"November 15, 2013." She said as if she was reading it off a chart.
"And she didn't give him a name?"
"No, he has nothing inscribed. He is without a name." She stated.
And there we stood looking at this tiny little baby who wasn't yet three months old. He had a worn blue blanket wrapped around him and was laying in the middle of about 8 other babies, 7 of them newborns. While most of them cried and squirmed in their little beds, he lay still, asleep.
Today I realized, to some extent, just how difficult my job is going to become. The whole drive home and even now I have to fight the tears that are welling up inside of me for him. I am writing this blog for those of you who financially support our ministry. I am writing this blog for the most generous people I know on this side of the planet. I am not writing this blog for your entertainment or amusement. I am not writing this for the ones who always say they want to do something and then the world comes in and distracts you and your desire just somehow disappears. I am not writing this for those of you who say you'll only help when xy and z happens. Because xy and z will NEVER happen unless people help now. There are so many of you who ask me to let you know when there is a need. So many of you who are eager to help. The rest of this blog is for you.
Today I stopped by our regional hospital in Coban. Very few of you already know why. I have not been open much to talking about the new ministry that the Lord has laid upon my heart. But today, I stopped in with the results from my bloodwork and 5 small bags of milk to donate. Our hospital is a government run hospital. One that is lacking in almost every way apart from the few good doctors they have and Guatemala's greatest pediatrician. You can read my other blog to understand the conditions of this place. They have extremely little funding and every inch of the place shows so. Last time I spoke with the pediatrician before I came to the United States, he told me they currently have three little abandoned ones and the nutritionist, surprisingly to him, was very excited about the opportunity to have someone come and nurse these abandoned babies. Any good nutritionist will understand the incredible impact that can have on these babies. Today I arrived, and there were only two. The judge must have sent the other one on to a home somewhere far away.
They have tested this baby boy who does not have a name and he is healthy enough that he is the one they want me to start nursing. He was born in the hospital and his mom left him there. I didn't get any reasons or explanations. I know that he has a head full of black wavy hair, a tiny little body and two of the cutest baby feet I have ever seen complete with ten teeny toes. I know that he has lived his entire life in a little rolling baby bed surrounded by newborn babies who have people coming in daily to visit them, hold them and love on them, only to later take them to a place they will call "home". And he just lays there. He has no one to talk to him, to coo with him, to play with him. He has no one to hold him tight and look him in the eyes while he fills his belly. He has never felt the warmth of a mother's body against his own. No one who prays over him, no one to whisper to him and twirl his hair or play with his baby fingers. He has no one.
Lord-willing, this Monday afternoon he will have someone waiting at the door just for him. Someone who will come and love on him just like he deserves, like God intended. Someone who will lovingly nurse him to life and say prayers over him. Someone who will sing to him and fall in love with him until the judge decides to send him away. I will do that even though it will break my heart.
Let me wrap this up by saying that this little boy, as well as the other abandoned baby who I have yet to meet, have laid in those little beds since the day they were born because the home that we are building right now is not ready. This little boy, and the other baby, would both be sent to Casa Gloria if it was ready. We are building this home for them and 48 others who are abandoned, abused or orphaned in Alta Verapaz. This baby does not need clothes. He does not need shoes or school supplies. He doesn't need surgery or medicine or anything of the sort. He doesn't need you to chit-chat about him now and then forget about him when your emotion has worn off. There is nothing you can do to help this little baby who wasn't even loved enough to be given a name except give him a home. He needs you to look inside yourself. To not be scared to ask the Lord what you can do. And to not forget about him. There is nothing holding us back on our end, we are doing everything we absolutely can. What we need is the provision of the Lord through your generosity. Many of you have told us how you desire to help. Well the opportunity is here. Help us get this nameless baby into a mother's arms and into a home he can call his own, where he will be cherished and cared for for the rest of his life, a place where he will be surrounded by people who give him an identity and call him by his name.
-Jenna
No comments:
Post a Comment