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“When you read her story, remember the birth of another baby 2,000 years ago, who came in abject poverty into a world that didn’t care about him. But the prophet Isaiah said that same baby would be called, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
While in Kolaya last week I held a baby girl who had been born in the center. She was undernourished, but she had a strong cry and the cutest little nose.
I thought, as I held her, “This poor little girl is only going to know this village around her. She will fetch water, go to school (if she is lucky), work in the shamba. She will probably be someone’s third wife (that is the way of the people in that area) and she will never know all that she could have been. She won’t know what it is to reach her potential, to travel the world, to fall in love.”
I held her as her mother was being tested for HIV/AIDS, thinking right now she could be lucky to reach the age of five. I prayed so hard for her. I prayed that her mother would be negative so that at least one obstacle would be removed from her path. When I heard the results, tears came to my eyes. She would face so many hardships, so much mistreatment but at least she would face them without AIDS.
Then I thought, would she ever find the love of Christ? I prayed hard again, and though I may never know the answer to that question, I have faith that I will see baby Sophie again in heaven.
At that moment I could have taken her home with me. I thought, even at the age of 23, with no husband, I could give her a better life. She would eat three meals a day every day, she would go to school, and I would fight to save money so that she could go to university. If I could provide her with half the life I have been blessed to live, then she would grow up to be a strong, independent Christian woman. She would find a husband who would marry her and only her…and maybe she would grow up to change the world.
I looked at her little hands and feet and I thanked God for her life. No matter who she becomes, she is his baby Sophie, and he knows her and loves her completely.
–Laura Robinson
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