Prayer Baby - Naomi

PRAYER BABY: Naomi

Naomi arrived at the Nursery as a neglected, malnourished 6 month old. Today she will be returned to her family as a healthy, happy, ten month old, weighing in at 15 pounds.
Naomi must be returned to her family today in order to make room in the Nursery for another motherless child. Her father has two wives and claims “she is not my child.” Naomi’s mother (who is now able to function fully, thanks to availability of AIDS drugs) wants to please her husband. She says “I don’t want Naomi back.” Malawi Social Welfare says “Naomi cannot be fostered as long as she has two parents who are alive, well, and able to care for her.”
So we are now taking Naomi back to her mother and father with no small amount of concern for her future. Please pray for her protection and that our follow up visits will find her loved and nourished in body, mind, and spirit.

Not so fast!

It is now two hours later and guess what? Naomi is back! When we arrived at her home it was a disaster. Mama has no money, no income and no way to buy food. There are no beds in the house – just the cement floor. There is no water or electricity. Dad got angry when mom said Naomi was coming back, but dad is not around and does not contribute. Naomi’s mother cannot feed the 3 children she has. The police officer (who came with us) and I agreed that leaving Naomi at that house would be a death sentence. Two days ago we accepted a newborn into the nursery because we were planning on having Naomi’s spot. Now we have to keep him in the isolation room because Naomi is back. We have to hire an extra nanny for the newborn because there is no way a regular nanny can add a newborn into her already overloaded number of 6. There is no way we can continue to have the extra nanny on our already overloaded budget. I don’t know what we’re going to do.