We purchased our third Sunshine House a year ago. At the same
time, we were finalizing the registration of our foundation with the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs in Mozambique. We received our approval in December 2018. We
rejoiced because we now would be able to work with Social Action for Women and
Children to receive orphaned children into our homes. We met with the director
of Social Action in February and received her approval to receive children. We
shared with her our vision and requested children aged 7 or younger, as we
wanted young children whom we could shape and transform. We were excited and
ready to fill the beds in this third house. But…Mozambique being Mozambique,
February became March, March became April, and on it went until we found
ourselves in the month of September and still without children and our house
still empty. I was in despair and wanted to scream, “There are 2 million
orphaned children in Mozambique, can you not just give me 4???”
Social Action finally contacted us a few weeks ago and told
us they had 3 little boys for us!!! I was over-the-moon happy…in fact, I cried!
As we looked into it, they were very slow in sharing any details with us…the
age of the boys, their grade in school, their names, etc. We had no
information. Until the day they unloaded on us that the children were much
older than what we requested- a girl of 14 and two boys of 12 and 10. Our
response was, Nope, Nope, Nope. Again we explained to them why we wanted
younger children. As I met with a case worker at their offices, she folded her
hands and begged me to consider these three children. She said that as soon as
she heard about them, she thought of our foundation and believed we were
exactly what these children needed because we would provide them with a family. She pleaded with me to just go and “have a
look”. I pictured myself doing this and regretting it…how can you go “have a
look” at three orphaned children and not bring them home with you? But I agreed
to go see them.
The children lived in Manhica, a two hour drive from our
home. We traveled there on Friday, September 6th- me, Amade, a manager at our
Sunshine Nut Company, and Marcia, our local contact at Social Action. We met up with the case worker in Manhica.
She took us to the children’s home. It had belonged to their parents and now was
theirs. We pulled up to a very small cement home with a battered front door and
closed up windows. Inside I could see a little boy sitting in a plastic chair
with his head down on the plastic table in front of him. As we got out of the
car, adults and children began to assemble in the yard of this home, everyone
curious to find out why we were there. The little boy in the house came
outside. He sat down on the front step of the home with his back to us. He
refused to look at us or speak with us.
Meanwhile, the curious neighbors began
telling us about the children. Their remaining parent, their mother, had died
two years earlier. Since that time, the older girl cared for her two younger
brothers while continuing to pursue her education. She was now in grade 8. Neighbors occasionally brought rice for them to eat, but they had
little to share because they themselves are poor and have very little for their
own families. The house had no water or electricity. The only furniture the children had was a plastic table, a
plastic chair, and a grass mat to sleep on a night.
They had one pot to cook in
and one plate from which to eat. The older girl and the younger boy had
remained in school. They said the girl was very responsible and helpful. Yet
“this boy”, they said referring to the little guy on the front step with his
back to us, he refused to go to school and was a thief, stealing various things
from the neighbors. At this point, he began to cry. And at this point, I had
had enough of the neighbors’ input. “This boy” had a name, Vicente, and he had
feelings, which were being sorely abused. I asked Amade to take Vicente away
and speak to him privately. When they returned, Amade said Vicente was crying
because he was afraid we were there to take him away. He had been threatened
that a home would be found for his older sister and younger brother, but that
he would be taken away to a center for troubled, problem boys. He said he would
not leave his family.
Amade and I went around to the back of the house to talk
privately. This is when the younger 10-year-old brother, Helio, came home from
school. He came out back to talk with us. The whole time we talked, his hands trembled with fear and he could hardly look us in the eye. We asked him to call
Vicente to join us.
We shared with them who we were, why we were there, and
what we had to offer to them. All day, I had been praying for God to give me a
sign that it was His will for us to take these children. As of yet, I was not
feeling anything either way. We had been with the boys for an hour and I was
starting to panic as I had one of those, “God! I asked You for a sign and
I’m not getting one!” talks with Him. It was imperative for me to know that these children
wanted to come with us and that they were open to receive what we had to offer
them. I did not want to take older children who did not want to come, would run
away, or cause problems. I told the boys that we did not want to take them away
from their home, that it was their choice to stay. I asked them if they wanted to come with us. Immediately, with
not even a second of hesitation, the older boy, Vicente, looked up and into my
eyes and said, “Quero viver no seu crèche” (I want to come live at your
center.) It was the first time I had had
the opportunity to even look into his brown eyes. Helio immediately followed
his brother, eagerly looking up into my face and repeating the exact same words. My
heart began to move… a little. I began to have hope. I looked at the boys and
shared with them that they would not be living at a center; they would be part
of a family now.
Amade suggested we pray with the boys before leaving. We were
in a circle, Amade directly across from me, each of us with a boy on our right
and on our left. Amade put a hand on each boy’s shoulder. As we closed our eyes
to pray, I glimpsed each boy putting an arm around his waist. I then placed a
hand on each boy’s back, and I felt one little hand slip around my waist from
the left, and one little hand slip around my waist from the right. Tears filled
my eyes as I knew I had just gotten my sign from God. These boys not only
wanted to come, they were open to receive. The difference in the boys' demeanor from the time we met first them until we left only an hour later was incredible. They went from being resistant and distant to happy and hopeful.
We said goodbye to the boys and headed back to Matola. We did
not get to meet their older sister, Virginia, because she was at school. I had
to laugh to myself to imagine what stories she would be hearing when she
returned after school to her brothers.
For the whole weekend, I could not stop thinking about these
three children and God’s goodness in connecting us with them. By Monday
morning, I was ready to drive back to Manhica and bring them here, but Social
Action had documents to prepare to enable this to happen. We made a plan to
fetch them on Friday. That day could not come soon enough. We were all excited…me,
Amade, Don, and the woman who would now be their new mom, Ilda. Ilda was
actually giddy with excitement!
We arrived at their house on Friday to find the children
dressed and ready to go. A small plastic bag held their only worldly
belongings. Their grandmother and an aunt were present at the home along with a
mix of community children and teenagers, who were there to see them off. It was
a pleasure to meet Virginia. We knew the boys wanted to come, but we didn’t
know how she felt. She greeted us…a kiss on the cheek and hug confirmed she was
ready to come as well. Her eyes were bright with happiness.
We began by signing
documents with the children’s family members that gave us guardianship of the
children. The aunt and grandmother shared their appreciation of the help we
were offering. The grandmother’s main concern was that she had made sure the
children always attended church and asked us that if we could, would please
keep them attending. She was overjoyed to learn that it is our priority to
raise the children knowing God as their Father, Jesus as their Savior, and the
Holy Spirit as their counselor. She had us all join hands as she prayed a
blessing over us and the children.
It was time then to say goodbye and climb into the van. The
children got into the van so quickly that I didn’t even see it happen! I
climbed into the back seat with them, trying to avoid being hit by their little
flailing arms waving goodbye. The van door shut, Don began to pull away, and
Vicente, the older brother, who was sitting next to me, literally collapsed
into his lap and sobbed.
He was not crying because he was sad. He was not
crying because he was happy. He was crying tears of relief to be leaving this
life behind him- a life of being unloved and suffering from hunger and illness
and a lack of basic necessities. His sister, Virginia, sat next to him
consoling him as Helio looked on. I pulled out a bag of stuffed animals I had
purchased earlier, and like a miracle cure, the tears stopped and smiles spread
across all three faces. They clutched their stuffed animals to their chest as we
continued our journey to Matola. Along the way, we treated everyone to a KFC
takeaway meal- the first of many new experiences for them. Their eyes were wide
with excitement and appreciation.
We could not have arrived at their new home at a more perfect
time as our other Sunshine children had just gotten out of school and were
passing by. They looked beautiful in their school uniforms, shoes, and book
bags.
As Virginia, Vicente, and Helio got out of the van, the children greeted
them with hugs. Their new mom, Ilda, came out of the house, giggling as she embraced
each child in a warm hug. We brought them in the house and showed them their
new bedrooms. They were overwhelmed to see beds and laid on them to see how if
felt to be on a bed- another experience they never had.
We continued the tour around the house- they
were captivated by the television in the living room as well as the
refrigerator in the kitchen. But the biggest curiosity of all was the toilet in
the bathroom!
We then left them to get acquainted with their new mom, Ilda, and
their new sister, Nina, Ilda’s daughter.
Since Friday, I have returned to the home every day to check
in on them. Every day, I see children who are happy happy happy. When I arrive,
they come bounding out of the house like little puppies. They hug me and take whatever is in my arms to carry in for me. They pull out a chair for me to sit on.
Their faces are shining and their eyes are bright. And to be totally honest,
the one I see the most change in is Vicente- the one who sat with his back to
me that first meeting. The one referred to by his neighbors as “this boy”. The
one whose eyes were filled with fear and anger. Now, he smiles continuously and
is so affectionate.
We were blessed to be able to get the two boys
enrolled in school immediately. Helio has continued on in grade 4 and Vicente has started
in grade 3 because he stopped going to school when his mother died. The day
before they started, we did our back-to-school shopping to outfit them with a
uniform, shoes, book bag, and materials. There are no words in the English
language sufficient enough to express the awe and pride in their faces as they
tried on their new school uniforms.
It was then that we discovered they had
only the very worn clothing that was on their back, and they did not even own a
pair of underwear. So we stopped by another store to get them some clothing.
They started school the next day. As they were walked to their new school, both
boys were beaming as they said that they would get the highest grades of all!
We are still in the process of getting Virgina enrolled. She
is in high school, and it is not as easy to find space. We just got the good news yesterday that she was accepted at Escola Maria Ana Mogas- a private Catholic school that we have a great relationship because of the teacher training programs we have conducted there for the past three years. Virginia is beyond ready to start and asks us every day if she
can go study yet. We will take her next week to get outfitted for her uniform and then she can begin!
As I try to close this story, I really don’t even know what
to say. Maybe I don’t need to say anything at all. Maybe as you have read my
feeble attempt to share the story of these three children, you have gone on the
emotional journey I have been on. This whole experience has taught me yet again
that our plans are not always God’s plans and that His ways are higher than our
ways. I am ashamed to admit that I was not interested in taking these children
into our Sunshine family because they were not what I had envisioned. They were
not cute, pudgy little toddlers, as of yet unspoiled by the ugliness and
harshness of life in Mozambique. God had another plan for us and our Sunshine
family. He brought me a teenager, an almost teenager, and a boy. These children
have been set free and are now filled with hope by the security, stability, and
opportunity they have before them. They have embraced their new life with
exuberance and gratitude. I am filled with awe of God’s goodness. I am thankful
that I did go “have a look”. I now look forward to seeing these children
realize their God-given potentials. Virginia wants to be a police officer.
Vicente wants to be a doctor. Helio wants to be a teacher. And me…I am deeply,
deeply humbled to be a part of helping them make their dreams come true.
