My name is Merryn and I am one of two Australians visiting MBHOH this summer with the Show Hope Sponsor team.
I have had a mother’s heart since I was a little girl playing with dolls. When I became a mum 5 years ago I learned that being a mum is not always an easy journey. It is a path that, while incredibly wonderful, is also marked with struggle and tough decisions at times. Over the years I began to hear “the mother’s cry.” That is partly what motivated me to come to China…to show love to children whose own mothers were unable to. However, over the past few months another cry has been ringing in my ears…the orphan’s cry.
“I am little and small. Not even one year old. I am weight bearing and I am learning to stand. I am special, though my body is not perfect. I am slow to warm up to new people but I am curious, social and interactive. I have a sweet, subtle smile. I am an orphan. I do not know where I have come from but I know where I am. I am safe and loved and cared for. My physical, social and emotional needs are being met and I am happy. If I were not here, where would I be? Perhaps left in a room to die because a doctor said nothing could be done. My fears and hopes and dreams are so closely linked with the possibilities that lay before me. I fear rejection and a life of never really feeling as though I belong. I hope for a future that is life. I hope to be accepted, loved and valued for what I bring to this world and not seen simply as a medical need or burden. I hope for a family. I hope…”
I met this little man at New Hope the other day, and I wrote this as I imagined life from his perspective. How easy it is to sit in our living rooms at home and allow these orphans to remain nameless and faceless, and for their experience to be left unconsidered? But they are not nameless or faceless to the One who created them. We simply need to hear their cry and respond. Will you join me?
