A New Family Is Made

This week we had one of our two year olds, Assya, adoptive parents come to pick her up. Her parents are Italian. Mom spoke English and dad spoke French so we were able to communicate with them, but it was difficult to remember what language to speak in.

Assya is a girl who is full of life. She's crazy. Running and smiling and talking (no words) and hitting other kids/taking things from them. She's not shy or reserved in anyway; but the last month and a half or so she hasn't been her self. She kept getting sick, and we think because of that she hasn't yet regained her strength. Her mom and dad asked if she was always so serious, and we said "NO!" We tried to encourage them to take her to a doctor when they got home...Doctors in Italy can do a lot more than the doctors in Burkina can.

Watching this family come together was one of the most beautiful things I've been a part of. They were so excited to meet their daughter. She was a little wary of dad at first but warmed up to mom right away. It only took her over night before she warmed up to dad.

She's been in the orphanage since she was two months old. She's never had the kind of one on one attention that most babies get, so we couldn't/can't imagine how new everything is for her. She slept in their bed, sat on mom's lap to eat, was held when she cried, rocked to sleep...everything is different.

They stayed for a few days and left yesterday. We exchanged contact info so we can stay in touch, and they can send us pictures of Assya as she grows...It's such an exciting thing! It's so wonderful that she has a family! She's going home to Italy where two older brothers are waiting for her. I had tears in my eyes about a hundred times the day they were first introduced. So beautiful...

On a not so fun note, I'm not sure that I've mentioned this but I feel I should, and if I have, forgive me. They are talking famine here. The rains haven't come for much too long (I can't remember the last time it rained) and most of the millet is spoiled. We can see the spoiled millet. As I look at my window writing this I see it; as I drive down the road going anywhere, I can see it. It's not good. There are relief agencies outside of Burkina that have begun to contact the country asking for different ways that they can help. It's a national problem.

There was a famine a few years ago and apparently this year's famine is not going to be as a bad. A man said that this year he will be able to fill one thing (I can't remember what they call them...but they are like our silos, only not nearly as big) of millet when he normally fills three...for the entire year. So it will be bad. Not as bad as it could be, but bad enough.

It's hard to know how to feel. I don't understand famine. How can there not be enough food? That's not something that we ever (in America) have to deal with. And me living here, I still won’t have to deal with. I will, thanks to those of you who support me, have money enough to buy food; but I will see it. If I stay for another year, I will see the families who don't have enough to feed themselves much less their children; and here it is the children, the youngest, who suffer the most. The adults will eat before the children do. We will see a lot of malnourished children, because families won't feed them or because mom isn't getting enough to eat, she can't give her baby enough milk.

I can't even imagine what must be going through the heads of the people here. But this is life for them. They have an opportunity to trust the Lord in a way that Americans will not be able to understand as long we have more than enough.