Moms

Last week I took one of our teen moms and her 5 month old to the clinic to get her 5 month baby shots. We sat in the waiting room for about and hour and I watched the mothers come and go with their infants. One precious mom sat down next to me with TWINS! Seeing twins is a big deal in Sierra Leone and there were many watching her. The babies were about 2 months old and I could immediately tell that she was tired. Women kept coming up to her and asking questions about the babies and telling her to "bear up"…they all understood the difficulty of giving birth and caring for 2 babies in a country where life is difficult. This sweet mother walked a distance to the clinic with one child on her back and one carried in front. I'm sure that she hopes and prays every night that her children won't be a part of the statistic of 1 in 5 that die before the age of 5 but she knows that with 2 the chances of losing one or both grow exponentially. As she stood up to get ready to strap one baby on her back, he almost fell off, and as I reached up to steady him and another reached over to take the girl baby from her so she could properly "popo" her child I felt the overwhelming need to pray for her and join her in the call to God to save her children.

I have lived in this home with these teen moms for 5 months now and have had an extra glimpse into the struggle of motherhood in Sierra Leone. Getting up VERY early to fetch water…carrying 5 gallon pails of water on your head up the hill…washing children and laundry out of those buckets and finding that there is none left for yourself unless you go back and carry some more…cooking meals over an open fire…struggling to go to the market…riding a motorcycle with your infant (NO safety seats or laws here)…struggling to bring in a small amount of income to feed your babies…watching your children sick and not knowing what to do…daily contemplating if it's worth it…is there any hope for your children….can you really offer them what they need? 

One of them has been telling me all week, "my heart hurts for my children…what can I do?" She has a physical ache that is there because of love and longing…a desire to give them all that they need and long for, to give them hope and a future…and a realization that she cannot. And all of us must come to the point of realizing that WE cannot give a hope and a future to our children…only GOD has the ability to do that…and we must lay our children at the foot of the CROSS and ask the LORD to meet their needs, longings, and desires in his way…BUT what happens when laying your babies in the LORD'S hands means physically giving them away? 

I think of Mose's mother and the heartbreak of leaving her child in a basket because she could not save him any other way but to give him up…and my heart aches and is amazed at God's salvation…her sacrifice, her giving him up opened the door for God to save a nation…and there is great hope in that.

And today, I'm thinking of my own momma. I miss her mother daily…she has been the BEST mother and from her I know the gift of motherhood…the giving up of oneself to serve and love another…over the past year I left her and moved thousands of miles away and instead of clinging and holding me tight…she once again placed her hope and trust in GOD the Father and let me go…more than that she encouraged, sacrificed, and gave so that I might live out this piece of God's call on my life. She has taught me to live in GRACE and SERVICE. 

Mom, when you read this…know that I LOVE YOU! I am always and forever grateful for you and I miss you like crazy! Thank you for being my mom for the last 31 years and for all that you are. Love you!