I can’t imagine what it’s like to be so stressed out and hopeless that you would offer to give your child to a total stranger. Every morning this week we went out to sign children up for the free school that our pastor and his wife runs. Today we stopped to ask a woman if she had children she would like to sign up, and she asked us to take one of her kids.
How do you respond to that? It’s so sad that she would want to give up her child. We all looked at each other for a moment trying to think of what to do and finally we just said we couldn’t take her baby, and asked if we could sit down and talk to her and pray for her family. It’s was hard to be angry at the situation of wanting to give away her child when I heard her story.
She has 2 older teenage children from her first husband. Their father got sick and died, leaving her to care for them alone. Later she married again and had another little girl and then an unexpected baby boy. A few months ago, her husband was murdered; so all of her children have grown up without a father and their mother has struggled to provide for them her whole life. I cannot imagine the weight that she must carry from that. If those were my circumstances and I thought these American missionaries might be able to give my child a better life…I can’t say what I would do. I would hope I would never give up my kid.
We found out that her baby boy is almost 3 months old and that she hadn’t named him yet. I don’t know if she was just too depressed to name him from her husband passing and being so burdened or what, but she said we could name the baby when I asked her why she hadn’t named him. So we prayed about this little boys’ name and 2 people heard the same name, Isaac, so that is what we named him. Baby Isaac. It means “laughter.” Isaac was the son promised to Abraham from God. It is so fitting because this baby is a gift from God, even in this woman’s somewhat older age and his name means laughter and joy in a family that is so eclipsed in sadness and struggles right now. I believe Isaac is going to be a light and a joy to his mother with his two dimples that light up his face when he smiles. That is the name and promise God spoke over this baby boy. So good. She said she was coming to church this week too, so we are going to get to see them again encourage her more in the hope that we have in Jesus.
