A new girl and a baby!

On Thursday I get to go and meet the new little baby girl who was born to this precious girl.  This is S and she is 13 years old.  Last Friday she became a mom!  She is a child, much too young for this new role.  But she will learn and we will help :)

In just a few weeks S will be moving into PDE and become our youngest girl to have ever lived there.  We need a lot of wisdom to figure out how to guide and direct her while still doing a lot of parenting.  It is going to be very different...

Pray for this girl as she adjusts to motherhood and a big life change in coming to PDE.

Oh M

I´m not very good at updating in a timely fashion, but a lot has been going on.  A week and a half ago I wrote about how M was coming back to La Ceiba to take her sick baby to the hospital.  She brought her and I met her there with food and some money to help with blood tests and medicine.

Thursday night when M got here I went to be with her for a little while up at the hospital.  She told me there weren´t beds and that she and the baby would be sleeping in the waiting room.  Have you ever tried to sleep sitting up in a chair while holding a 3 month old baby?  So I took her my most favorite Baby B'jorn that I use with my babies so that she could sleep while not having to worry about the baby sliding off of her lap.  I took some diapers and food and breakfast for the morning.  I sat with her and we talked about all kinds of different things.

Friday I took her some lunch and went for a visit with our two house moms.  We dreamed of how different life would be for her when she entered the house.  We talked about studying and job options and the future of her daughter E.  We left with promises to hear from her the next morning because they were supposed to be releasing her daughter.  E was looking very healthy and ready to go home, to a new home!

Saturday morning came and went with no phone call from M.  I started to get worried about lunch time that the baby had gotten worse and that they had kept her.  But no.  I made enough phone calls to find out that they had checked out of the hospital and are MIA again.  And I was sad.  Just sad.

I don't in any way regret the help we gave to her (although I wish she had returned my baby b'jorn) because the baby is not at fault in any of this.  They needed food and medicine and a listening ear.  But the deception kills me.  I know that it is scary to dream of change and make a decision that is so different from your past.  Its a decision to let others help you, to submit to new rules and a new style of living, its a decision to join a family.  But M just can't seem to make it.  And that's okay.  But I hate that it came through lies and deception and another disappearing act so that I cannot even follow up with her.

Will you pray with me that M will get back in touch with me?  Not to move into the house, but just to be able to keep following up with her and tell her more about Jesus and the great hope of future that He can give her.

More to the story

If you heard me speak while I was in the states then you know about M.  She has a terribly hard story of poverty, loneliness, and loss.  We wanted to move her into the girls’ home, but had lost touch with her right before I left the country.  The good news is… she is found!

A week ago today I got a call from an unknown number.  It was Melissa.  She was in Copan, about 6 hours from here working as household help for a stranger.  It was so sad to me listen to her talk about how she just didn’t really believe that it would work out for her at PDE.  Someone offered her a chance to escape her life that was immediate, so she took it.  And she is used to earning her own way in life.  She talks about how it would be too hard to just “let” us help her without being able to give anything in return.  At least where she is she is earning her own way.  They treat her poorly and she makes $35/month, but she feels like she is able to survive. 

These are the times when I just want to scoop these girls up and tell them that they are so loved.  They can have a chance, a new life.  They can experience grace and not have to work for everything.  Its okay to let us help you, to just receive for a little while because life has beaten you up so hard.  And I want them to know how much I long for them to know Jesus and His grace and how His love isn’t based on how hard we work.

I was able to tell Melissa that day how much we care for her and that we still wanted her to come to the house, but I understood if she didn’t come back.  But if she changed her mind, to please call me.

Wednesday night I got another call.  E is three months old and was in the hospital with a high fever and eye infection.  The hospital is small and the doctors not very good.  They were telling her the baby had eye cancer and an allergy to the cold (It was probably 75 degrees).  Thankfully they recommended bring her back to La Ceiba to see a specialist.  So M called for help.  Bus fare, blood tests… all things that she could not afford.  As much as I care about her, I’m not willing to be responsible for her being in La Ceiba homeless, so I told her I would help her if she was at a place where she wanted to live with us upon leaving the hospital.  If not, then I couldn’t bring her here, because she would have nowhere to go.  She thought it through and called me back later saying that yes, she wanted to live in PDE.

She’s here.  In the hospital with her daughter.  Receiving.  Being patient.  Letting us love on her a little bit.  She’s still alone most of the time since I can’t be there with her all the time.  But we are checking in, taking diapers and food, and waiting to see what the doctor says.  They have been sleeping in the emergency waiting room because there are no beds available, but the doctor says it’s an infection and once her fever stays down he will let them come home.

It’s not official yet, there are still papers to prepare and work to be done before Melissa officially comes to PDE.  But please pray for it to happen.  Pray for her heart to be able to receive the gift of a new start.  Pray for healing for little E to be able to leave the hospital soon.  And pray for M to know Jesus more than anything else!