Can You Find A Place For My Daughter?

This morning at about 7:00 AM as I was pulling out of the driveway, I made eye contact with a woman, who with her daughter had been waiting to see me.  I have known this woman and her daughter for several years but it had been some months since I had seen them.

They first came into our lives about five years ago, when we received the, then, two-year old daughter into our crèche.  We did so on a trial basis as it was clear that this precious little girl was very much attached to her mother and we were unsure how she would do separated from her mother.

It didn’t take long for us to see that the daughter grieved terribly and missed her mom greatly.  It wasn’t our purpose to wear her down until she put her mother on the back shelf, so to speak.  So after two weeks we had the mom come and take her daughter back where she belonged.  We gave the mom a bit of money to begin a small business selling rice and beans outside the one room house where she lived.  But she was not able to make a go if it, yet as countless others here in Haiti, she inexplicably has been able to survive, albeit in abject poverty.

Getting out of the truck, I greeted the mom and her daughter and expected her to ask me if I would help send her daughter to school. I can’t count the times I have been asked that in the past several weeks.  The flow of people asking for such help intensifies as the first day of school draws closer.  It is heart wrenching to have to say, “I’m sorry, but I simply don’t have money to help you this time.”  This year school starts on October 1^st.

The mom, though, had a different question for me.  She with her daughter standing next to her looked me in the face and said that life was too hard and then she asked if I could find a place for her daughter.  She couldn’t care for her any longer.  I immediately looked into the face of her seven-year old daughter and saw a sadness that hit me like a heat wave.  Inside I was screaming, “NO, NO, NO, THIS ISN’T FAIR.”        Outside I, not ready to deal with this, calmly asked her to come back and see me on Friday.  I need time to think and pray.

Of course we want the family to stay intact.  But how can this happen?  Where will the mom get the money and resources  to care for her family and to keep this her youngest child?

Some may in horror wonder how a mom could give her child away; she mustn’t love her some would say.  My experience, is that she in fact loves this child so much that she’s willing to give her up to someone who can provide for her, who can send her to school, who can give to her much of what the mom can’t give.    I wish money alone could solve this problem, but it can’t.  There is no short, quick, easy answer.

So often, if not daily, answers are hard to come by.  So we look to God for wisdom and insight into how we can help, how we can make a difference, how we can be the hands of Jesus to this mom and daughter.  We can’t help everyone but we must look to God on behalf of those that He allows into our lives.  Perhaps you can pray with me as I look to God for His will and direction, as Friday will soon be here.

John McHoul