Angie's First Mom

“Nice to see you again, Bolivia,” Angie said nonchalantly in perfect English as our plane touched down in Santa Cruz, like she were talking to an old friend.  An old friend she’d grown up with, but had been separated from by many miles and worlds of difference, for nine months.

Visiting Talita Cumi yesterday.

Later, the same day, while squeezing lemons into fresh lemonade, she just as casually shared story after story of her life before—with her other family--to Heidi Janecke. Heidi was one of my closest friends when we served in Bolivia, as she’s my CVM colleague Bill’s husband. But her ministry goes far beyond supporting her veterinary missionary man, she has been integral in the day to day operations of Talita Cumi Children’s Home, where Angie lived for a year between her other family, and her current one--us. During the more than 12 years Talita Cumi has served Bolivia’s children, Heidi has seen more than 500 kids come and go in countless fashions. But only one has come back to share their story with her in English. The beauty of this moment was not lost on Heidi as Angie poured out some of her most vulnerable memories in her newfound comfort, confidence, and language.

Their conversation ranged from Angie’s incredulity that people would force their five year-old children to cook dinner, to her curiosity about why her birth parents left her all those years ago. To this, Heidi wisely responded that maybe her parents didn’t have enough money to take care of her, maybe her mom was trying to do what was best for her. And later, when Heidi recounted this exchange to me, I started to wonder about Angie’s biological mother as well. I’ve heard innumerable stories about the family who raised her, but about the family who first left her, none of us really knows anything.

Maybe her mother was in a desperate situation; young, poor, unprepared… Maybe she was honestly hoping to give her baby a better life, opportunities she could not herself offer. To this new mom I’ve invented in my head, the sweet, scared, overwhelmed girl, who wanted all the best for Angie, I so wish I could show her the young lady she’s become.

Would she have imagined in a million years that her daughter would be growing up with two gringos, in a Cape Cod house in KY? Would she guess the path her childhood would take; from the abusive home, to the orphanage, to a family in the US, then back to the orphanage where she’d teach the other children English. Could she have known her baby would go from sometimes sleeping on the streets in Santa Cruz to regularly serving the homeless in Louisville?

Angie tutoring one of the home's newest kiddos for her English test today.

Heidi says we’ll get to show Angie's birth mom all of this in Heaven. But I pray she can sleep in peace tonight, wherever she may be, resting assured her beloved child is loved by sooo many. Overcoming so many obstacles, growing into a compassionate, educated, gorgeous, well-rounded, daughter of not just both of us, but of her Heavenly Father as well. To Him be the glory, for this miracle story only He could write. A page turner I can’t seem to put down, and can’t wait to see unfold….