Meeting Beteleham

Saturday 1/17/09

Today was a very special day for our family. As planned, we were able to meet Nahom’s (Abe’s) birth mom. She was so very young and it was really very sad for us. She is only 17 years old (so she was probably 15 when Abe was conceived) and she is truly all alone in the world. She has no living relatives, with the exception of Nahom. She traveled 2 days by car to be able to see him one more time. Then, she will spend the night here in the city and travel 2 days back to the city in which she currently lives. When she held him, quiet tears rolled down her cheeks and my heart just broke for her.

We spent about 25 minutes with her along with a social worker who translated for us. We took photos and some video so that he will be able to hear her voice when he is older. She had two photos of him that she had taken when he was 8 months old, just before she relinquished him. They were in a small plastic album that she obviously had carried everywhere for the last 7 months. She insisted that we choose one of the 2 photos to take with us. There were also several photos of herself, and she had us choose one of those as well. She was wearing the same clothing in the photos that she wore today and I can’t help but wonder if that’s all she has. In so many ways I wish we could do more, but unfortunately, that isn’t allowed to come from our hand.

She shared a little bit with us about their time together before she decided that she just couldn’t parent. It gave us some insights into some of the behaviors we’re seeing and we have a great deal of compassion for both of them. We promised to send lots of photos in our placement reports, and we also committed to praying for her. Ryan asked her if we could pray for her there and we did. The social worker did not translate during the prayer, but we know that the Lord heard our petitions, even if Beteleham could not fully understand.

The three of us went to lunch afterwards and our discussion was pretty heavy. Abby’s heart was as broken as ours, and we discussed the brevity of the situation. We have talked over and over again this week about how very privileged we are. Words cannot begin to describe the sights and sounds we’ve taken in this week and I pray that I can never forget what I have seen and experienced. We realize that to whom much is given, much is required and this week it has become even more obvious that we have truly been given much!

On a happy note, we really enjoyed our lunch spot today. If you are an adoptive parent, I highly recommend you try it while you’re here. It was a little cafe called La Parisienne and they had good cheeseburgers and divine pastries. I had a chocolate croissant for dessert and it was absolutely delicious. The one we ate at was in the Bole area and most any driver should know it!

We’re now finishing up the final packing and getting ready to head to the airport. We will be praying in the coming months about how the Lord would have us to be involved with Ethiopia and orphans in the future. We truly feel that he’s given us this experience not simply to provide a home for Abe, but also to open our hearts and our hands to the crisis here. It has been an amazing journey to this point and we look forward to seeing just what will come next!