The Victory
A year and a half ago a 16 year old young girl named Lightness was convinced that an older man was in love with her and wanted to marry her. She was a Compassion International child one year short of completing secondary school. Both of her parents are dead with her 4 older sisters to help raise her. After getting pregnant with twins the man told her to get an abortion. She stood up to him. She would raise them herself if she had to. He left her, pregnant, with no way of providing for herself. She was dropped from school sponsorship because of being pregnant but she valued the babies inside of her and sacrificed for these two little ones. Miraculously, this little 17 year old gave birth in august to twins on the road en route to the hospital! She was a good mom. She made a way. She figured out how to get by with no support from anyone seventeen and alone. But things didnt stay that way. 3 months ago, the father of the twins came back..........
2 months ago we decided that we needed to look into adoption so we would know what to prepare ourselves for with our family. We always knew we wanted to adopt but we weren't sure what had to happen to adopt in Tanzania. To our surprise they told us we could start the process right away. We were shocked and just started praying. We had just started feeling settled here and I was starting to understand how to be a mom and housewife here. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, water.....everything takes so much longer here and I barely have enough time to do all those in a day let alone take care of a new baby. The more we prayed the more we felt a peace about just taking one step forward and visiting an orphanage to see if any siblings had been brought in that were available for adoption. We called and some twins had just been brought in. Their story was very fishy so they couldn't promise they were adoptable but we could come visit anyway. We prayerfully took the next step and went to visit the orphanage. We met 10 different children available and after leaving we both agreed that our hearts just broke for these twins, Kelly and Dylon, that were only 6 months old. We started trying to find more information about them while visiting them every Sunday before church. We prayed and prayed for them, asking Jesus to give them the best. Every step seemed insane to us and to others that we sought counsel from but we just kept feeling the lord say "I want you to help these orphans...keep going". We called social workers, hospitals, city representatives, and got the story kind of put together. The children were left in a house and the neighbors heard them crying all day and finally went to check on them. The mom had left them. They were brought to the orphanage and we were told we needed to find the parents to have them sign off on the adoption. We kept trying to get more information. We then found out from a social worker that the mom was a prostitute who would be hard to find but the dad was a very nice man working in the mines and couldn't take care of the children. After hearing about her being a prostitute, we decided we should probably get the children tested for HIV.
This past Saturday we dropped our girls off with a friend and picked up the twins and headed to the hospital in Arusha an hour away from the orphanage. The place to test them was closed as well as two subsequent offices but we decided to stay the course and do a quick test. That meant waiting for the doctor. :) We took our spot in line and sat down across from a little girl that was staring at us. This little girl was around 3 and would not stop staring at us. She kept saying to us that these kids were hers. We thought she was having a hard time seeing white people with black babies so we just smiled. Then she said, "Saumu, Saumu". We just smiled, got up and left not sure what she was saying. We went to a small little shop in the hospital to look for a snack and she followed us! She wouldn't stop. We kept telling her to go find her mom but she persisted. Finally her mom came in and said "do you know why she keeps telling you those kids are ours? Because they are! They belong to my sister. The girl's name is Saumu and his is Sayid. Their mother has been looking for them." We proceeded to describe to her what we knew about her sister. She told us that was a lie. The mother is a good mom; she is young but loves her babies. She told us her name...Lightness! The dad came and forcefully took them and told her he didn't want her raising his babies and he would take them to to his mother's home in another distant town. That was two months ago. We told her where the babies were found and who brought them in. She let us know that the dads brother was the "neighbor" and they must have planned that whole story. The mom is not a prostitute she is a student. She has been crying every night for her children. She didn't know where to find them but knew if she went to the grandmother's house she would be beaten and maybe killed. We were amazed. We continued to question her and found that this was truly the aunt and the mom was a good woman. We drove back with the aunt to make sure she knew where the orphanage was. She was shocked to see the orphanage was 10 minutes from the Lightness's house. She called Lightness and we waited to see what would happen. The orphanage was very careful to make sure the Lightness couldn't run off with the twins. We watched as they brought the mom in and showed her the children. They were asleep and she just sat and cried. Kelly/Saumu woke up and we watched as she pushed herself up and looked at her mom. The mama asked if she could please just hold her daughter. With tears in her eyes she picked up Kelly/Saumu, and held her for the first time in two months. She looked over her, felt her skin, brought her to her face and kissed her..... It was like a fairy tale. I stood to the side crying, being so thankful our God would choose us to be able to be his hands and feet to these orphans. Our hearts broke knowing we would be saying goodbye but we couldn't have chosen a better ending than this. God's plan is always the best. We had been praying that He would protect the little ones and that He would make a way when it seems like there is no way. Our girls loved these babies and we were afraid they would have a hard time saying goodbye but when we told hannah we found the mom she said "thank you jesus. That's what we have been praying for mom! Thats just perfect." In the midst of the fear at our base and Satan trying to destroy Gods work going on here in Tanzania we were able to see a miracle happen before our eyes and we couldn't be more grateful for His faithfulness and goodness. The seeds of fear and death that the devil plants in our hearts are always uprooted and replaced by redemption and restoration of broken dreams, relationships, family ties, etc. True religion? God does watch over the orphans and widows. What could possibly be more important than that?
2 months ago we decided that we needed to look into adoption so we would know what to prepare ourselves for with our family. We always knew we wanted to adopt but we weren't sure what had to happen to adopt in Tanzania. To our surprise they told us we could start the process right away. We were shocked and just started praying. We had just started feeling settled here and I was starting to understand how to be a mom and housewife here. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, water.....everything takes so much longer here and I barely have enough time to do all those in a day let alone take care of a new baby. The more we prayed the more we felt a peace about just taking one step forward and visiting an orphanage to see if any siblings had been brought in that were available for adoption. We called and some twins had just been brought in. Their story was very fishy so they couldn't promise they were adoptable but we could come visit anyway. We prayerfully took the next step and went to visit the orphanage. We met 10 different children available and after leaving we both agreed that our hearts just broke for these twins, Kelly and Dylon, that were only 6 months old. We started trying to find more information about them while visiting them every Sunday before church. We prayed and prayed for them, asking Jesus to give them the best. Every step seemed insane to us and to others that we sought counsel from but we just kept feeling the lord say "I want you to help these orphans...keep going". We called social workers, hospitals, city representatives, and got the story kind of put together. The children were left in a house and the neighbors heard them crying all day and finally went to check on them. The mom had left them. They were brought to the orphanage and we were told we needed to find the parents to have them sign off on the adoption. We kept trying to get more information. We then found out from a social worker that the mom was a prostitute who would be hard to find but the dad was a very nice man working in the mines and couldn't take care of the children. After hearing about her being a prostitute, we decided we should probably get the children tested for HIV.
This past Saturday we dropped our girls off with a friend and picked up the twins and headed to the hospital in Arusha an hour away from the orphanage. The place to test them was closed as well as two subsequent offices but we decided to stay the course and do a quick test. That meant waiting for the doctor. :) We took our spot in line and sat down across from a little girl that was staring at us. This little girl was around 3 and would not stop staring at us. She kept saying to us that these kids were hers. We thought she was having a hard time seeing white people with black babies so we just smiled. Then she said, "Saumu, Saumu". We just smiled, got up and left not sure what she was saying. We went to a small little shop in the hospital to look for a snack and she followed us! She wouldn't stop. We kept telling her to go find her mom but she persisted. Finally her mom came in and said "do you know why she keeps telling you those kids are ours? Because they are! They belong to my sister. The girl's name is Saumu and his is Sayid. Their mother has been looking for them." We proceeded to describe to her what we knew about her sister. She told us that was a lie. The mother is a good mom; she is young but loves her babies. She told us her name...Lightness! The dad came and forcefully took them and told her he didn't want her raising his babies and he would take them to to his mother's home in another distant town. That was two months ago. We told her where the babies were found and who brought them in. She let us know that the dads brother was the "neighbor" and they must have planned that whole story. The mom is not a prostitute she is a student. She has been crying every night for her children. She didn't know where to find them but knew if she went to the grandmother's house she would be beaten and maybe killed. We were amazed. We continued to question her and found that this was truly the aunt and the mom was a good woman. We drove back with the aunt to make sure she knew where the orphanage was. She was shocked to see the orphanage was 10 minutes from the Lightness's house. She called Lightness and we waited to see what would happen. The orphanage was very careful to make sure the Lightness couldn't run off with the twins. We watched as they brought the mom in and showed her the children. They were asleep and she just sat and cried. Kelly/Saumu woke up and we watched as she pushed herself up and looked at her mom. The mama asked if she could please just hold her daughter. With tears in her eyes she picked up Kelly/Saumu, and held her for the first time in two months. She looked over her, felt her skin, brought her to her face and kissed her..... It was like a fairy tale. I stood to the side crying, being so thankful our God would choose us to be able to be his hands and feet to these orphans. Our hearts broke knowing we would be saying goodbye but we couldn't have chosen a better ending than this. God's plan is always the best. We had been praying that He would protect the little ones and that He would make a way when it seems like there is no way. Our girls loved these babies and we were afraid they would have a hard time saying goodbye but when we told hannah we found the mom she said "thank you jesus. That's what we have been praying for mom! Thats just perfect." In the midst of the fear at our base and Satan trying to destroy Gods work going on here in Tanzania we were able to see a miracle happen before our eyes and we couldn't be more grateful for His faithfulness and goodness. The seeds of fear and death that the devil plants in our hearts are always uprooted and replaced by redemption and restoration of broken dreams, relationships, family ties, etc. True religion? God does watch over the orphans and widows. What could possibly be more important than that?
What an amazing story of how God truly goes before us and orders our steps. Wow! How privileged you are to be trusted to help orchestrate such a reunion.
ReplyDeleteOh my. God is so good. Thank you for your faithfulness Nick, Heidi, Hannah, and Hailey. What a light you are in the midst of darkness. I am so excited for you four . . . he is working out a story of equal joy for your hearts too and I can't wait to hear all about it when HIS time is right. Sending you much love right now.
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