I was born July 18, 1978 at 8:06 in the morning.

I was born July 18th, 1978 at 8:06 in the morning.  I was a scheduled birth because my sister was breach and had to be delivered by c-section and back in those days if one child was delivered that way the babies to follow had to as well.  I have a baby book that has my umbilical cord, hair from my first hair cut and details of my first year of life.  I have photos to document my black eye healing from when I fell down the stair as a toddler and pictures of me eating ice cream and getting it all over my face.  I have yearly school photos, most of which show an awkward scrawny girl just trying to fit in.  I have friends and family who have celebrated me on the day I was born for the past 35 years.

Today I live in India and have the wonderful opportunity to work with kids who have spent most of their life on the streets begging.  A few of them being physically disabled probably didn’t have any other choice but to beg.  We have five kids, Malti, Roshan, Guddu, Shyam, and Raju, who work at the JOYN office and if you were to ask them their birthday they can not tell you.  They have no photos to document the first years of their life.  They do not have a birth certificate to show the time, the place, or the day of their birth.  No one has ever celebrated them for being born.  No cake with candles or presents to open or that one birthday card from the grandma who thinks 5 dollars is still a lot of money. 

Yesterday we took the kids to the doctor to have a bone density test done to find out how old they are.  They are all young adults with a future that looks a little brighter for them.  Malti is 18, Roshan is 18, Guddu is 18, Shyam is 19 and Raju is 20 years old.  They where so excited to finally know for sure their age and can say it with confidence.  Before when you would ask Malti her age you would always get a different answer.  Sometimes she was 18 and sometimes she was 20.  

Today all over the world people are celebrating the birth of a royal baby and I am surrounded by so many people who have never been celebrated for being born.  It is amazing what is in a name and I live in a country where your last name can make all the difference in the opportunity you will receive!  It makes me want to hold them all a little closer and tell them all they are loved!  I want them to know they are beautiful! I want them to know God doesn’t create a life without purpose and theirs is great!  I want them to know they are celebrated at JOYN everyday! 

Eight legged freaks...

Those of you who know me know that I love spiders... NOT.  Over the years living in Arkansas I have slowly gotten better at dealing with them.  Let me just say there was a time when a friend received a phone call at midnight to come kill a spider that was smaller then a dime!  To my credit the spider had red on it so it could have been dangerous! 

When deciding to come to India I remember sitting down and talking with Mel, the founder of JOYN, about what to expect.  She started with saying that her partner Rikki thought it would be good to ask a list of questions like how do you deal with spiders, etc...  She listed more things but I stopped listening after spiders and quickly stopped Mel from going any further.  I asked her in a timid voice, “you have spiders?”.  She proceeded to tell me a story of using the restroom late at night and went to lean back when she realized there was a giant spider on the back of the toilet.  I cried a little inside as she told this story and then asked her if it is culturally inappropriate to scream like a little girl?  She assured me that it wasn’t and that put me at ease a little.  Never the less I wasn’t going to let my fear get the best of me, “I can do this”, I thought to myself.

As I packed my bags and started my move east I knew what was ahead, a new journey, a great job and giant arachnids!  Daily I was on the look out  especially when entering my bathroom.  It had been almost three months and I hadn’t seem any big spiders and thought to myself “God is good”.  I even bragged to a friend that I have had a lot of grace with all of the bugs in our house, termites, ants and the occasional small spider.  Go figure a couple of days later I had my first terrifying encounter.  

Picture this; I was skyping with my dad having a good time when I looked up from the computer and saw the eight legged freak.  She was the biggest spider I had ever seen outside of a glass box at a zoo and she was close to touching my pillow.  My eyes started to fill with tears and my breath started to quicken as I told my dad I had to go and figure out how to deal with charlotte.  I started to pace back and forth praying for grace and to not fear.  I knew this moment was coming but I thought it would take place outside or in a common room of the house.  Ease me into dealing with this things!  I tried to pump myself up and come up with a plane of attack.  I couldn’t smash her as she was told large and would most likely spray spider guts all over my room and that is just nasty!  I couldn’t put her in a bowl as I would have to get close to her and how do you get a spider into a bowl from a wall?  There was no hope I was going to have to move out of my room and take up residence in a bubble somewhere.  Thankfully my roommates returned home and to my rescue.  They quickly threw a towel over her and put her outside.  They made it look so easy, like Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk. Needless to say I did not sleep well that night or a couple nights there after.

To help myself deal with this traumatic experience I rearranged my room and came up with several steps to follow before going to sleep.  The first thing I do when returning home from work or an outing is open my door and survey the war zone.  Once the cost is clear I quickly step into my room and look behind me just in case there is something above my door.  I then check the bathroom, behind my pillows,  my sheets and under my bed to make sure all is well!  I also keep reminding myself that God did not give us a spirit of fear and I fully believe that one day that will be a reality when it comes to giant arachnids.

2 Timothy 1:7 "  For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."