Monday, May 31, 2010

The Story of Baby Ishtu

We can leave our comfy home in New Orleans and get to Ethiopia in less than 24 hours.

Yet our lives are worlds apart from the lives of Ethiopians.

Here, for the most part, babies are welcomed by excited parents while extended family waits anxiously in the nice, clean hospital's waiting room.

Precious newborns are taken home to newly decorated rooms with cribs, changing tables, and rocking chairs. Parents are excited to cater to their every need.

Baby Ishtu's story is not-so-fairy-tale.

She was born to a young single mother in Ethiopia.

There were no excited family and friends waiting to welcome her into the world.

She was born on a jungle trail - not a nice, clean hospital.

She wasn't taken home to her nursery where she could be rocked and nurtured.

Baby Ishtu was left on the jungle path to die.

There are so many factors (cultural, economic, spiritual) that cause these things to happen everyday, all over the world. I can't make sense of them.

But I know this, Ishtu was knit together by her heavenly Father and made in His image. Therefore, her life is precious and her worth immeasurable.

Ishtu was found by a elderly woman gathering sticks and taken to the village police station. There is a family working through the process to adopt her.

Thank God that love and family aren't about genetic code, skin color, or ethnicity.



 Above: Baby Ishtu at Widow's and Orphans home in Ethiopia.

(I found out about Ishtu's story from http://streamsofmercyblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-love-babies.html)

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