This is month 4 for us! Yes, can you believe it! We were originally supposed to be in Nicaragua, but we had a route change and are now in Honduras. This month my team and I have the blessing to be serving at a ministry called Legacy of Hope, and this ministry is located in Santa Maria de Copan, Honduras.
Legacy of Hope is run by Marianne and Matt Spangler. They a beautiful couple from the States who have 2 biological children, and 11 adopted children, or fostering kids forever. I say fostering forever because those kids that they are not able to adopt, they will raise as their own until they are old enough to care for themselves, when they are no longer minors. And even then, they have the desire to help them transition into adulthood, letting them know that they are not alone, letting them know that they are loved and wanted. And mainly, that they are loved by God.
This ministry takes in children that have been abandoned by their parents, that have nowhere else to go, and many times babies, I mean new born babies come to them straight from the hospital! Marianne and Matt have been foster parents for over 10 years now, and have been doing this here in Honduras for 3 years. They have picked up various of their now adopted children straight from the hospitals, some had been abandoned on the side of a bridge, many of them came with many sicknesses, some were in incubators the first months of their lives, others had seizures; but no matter what sicknesses that they came with, Marianne and Matt have cared for them and loved them so much as their own. I take care of many of these kiddos now, and I think to myself how is it possible that their mothers would abandon them? Their faces are so beautiful and healthy now, they are loved by their mommy and daddy (Marianne and Matt) but at one point in their little lives, they had no one loving on them.
And see…. I am going through something now, my heart is honestly a very heavy right now. Today, Digna, one of the staff members received a call from the hospital telling her that there was a newborn baby that was abandoned and needed to be picked up. I know this is exactly what this ministry does, but witnessing it first hand is another thing. My heart is heavy right now because I can’t imagine why a parent would do that? Why would someone just simply give up their child?
Marianne is a really beautiful woman of God and her way of seeing things is very positive, even in the middle of circumstances as these. She says, that she doesn’t judge the mothers, she believes deeply in her heart that these mothers had to have some very tough reasons why they felt that it was better to give up their child, than for them to be raised by them. And what she wants to do, is love on these kids the way that they are deserved to be loved, the way that God loves them. And I truly see that, I truly see her loving on her kids with a love from God that is so admirable!
This baby girl that just came to us today, is no older than a week old. She’s precious! She’s so beautiful, so tiny! She’s only 6 lbs, she is 6 days old and she has no name yet, well at least not a legal name yet, but at the ministry we gave her a name, her name is Liliana. Baby Liliana had what we think was a seizure while in our care, and then Digna and I took her to the clinic, and the pediatrician told us that one of the reasons why she probably had a seizure was because she was burning up with 103 of fever! And she told us that she should had not been discharged from the hospital yet and that she needed to be admitted immediately. We went to the hospital, and what I found out, has broken me even more. Little Liliana was dropped by her mother right after she delivered because she truly didn’t want her, and the saddest thing is that this is her 5th child that she abandons!!!! And now baby Liliana is back in the hospital, alone and sick. Well I know that she is truly never alone because God is with her always, and I know that He will take care of her.
I am honestly really sad and trying to find peace in the middle of this, finding a way to think positive. I do know that God brought her to this ministry because He knows that she will be cared for and loved, and yes, in better care than in the care that her own mother would, or could give her. But it still makes me sad, it still breaks my heart. I pray to God that when she gets out of the hospital, that she can come home to the Spangler family and receive all the love that she truly deserves, because she truly is one precious child, a fighter one, one that has fought for her life since the moment she was born.
I am struggling to understand how a mother could just simply abandoned her child??
I got to hold her precious child, swaddle her, feed her, and sing to her; all while her mother is choosing not to do it. It is also interesting how I yearn to hold my own nephew Noah, and I can’t for now, but God is giving me the opportunity to hold His children, one that does not have the love that my nephew has.
I just ask you to please help me pray for Legacy of Hope, for Marianne and Matt, so God can continue to strengthen them as they live out this journey day in and day out. They get to love the least of thee every single day, they love them as their own. Pray for baby Lilliana, so she could recover and get out of the hospital soon, and so she can come home to Legacy of Hope, and please, pray continue to pray for me, so God can walk me through understanding these hard moments, understanding these mothers and praying for them even as I don’t’ know them, but only God knows them and understands them.
I continue to thank you all for your continuous prayers and for coming along with me on this journey. May God continue to bless you all!
If you’ll like more information about the ministry in which I’m serving at please check out their web and prayerfully consider donating to amazing ministries such as this one! Thank you!
http://legacyofhopefoundation.org/who-we-are
May I present to you… Baby Liliana!
