Last night as we returned
home after our Embassy trip and our visit with Oberson, we were just getting
out of the car when we heard a noise. We
all stopped and the hair stood up on my neck.
It was nothing like I had ever heard. No movie could capture, no book
could describe….the sound of a little girl screaming and the sound of a whip
ripping her flesh. Her voice cutting through the air begging them to stop and
feet on pavement trying to get away. I
instantly started crying and Todd was looking for a way to jump the wall. Being outsiders there’s nothing we could do
and the man that runs the guest house wasn’t home. We stopped and prayed a hedge of protection and
what we could do for this little girl.
We would be willing to pay for her freedom yet know they would just buy
another child and the cycle would continue.
After praying (and crying) I
have come to realize that as much as this moment has brought me heartache and
sounds in my head that I cannot erase…..it has also taught me about true
love. Some people question how Oberson’s
birth mother could have given him up for adoption. How could a mother do such a thing? We don’t know her situation but life in Haiti
isn’t like life in the US. In a country
with over 70% unemployment and those that do work make less than $1 a day it is
so hard just to live. One container of
water is almost $1 and that isn’t anything else. You might work a week (if you have a job)
just to get rice. It is crazy
expense. So to have a child and not be
able to feed it would be the worst kind of pain I could imagine. Her options as a mother would be so
hard. How much did she love him? She loved him enough to give him a
future. She could have sold him….he is a
boy. He would have made good money for
her to be honest. She could have raised
him and sold him to be a slave. She
could have had him work to provide for her.
She could have done a lot of things.
Yet, she loved him enough to give him a better life. She wanted more for him. That is a mother. That is loving someone more than yourself. That is true love.
My worst moment with my
worst sound that echoes in my mind reminds me of true love in other
people. Yes, there are always evil
people in this world. There are also
still wonderful people in this world that love their babies and wonderful
people who care for them (like our orphanage).
God loves us all and is always there to redeem and carry us
through. This was never His plan but He
came to love us and adopt us so that we can experience His perfect love
also!
