Day 2 Kids Care Orphanage - Addis Ababa

Saturday morning we went to an orphanage called Kids Care. We visited this orphanage last year so I was anxious to return to see if the same kids would be there. I was desperately hoping that I wouldn’t see the same kids because if I did of course that meant they had gone another year without being adopted. The kids are divided into rooms according to age. We began at the first room with was called the Recovery Room. The Recovery Room was for newborns, sick newborns or babies who are under the weight. Last year there were triplets that were the tiniest things I had ever seen. This year there were 7 infants, 2 of which just arrived the day before. I didn’t make it past that room to even see the other kids… I was captured. I love babies anyway but these tiny babies were the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. As soon as one of the babies let out anything resembling a cry I jumped at the opportunity to pick her up. She was two months old and she couldn’t have been more than 10 lbs. She was tiny. I think she was scared of white people because she wouldn’t look at me no matter how I moved her little body. I tried and tried to get that baby to smile and I was never successful. The woman who takes care of these babies did not speak any English so it made it difficult and a bit awkward to try to communicate. We both tried a couple of times with no success to communicate. Finally another girl who worked at Kids Care came in and she spoke English. It was great bec I then could not only talk to her but she could translate for us as well. I began asking her about the babies…. How long they have been there, what were the circumstances that brought them there were, etc. Some of the children there were true orphans, their parents had died because of HIV/AIDS or other sickness. Other children had been dropped off by their family because they were too poor to be able to take care of them. Others were there as a result of the unthinkable - abandonment on the streets. There was one beautiful baby boy who just had arrived the day before and the police had found him laying in the street and brought him to Kids Care. There were many children who had no record of a birthday or name. Such a heartbreaking thing to comprehend.

It made me think of how God uses the analogy in scripture of being an orphan and becoming a son/daughter of His. Actually seeing these children helped me to have a new understanding and appreciation of the use of that analogy. Before coming to Africa I didn’t REALLY understand or think about what it meant in reality to be an orphan. The United States does not really have orphans or orphanages. I began to see that being an orphan means having absolutely NOTHING. No family. No reference point of who you are. No identity. No name. No birthday. No love. No belonging. Not known. Nobody to provide the necessities of life. Complete and utter abandonment and separation from everything and everyone. Nothing to offer society or to others. This is what scriptures calls us. We are orphans without Christ. I am in complete desperation of saving, being loved, being provided for, an identity, a name. I am incapable of providing these things to or by myself. I am a tiny frail, sick, infant who has been abandoned with no hope. However, praise the Lord that scripture does not stop there. I am no longer an orphan. I have been adopted. I not only someone’s daughter now but a daughter of the King. I have been given an identity, a name. I am known. I now have a father who provides not only everything that I could ever need but a Father who loves me so deeply that He provides more than I could ever imagine. I have been given the inheritance of the King. I now understand more fully when Christ says He will come to me, He will not leave me as an orphan.