Shortly after we arrived in Kitale, I began reviewing files of the children at the home to better understand their histories and circumstances. One day, as I was reviewing files, I noticed one of our girls was having a birthday that very day. A few files later, I realized another of our girls had had a birthday the day earlier.
I pulled each of the girls aside to wish them a Happy Birthday, and each stared at me blankly, not knowing it was her birthday or that it was of any significance. I explained to each of them that a birthday is the anniversary of the day they were born, and a day to celebrate their lives.
I then shared Psalm 139 with them, assuring them that God created them in a wonderfully complex and special way and knows everything about them. “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!” (v. 16-17)
I read to them Ephesian 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago,” and explained that they are each a work of art so beautiful and valuable to God.
Then we read Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” I told the girls that they were each uniquely designed for a special plan and purpose that God had in mind when He formed them.
As I shared these thoughts, the girls began to melt into the floor with delight. They both shyly tried to hide their dimpled smiles from me, almost afraid to consider that they might actually be beautiful, or precious, or valuable. I could see they desperately wanted to believe they could be more than just “orphans”, yet these seemed such strange and foreign concepts to them.
That day it occurred to me that one of our biggest goals here is to teach these beautiful children that they are precious and valuable; their births were not an “accident.” It would be a tragedy for these children to grow up thinking their identities are defined only by their circumstances. As I read through files, I routinely came across words such as “abandoned”, “defiled”, “abused”, “rejected”. While these words are true and will necessarily impact the emotional, spiritual, and social growth of our children, they do not have to be the words that determine who they ARE. They do not have to grow up as victims, always depending on someone else to pull them out of the ditch where they were “abandoned naked in the middle of a rain storm” (to quote one of our files). They have intrinsic VALUE and WORTH and can give back to the world to make it a better place.
This month we started a new tradition of “Celebrations”. Each child has been given a Celebration Day. For some, it is the day of their birth. For others, who don’t have a recorded birthday, it is the day they joined our family at the home. Our hope is that by celebrating the life of each child in our home, they will begin to understand they are truly worth celebrating!
