Unnamed No Longer

By Dale

In a paper sack discarded behind a small business in Kenya you would not expect to find much of value.  There would be no real reason to even check its contents.  Fortunately however, an older man of the community did and you won’t believe the value of what was inside; a baby girl approximately one week old!

She was taken to the hospital by this man where she was diagnosed with pneumonia and subsequently treated with little hope of survival.  She miraculously responded to antibiotics and began to gain strength through bottled nourishment.  Within a few short weeks she was fully recovered but had nowhere to go.  Just after noon on Monday, March 14 Naomi’s Village was contacted to see if there was interest in accepting the child and by 5 PM this baby girl was escorted by Bob and Julie Mendonsa (NV founders), other NV staff and two interns from the States into the village premises with singing and dancing of everyone else at NV.  The tiny bundle was lovingly passed from Auntie to Auntie during the joyous celebration; no longer unwanted.

Bob and Julie shared the story with all of us and declared that this child now belonged to the NV family…Whahooo! Bob went on to tell us that when they picked her up at the hospital her file was marked “Unnamed”!  On the ride back from the hospital they deliberated on what name to give this precious child.  To honor Nurse Ann and several of the Mary’s that work and teach at NV they decided on Annemarie.  When I heard this announcement and did the math in my head tears came to my eyes.  This unwanted, unnamed child was born just around the time we came to Naomi’s Village and now was given the very name of our third born who has been completely enamored with the babies here.  It is hard to describe the feeling of being a part of “when a child belongs”.

(Our Annie with her arm around her first “name mate”, Ann and holding her new “name mate”, baby Annemarie)