Cared For

 Last week, our Little Girl got hurt at preschool.  She fell down outside as they were walking back in after seeing a firetruck that visited the school.  She scraped her face pretty badly on a cement curb.  The director of the school called me to let me know.  I have to say my heart started pounding like crazy when I saw the school number flash up on my caller id while my 4 year old was there, but she was thoughtful enough to begin the conversation with, "It's not an emergency . . ."  Then she told me about the fall and that it looked to be just "road rash" but that due to rules, the school couldn't put any medicine on it and the teachers thought I might like to come up and put some cream on it, which I did, along with a couple of fun band-aids that Little Girl was thrilled with.

At school pick-up many of the other parents were concerned and glad to hear that she was okay.

Later after Little Girl was home I was talking with a friend on the phone and her daughter goes to the same preschool but she's not in the same class as my daughter, and right off before I said anything, she asked me how Little Girl was because she'd heard from her daughter that she got hurt at school.  I had to laugh because my Little Girl does have a flair for drama, so you know, when she gets hurt of course everyone knows about it!

Having 4 young kids, I know they get hurt, accidents happen, under my watch and the school's.  And thankfully, Little Girl is fine!  But, what was striking to me about all this was how many people cared that she was hurt - both of her teachers, the director of the school, her family, her friends, her friends' parents, my friends.  But of course this is true.  

But it was not always true about our Little Girl.

She was an orphan in a third world country just over a year ago.  A country where as a doctor told my friend who has two children from Ethiopia, "Children just die here."  1 in 10 children before their 1st birthday and 1 in 6 before their 5th birthday.

So many children very much like our Little Girl are not cared for.

Nobody cares if they are hurt or sad or go to bed hungry or even if they die.

Or at least not caring enough to change their situation.

5 million orphans in Ethiopia.  And adoptions have slowed way down, meaning fewer children have hope of being cared for in the future.

I don't know about you.  But, for me, that is not okay.

Every child should be cared for, not just my children and your children, but all God's children!

Linking with Mercy Ink,  Wisdom Wednesday  and  Thankful Thursday.