Baby Boom

In the last ten days, Cradle of Love has received seven new babies! This is a lot of children for such a short period of time. Some of these babies come here because their mother died in childbirth or soon after, whereas others are sadly abandoned. I will give you the background stories to a couple of the new babies that stick out in my mind.

Two days ago a newborn, still attached to the placenta, was found on the road in Usa Plaza (not far from here). A man picked her up and brought her to the orphanage where she was named Upendo. Because of the lack of running water that evening, we were unable to bathe her and wash the blood and vernix off. The umbilical cord was cut, though, and she was wrapped up warm and tight, and added to the nursery! She is a gorgeous and healthy baby girl around 6 pounds. Another child around two-years-old… (we’re not sure of her age) was dropped off yesterday evening because her mother ran away. The father is now re-married, but the new wife refuses to care for his daughter. The orphanage does not usually take in cases like that, because we are not a baby-sitting service and we believe that it is the father’s responsibility to take care of his child. He went to social services, though, to plead his case and to make a long story short, his daughter named Princess ended up with us. She is a very pretty girl with very sweet eyes. My heart was just aching for her because it would be an immense change being raised in a home then being plopped in an orphanage with nothing familiar and 50 screaming kids poking, prodding, and pushing you over. For a while, she just stood off at a distance with tears streaming out of her big, brown, beautiful eyes and it was all I could do to keep myself from crying simply watching her. She does not speak English, but we cuddled for a little bit that evening and I hope she felt some love and reassurance. I’m praying that one day she will learn that she is a real Princess—not only in name, but because she is a child of the King.