Ethiopia
Children
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sad Boy
I am now back from my two weeks in Ethiopia. While this was my second trip in less than four months...it was a harder trip...one that required me to deal with a broken heart. While I have often asked God to break my heart with what breaks His...when it happens it takes you to a place you can hardly imagine. This is just what happened with the little four year old boy I will call "Sad Boy." Sad Boy lost both of his parents at a young age. After loosing his parents he was sent to an orphanage where he was not thriving. Later he was sent to the CWA orphanage in Soddo, Ethiopia where I spent 10 days. When I first arrived at the orphanage in Soddo I spotted him. While he was walking...he did not lift up his head. I have never seen a child who appeared more depressed. While beautiful in appearance he was thin with his clothes hanging on his dry-skinned body and when you lifted his sad chin you could see dark circles under his eyes. I picked him up immediately and he wrapped his lifeless feeling little body around me and placed his sweet head on my chest..and then my heart began to break. I carried him around thinking he was a girl because that day the nannies had dressed him in a pink shirt and a denim jumper. The Ethiopian nannies have little knowledge of gender oriented dress. I felt him and he felt warm so I asked the nurse to take his temperature thinking he might be dehydrated. He had a normal temperature, he was simply lifeless. The next time I saw him he was dressed appropriately and entering very carefully into play with older children. I prayed, "Thank you, Lord for his play." I remember telling myself that I couldn't get attached to him...I couldn't get attached to any of babies or children, so I spent the next few times with the babies. I learned that rescued babies (those who are abandoned by a parent)have symptoms that I never learned about in graduate school when I studied infants. Rescued babies have large eyes that look very scared and they don't blink their eyes like normal babies. They also are tense and they flail their arms outward until they are hugged and held enough to start trusting. I was there long enough to see one such baby relax, eat well and stop flailing. I held him tight for hours and finally he began to relax. So after feeding, holding and loving babies I had to check on Sad Boy. This particular day he was in the nap room and when I approached him he was terrified by the other boys who were throwing stuffed animals at him. Even two year olds were picking on Sad Boy...oh how young they learn their power. I picked up Sad Boy and held him. Once again, he put his sad little head on my chest and held on for dear life. I sat in a chair and sang to him...he hardly moved. His pants were falling off of him so I asked a nanny for new pants and she obliged. The other little boys were being naughty and I don't speak Amharic so Sad Boy and I left the nap room for time together. I sat with him on a bench. I kissed him and hugged him and told him stories. I prayed over him and told him that God loved him so much and that Grandma Kristi loved him too. I asked the nannies for lotion and Vaseline and rubbed much needed moisture into his dry skin. I tried to play with him with a little black stuffed animal...but quickly learned that it terrified him. My guess was that he had long been abused. So I squeezed harder and kissed his cheeks and his neck and his sweet little head and after two hours he looked up at me..not just any look but a deep into your eyes look...a look of thanksgiving for loving him and THEN....he smiled and my heart was forever broken. Oh how I prayed that he would have good parents who love him soon. It was so hard to give him back. I asked the orphanage director, Stephne to please make sure he could sleep with a nanny so he could feel safe. She said she would do so. When I left the orphanage for the last time, he was playing with Lincoln Logs with an older child and I quietly asked God to protect sweet Sad Boy. If it would have been possible to bring him home, I would have done so...asking permission of my husband later...but that isn't how it works in Ethiopia. He will forever live in my heart and I can't imagine how broken hearted Jesus is when he looks at these beautiful children who have experienced so much pain in such a short time. I love you Sad Boy and I am praying for you.
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Sad Boy
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And I shall pray for him, too. What a beautiful post. I'm so glad you're back but I'm even more glad that you went.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting this - it was so moving. You didn't need a photo image - you described him and his situation much more graphically.
ReplyDeleteI will pray for Sad Boy, too. Lord, find him a good home and let him follow You all his days!
ReplyDeleteKrisiti, Welcome back my friend. I can so relate to this story as I remember having my heart broken over and over every week I helped at the orphanage in Nicaragua. You can imagine our joy when our "sad" children were adopted by our friends here in Spokane, to see them loved and nurtured is still an amazing blessing to me. My question is why can this boy not be adopted? I understand that adoption is very difficult now in Ethiopia. We were told that Nic does not adopt to foreigners, but it happened. Thanks for sharing this story so we can all pray for this little guy. I know it is no mistake that you met him. Kathy Ahern
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