This week Nimmy and I visited an orphanage. We walked in to find a collection of malnourished children who were found orphaned on the streets. The Indian census says, “About 20 million children, about 4% of their population in India and higher than people living in Delhi, are orphan. Of them, parents of only 0.3% children have died and rest have been abandoned.” Meaning 99.97% have been abandoned by their parents. The numbers mean nothing till you see the children with your own eyes.
In one room there were female babies who were left at the hospital by their mothers. My heart was burning to see just how beautiful these little girls were. There were three cribs right in a row with some of the most beautiful babies I’d ever saw. If you so much as glanced at them, their eyes would be fixed on you. If you went anywhere near their crib they would raise their arms toward you.
If you picked them up they would smile, if you set them back down they
would cry.
As I walked into another room my heart was filled with compassion. It was full of children who you can be confident will grow into adulthood outside of the embrace of a family.
It seems like it’s just their lot in life; they were born with various defects making them, the ones that nobody wants. One little boy was so bright but
has a bad case of cerebral palsy. The defect is just twisting up his limbs
like a pretzel.
One beautiful girl had been traumatized as a baby; as a result she would
bite her arms raw. She needed constant supervision other wise she would
harm herself.
I felt guilty because I was drawn to the beautiful little baby girls without defects. I questioned my heart why? Wouldn’t mercy to be to select a child that nobody in his or her right mind would consider? While I was there a few couples came through that were considering adoption. Just like my own thoughts they didn’t even glance at the children with handy caps.
I’m always trying to fight my own indifference. It’s easy to become indifferent when things seem not to change. But faith never stops challenging that, Faith never stops looking for ways to apply love.
