can be considered eligible to adopt an orphan. I thought about asking our ministry host who was a Zimbabwean to adopt him for me and then sign over guardianship. I thought of smuggling him out. Things that I’d never actually do, but all because my heart broke for him and it continues to do so. 

It’s been almost 5 months since I’ve seen Mandla and my dream is that I will see him again. I don’t know if that will happen, but I hope it does. My prayer is that it will. 

 

Till Next Time,

Kara Faber