A Christmas Miracle

Remember this baby?

This little miracle was just discharged from the hospital!

I cannot tell you how blessed I was to receive this update TONIGHT. There are some things going on in our family right now that have caused me to truly have to put my faith in Jesus Christ. Once again, I am being called to trust HIM and to know that HE WILL TAKE CARE OF ME. It is so hard when things are out of your control. 

This miracle from India, reminded me, at a perfect time, that GOD IS SOVEREIGN!

Our friend Christo writes:

There are times when I sense the Holy Spirit clearly moving in my heart and this was one of them.  The rational part of my brain said doing anything was hopeless.  There was no way this baby would survive and looking at the appearance of the grandfather made me think even more that doing anything would be harder on the family because he was destitute.  But I sensed the Lord was asking me to trust Him and do something out of the ordinary.  I made the decision to intubate the baby to start breathing for her.

Her face was so small – maybe the size of a small pear.  She was the smallest baby I had ever intubated.  Even the smallest laryngoscope blade I had which was a Miller 0 had a hard time fitting in her mouth.  She was so stiff that I had pry hard to get her mouth open but within a few seconds the endotracheal tube was in. 

While the fluids were going in, I had the grandfather take over breathing for the baby while I gathered some more of the history.  This baby had been born at Duncan two week prior but was very low birth weight and although we had encouraged them to keep the baby here until she had gained some more weight, because of financial worries, they decided to take the baby home after a week.  She had been home for a week but because she was so little she was not breast feeding well and had gradually become so sick that they rushed her to the hospital from their home 2 hours away.  The mother of the baby is mentally handicapped and so required much assistance from the grandmother to care for the child.  The only person who works in the family is the grandfather who works as a farmer and thus the reason for wanting to take the baby home early because if he was at the hospital there was no way for him to earn a living to support his family.

Baby three weeks after admission with a beaming mother

We cared for the baby in the nursery for another 3 weeks.  I would check in on her every few days.  Some days she looked almost gray but she was alive.  The family asked for discharge a couple more times because of financial problems but we kept assuring them if they would only keep the baby in the hospital we would do our part to help make the cost of care affordable for them.  Finally about a week ago, the baby started to become more active and started to breast feed vigorously!  She finally started to put on weight and when she had regained her weight and was finally up to around 1.5 kg she was discharged home yesterday.  The total bill was about 13,000 rupees of which the family paid around 6,000.  The rest was written off as charity as we had assured them.  I saw the baby two days ago and she looks amazing!  She was crying and very active.  I spoke to her mother and asked how she thought her baby was doing.  With a huge smile on her face she said, “When we brought my baby to the hospital I had lost all hope of her surviving but now she is doing so well!”  After so many setbacks that was what our staff needed to hear.  It was a testament to God’s saving grace and prayers of so many that restored this little girl to her family – a baby that was always precious in His eyes.  We thank the Lord for refreshing our soul with the healing of this little one.

Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?  For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him.  You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer.  You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!  “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.”