Her hands softly graze over the slick wrapping paper. Her fingers outline the edges before she carefully pulls back each layer, revealing the contents inside.
At first, her hand reaches for the familiar. A pair of gloves, a bar of soap, and cotton gauze.
Until her eyes catch something less known, something more foreign. An umbilical cord tie, plastic sheets, a razor.
She is told it’s a Mama’s Kit – but Rita knows better.
Could it just be the gift that protects the precious gift growing inside of me, she wonders?
As Rita felt pressure to provide all of her own birthing supplies for the delivery of her child (as most Ugandan women in the villages must do), she now has the certainty that this financial obstacle has been met with love.
Folding the paper back, Rita takes one last look at the belongings in her lap before letting out a gentle exhale.
And that is a special kind of gift called peace of mind.