The trip has started off with some amazing challenges and opportunities. Check out the story below as it unfolds, written from Sherry's journal entries and sent over to us from the experiences during her first few days in the country.
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| Kalkidan Yehunae |
Rediet, Sadea and Challa go outside and the Transformation
Love kids realize something is different.
Who are these kids? Then I walk
out and the children and mothers figure out who the three new children
are! We are greeted with hugs and
kisses. They are all thrilled to hear we
are going to be here for 3 months! Off
our kids go to play with their new friends.
Challa comes to me and says, “I am having so much fun playing soccer,
Mommy! I think the kids understand me
even though I can’t speak their language.” Tears fill my eyes to see how easily my kids
are accepted and loved by all. I have
never seen 3 happier children!
It is time for class to start with singing songs and
praising our Lord and Savior. The
children are singing their hearts out. Pastor
Andualem starts teaching them about God’s creation, our story is about Adam and
Eve today. He divides the kids up into
four groups. He made puzzles out of
paper for them to put together. The
children are working very hard together to finish each puzzle, with smiles and
intense labor. We finally have a winner! They all sit down in their chairs very
quietly with their hands in their laps and listen to Pastor Andualem tell the
story. They are eager to learn about
their God! Questions are asked and
answers are given.
Just outside the classroom door, I hear someone yelling
and crying. I step outside to see what
is happening and I realize it is one of our mothers. I ask Sammy what is wrong and he tells me
this is Kalkidan Yehunae’s mother. She
is telling us to take her child because she is a burden to her and doesn’t want
her anymore. Mother cannot afford to
have her anymore. She hates her daughter
and wants to get rid of her. “WHAT???!!!!,”
is my response. “Kalkidan is such a
beautiful girl. How can this be, Lord?” My heart is filled with sadness.
Mother tells Rekik that she wants to sell her body as a
prostitute but that is hard to do with Kalkidan around. She asks us to just take her and take care of
her because she doesn’t want her anymore.
Rekik tells me that she thinks the mother is going crazy and that is why
she is thinking this way. I asked Rekik
if I could talk to her. We decided to
wait until everyone left before we talk to her.
Then all of the sudden the mother just got up and ran out of the
compound, leaving Kalkidan behind with us.
I look over to Kalkidan and tears are streaming down her
cheeks, our eyes connect and she comes running to me. I wrap my arms around her and hold her
tight. I pray to God to give us His
wisdom and knowledge for this situation.
This precious child is receiving rejection, abandonment, metal and physical
abuse! Feelings I know and understand
very well. My heart feels so broken for
this child.
I grab Rediet and Sadea and tell them what has just
happened to Kalkidan and ask them to show her love and play with her. They go upstairs and get a package of colored
rubbers out and show her how to make bracelets out of them. Thank you Jesus, I see a smile on her tear
stained face! She has forgotten
temporarily what has just happened to
her.
Meanwhile, Rekik, Nahom and I talk about what to do
next. Do we keep her? Do we take her home and talk to the
mother? That is what is decided by
us. We decided that I would not go along
to talk to the mother because there is a possibility that since my three kids
are here, mother might think that I will just adopt Kalkidan too. If it were only that easy! Then I heard a gentle whisper, it is God’s
voice saying, talk to Kalkidan first. I
asked Rekik and Nahom if they talked to Kalkidan about this and they said
no. I told them to talk to her first;
she might have more to tell you.
They called her over and asked her if she is okay if we
take her home to her mother and they would talk to her. Kalkidan’s response was no she will kill
me. Mother keeps telling Kalkidan that
she has only 20 days to live and she is going to end her life. She asked us to take her to her aunt’s
house. Rekik and Nahom take Kalkidan to
her aunt’s home. They get there and she
is not home. It is getting late so they come
back to the church compound. We eat
together and we kept Kalkidan overnight. We will deal with this tomorrow.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you will remove this child from the abuse she
is receiving. Bless her with your
love. God help her understand how much
you love her. That you value her life
and you have a purpose for her. May she
fall in love with you, Jesus. May she
come to know you as her personal Lord and Savior. May your LOVE JESUS be all that she
needs!
Lord, I also pray you will bring healing to this
mother. God just show her how much you
love her. Let her see that you are her
provider and that you will take care of her and Kalkidan. God, I ask that you help her to love her
daughter. May you heal this family and
bless them with your love, Jesus. Take
the hate in her heart and replace it with your love. To you be all the glory! In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen!
Day 2: It is Sunday morning and we are all going to IEC Church. It
is a beautiful sunny day and everyone is happy and smiling. We walk to the Mekele round-about to catch a
taxi. In order for all 9 of us get into
a taxi we had to split into 3 groups and take 3 different taxis.
It is a beautiful service and time of worship. My three
children attend Sunday school and love it.
They are a little scared because the classrooms are divided by age, so
they are all in different classrooms.
At our church they are all together. I can see a little hesitation in their eyes,
but I encourage them and told them to make new friends. When I pick them up, they are very happy and
challenged! They all have homework! They have to memorize three Bible verses for
next Sunday. They are so excited about
the challenge. They are practicing the
verses all the way home on the taxi.
We decide to go out for lunch and have Sizzling Tibs,
yummy! This restaurant is very close to
our compound. Oh no! Challa is in heaven knowing we can go on a
short walk to have Sizzling Tibs anytime.
While we are walking home my kids find a puppy that is hurt
on the main road. Challa picks her up
and begs me to keep her. I tell him
no. All three are asking and
begging. I tell them it is up to Nahom,
Sammy and Rekik. They turn and beg
them. Rekik agrees to let them keep her
and let her become the Transformation Love doggie. On the walk home the kids decide to name her
”Lucky,” because she is lucky to have us and a home now. We all laugh!
What joy a new puppy can bring to your heart. The kids are missing our three puppies at
home; maybe this will help a bit. Not
sure how us leaving Lucky is going to work, but for today and the next three
months things are good.
Sunday Afternoon:
Kalkidan
Kalkidan is still with us and what do we do next? The staff leaves with her to go back to visit
her aunt’s home. This time the aunt is
home along with her husband. They all
talk about what is best for Kalkidan.
Her aunt’s family is more than happy to take Kalkidan in and raise her,
but they want complete guardianship of her.
Our staff agrees it would be in the best interest for Kalkidan to have
her mother sign over guardianship to the aunt.
Kalkidan is going to spend the night with her aunt. Our staff agreed to pick Kalkidan and her
aunt up in the morning and talk them to the police station to fill out the
paperwork and start the guardianship process (which should be a very simple
process and take about 15 days).
Thank you God, for this wonderful meeting with Kalkidan’s
aunt. We talk for over two hours. Kalkidan’s aunt seems very concerned about
her and her husband seems to be very nice.
I thank God that Kalkidan may have a loving family that will give her
the care she needs. Kalkidan seems to
really love them too. Her aunt told us
that this is not the first time this has happened and she has begged her sister
to give Kalkidan to her. Her aunt knows
that Kalkidan is being badly abused. She
has been thrown out of the house and the door locked for four days, she has
been beaten many times, verbally abuse, just to list a few. It makes her aunt sick to see this child
living under these conditions. Yet every
time Kalkidan is staying with her aunt, her mother comes to get her and
threatens to hurt her two children. This
just doesn’t make since!
Dear God, I just pray
that you will bless this meeting tomorrow with the officials. Please help this child. Please don’t let her be abused anymore. Guide us and show us what to do. Lord, I pray that this process of
guardianship will move quickly and smoothly tomorrow. May your will be done with this child. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen
Day 3: It is 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning, today is the day to go to the authorities for
Kalkidan. We have rented a car for today
because there will be a lot of travel.
We pick up Kalkidan and her aunt and off to the local Police Station we
go. The officer listens to our story
about Kalkidan and tells us we have to wait for an officer to come into the
office. He will be the one that can help
us out. So, we wait for two hours and
he shows up. He listens to our story and
tells us that we are at the wrong Police Station. Off to the right station we go.
We arrive at 11:30 a.m. and go inside and tell them what we
are here to do. They make us have a seat
and wait. We are finally called into an
office and listened too. The officer
told us there is nothing they can do about this situation! We need to go to another local government
office. Really?! It is 12:30 p.m. now. Let’s take a little lunch break! After a bite of Ethiopian traditional food we
are ready to go.
Off we go to the local government office and we pray this is
the one to help us out. It is 2:00 p.m.
now not a lot of time left for government offices today. When we entered in we told them about
Kalkidan and asked them about what paperwork we needed to fill out to start
this guardianship process. The lady told
us to take a seat and she would be back.
Yes, this looks promising! We
could see her talking to another official in the back. She came back to tell us that we were at the
wrong office again. We needed to go to
the Women and Children Affairs Department downtown.
It is 3:15 p.m. now and we are at the Women and Children
Affairs Department. I have a feeling
that this is not going to get done today.
We sit and wait about one hour before anyone would even talk to us. We are call up to desk and Rekik starts
asking questions and telling Kalkidan’s story.
In turn, we are told they don’t handle this situation here we need to go
back to the local Police Station where the child lives. You are kidding me! That was the first place we went!
Wow, what a day! We
look at each other and say, enough for today.
We will go there tomorrow and take care of this then. We take Kalkidan and her aunt back to the
aunt’s home and make arrangements to pick them up tomorrow morning.
My heart is sad for this little girl. She just missed a whole day of school for
nothing. She doesn’t know what is going
to happen to her still. I pray God will
be with her and keep her in His loving arms.
May she truly know God’s love tonight and always.