Where It All Began-A tribute to Love Maidene

In a crowded open-air tent, 3 months after the earth shook Haiti, Love chose me. At least that's how I like to remember it. That day lives on in my memory, clear enough to have been yesterday and surreal enough to have been a dream. Forty newly orphaned children sat in rows of benches facing eight American missionaries. Their tiny bodies frozen in grief and fear. Their eyes tired and lifeless. There was nothing we could say to do justice to such sadness, so no one said a word. No one moved. Except for one courageous, fiery little 4-year old girl. Love Maidene wiggled her way down from the bench where she sat snuggly, safely in a row of several other children her size. She ducked and dodged her way through that tiny crowded room and confidently took residence in my lap.

I've often compared little Love Maidene to "the girl in the red dress" from Schindler's List. Her life has been the lens through which I've viewed Haiti over the last 17 months. And as I've watched her grow and struggle, I've fallen more and deeper in Love. From those first days, thinking about what she must have been through after the earthquake (Did she know what happened to her parents? Was she lost? Who found her? And what hardships did she endure in the meantime?) to times of joyful singing, laughing, and dancing, to days when she was so sick, and cholera so rampant, that I wondered whether I'd see her again this side of heaven.

I've visited that sweet (and sassy!) girl's orphanage 4 times now, and each time I come home, there is a sadness that follows as I imagine her sitting in the backseat of my car or playing with the kids next door. I am so thankful that although it doesn't seem to be in the Lord's plans for me to adopt Love Maidene; (I am six years away from being eligible for a Haitian adoption) I know that she is well cared for by House of Hope and is safe in the arms of a Loving Savior. And I am immensely thankful to her for preparing my heart for the Lord's latest work in me!

So, I'm calling this blog, "Love's Ransom", as it will chronicle the redemption of an orphaned child, precious to God and already dearly loved by me, who may even someday bare the name Love. I honor you, the little girl who started it all.