Encouragement

A few weeks ago, our partner went back to QQ's village.  She had a better camera, a scale to weigh him, and three weeks worth of milk powder, cereal, and eggs.  Her email told me that she found him getting stronger, his weight increasing, and with a happy heart!  The above photo is of his picturesque village.

I have seen a few photos of QQ's older siblings, the olders are all daughters.  I was touched deeply by the below photo of this boy, his lip repair looking great, being carried by his sister.

QQ's family is one of the many minority groups Here.  The below photo shows his grandmother at the dinner table with him, she wearing the traditional dress.

Like many parts of the US, the summer is brutally hot in QQ's village.  The photo of this dear boy makes me feel hot just looking at him!

Below:  But this photo, this is the one that brought tears to my eyes...

Momma, holding her boy and washing his feet.  A smile on her face, though she is bashful for the camera...a smile I've never seen before.  How beautiful it is to see them, in their home, living life as a family...full of hope for the future together!  Just 18 months ago she gave birth to a son that she knew she couldn't keep.  She had no way financially to fix the cleft in his lip and palate.   Yet, she fought bitterly and courageously against the acceptance of that fate...left her village and people group and traveled more than 20 hours standing on a train with her son tied on her back...to sit down and endure the degradation of begging on a street near my home.  I admire her to my core.

The villagers knew she left with the baby and I imagine that they all knew she would return without the son who was born unlucky.  That is simply how it is done.

But instead, she brought her baby home...healed.

I wonder how the news spread around the village? Did they finally arrive at the question...WHY?  This was surely not the outcome they expected.

Then, by a perfect design, someone came to the village...someone who could speak their dialect...who knew the answer to the "why" question.  Someone who brought food to help the boy continue to grow so that he could go away to another far away place and have another sugery. 

Then they all hear.

The answer is love.  Love that is quite literally...out of this world.