Please Take My Baby...

Tessa and I were out on a daddy/daughter date, and we decided to be a little adventurous. We were on my motorcycle, and we decided to venture off the road, onto some trails to explore a place we had never been. Once we ran out of path along a hidden ridge, not all that far from my home, we stopped to turn around. When we stopped to turn around I noticed some young boys and a woman holding her infant child. I turned off the motorcycle so I could say hello. After my initial greeting, the mother started walked toward me, and she clearly asked me to take her baby.  She asked, "How many children do you have?"  I responded with "3", and she responded, "now you can have 4."  We went back and forth for a few minutes with this exchange. This isn't the first time this has happened, but it surely got my attention. Was she really asking me to take her baby? Yes, she was.

Why would she ask me to do that? What were those boys standing there thinking when they heard this Mom ask that? What was Tessa thinking? Is the Dad around or long gone? In a split second, my mind and heart were flooded with questions.  All, impossible to answer.  I have learned that most of my assumptions are usually wrong.  I just don't know enough to make assumptions.  Eventually, I started asking myself how could she give up her baby like that? To be honest, from my blessed position, I was a little bit disgusted by such a flippant question. She is obviously in a desperate situation. It is all too common. She can't care for the baby, and she made an instant judgment, that I was more able. I am sure her observations were... I am white. I am rich in many ways, not just financially. I have kids of my own. I could care for one more better than she would ever be able to. To be honest, she might be right.  She might be wrong too.  Financially, I am much more able. I know that spiritually, I would certainly provide a home filled with the Gospel. I could love, maybe more than she loved if that child is unwanted? But she is mom and that child belongs with mom. Right?!

What could I say? I said no, because of all the obvious reasons. But, I can't shake the memory out of my mind of that little baby, that little baby's future, that mother's desperate plea for help.

Pray for us as we constantly face desperate need head on...