Written by: Kelsey Wilson, Executive Administrative Assistant at myLIFEspeaks
Listen to the audio/podcast version of this story, here.
“Take my child.”
“What did she just say?”
The woman spoke in Creole and I wasn’t yet familiar with the language as it was my first trip to Haiti. Our translator sat there on the bed of the slowly moving pickup truck, looking at his feet, shaking his head. I asked again. “She told you to take her child.” Me? A stranger? Why would she want a complete stranger to take her child? She didn’t know me, my heart, my intentions, my name, and she wanted me to take her child from her?
Our translator, filled with grief replied, “Because she sees you’re white, so you automatically have more money than her. She thinks you will be able to care for her child better than she can.” The moment replayed in my brain like a broken record. Our team was driving down a dirt road to a remote village in Haiti. The mom, holding her 4-year-old’s hand, lifted her child’s arm towards us and asked us to take her child. The questions flooded my brain as I tried to gain knowledge and perspective without judgment on this mother. What level of desperation did the mom feel to need to relinquish her toddler to someone? Was this a common occurrence for Haitians? Did the child understand that their mom was ready to let go of motherhood? I sat in the bed of the truck, tears rolling down my face, confused at the scenario, and asked the Lord to speak to me. “Tell me why Lord. Why did that just happen?”
The answer was simple. The mother loved her child. Although asking an American stranger to take an innocent child away from its mother does not seem like stereotypical love, I believe the mother loved her child so much that she was willing to go to any length to see her child healthy, happy, and thriving. However, what the mother wasn’t convinced of was that she was the perfect person for the job.
“Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.” - Psalm 127:3
The Lord called this mother to love, know, and lead this child before the beginning of time. God’s will for her life always had her child in it. God chose this mom for her child and this child for the mom. Whether she believed it or not, God blessed her with a beautiful child and will continue to use her for His Kingdom.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” - Psalm 139:13
This mother’s moment of desperate love has allowed me to share this story, not to judge or condemn her, but to look at the story from a different perspective. A perspective of unconditional love.
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