The Lost and the Found ...

Tammi Dorion joined me in Ethiopia for the first time this year and her organizational skills were a blessing to me and the entire team.  The kids were attracted to her like a magnet and there were many times when I would look around and see a pile of kids, and know Tammi was somewhere in that pile!  (I smile remembering this!) 

Tammi, Thank you for sharing about your experience and THANK YOU for investing in these kids with your time, rescources and love!  A Guest Post from Tammi ...


From the moment we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I anxiously awaited meeting my sponsored child, Temesgen at Kind Hearts.  I had sponsored him for exactly 1 year as he was a new child last year. 

At Trees of Glory, I watched the reunions with other members of the team as they met for the first time or were re-united with their children.  I watched the meetings with their caregivers, waiting to meet his and to become a part of their lives.

Monday dawns and we arrive at Kind Hearts.  I remember looking for him in the faces of all of the wonderful children.  I thought I found him, but the connection just wasn’t made and it was almost becoming a point of distraction, so I enlisted the help of others to find him.  As the search went on, one of the staff members realized who we were looking for and explained that just last week, Temesgen and his family had moved to the countryside with relatives becase they could no longer make it in the city.  His last day was on Friday, and we arrived on Monday.

For this normally non-emotional girl, this was quite a blow.  Personally because I felt thoroughly invested in Temesgen, but bigger than that were all the thoughts of where will he go?, how will he eat?, will he go to school?, what will happen to him?  Even now as I write this it is hard to contain the tears.  I know and trust that ultimately he belongs to God, and I know he will be taken care of.  So now I leave Temesgen in the Lord’s care and pray that he grows to his fullest potential. 

Temesgen Adise with our family photo last year.

Being in Ethiopia and knowing there were many other unsponsored children who had just enrolled, I felt an urgent need to make a new connection with a new child.  I scoured the photo books of the kids and there were 2 children that I could not choose between, Alemu and Meriam. 

Alemu

 

Meriam with her brother.

 

I had brought a care package for a boy, so I felt that I was meant to sponsor Alemu, but there was just something about this little girl Meriam.  I could not choose, so I contacted my mother and asked her to sponsor her; which she and my dad agreed to.

 

We sent word home with Alemu to have his mother come to the care-point so I could meet her.  It was such a blessing to meet this beautiful soft-spoken woman who had another child she carried on her back.  She said her biggest prayer request was to be able to take care of her children.  I assured her that we would also sponsor her youngest son when the time came.  God brought me this new family and I couldn’t be more grateful. 

 Before saying good-bye, Alemu's mother kissed Tammi on both cheeks in affection and appreciation.

 

 

The title of this post is "The Lost and the Found".  The lesson for me in all of this is that while I mourn the loss of Temesgen, and he feels lost to me, he isn’t lost to God who loves him more than I can even fathom and He will provide for him.  I also know that there was this other special family that God had picked out for me to be a part of and I got to meet him and be with him from his start at Kind Hearts.  I look forward to many more meetings with Alemu and Meriam.  Watching both of them grow and being a part of their lives will be the biggest blessing I could ever ask for. 

I know that there is still much work to be done, and for me, I know it can’t stop with these two children.  There are many other “lost” children in Ethiopia that need sponsors.  There is still much work to be done to allow for expansion of the care-points to allow more of these children in the doors.  I look forward to being a part of decreasing the” lost” and increasing the “found”.