He has taken up her cause.

The first day I saw her, I gasped. 

When she arrived at the orphanage over a month ago she was just skin covering bones. Painfully skinny.

She was the first child I had been in such close personal contact with that was so horribly malnourished. Yes I have seen it before. I pass adults and children on the streets everyday begging to survive, walking on feeble legs, reaching out for help with rail thin arms.

But she was the first that I had sat in such close proximity to. No barrier between us. 

I sat down beside her and reached my hand out to rest on her back. I gasped again. I shook my head. Silently whispering to myself the only word I could say, "oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...."

You can't imagine what it feels like to not only see a person in that physical condition, but then to lay your hands on them and feel....it took great effort not to pull my hand away from her back for fear that my touch alone would hurt her.

Every bone lay pressed up against my hand under her thin shirt.

She kept her eyes on me, watching, and began to cry when my hand came to rest on her.

I retracted. Not knowing if she cried from pain of my touch, or fear of my touch.

I reached my hand out again, she watched me, but before it came to rest on her she cried again.

I retracted once more. She was indeed afraid of me....

That first day I saw her at the orphanage I was told that she had arrived just two days prior. Her mother was suffering from extreme mental illness. Someone saw them on the streets and reported her to Social Action. Social Action came and found the mother and child and took her away due to her complete inability to care for her daughter. The girl is now living at the orphanage and will be placed for adoption.

That is all I was told.

But living here and spending so many months observing and watching and absorbing this life....I can picture without difficulty what her life was like prior to her arrival.

There is no form of help here for people suffering from mental disorders. There is no treatment. There is nothing. Those deemed crazy and mentally unfit are literally left to wander the streets. Once a year or so some form of the government will try to "round up" the obvious ones they see, particularly the naked ones, and they drive them far outside the city limits and dump them off in the middle of no where to get rid of them. They are outcasts of society. 

So her mother was likely left to scrounge around and find food where she could. To survive in deplorable conditions. With a child. A child that was present but horribly neglected. It had to have been quite bad. Which is why I believe God had His eye on this precious girl. Because in a country so crippled by poverty where suffering is ever present, for this mother and child to cause someone to take notice of their situation and feel so compelled to report it to Social Action...it had to have been Jesus directing their eyes to see. 

The little girl looks to be close to two if not yet two years old. I have no way of really knowing. I have learned that when so severely malnourished it can cripple a child's physical growth in astonishing ways. 

I am no doctor. But I am a mother. And based off her length compared to the younger babies, and the size of her head and the amount of teeth present....I would say she's around two. I'm certain of it. Which made her physical condition even more hard. And as I sat next to her and watched her that first day in the orphanage I began to feel the Holy Spirit talk to me. Encouraging me to watch, observe, and listen carefully to His words..."Why would she cry at your touch? Look closely at her. What do you see?"......

"I see a little girl hunched over. Rail thin. She is sitting cross legged. She makes no attempt to move. She cries when I get close to her but she makes no effort to get away."

I heard the Lord whisper, "She's never seen a white person before, and she has no idea where she is or why she's been brought here.....she is scared and confused of everything right now." 

I knew I needed to proceed slowly with her. I knew I couldn't approach her with the same familiarity I shared with the rest of the children. So I settled for simply sitting next to her. Or I would observe her behavior from across the room. I would give her toys and then walk away and play with the other children and let her see that I can be trusted. I would feed her. Always watching. Always observing her progress.

I feel like one thing I have learned to do with great patience and steadfastness since moving here is observe. That was some of the single greatest advice I received before moving here, from a missionary at a women's conference that I will never forget. And I do not underestimate the absolute importance of observation. It is key to learning here.

After my first meeting with this little girl, she plagued my thoughts. I would think about her all the time, praying for her, and her condition. Isaak would come home after work and ask how my day went and I would share with him about her progress.

Everyday for the weeks following that I would go and visit she would just sit, and stare. Never making an effort to move. Never making an effort to play. She neither walked nor crawled. She just sat on the floor, hunched over and cross legged. No expressions. Unless it was to cry. No noises or babbling. Unless it was to cry.

She didn't walk or crawl because she was likely dumped on the ground and expected to sit in the same spot for hours and hours while her mother begged on the street corners or scrounged for food elsewhere. She likely didn't walk or crawl because there was nothing in her life worth moving towards. She didn't play with the toys in front of her because she didn't know how. She didn't make any noise because there was nothing worth saying.

I was looking at a child who existed but had no will to live.

It is heartbreaking to behold what a life of neglect can do to a human soul. A life void of love and purpose will cease to live even if alive.

And that is what I witnessed in this sweet girl.

But as the weeks progressed I started noticing very small changes. She still made no effort to move or babble or make facial expressions but she was beginning to slowly interact with toys around her. And she stopped crying when I touched her and eventually let me hold her without fear.

One day as they were tiling the floor on the patio outside they brought indoors a beat up couch to move it out of the way of the workers. I carried her over to the couch and stood her up in front of it and placed her hands on the cushions. To my delight, she stood. By the mercy of God her legs were strong though they were bone thin and hand never been used! She supported herself next to the couch for several minutes before settle back down cross legged. I wanted to cry! She was standing and supporting herself, even if it was with assistance! To look at her in the condition she was in when she arrived it was so clear that the Lord was beginning to usher in healing to all the seen and unseen wounds caused by her life before.

Then two weeks ago on our way to the orphanage a thought came to me as I approached my turn off the road. The Lord just blindsided me with this...."this life will not be her fate."

And I just thought on that for a while.

And the more I thought on those words, the more confident I became of them. I knew it was true. Deep down....I knew that this life will not be her fate. God is the author of this child's life and He's got a plan for this girl. This girl that I see each week, the life she's living...no will, no emotions, simply existing and seemingly defeated. Never moving. Never smiling.

That is not her fate.

God's got a plan for her. He's got something better than what she's known in store for her. 

As I entered into the orphanage moments later I immediately noticed that she was sick. They had wheeled her crib out into the main room and wrapped her in a wet cloth to keep her skin cool from the fever she had. She had bumps all over her face and was crying.

I went over to her crib with Marvelly, I held her hand, and right then and there we prayed over her. Praying that the Lord would relieve her suffering. Praising Him and pouring truth over her that there is a better life in store for her. She is not resigned to this fate. God will not hear of it! He plucked her out of a hopeless situation that would surely have led to her death and He refuses to leave her in the condition He found her in.

"He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight." Psalm 72:13-14

The following week I returned, six days having passed. And as I sat down next to her that morning it took a mighty effort not to cry.....

for that sweet girl crawled over into my lap.
and then she smiled.
and then she started babbling in her sweet little voice that I had never heard before.

"this life will not be her fate." 

No it will not! Hal-le-lujah! Because He doesn't leave us as He found us. He will not leave her as he found her.

My God has got a plan for her life and it doesn't involve her wasting away in a life of despair and neglect! I serve a God who heals. Who rescues and saves. He transforms. He brings joy where hope was once lost. He is the giver of peace and purpose. And His love for us has no equal.

There is nothing, nothing, that can compete with my God. 

Prayerfully, one day, Rosalee will testify to that and proclaim His goodness for all to hear.

"You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life." Lamentations 3:58