Hope In The Healing

Today was hard. Plain and simple. It was a toss and turn of emotions. Like the mountain we traveled on, I went up then back down again. 

     We traveled to Real Hope For Haiti today. This is a hospital for extremely sick kids. People travel from below the mountain and from the mountain itself just to make it to this place because they know their kid will get the best possible treatment. They see about 100-250 people PER DAY! The people literally line up the night before to make sure they’re first in line for the next day. So as you can imagine this hospital holds the sickest of the sick. It’s hard to travel here at times because of some of the conditions you see. The last time I went there was a little girl with a condition that Mia also has (CP- Cerebral Palsy)  and it was something that really effected me. This time I went I was faced with another trial, but was very aware of the hope found within it. 

      There was a little girl there whose name I won’t even try to type out. I’m not sure how long she had been there but I hadn’t seen her when I was there in January. She was paper thin, and that isn’t an expression. Her skin was so thin that on her chest it didn't even feel like she had any. It felt like bones and that was it. The skin on her arms and legs was so tight against her bones and felt of leather. She had a feeding tube in her nose and an IV inserted somewhere as well. Her teeth were all rotted and she looked miserable. Yet amidst all of this she still tried to smile at one of our team members. Did you catch that? She tried to smile! This precious little 5 year old girl, practically on her death bed from dehydration and lack of care, tried to smile for us! That is such a powerful image of self sacrifice. Who knows how much just moving her mouth hurt her or how much discomfort she was feeling. She still smiled! 

     I learned a lot from this girl today. No matter the pain, the trial, the struggle, there is always a reason to smile! So no matter what kind of day you’ve had today, remember to be thankful anyways and to smile. God has you here for a reason dear one and He will use you for great things!