Abandoned Children

This twenty-month-old girl was discovered abandoned, crying,  locked in a men’s restroom at a Shell service station in Newark, Delaware, on Feb. 21. Later, police found a possible link to a woman thought to be her mother, whose charred body was uncovered in the remains of a fire. This NY Daily News article tells the story.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, a young man went out to socialize recently, leaving his nine-month-old baby girl alone in a hotel room. Some hotel employees used a pass key to open the room  after she had been heard crying for hours. Apparently, she was alone there for thirteen hours. The story about this incident is in this Vancouver Sun article, dated Feb. 25.

The BBC Live News Channel features a story about a tiny baby girl, around two to four months old, who was abandoned in November, 2008, outside a hospital emergency room in Lincolnshire, England.

How can parents abandon their children, no matter what the circumstances are? Disclaimer: I am not talking about "tough love," which people sometimes must resort to in order to make their children aware of intolerable destructive behavior; what I refer to is parents leaving children for selfish reasons.  Imagine the unspeakable devastation of children of any age whose parents reject or go off and leave them. What can comfort such a child?

The only thing of lasting power to give solace and healing to a child’s heart broken through rejection or abandonment is the sheltering love of God.  The Bible says God is close to the brokenhearted, to children unloved and left alone. In Psalm 27: 10, David knows that “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” He will become both father and mother to children bereft of parents.

God’s love is the only perfect love. Parents are human and therefore flawed. Their love is imperfect, and they cannot hope to love unconditionally. But if they know love of any kind, they know something of God. God will heal the heart of anyone abandoned and left rejected and deeply hurt. And, too, he will forgive parents who cause such hurts.

I once met a pastor named Ruben in Mexico who made up a song he sang while he worked as a construction boss. These are the words (translated), a message to parents in a country with many abandoned children, especially near the border:  All who can hear my voice, if you have children, never leave them, never abandon them.

Abandoned Children

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/abandoned-children.html

Belly Laugh

The baby in this YouTube video has the most infectious laugh--watch it and be tickled!

It comes from a new blog--BloggedIn-News & Networking. This blog is a new creation of the Family-Friendly Blogroll, whose link you'll see at the top of the sidebar of this blog. Its purpose is to feature blogs that keep their content clean, suitable for families. I'm very proud that my blog is part of it, and I appreciate their efforts to help weed out offensive Internet stuff.

Belly Laugh

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/belly-laugh.html

Little Lamb...er, Girl and 23rd Psalm

Little Lamb...er, Girl and 23rd Psalm

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/09/little-lamber-girl-and-23rd-psalm.html

You Never Know....

You never know which pacifier you might need at any given moment, so you have to be prepared at all times.

You Never Know....

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-never-know.html

Falling through the Cracks

I have a question.

Why is it okay with so many people if parents, in effect, ditch their children when they get a divorce? I know some people who have done that. The children have fallen through the cracks, victims of their parents’ so-called personal needs for happiness.

It seems to me that when you have children, they should automatically rocket to first place in your priorities. They are very small and vulnerable and are totally dependent on their parents. How could anybody cast them aside, not caring what happens to them?

I understand that the divorce rate is high, and probably nothing is going to change that. But even so--there are ways to sacrifice some selfish motives and “needs” to see that children are loved, wanted, and cared for. That’s the least a parent can do.

Falling through the Cracks

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/04/falling-through-cracks.html

Thursday Thirteen: Circular Discussion

While I was rummaging around looking at old (paper) files, I found a folder of things I wrote down about my children when they were little. Kids say some funny things as they are learning to use logic, and if you listen in on their conversations, you may be entertained. When my kids were about 9 (L), 7 (B), and 5 (M), they had this circular discussion in a busy restaurant during a family vacation somewhere in the Wild West.

The previous entry is another one of their circular discussions.

M: What’s the matter with that man?

B: Did you hear what he said?

L: What?

B: He said a criminal escaped from a prison.

M: What?

B: He said a criminal escaped from a prison.

M: Who said?

B: That man.

M: What did he do?

B: He didn’t do anything. He said something.

L: Who? The man? He means the criminal, B.

B: I don’t know. How am I supposed to know?

M: I don’t know. You said it.

Thursday Thirteen: Circular Discussion

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/thursday-thirteen-circular-discussion.html

Children: Circular Discussion

Here’s a circular discussion that took place when my children, L (9), B (7), and M (5), were young. This was the kind of conversation that made my head feel foggy.

B: Mommy, does Loretta Lynn sing that song?

M: What?

B: I asked Mommy if Loretta Lynn sings that song.

M: Who’s Reletta Lynn?

B: Ha, ha, ha, he said "Reletta"!

L (exasperated): A country and western singer, M!

B: Mommy, does Reletta Lynn sing that song?

M: What song?

Children: Circular Discussion

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/children-circular-discussion.html

Worrying about Our Children

I haven’t done this before, and I do not hold with doing it! But … this is one of those stories that floated into my e-mail from my cousin; it is such a good and true (well, true in theme) story that I feel compelled to share it here.

Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop worrying?" The nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. Don't worry, in a few years, you can stop worrying. They'll be adults." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

By the time I was 50, I was sick & tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it. My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing. I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments.

My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother's warm smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home. Are you depressed about something?"

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for 3 days, and no one answered I was worried." I smiled a warm smile.

The torch has been passed.

(Comment by Judy: It is true we never stop worrying about them. It’s just a good thing we can hold them up to God in prayer and trust him to guide and care for them! That is the only way to stay sane while they are growing up.)

Worrying about Our Children

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/worrying-about-our-children.html