About six years ago some friends of mine were spending a quiet Saturday night at home in suburban Cape Town.

Ross, the senior minister of a large multi-racial church was putting the finishing touches on his sermon for the following day.

Lindy, a nurse by profession, and involved in the children’s ministry at the church, was also busy getting her lesson prepared for the next morning. Their two teenage children were out with friends.

The phone rang. The call would change their life forever.

It was one of Lindy’s nursing friends. She was on night shift in casualty at a local hospital. An unusually large number of babies had been abandoned at the hospital that night. They were stretched beyond capacity. Would Ross and Lindy, especially with Lindy’s nursing background, be willing to fetch and care for one of the babies over the weekend until the situation eased?

Ross was preaching through the Letter of James and had just preached on James 1:27-29 the Sunday earlier:

True religion is this; to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

He put his preparation to one side. Without hesitation they jumped in the car and headed for the hospital. The baby, a girl, only weeks old, did not have a name, was brain damaged at birth, was probably HIV positive and there was very little likelihood that she would ever walk or talk. As they collected the unwanted child they were assured that their help would only be needed for a couple of days and warned not to get too attached.

A few days turned into a few weeks and a few weeks into a few months. Ross, Lindy, Sarah-Jane (their eighteen year old daughter), Bruce (their fifteen year old son) and Beauty (their housekeeper) embraced this abandoned baby as their own. A family discussion was held. A family decision was made. Procedures to take out legal guardianship followed.

They called her Poppy Honey. She is a Xhosa baby, from the same tribal group as Nelson Mandela. She has tight black frizzy hair with milk chocolate skin and dark chocolate eyes. To everyone’s relief, Poppy Honey is HIV negative. But there are many ongoing health problems. Eye operations are needed to improve serious vision impairment. Poppy has many special needs and always will. She has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism. Finding a special school that has the resources to help her specific needs has been very difficult.

But a love is being poured into this precious girl’s life that is overwhelming in its depth. I received an email from Ross some time back telling me that Poppy was both walking and talking and sang the first verse of Jesus Loves Me This I Know For The Bible Tells Me So without any help or prompting.

I have been a guest in the family home each year of Poppy’s life, from a cute baby, a cheeky toddler, a playful pre-schooler, to an affectionate and inquisitive little girl.

I will never forget the scene one morning as I was saying goodbye to leave for the airport. Poppy, just shy of her third birthday, was in a high chair while Lindy was feeding her spoonfuls of strawberry yoghurt. Poppy was blowing raspberries of strawberry yoghurt all over Lindy’s face, clothes and kitchen floor.

I remember thinking, “What an extraordinary expression of love.” Ross and Lindy were only years off being empty nesters, with all the new-found freedoms that come with kids leaving the nest. And they have chosen to do it all again, for a ‘special needs’ orphan.

The whole family is involved. The love, commitment and affection of Sarah-Jane and Bruce for their little sister is breathtaking. Even Beauty, a Xhosa widow, has stepped into a new role as the surrogate grandmother, helping Lindy understand many of the cultural nuances.

There will be no fairy tale ending to this story. Finding the right kind of special educational care for Poppy has, and will continue to be, a constant challenge. Sarah Jane and Bruce, showing a maturity well beyond their years, will one day have to step into the breach as primary carers when Lindy, Ross and Beauty no longer have the physical powers to be so.

But here is a family constrained by the compassion of Christ, doing what the bible says, loving because God first loved us, and serving in the sacrificial footsteps of their foot-washing Saviour.