Friday, May 2, 2008

Mother's Day Giveaway Contest at 5MinutesForMom

I may be too late to enter the contest. Just found out about it and decided to give it a try! Since we just moved in with my in-laws for the duration of our time in the U.S., I don't have any pictures with me except those on my computer already. So not a lot to choose from but here's one of my favorites.

Although it's not a crisp clear picture it says "Motherhood" to me on so many levels. First of all, I'm with my daughter. But the time in Uganda was also the year my 14-turned-15 year old girl found her own place as a "mama" to many of the youngest orphans at Kasana Children's Center. And here we are with Sammy, one of the first babies at Hope House (you may remember I wrote about it here).

We take so much for granted. The privilege of being a mother in a country with so many opportunities for our children. I'm talking basics, like adequate food and housing, medical care, education. Living in a third world country was an amazing experience and it also broke my heart. I wanted to bring a bunch of kids home with us! Especially Sammy. We have no idea what happened to Sammy's mom. When he was about 10 months old (best guess the doctor's could make) he was dropped off on a busy road in a nearby town. A jajja (grandmother) saw him start to crawl into traffic and ran to pick him up. She called the police who called the social worker who called Kasana. And so Sammy became one of "our" children. Because we lived just a few doors down from Hope House we spent a lot of time there helping out. Besides me and my daughter, there was a young lady named Kristina who had taken a year out of her life to help get Hope House up and running. And we weren't the only ones. So many other staff ladies and older orphans stopped by to hold, feed, play with Sammy that he had a whole VILLAGE of mamas! As did all the young ones at Kasana.

So this pictures sums up motherhood for me. What I'm all about as a mom. What others are all about as moms. We are in this together. And the blogosphere has created another place where we can support and encourage one another in this amazing adventure called motherhood!

P.S. For those who might be interested, Sammy was later adopted by one of the Ugandan couples on staff at Kasana.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is such a beautiful story, I hope you win:~)