How My Father Managed To Raise Our Big Family.

A mother's love makes us but a father's sacrificial love grows us and keeps us alive.

Author: Dushime O. Yabes

A family of 7 siblings, an always sick mother and a very quiet and not so open family was the very true definition of my family not forgetting one very big character; my father.

Our lives had turned its face when I was 5 almost six with my elder brother and 2 sisters; that's when our mom got sick.

A sickness so many believe it's hard; and indeed is, mental disorder.

The course was unbelievable, so depressing and indeed irritating to my elder brother and sister who always had to answer the questions of why we did what we did.

Of all the people to handle this, God had given us a warrior; my father.

Jokingly, I think my Dad had already experienced this because each time he had to pull all the strings together and make sure not to leave any outside.

Even though, he would at times not be able to let it stay in the inside, he would tell us it's the onions making him cry yet it's the pain of his injured leg in a fatal accident one month before I was born and the sorrow that his wife won't be there to even give him some pain killers but instead he'd blame himself that he was the devil in the sheep's skin.

At the cost of his job, his car and his daily sleep, dad started taking care of us and not giving up on his beloved wife.

Whom he would pay for any price possible just to have her spend the little time with us at home instead of the psychiatry or at his in-laws.

He never stopped doing whatever he would, he sent my brother to one of the best and popular universities in Kigali that could even cost him to sell his lands, he made sure my sister got her secondary education and in await to go to a university.

Luckily, I was sponsored from my second grade to the end of my high school and my little ones went to a prestigious private school in Kigali too and so does my younger sister who's to sit for her national exams to leave high school.

Dad has never stopped being good at everyone and the people around, in such a difficult time he helped get a school for 5 orphans who were going to dropout because their aunt had failed to keep on with the fees of the previous school they went to.

Later when things had gotten worse with their families, he brought them to our house to live with us and become our family too and now we are a very big family that shares even the smallest.

Each time I feel like we owe Dad massive irrecoverable debts but amusingly, he can't let you even buy bread for the family if he can still breath.

I wouldn't have imagined what it was like for my father to be in such situation and neither would I be able to think where our lives would have been had it not been him that made us stand firm when we were so vulnerable like greenstick fracture.

He was always providing and protective even over the smallest things just to ensure we were safe and free of more hurt than the emotional crisis we had.

I remember the days, when he wouldn't let anyone go outside not even to church just because he wanted to see us with him on his resting day, Sunday.

A mother's love makes us but a father's sacrificial love grows us and keeps us alive. Thank you Papa for being the best thing that has happened to our lives.

I couldn't get you anything but this little piece of writing;

To my Father !

Dear Dad,

I know you're always working so hard,

For me not to live without any bread,

And my sisters' weave not miss a hair-bead,

Even though that's not bad;

I have one more thing to ask from you,

For I can't imagine a world without you,

Yet I'm so found in you,

And all my inspiration and motivation drawn from you,

I want this to be so fair;

That I'm never be put to any sort of cage,

When I'd be able to cater for you in your old age,

Because you've shaped me into a sword of two edges,

That brings down my enemies,

Never spare my uncertainties,

Protect me for more opportunities,

Where you will feel nothing like insecurities,

But gain after your longterm pain,

Then I will shower you with blessings like rain,

Will you stay a little bit longer and eat as a king that reigns?