She hadn’t been in for a follow up appointment, so we were all worried. We were already reeling from the difficult news of another patient who passed away, so we were naturally guarding our hearts and expecting the worst. We travelled for hours, climbed down a steep mountainside, crawled through a dangerous rocky ravine, and limbo’d through rusty barb wired fences to get to her.
We approached their home carefully, the whole time praying she would be healthy and safe. When her grandparents saw us, they burst into smiles. “Just wait til you see Santos!” her grandmother grinned. Immediately, all my fears subsided.
Her mamá walked out of their house made of palm fronds. Santos Cecilia was in her arms with the biggest smile on her chubby face and her little belly spilling out of the bottom of her shirt! She looked absolutely perfect! We got them set up with a follow up appointment, but I was so at peace seeing how she is thriving at home.
I wish all stories were this successful. My heart longs for a world where poverty and malnutrition don’t exist. But until we see things “on earth as it is in heaven” we will continue doing whatever it takes to bring help to the physically and spiritually starving. God, protect these children until help can arrive.💛🙏🏻
May 2019 – the first photo we received of Santos Cecilia asking us to help. She was a month old and weighed under 5 pounds.
January 2020! Santos (mamá) and baby Santos CeciliaMay 2019 – Santos Cecilia’s familyDr Kyon Hood, his wife Victoria, and their family sponsored Santos Cecilia’s rescueWhat a difference several months can make!
Being on the frontlines of seeing babies grow and be saved is a high honor that I carry close to my heart. Watching their progress and sharing with others the work The Lord is doing through Hope of Life and the team at St Luke’s is one of my greatest joys. What we see is miraculous. But there is a darker side of my job that I don’t like to speak about very often…
Being on the frontlines also means you are the one there to hear a mother’s horrified crying as you carry her lifeless baby in a silk wrapped burial box. You are there to catch her as she almost collapses into the muddy hillside because grief and sadness have overcome her body… and she shakes as she sobs into your chest… and all the rain that falls cannot drown out the sight of your tears or the sound of her screams. Those moments are literally what nightmares are made of.
Today is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day and also the International Day of Rural Women.
Could I just combine the two of these days to take a moment to spread awareness of the battle that the women of rural Guatemala face? The rate at which babies are dying in these mountains brings me to my knees.
In the past three days, we have lost three babies. One, I had prayed over for a night. One, I had prayed over for three weeks. And the other, I had prayed for over the past two years.
How deep it must hurt for you to read this post, know that it hurts even deeper for me to write it. To somehow try to formulate words for these traumatic moments, all the while knowing that their stories were beautiful even though the ending was ugly. And even deeper still is the hurt that I see in their mamás eyes and tear soaked faces. Maybe one day I will share their full stories, but today my heart hurts too much to write.
If nothing else— know that these babies didn’t die in vain. My friend Julia Homan said it best… “if this narrative softens the heart of even one towards those who look/talk/believe differently, then their short life will have served a great purpose.” Allow these stories to fuel you with a fire to have compassion for the women in Guatemala. Allow them to break your heart with the understanding that government corruption, violence, and a lack of support have left them without help and without hope… and babies are dying because of it. We cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening here in the Corredor Seco of Guatemala, these babies need our help. We pick up and push on to be harbingers of hope in this dry valley of hurt. And I share their painful stories so that their lives serve a great purpose.
One thing I know for certain, is God weeps when He sees what I’ve seen these past few days. And if you, too, have experienced loss and this day stirs up your emotions as well, He weeps with you too. He is close to the broken hearted. (Psalm 34:18)
Each of these three babies were deeply loved.
You are loved, too.
-Whitney
Erickson was 15 days old and weighed just above 3 pounds. Hope of Life set out for him the moment we heard of his case, but he passed away the next morning in a different hospital. His malnutrition was so severe it had already started shutting down his little body. Baby Rufino was 2 months and only 5 pounds. Along with malnutrition, he was suffering from pneumonia and his body was too weak to fight it despite several weeks of antibiotics and admission into the NICU at Chiquimula. And maybe the most difficult of all was the loss of our sweet Deisy. She gave me so much hope that things would be okay… but a long battle of chronic complications took her from us. She was loved by so many… even by my own mama. Allow each of these images to break your heart… so that these little lives will have served a great purpose.
This picture brings me to tears. Sweet William continues to grow and thrive. Although I so loved his precious cleft lipped smile, I love even more the world of potential that is contained in this precious miracle baby.
He gives power to the weak, and strength to the powerless. Isaiah 40:29
William’s story is just starting to be written, but you can read about where it began HERE.
I am thankful he was in my arms when his heart slowed to a barely perfusing 20 beats per minute. However, make no mistake, the glory is not mine. The glory belongs to God for having His hand over William’s life and every doctor and nurse that was present during his care.
I have started two other blog posts that I want to share with you all, but could not move forward without showing this little miracle first. More to come later this week… 🙂
I know that a lot of what we do here in Guatemala is confusing. It’s honestly hard to explain the ministry and everything that we do without seeing things first hand down here. (So if you haven’t yet, you should come visit! We love visitors!)
A lot of what I get questions about is the baby rescues I go on. I will try my best to explain the process, but per usual, I will likely fall woefully short in my descriptions. My prayer is that you get a glimpse into the process, that you could begin to understand the hours of work behind giving each child an opportunity to receive health care, and that you will feel moved to pray for or participate in rescues!
What exactly is a child rescue?
A child rescue is when Hope of Life travels into the mountains, often 3 or 4 hours away, to bring back someone for health care on our campus. These families otherwise would have not had any access to health care and would die in the mountains without our help. A rescue could bring back anywhere from 1 child to 10 children (and one time in May, we brought back even more than that.)
How does Hope of Life find out about these kids?
Hope of Life works very closely with community leaders in these remote villages. If there are sick children in their villages, they will contact the ministry. We also have the incredible Alfredo Gonzalez who works for Hope of Life– his days are spent riding his motorcycle into these villages to check up on them and touch base with their leaders. He also contacts the ministry when help is needed. Without Alfredo, we wouldn’t be able to find as many children, and we would certainly never get to these villages as he helps navigate when we go.
Alfredo and I at work
So why do families wait until their children are so sick to look for help?
Well, this is a tricky question to answer because so much goes into it and everybody’s story is different. Often times, they just don’t know. Unfortunately, because these villages are so isolated and poverty stricken, they might not know that help is available. Sure, there are hospitals around, but can you imagine walking miles and miles (probably 40 miles or more) in 100+ degree weather, carrying a sick child? They likely wouldn’t survive the journey. Even if they did, once they arrived to the hospital, the family could not afford care. Sometimes, it’s just fear or pride that stops them. That’s why what Hope of Life is doing is so wonderful, they intervene when things look helpless.
How do these children get so sick?
In this area of Guatemala, we are in the middle of a 5 year drought and famine. This has severely affected access to clean water (or ANY water in the dry season). These children suffer from severe forms of malnutrition– Marasmus (which is a lack of any nutrition) and Kwashiorkor (lack of protein) are two of the most common forms of malnutrition in this area. Also, with families having one room houses, we see a lot of cases of parasites and respiratory problems. It is not unusual for a family to have birds living in their homes or to cook inside their homes on an open fire– birds carry bacteria that cause respiratory issues, and the thick, black smoke that billows up from the open flame stoves just remains in the house to be inhaled, as these houses are poorly ventilated. Histoplasmosis, Toxoplasmosis, Tuberculosis, Parasites, and a slew of viruses are easily passed among family members in these living conditions. Once a child who is already sick gets one of these infections, the problem sort of “spirals out of control.”
You can find out more about the health and disparity here in Guatemala HERE.
What happens after the child is rescued?
Usually the mother ends up coming with the child (or sometimes, there will be more than one of her children that come). We will walk from their house back to the ambulance and begin the long journey back to Hope of Life. The ambulance ride is difficult. The road is steep, bumpy, and there is really nowhere good to sit, so the mother is usually sliding around and nauseous the entire ride. I help by holding the baby since I’m used to the ride, and the whole way back, I assess the baby to make sure they are not going into respiratory distress. When we arrive to the hospital, we get the patient stabilized, collect a health history from the mother, and the nutritionist will see the patient to determine the severity of malnutrition. The mother and child are given a room, clean clothes, and food. They will be given 3 meals daily, receive medications, and see the doctors. A 6 week stay is usually the minimum amount of time it takes for them to recuperate. However, that time frame can be significantly longer if we find other problems. The mothers often get homesick for their other children, and much of my time is spent reassuring them how vital it is to be at the hospital, because if they are sent home too early, the baby will get back in the same place and could even die. If a surgery is needed, we arrange for the surgery to be done. If they need a referral to a specialist, we arrange for that and take them there. Because this area is so remote, often times we’ll have to drive 3+ hours to Guatemala City when a patient needs a nephrologist or other specialized doctor. Hope of Life pays for all of this.
While the mother is in the hospital, she will bathe and feed the baby. If for some reason the mother has to leave, OR if she abandons the baby (which isn’t a very common occurrence but it does happen), then the baby will be placed in a room to be cared for by a nanny. The orphaned children undergo a long, difficult legal process to be placed in one of the house families here on Hope of Life or released back to another family member.
What happens after a child is discharged from the hospital?
Once they are clinically stable, they are sent back home with education, medicine, and food bags for their family. Hope of Life coordinates clinical follow ups so that the families bring the patient back routinely for check ups. It is always so much cheaper and easier to do preventative health care, or to catch a child that is only mildly malnourished, than to allow the problem to progress and to treat them when they are critically ill like before.
My role in these rescues goes far beyond bringing the baby back to the hospital. While that is important, and maybe one of the most difficult days, the real work begins when they arrive to the hospital. I spend a lot of my time educating these mothers about hygiene, safety, and how to care for their children. I comfort the mothers, encourage them, and pray for them daily. When they are in a position where they are able to listen and understand, I talk with them about who Jesus is. That He was sent to this earth to love us and care for us, and that He died for our sins. Because these families are from indigenous remote villages, for many of them, it is their first time hearing the gospel. If they leave Hope of Life and don’t personally know Jesus, I know that I have at least planted a seed and allowed them to see His love… a love that will follow them even into the most remote corners of Guatemala.
However, the poverty we stand face to face with, is not.
Houses are simplistic, people have little, and they live off the land.
Even these types of outhouses are not common where we go. People usually go to the bathroom near their water sources or the woods behind their home.
They cook inside their homes, which causes chronic respiratory issues from years of inhaling the smoke.
This was one of the few animal cages I saw… Often times, birds that carry diseases are left to walk through their homes, which further exacerbates respiratory and health issues.
Without Hope of Life’s intervention, these children would die in these mountains without access to healthcare and medicine.
When we arrive, I assess the children and I observe their living conditions to gain a glimpse into their health history.
A team of volunteers usually join to help carry the children back to the ambulance.
Often, these volunteers are people who sponsor and pay for these rescues. Thanks to their sponsorship, we are able to afford what we do…
Each rescue not only funds the expenses to go get the child, but also for their ongoing healthcare when they return.
We bring back many babies each week.
Some more critical than others.
When we arrive to Hope of Life, the first 48 hours is critical and often difficult on the children as we introduce new food and medicine to their bodies.
..but our care doesn’t end there. To quote Bryan, “If we treat their health concerns but do not tell them about Jesus, we are just prolonging their hell.” While their moms stay for free in our hospital, I have the opportunity to talk with these mama’s daily. To teach them about hygiene and breastfeeding, and talk with them about Christ when they are in a position that they are ready to receive.
However, the transformation that happens is ALWAYS worth the difficult rescue days we endure to bring them back.
Today, I would like to thank these people for sponsoring us and allowing me to be here and do the work that I love– rescuing babies and working with them daily as they recover in our hospital. I also love being able to work with the mothers by educating them, encouraging them, and praying for them. THANK YOU all for allowing this growth and transformation to happen! Tara Graham – One of my sweet former patients and part of my church family. Thank you for your support!! Love and miss you so <3 Rebecca Porter – My favorite teacher in nursing school!! You have ALWAYS encouraged me and pushed me. I wouldn’t be a nurse if it wasn’t for you <3 Sara Mitchell – Sweet girl whose heart is connected to mine through Kidspoint and Guatemala!! Can’t wait for you to come visit one day <3 Patricia Derr – Your generosity astounds us!! Thank you so much for supporting us <3 Pam Fadness – Someone who knows rescues first hand!! I’m so thankful that we’ve met, you inspire us and we’re thankful for your support!! <3
We love you ALL and could not do what we do without you.
Truly, thank you so much.
–Whitney
This picture brings me to tears. Sweet William continues to grow and thrive. Although I so loved his precious cleft lipped smile, I love even more the world of potential that is contained in this precious miracle baby.
