A few weeks ago, my daughter and I had the chance to go into a government run orphanage and love on some babies. This particular orphanage has children 6 and under and most of them have some type of disability. Mind you, the range of "disabilities"is wide. I can't go into an explanation of what we saw, but the scene was better than what I had contrived in my mind, but worse than what my heart had hoped.
Selah and I sang to blind 1 year olds, played with a 3 year old little Down's boy, zoomed around like airplanes with 4 year old boys, prayed over a 2 month old girl with a severe cleft palate. As I rounded the room and prayed over each baby I touched, I found myself uttering 2 things into the ears of the Lord. I prayed for a forever family to come soon and for Jesus to completely overwhelmed their souls.
As we left, the head nanny told our friend that we shouldn't worry about coming back. That while they are completely understaffed, their leaders would not allow strangers to come in on a frequent basis. I am refusing to take that as an answer.
This is where the hard part comes in. As an American, I want to assert myself and just sit at their door every morning until they get tired of me and let me in. Being here though, I am firmly aware that culturally, this wouldn't work. I am going to have to figure out how to love the nannies and therefore love the babies from a distance. I am called to be patient and allow the Lord to open the doors of that place. Charis and I read the account of Paul and Silas with the jailer yesterday and I was reminded that the Lord creatively solves the problems of His children. While it seems that I have been locked out, I know that the Lord has the ability to open things up for us.
