Two Babies

So many times I have sat here staring at this blank page. I feel like there is so much to say but I don't know where to start. This past week especially. Such sadness and grief and so much joy all mixed together.

One of the tiny, tiny babies on the ward went home to be with Jesus. Obre had been with us for about two months. He came in with a bilateral cleft lip and was too tiny for surgery so he became part of the infant feeding program to be bulked up and have his surgery when he was at a safer weight. He became known as the "miracle baby". Some nurses and doctors had seen a miracle happen at one point when he was in the ICU. There was talk of putting him on a breathing machine and as the nurses were getting everything ready for it, the doctor and anestheologist stopped to pray. Before their eyes, Obre's oxygen levels began to rise. He didn't need to be intubated any longer and he returned to the ward. It was a miraculous healing. He was doing better for a bit, then last week he started to turn. His heart was having trouble and his breathing was even worse. He died in his mothers arms. Her only son. It's hard not to question why. To see a miraculous healing, then to have him taken. He is now fully healed and in the arms of grace and mercy and being loved more than anyone here on earth ever could. Please pray for his mother. I couldn't even begin to understand the hurt she is experiencing. This is a picture of Obre in the ICU with Jen, one of my friends and one of the great PICU nurses here on the ship.

Around the same time Obre came in to the hospital, Marius was admitted too. He too had a bilateral cleft lip and palate and weighed less than three pounds. He was also admitted to the infant feeding program and when we saw him after he came back for his surgery, he was a new baby. Nice and plump and ready to go! This chubby baby was ready! He had his surgery but was having trouble breathing as well. He ended up needing a trach to breathe through. I have to say, this is the calmest, most amazing baby with the biggest eyes. When I would walk into the ICU I would ask what they were giving him to make him so calm. Nothing. Marius would lay there, eyes wide open with his tiny little hand just holding his breathing tube. He wouldn't pull on it. This six month old would just lay there and look at you and just hold the tube. What I will always remember about Marius is his mother. The night they were putting in his trach, I saw his mother at the end of the hospital corridor. She was praying. More than praying, she was fighting for her son. Pounding on the wall, pleading for her sons life. You could tell she was in a hand to hand battle. She never stopped praying. In the ward she would pray over him. It didn't matter who was there, she would sing over him and pray over him like I have never seen before. Yesterday, Marius and his mother went home to Benin. Such a celebration! Sadness in seeing friends go, but such joy in healing! Here is a picture of Marius and his mother in the ICU.