Tonight I’m going to bed a bit numb. There is the sweetest baby girl in the
maternity ward of the hospital. I don’t
know her name – not sure if she’s been named yet. Two weeks ago, she was found near a spring of
water, abandoned and very cold. Her mom
is now in prison for abandoning her child.
The baby girl bounced back from a rather serious situation and is doing quite well in the hospital. She has the
softest hair, a little pug nose and the sweetest eyes.
However, baby Hope, as I call her (not her real name, of
course! This is just what I call her to
myself!), will be joining her mom in the prison this Thursday. The mom has been sentenced to 4 years in this
prison. I’ve asked if the baby could
stay with us until perhaps another family member could be found to take her,
but this isn’t the way things are done.
I understand that I am a foreigner, and it is highly out of order and
maybe even arrogant and naive for someone to just ask to take care of a
child. There are ways of doing things,
protocols, methods, systems. I
understand this. The systems are in
place for the protection of children.
Yet here is little Hope, gazing up at me while I give her some formula –
and in two days, she will be living in a prison, and there is nothing I can do
about it. Sometimes, life is really hard
for me to understand.
Linda, it breaks my heart to read this post. Child abandonment happened a lot in Kenya too, but fortunately there was a baby center not too far away for those babies to go to. It's hard to live in a broken world with broken systems. Know that it breaks God's heart too and He is weeping with you. Be encouraged that He is making all things new. Keep pressing on, dear. I hope you and your precious family are doing well. Love, Jess Cropsey
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