Out the 110 children at Noah’s Ark, there was one little girl that really captured our hearts. Her name was Annabel, and she had Justin and me wrapped around her little finger by the time we left. If she wanted me to get the moon for her, I probably would have tried jumping just to reach it.

Aside from general pictures of kids at Noah’s Ark, we had a few specific children we wanted captured as their stories really stood out to me. Annabel was one of those kids. So, like all the other children Justin had to track down and shoot, we asked an auntie which one was Annabel while playing in the yard. Once pointed out, Justin started following her as she played on the swings and in the grass.

There was just something about this sweet little child that grabbed at our hearts. For me, I think it was her initial story that got my attention. She was born in October, 2006. In July of 2008, she was found abandoned in a garbage container. This beautiful child had been thrown out with the trash. A woman found her and told police she would take care of the child. Just three months later, she too decided she didn’t want Annabel anymore and left her with the police.

It was hard to imagine this child would be abandoned by not one but two different families. Noah’s Ark staff knew it would take time for her to trust again given her obvious fear of abandonment.

From looking at Justin’s photos, it’s obvious she captured his heart as well. He took photo after photo of this sweet child, who see-sawed from smiles to serious. And when she was serious, Justin would call to her and take her hand and hold her to get her sweet smile to come back.

Saturday evening during Pita’s birthday party, Justin held onto Annabel almost the whole time. She would leap from his arms to the edge of the couch to ‘attack’ me then to quickly hide. Then when I held her in my arms, she would hide from Justin’s face by turning quickly away. It made our evening.

We knew we wouldn’t have much time with Annabel on Sunday. Before she headed to bed Saturday evening, we prayed for her. We prayed that she would grow up to be a strong Christian woman, grounded in her faith. We prayed that she would be protected from the evil one and trust her Heavenly Father, who never abandons His children.

It was a powerful moment for us, to realize we held a child in our arms that was left for dead in a garbage can and was now a growing, beautiful three-year old girl full of life and so much love.

I thought to myself as we walked back to our room that last night at Noah’s Ark that this little girl could grow up to be the change that Uganda needs. Maybe she will lead her people by a faithful example. Maybe she will become a doctor who will help mothers to not die during childbirth. Maybe she will simply grow up, and that alone will be an example to parents who want to abandon their kids. The point is, she has those options now thanks to our Heavenly Father who is using Noah’s Ark as a tool to save kids like Annabel.

Tags: People, Photos

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Uganda. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.