Dear Charis family,

Back around Christmas time I became good friends with some American missionaries here in Kenya. They had formerly worked at a children’s home and after they left that ministry, one day one of the young teenage girls they’d worked with from the children’s home came to them for help. She was pregnant, and sadly, infected with HIV. They took her in and were helping care for her, but suddenly and unexpectedly they had to move back to the U.S. I volunteered to step in and help the mother in their place. She was able to get a small one room house and a job to help pay her $25 rent and buy food for herself. We had organized for her to have the baby with an amazing French midwife who has 17 years of extensive experience and we partnered with a local clinic who was supportive of the homebirth choice and who helped oversee the HIV treatment for both the mother and the baby. I took her to her prenatal checkups and we did childbirth classes. We even met with an adoption agency together in case she decided to choose that option. Through a missionary organization she was also able to attend counseling sessions as she navigated pregnancy, the prospect of becoming a mother, (possibly to a sick child), and the shock of contracting HIV herself.

Early in the morning on August 20th I got a call from the young mother that she thought she was having contractions, and they were five minutes apart! My husband was 8 hours away with his evangelism team so I jumped out of bed, grabbed all my kids and threw them in the car (kinda literally!), grabbed some food to feed them later, changes of clothes for all of us, and my birth bag in case she had the baby in the car on the way to the midwife’s house an hour away (though many more hours in traffic). She lives a few minutes down some pretty treacherous dirt roads from me, so I parked on the top of her small hill and called her to make sure she was still in a condition in which she could make it up to me. She assured me she was. But twenty minutes passed and she wasn’t there. I called and she said she was coming. Twenty more minutes, another call, still coming. Then ANOTHER twenty minutes! Now I was getting frantic. I told her to tell me where she was, I was coming get her! She wouldn’t tell me and insisted she was coming. I called five minutes later, but this time her friend answered the phone and admitted that the young mother hadn’t paid her rent so the landlord had locked her out of the house so she couldn’t get her bag for the birth! Her debt was $15. I believe the landlord just saw the opportunity to exploit her desperation, which would force her to find a way to pay it. The friend had gone to try to borrow the money, with the young mother’s phone, leaving her ALONE, in labor, and with no phone! She told me she’d be back in twenty minutes (which is an HOUR in Kenyan time). My children were hungry and grumpy and hot and I was mentally preparing to deliver a baby in a shanty, on a dirt road, or in the car - and I was not properly prepared to protect myself. I DEMANDED she tell me where the mother was, but she still wouldn’t so I told her I was going to the mother’s house to pay the debt and they better meet me there in five minutes! About fifteen minutes later they came meandering down the path. I crossly hurried her into the car and FINALLY headed toward the midwife.

We did make it to the midwife’s house and by then labor was incredibly intense. The intensity was scaring the mother and she started to panic, to cry, and to fight us. Between contractions I gently knelt on the floor with her at eye level and we had a loving talk. After that everything changed and I’ve rarely seen a mother labor with such strength and courage. And just two hours after we arrived, the most PERFECT baby girl was born. I can honestly say it was the most perfect labor and birth I’ve ever seen. There’s not a single thing that could have gone better – even with SEVEN children and a two month old around! The French midwife’s children, who are all my kids’ ages (8, 7, 5, and 2), were home too! The young mother panicked every time we went into the room that had been prepared for her delivery so she insisted laboring in the main living space of the house and in the back yard – where the children were. There was no avoiding the reality of all the kids literally running circles around her as she labored. And in a funny way I think the normalcy of it all was comforting to her. I myself looked around at one point and wondered at the way a mother was laboring in our midst and no one was making a big deal about it. It was just life as usual – and what is birth if not that? The French midwife was going about her daily duties, the children were playing, and the young mother was working hard to birth a beautiful life. When she reached 8 cm she finally agreed to go into the room prepared for the birth, which was important because we needed to be able to protect ourselves, and hopefully the baby, from HIV transmission. We all suited up and she knelt in front of a chair and in about 15 minutes the skillful midwife had guided the fearless mother in the birthing of her child. The baby was GORGEOUS – perfect in every way. The mother didn’t have a single tear or any other complication. The baby began breastfeeding right away and the placenta was born quickly and with ease. We all marveled at God together over and over that day.

By 6 p.m. we were all headed home with a happy, peaceful mama and a perfect baby. We sat in traffic for 3 ½ hours with a hysterical 2 month old, but if that was the worst thing that happened that day, I’m nothing but thankful!!! The mama and baby came home with me for a few days because she had no one to help take care of them. Then a relative from the village came to help her so I took her home and have been checking in on her and taking them meals every day. Her postpartum period is going as beautifully and smoothly as the rest of the birth. She beams when I tell her what an amazing mother she is, and I tell her over and over because she really truly is! She has amazing natural instincts on how to care for her baby, even when it contradicts the cultural standard of doing things. It is such an honor to get to love and care for those two precious girls. She named the baby Jannekah and it’s the first time in all my years with all the mothers I’ve served that someone has given me such an unimaginable honor. I will continue to strive to live up to it.

baby Jannekah

Baby Jannekah (2 days) and Jannekah Guya's baby Shiloah (2 months)