A new little girl

This afternoon I was called to the girl's dorm to welcome a new arrival. This little girl is about five years old. Her mama abandoned her here today on the sidewalk by our clinic. The ladies who work in the clinic found her sitting there alone. She is blind, cannot walk, and is possibly autistic. She doesn't talk, but she does an awful lot of babbling and "singing" in baby language. And screaming. We prayed for her, and then Rachel (missionary who is helping in the girl's dorm) and I brought her back to my house to change her diaper and bathe her. She loved playing in the basin of water and splashing it all over the floor. 

We have no idea what her name is, so I got the pleasure of giving her a name. The only name that kept coming to my mind was "Lydia". That happens to be my favorite girls name, but I always just planned that I would name my first daughter Lydia. I never thought about naming another child that. But today that name just seemed right. (I just looked up the meaning, and it means "Noble, Kind". Nothing extravagant, but atleast it is not Mara which means sorrow!). 

She is a bit of a handful, but also sweet. The girl's all gathered around to watch me feed her her supper tonight. Then I set her on the bed in the room she will be sleeping in. I think it was her first time to sit on a mattress. She loved it, and laid down and kept rolling over and laughing. I think she is used to sleeping on grass mats on the floor. 

Please pray for Lydia. She has old cuts on her shoulders from witch doctors (they cut the shoulders with a razor blade to "bleed out the infirmities"). 

Tomorrow morning our home visiting team will head out to try and find her mother. If they don't have success we will look at putting her in another children's center for disabled kids. 

It is such a privilege to be here, to be a mother to the motherless, and welcome with open arms kids who have been rejected and abandoned, and to pour out love and life into each child God brings here. 

Thank you for your prayers!