Just look at Ti Mika’s smile!! She is holding baby Zachary in her arms to keep him quiet. Ti Mika is a sweet, happy, mischievous young girl!!

When I see her smiling and laughing, it is hard to imagine that this little girl was the same little baby I once saw in the village of Madamn Bauge. She was sitting on the ground, eating dirt, when I saw her grandma pick her up, give her a few grains of rice she had in her hand, and then, set her on the ground again. Ti Mika had malnutrition and sores all over her body.

Ti Mika would have died if we had not rescued her that day. Her grandma gladly gave her to us, and said, “If you don’t take her she will die.” Years later, after Ti Mika was about five, I took a beautiful framed picture of her to give to her grandma. At that time, her grandma was laying on the floor of her mud hut, dying. With tears in her eyes, her grandma said, “Ti Mika, my grandbaby… I love you.” Then she said, “now, I can die happy, knowing Ti Mika is well.”