Alfrine

          About a week ago, I met a child in a small rural community called Samabul. His name was Alfrine Kipllangat, and he had a birth defect called cleft pallate. I would be lying if I said that when I first saw him I picked him up and played with him and kissed him like I would with any other baby here. I'm completely ashamed to admit that when I first saw him, my stomach knotted up. I have never actually seen a child with a cleft pallate before, and it broke my heart. I told the parent's that I might be able to help their child, and got their permission. When I went home that night, I was pretty mad at myself. The only contact I had with the child came when I shook his mother's hand and my hand brushed his arm. That is completely out of character for me. Usually, I have a sea of children around me who I am hugging and wrestling and playing with. I know that because of that, there was no way that I could ignore this child. I had all of the arrangements made at the hospital, and was assured that if we bring the baby in the morning, he would have his surgery that day. They showed up the next day and we waited for the doctor to come. He showed up around five hours later. We spoke with him and another doctor, and they both cleared him for surgery. When I asked what time the surgery would be, the doctor said that we would have to do it the next day, because it was too late in the day to set up a surgery. I kindly pointed out that we showed up at the time that we were supposed to and had been promised that we would be able to have the surgery that day. I was upset because Samabul is an hour and a half from Eldoret and it was expensive for the family to make the trip. The doctor basically said not my problem. I once again kindly pointed out that it was because he was the one that we had been waiting on. Not my problem was once again the response. We showed up the next day as early as we could. We waited for 12 hours before Alfrine finally had his surgery. This time I was not so kind. There was one point where he had went without feeding for about eight hours, and was becoming dehydrated. When he was coming out of surgery, I was planning on pulling the doctor aside and giving him a piece of my mind. Then I saw something amazing. Alfrine's mother came out of the surgical theatre, with the one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen. She was carrying her son who was barely coming our of anesthesia. I saw a father who had been waiting nervously, see his son. They were both just sitting there staring at him. I saw Alfrine, and understood why. Every feeling of anger before vanished completely. They were replaced with the knoweledge of the fact that my agenda means absolutely nothing. God is going to do his work on his time, whether I want it faster or not. All that mattered to me at that point was seeing what God had done with Alfrene, and it was great. I honestly belive that there are times when God is laughing as he watches me run around becoming more and more upset that things are moving to the way I believe they should. Then right when I am about to break he shows me his power, and it just blows me away.