Being called “Mama”

I have always had a heart for adoption, and I fully plan on adopting one day. I can see all of the benefits and how wonderful of a thing it is. I also have a deeply personal reason for wanting to adopt one day: my own beautiful mother was adopted when she was two weeks old. I still vividly remember the night that my mom told my two older brothers and I that she was adopted. We were so young that we didn’t fully understand what that meant. “So, are Granddaddy and Grandmama not really our grandparents? Are our real grandparents just out there somewhere?” Needless to say, my mom put us in our place and firmly told us that Granddaddy and Grandmama ARE our grandparents and her parents and nothing would ever change that. Pretty much ever since then I have loved everything about adoption. I would daydream of how wonderful and fun it would be to adopt. I couldn’t wait to be able to give a child the same thing that my mother was given: a family. 

But, it took me coming on this trip to realize that just like when I was younger, I still didn’t fully understand adoption. It was so easy for me to see all of the good things about adoption. You bring in an orphan and you love on them, show them Jesus, and life is great. I had a very shallow view of adoption. It was all sunshine and roses to me. Sure, I had a “heart” for adoption, but it took me coming face to face with orphans, and seeing their hurt, desperation, and loneliness for God to absolutely wreck my heart for adoption. 

God really started opening my eyes to this after I was called “Mama” for the first time in my life.

“You can be my mama, and Hannah can be my tita (aunt), and Colleen can be the baby and we will all be a family!”

This one sentence from a beautiful ten year old girl, Joy, who lives at the children’s home pierced my heart. This was said after she had already called me “Mama” three different times. Not a week earlier she told my teammate Hannah, “Tita Hannah banana, don’t you know that someday Maricel and I will become adopt?” 

Last week my teammate Jeremy and I took Maricel and Joy, who is Maricel’s cousin, to go get ice cream. As we were leaving the Children’s Home we were all holding hands. Jeremy was on one side of Joy and I was on the other, and I was also holding Maricel’s hand. All of a sudden, Joy sings out, “Mommy and Daddy and baby and ate (sister)!”  Joy is desperate for a family. She is even willing to pretend that Jeremy and I are her parents for even an afternoon because that is better than not having a family at all.

My teammate Sarah recently wrote a blog that beautifully summed up how I am feeling:

“I’ve memorized statistics about orphans. I fully support adoption. But now I’ve held orphans in my arms. I’ve listened to their stories about their families who have abandoned them. I’ve heard the stories from a boy who watched his siblings be beaten and killed, who cries because he feels completely alone. “If I go home there’s no one there. It’s. Just. Me.” I’ve been there. And now that I have seen, I am responsible.

I’ve been taught Jesus’ command to go and make disciples. And now that I have been commanded, I am responsible.

I have seen the lowest of lows. I have smelled it, held it, touched it, breathed it, tasted it, walked it, and heard it. And now I am responsible.”

I’ve come face to face with orphans, and now I am responsible. My heart is changed and I will never be the same. I used to have a desire to adopt, but now it is a passion stirring in my heart like never before. It is a true calling on my life.

So how does all of this affect you? You have the same calling on your life.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27

However, caring for the orphans doesn’t look the same for everyone. Maybe you’re called to come on a mission trip and care for orphans for a season. Maybe you are called to adopt one of the beautiful orphans that I’ve been able to spend the past two months loving on (and if so I will gladly come take care of them anytime you need me to!). Maybe you are called to give to a family that is adopting, or to sponsor a child. Whatever that calling looks like for you, I encourage you to fulfill it! I promise you that you will experience Jesus in a whole new way.