Anastasia by Jim Wood

The privilege of watching a baby take her first steps is one of God’s rich bonuses. Such was the gift for my first day back in Africa. Anastasia, a gorgeous little 20-month old, took her first steps at the Joy Home, in Ngarariga, Kenya at 3:53 Eastern Africa Time.  And when she did the heavens opened up… her entire family rejoiced, women smiled, children clapped and this white man, as usual, cried.

You see, Anastasia has a special story, one in which her first steps are an immense leap forward.

The fourth born girl to a single mom dying with AIDS, Anastasia was orphaned just weeks after her birth. Her grandmother tried her level best to take care of four grandchildren, all under the age of six. Each day she would find a neighbor to tend the older ones and then strap little Anastasia on her back, as she headed to a local rock quarry, where for ten hours a day she would chip larger rocks into smaller and smaller ones, when, at the end of the day, she would pocket about $1.50.  Then she would make the long trek back home, where Anastasia was untied from her back bundle and placed in a cardboard box while grand mom cooked and tended the older children. 

Strapped on her grandmother’s back, or laid in a box nearly all of her hours for well more than a year, Anastasia’s body never thrived and her little legs never matured.  Then the $1.50 quarried a day went away when grand mom, herself with AIDS, became ill. Things got worse and worse…until it appeared that death perhaps would visit this home once again.

But today, Anastasia, 20 months old, her once tiny body enriched by good food, unformed legs strengthened by physical therapy, spirit built by the love of an adoptive new mom and aunties and sisters and brothers at the Joy Home, took her first step…and then another…and another…and…

…and when she did, this crying white man saw the heavens opened and witnessed, first-hand, the smile of Christ.

Only He knows where her next steps will lead her but, based on the heavenly smile witnessed today, I have the feeling they are leading her into an awesome future.

In Him,

Jim 

PS: In case you couldn’t tell, it was a great first day in Kenya.