Saturday, September 21, 2013

Witnessing Miracles!



     On August 30th my heart was forever changed.  Although my family has had experience with adoptions, one with my son and closely living through 5 with my sister, I had NEVER experienced looking in a mother's eyes as she told you she no longer wanted to care for her baby. 

    It was a Friday morning when I walked into Go MAD's Firm Foundation Children's clinic.  My interpreter quickly walked up to me and said, "Jenny, there is a mom that wants to give you her baby!"  I calmly replied, "Ok, let's all just sit down and talk about this."  I turned around to see the sweetest, tiniest baby girl with HUGE eyes, a mouth shaped in a little "o" and long skinny legs that were clapping her feet together as if they were hands.  She immediately melted my heart.  




We had to use several translators because mom is Haitian and speaks Creole to translate to Spanish and then to English for me.  The first thing I asked was how old she was and they said 8 months.  I asked if I heard them right because she only weighed 9 pounds!  Surely they meant 8 days!  They quickly confirmed she was 8 MONTHS!  Her skin was light, her hair was faded, all signs of malnutrition.  This baby is starving to death.  After we spent hours explaining to mom that we can not "take" her baby because that is not what our ministry is about BUT we would help her in whatever way we could.....I went in to check on sweet Calencia that was napping on a bed.  I found her in a huge wet puddle of sweat.  I picked her up to find that she wasn't breathing.  I tapped feet and started saying, "baby baby baby!" and she gasped a big breath of air.  I watched her closely to only see her doing this same thing about every 15 seconds!  She would begin to try to catch her breath and would finally wake up enough to get one and then right back at it.  I soon found out she has been doing this her whole little 8 months on this Earth.  We quickly took her to the hospital to find she had a birth defect that they classify as a cleft palate but with a little more to it.  After 5 doctors and 2 hospitals we finally found that there is a foundation here that can place a temporary shield in the roof of her mouth until she is able to have a permanent surgery at around the age of 3.  All I can say is she has more fight in her than most people I know!  I also know that God has huge plans for her life.

So now the rest of the story.  When mom came to us with her 8 month old baby....she was also 7 months pregnant.  Yep....you read that right.  We also know that mom works as a prostitute.  She says she is 17 although we are not sure that is accurate either.  It was a Friday when she came to our office and on Monday we picked her up to go to another doctor's appointment.  When we saw her I patted her greatly diminished looking belly and asked how she was feeling.  She told me that she had been in a car accident on Saturday and went to the hospital but the baby died.   There were no signs of injuries on the mom and what is still hard for me to comprehend is.... no sadness.  Since that time, the story changed and she told an interpreter that she had slipped on the floor in her bathroom and had a miscarriage.  Many girls here, since abortion is illegal, will drink poison to abort their babies.  I will never know the truth about what happened to that precious life and it will forever haunt me.  I want to badly to get mad at the mom and tell her what I think and turn my back on her......but I can't.  She's broken.  She's a kid.  I have no idea of what she has lived through in her life. She says her parents are both dead and her older sister kicked her out at a young age.  Is any of it true?....I don't know.  But who am I to judge?  I am here to tell about Jesus and give hope.  I am here to show grace.  Right now....I'm numb and am asking God for strength how to handle that part of it.  So we put all of our focus on Calencia and God provided us with hope and healing for her soon and much much more!

Birth mom and Baby
 
NOW.....the really cool goosebumpy part to this story.  The Sunday after baby Calencia entered our lives, our church prayed for her to find the help she needed.  At that SAME moment a couple we met once at a local missionary meeting, were sitting in church just down the street.  The pastor walked by them and stopped he said, "Debbie, something big is going to happen this week.  It's nothing that has been on your radar but God has a plan and you need to listen."  He turned to her husband and simply said, "Bill, you just need to trust God on this."  The next morning as we were getting ready to go pick up baby Calencia, Bill had been out on his morning jog.  He told me later that he usually only does one lap around but he had extra energy that particular morning so he did a second lap.  He "happen" to jog by our house right when Brian (my husband) stepped out of our house.  I heard them chatting so I stepped out to a "Welcome to the neighborhood!"  Bill asked how our ministry was going and I told him just a bit about our sweet little patient.  Shortly after Debbie and Bill paid me a visit at the clinic.   They asked about Calencia and I saw something in their eyes....a little spark of interest.  I asked if they would like to go meet her....it was a quick YES!  God had being laying Romans 8:5 on Debbie's heart:
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Debbie told me that had been expressing through Bible verses how He expects so much more from us than to live for our own comfort.
Being obedient to what God tells us to do....die to ourselves and follow Him.....they said, "If this is your will God....open the doors for us to adopt this baby."  And that is EXACTLY what He did.  Sweet baby Calencia is now Sweet baby Naomi.   She has a Mom and Dad and who want her to be their child forever.  She is now living with HOPE!  She will NEVER have to worry about food, no medical care, and an unfortunate cycle of prostitution that occurs in families here.  She WILL know the LOVE of JESUS! 

Thank you God for allowing me to witness this miracle of a new life with you!


Introducing Naomi and her new family!

                                  
                                                            Amazing Dad and Mom!









                                                         Big Protective Brother Carlos!



Please pray with me for how I can help the birth mom.  After I told her that I found a family for her baby she was excited and her next question was, "But do I still get to see you?"  I told her definitely and I will take her to church.  She also needs hope and love.  As happy as I am for my sweet little patient my heart will never get over looking into the emptiness of her birth mom's eyes as she got out of our car.  I snapped this picture of her walking in the distance....alone..... back to her home.  She looks so alone.....I want to show her how to walk with Jesus.



 
          

        

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”   John 13 34-35
 
         
For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.   John 13:15

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Keeping It Real!

  Marriage....it is not always easy.  Actually if you ask me it is NEVER easy.....BUT it is a CHOICE.  You can choose to be happy, choose to be selfless, choose to be forgiving, choose to show grace, choose to LOVE like Jesus does.  But let's be real...most days I don't even think....I just react, speak without much thought and anger easily.  Do I WANT to be this way?    Uh no!  But I make excuses, I'm hot, I'm tired, I "deserve" more,  I....I.....I!!!!!!!!!  So I am a piece of work!  BUT....I am work in progress!  I am recognizing that I am a child of God which means I am made human and with many flaws and the ONLY way to be like Jesus is to be in CONSTANT communication with Him.  That's what I love about this journey with Christ is that it is continuous.  You can't be saved and then go on your merry way.....every day it's a WALK with Him. 

 Our journey to the mission field was NOT like this, "Hey honey!  Let's sell all of our worldly possessions and move away from most everyone we love and rely on other's for support and work in a place that's beautiful but hot and where we don't know the language and we may get what belongings we do take stolen!  Sound good?"   Brian - "Sure honey....sounds SWELL!  I'll book the flights!"

 The process to get here was definitely long and hard but SUCH A TIME OF GROWING IN OUR FAITH AND OUR RELATIONSHIP!  Now since we have been on the mission field for over a month, we are digging deeper than ever before to keep walking and growing with our Savior because it's the only way we can face the challenges we are faced with daily.

 So now that I put my human flaws out there for the world to see I want to honor my husband that is WALKING this WALK with me!  You see I get to post pictures and stories about PEOPLE that we come across and how we are trying to help them.  My husbands job is not as glamorous BUT SO necessary.  He makes the Safe House Safer with locks and screens to keep thieves and critters out.  He is scrapping some kind of unknown mold out of a room in the clinic that can cause some serious health issues.  He is fixing too many areas in the school to list to make it safer and more functional.  He gets us safely to work in an area where nobody follows traffic laws.  He will IMMEDIATELY stop what he is doing to take a family to the hospital or go and get formula for a starving baby.  He also has worked endlessly to learn how to get us insurance and safe car, home and area to live. 

 I am so thankful not only that God has given me Brian to be my partner in this life but also that God has given me the ability to STOP and REFLECT and APPRECIATE what BLESSINGS I have in my life.




 
     

1 Corinthians 13:4-10          

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ...