Our newest little arrival and how he's already blessed my life

I sit here at my desk—my messy desk and wonder how to put my thoughts into words. Scraps of paper left over from a preschool craft I made up, coloring pages and 20 markers lye in a pile waiting to be finished for a song prop, 12 baskets from when I taught the story of the 5 loaves and 2 fish, a cookbook I used when making my portion of Thanksgiving dinner, a cup of water, Kreyol notes, a couple of baby toys, lesson idea books, a few CDs, and my computer all clutter my desk. This array of items pretty much sums up my typical life here but doesn’t even break the surface of the things that go on here.

Since I’ve been here we’ve admitted six new babies. The youngest are six month old twins and the oldest is 13 months. They all came from different circumstances and are here for different reason. Our hope and the plan right now is for four of them to be reunited with a family member after three months of our care, one of them was reunited in August and is now back to stay until he is adopted, and one was an abandoned baby who is here for adoption.

Each time a new child comes they stay with a staff member or volunteer as they get acclimated to their new environment. The first five came in and I wanted to be that one each time, but having preschool two times a day doesn’t allow me much time for that. Yesterday we received a new little one and he got to be mine.

He’s eight months old and has been living at a hospital in Limbe since he was born because as soon as his mother saw him she didn’t want him. He doesn’t have any feet and his fingers where all fused together. That is all she looked at. Never mind his gorgeous big brown eyes and his big smile he now has. Last night as I sat rocking him trying to get him to sleep I prayed hard for him. I prayed that he would defy odds, he would be full of self-confidence, he would know he was loved, and the perfect family for him would be found. I prayed that his name, his features, or his story would already be imprinted on the hearts of his forever family. I just know this little guy will defy odds and will have an amazing story that God can use only him for.

As I was praying this, tears stung my eyes. How can someone not want someone just because of the way they look? I’ve heard that a mother child bond is huge during the pregnancy and a mother’s heart is forever changed the first time she is able to hold her child, how could a physical deformity change that? I know it would be hard to raise a child like this in America and even more challenging in Haiti, but I thought a mother’s love knows no limits? I mean, because of her decision I have gotten to be blessed by spending time with this little cutie. His story of being used by God has already begun and he doesn’t even know it.

This morning I took him over to the baby house to get breakfast and introduced him to many of the kids and nannies over there. Most of them noticed and talked about his differences, but accepted him as they would any new baby. One of the nannies was talking with the others telling them his story. After she said his family didn’t want him she looked at him and began talking to him. She said “Jesus loves you. Jesus cares for you. Jesus loves you. Thank you God for you. God has a special family picked out just for you.” Again tears stung my eyes but this time with a big smile of joy. He will be loved here—he is loved here. The nannies here will love him for who he is, not how he looks and God does have a very special family picked out for him.