I need a voice bigger than mine

I was outside in the front yard pushing the kids on the tire swing.  I looked up and saw a man on a bike, coming up to the gate.  He had a small package in his hand, and was talking to the guard.  I assumed he was just delivering something.  I focused my attention back to the eight animated toddlers yelling, 'auntie push, auntie push'.  I looked up again.  The man hadn't left.  He began walking across the yard.  He was looking for something.  I watched as he approached one of the Mamas, hoping she would be able to help him find what he was looking for.  She pointed to the blanket where the Baby C's were playing.  He smiled and walked over. 

He picked up Mebra.  He hugged her tightly. He picked up her twin brother Isac, and he held him close. He sat down on the blanket, one on each leg.  He took out the cookies he brought for them, and he just sat with his kids.  They were glued to their father, and my heart started to break.  Why were these two growing up in an orphanage, when they still had a Daddy who came to visit them?  I sat down with him and we started talking.  He told me about his wife, and he explained that she died while giving birth to Mebra and Isac. This story is all too common.  It should not be 'normal' that a woman dies before she gets to meet her babies.  He started to talk about why he had to bring them to Amani.  He needed to work, and he did not have enough money for a house girl to care for the twins.  There is no welfare system that will step in and offer government assistance.  When his wife died, he did not have enough money to keep his children, so he had to give them up. 

The twins had finished their cookies, and wanted another. They tried to get their dad's attention and yelled 'uncle', not 'daddy'. He looked down, and I could see the shame in his eyes. Mebra and Isac recognized him as someone familiar, but they did not know this was their Dad.

He brought them to Amani with the intentions of bringing them back home when he was able to provide for them.  I can't imagine the heartache he experienced each time he came to visit, and had to walk out of those gates without Mebra and Isac in his arms. He told me that he could not visit too often because it was too hard.  He was able to spend an hour or two with his kids, and then he had to put them down and leave.  Not because he wanted to, because he had to.  He had to because he loved them.  I couldn't understand the pain he felt when his kids cried out for him as he walked away. 

My heart was aching for him, and I was frustrated.  But our God is the protector of the weak,  He is the defender of the needy.  He brought me to my knees, and he reminded me of His sovereignty.  Last month Mebra and Isac's Father walked out of those gates with his twins in his arms.  He was able to save up enough money to bring them back home. Mebra and Isac are back home, but more than half of the children at Amani are in similar situations.  A relative still has the rights to them, but they can not afford to take care of them. 

God has called Megan and I to help 'bring them home'.  Mebra and Isac's situationfueled the vision for this project.  We were frustrated that so many of the kids we loved had family that wanted to take

care of them, but money kept them from doing so.  We proposed the idea for a sponsorship program back in April, never knowing God would be using us to follow through with it 6 months later.

-Kelsey

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9