Ryan Bodine is a Real Life participant ministering in Swaziland.  Swaziland is rife with orphans, more often than not because of AIDS.  He shares the following encounter…

We went to the hospital today.  The hospital is nothing like what we are used to in America. They are separated into three different wards: men’s, women’s and children’s. The wards have different sections that have around 8 beds per section. There is no privacy and they only have single rooms for patients with tuberculous. 

People lay out in the open for everyone to see. It’s very hot in there, too, so most patients wear little or no clothes at all to stay cool. Many are covered by just a blanket. It’s miserable for me and I’m not even sick. Because of their sickness and bad living conditions many lack self-worth and hope. 
Today was the first time I had been in the children’s ward. There were some younger kids with broken arms and legs…and after a bit, I decided to go over to the baby room. Those of you who know me really well know that I don’t do babies. I just don’t know what to do with them. They poop, they eat, they sleep and they cry. The first three don’t bother me but I can never figure out why they are crying. Like are they hungry or tired or are they just crying cause, well, they’re a baby and that’s what they do? Its so frustrating! If they would just tell me what was wrong then I could fix the problem and we’d be all better. 

Anyway, there was a tiny baby girl that I needed to hold. She was the cutest little chubby-cheeked baby I’d ever seen. She had the softest little curly afro on her head too. Just an adorable baby girl. The kind that you see on commercials and go “awww.” 
As I held her I read her medical chart so I could say (or at least try to say) her name and know why she was in the hospital. She looked healthy to me. I read her chart. Her name: Abandoned. Her age: not specified. I was right. She wasn’t sick. There was nothing wrong with her. She was abandoned. Not wanted. Left to die. There was no reason for her to have a name because she wasn’t wanted. Here I was, holding a tiny baby girl with no name and no known birthday. A baby that someone didn’t want, so the logical choice was to leave them to die. 
I asked one of my teammates if she knew this baby’s story and it goes something like this. One day her mother asked a stranger to hold her baby for a second while she did something. The mother never returned. The stranger not knowing what to do with the precious baby brought her to the hospital. (If you don’t have at least one tear in your eye by now then you probably aren’t getting that this is real life and not just a made up story. Scroll back up and look at the picture of this beautiful baby. I held her today. She is real. She has no parents. No one to tuck her in at night and tell her how proud they are of her. No one to tell her that she is loved.) The nurse came over to me and told me she was probably around 3 months old and that I should put her in my pocket and take her home with me. Honestly, I would if I could. 
As I rocked her I quietly sang “How He loves us” over her and she was soon sleeping in my arms. She is a squirmy little sleeper and numerous times flashed her big gummy smile at me. She is beautiful. My teammate Tori and I prayed over this little life and while I was praying God impressed on my heart that He knows her name. She is His child and she is not forgotten. He knew this baby girl and knew, even before she was born, that she’d be abandoned. 
He still has a great plan for her life. Just because her mother gave up on her doesn’t mean that Jesus has. We prayed for Godly people to be put in her life and that she would one day proclaim the name of Jesus, the One who never abandons us, and the God who longs for us to call Him father. 
Just before we left my teammate Katie named her “Notando” which translates to love. The nurse heard her and wrote the new name down. Her name is no longer Abandoned. 
*Notando, you may have been abandoned by this world, but don’t worry because you weren’t made for this world anyways. Know that your Heavenly Father is with you. He holds you in the palm of His hand and calls you His beloved daughter. He delights in you and loves to see your beautiful little smile. Even when you cry and feel alone at night He is there with you. Zephania 3:17 says, “The Lord your God (our God!) is with you and He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, Notando. He will quiet you with his love and rejoice over you with singing.”