So many tears have been shed these past couple days— tears of worry, tears of sadness, and plenty of tears of happiness! Today, I sat and wept with Walter’s mother who was so thankful for the cleft palate surgery he received at Hope of Life today.
As she wept, she shared the story of how many children in her village have died from complications due to cleft lip/palate. She wept as she remembered that 10 years ago, she was one of those very mamas who had lost a baby for this very reason. She wept as she reminisced of the day four years ago when she handed her one month old malnourished baby over to me. She couldn’t come with her baby because her husband wouldn’t allow it. When she ultimately refused to abandon her baby, he left.
When sleepy post-op Walter opened his mouth and she saw the new little palate, she wept again.
Today was all of the feelings.
In these remote areas of Guatemala, health issues are common and healthcare access is rare. On this #WorldHealthDay, I’m so proud of the work being done at Hope of Life to provide this basic human right to families who are unable to afford it but more than deserve it.
And more than ever, I am in awe at the beauty, the bravery, and the strength of these Guatemalan mamás. Providing what is a very basic service (in our eyes), is literally the life-changing help that keeps children alive and in their own families.
Thank You, God… for putting Your goodness on display through sweet little ones like Walter. 😭💞🙌🏻
When I think of strength, I think of Dulce. A young girl from Guatemala’s Corredor Seco, her father didn’t have the financial means to provide dire medical care for her.
4 years ago when we brought her to Hope of Life, I would have never guessed how resilient, intelligent, and sociable she was! Diabetes and malnutrition robbed her of many things in her life— her vision, her joy, her strength, and even her own mother were lost to these difficult diagnoses.
Through Hope of Life, she has received surgery to restore her vision, training to learn to manage type 1 diabetes all on her own, and dental care to restore her beautiful smile.
When I asked her if I could share these pictures, she latched onto me with the biggest hug. Somewhere between giggling and sobbing, she agreed and thanked me… but it occurred to me that her thankfulness needed to be directed to all of you, too.
To those who support us, pray for us, and encourage us… thank you for letting us do the work God has called us to. You generosity is part of Dulce’s story, too. Truly, stories aren’t always as hope-filled as this one, but God’s hands are always ever-present over us and the amazingly strong Guatemalans we get to work with. As we enter into 2022, we are so deeply thankful for our friends, family, supporters, and encouragers for keeping us afloat in this crazy world!
She was a real life sour patch kid and the closest thing I would ever have to a little sister.
It’s ironic, really… when I moved to Guatemala I didn’t speak one word of Spanish. Yet the person I understood better than anyone else was Yolanda. A deaf teenager growing up in an extremely remote and extremely poor village in the mountains of Guatemala, she spoke her own unique sign language. Her family didn’t have the resources to care for her diabetes, so finding a school to teach her to sign was so far out of the picture that I doubt they even thought of it. It wasn’t until Hope of Life started sending her to a deaf school that she began to speak some Guatemalan sign language. Even still, she spoke her own way and it’s remarkable how well we understood each other. She wasn’t completely nonverbal though… her laughter was boisterous, the way she shouted my name was precious, and she would say (rather loudly) some pretty obnoxious things at inappropriate times… this unfortunately always seemed to happen whenever I was responsible for her and of course always in a public setting. These memories crack me up but also make me want to cry knowing I will never experience them again.
Typing this out is painful. I don’t want to put it in writing because I don’t want to believe it’s real… and I don’t know HOW to put in writing a relationship that ran 8 years deep. We weathered many storms “through sickness and in health” and I was privileged to see a side of her that not many got to see.
My selfie queen, my shadow, my sidekick, my sweet girl. I only wish I had gotten to hold your hand, braid your hair one last time, and say goodbye. I will love you and think of you forever.
“Don’t forget to be faithful to do the thing you’ve been called to do. It’s easy to get distracted, much harder to stay focused. Nothing lasting is built without steadfast endurance, wisdom, & the ability to press through the unglamorous, unrecognized, unseen, & laborious middle.” Christine Caine
Today, and really just lately in general, have not been days that I want to place on the highlight reel of my life. Maybe it’s this season of being temporarily uprooted from our home and our work in Guatemala, maybe it’s the weird season we’re all in and all of the changes due to “the” virus, maybe it’s a little bit of a lot of different things… but today it all came crashing down on how I’m in this weird unseen middle. In my stubbornness and consternation, I sent myself to my room twice today until my attitude would improve– but that didn’t really happen until I stumbled across this quote from Christina Caine.
And I realized– I might not be where or who or what I want to be at this very moment, yet I am still called to be faithful.
For the past month, I have been grieving over sweet Brenda in the above photos. I was so worried about her returning home. Is she getting enough to eat? Is her mama doing therapy on her arm? Is she safe? I seriously thought of this precious girl ALL the time, and would whisper prayers for her safety throughout each passing day. At 3 1/2 years and only 13 pounds, her frail little body was shutting down when we received her. Could she survive the damaging effects of severe malnutrition? Miraculously, she nearly tripled her weight… but we had to discharge her to go home during a government shutdown and with the uncertainty of when we’d see or hear from her again. When I received word this evening that she doing well at home, nothing else mattered… not the things that I was mad about… nor the fact that I’ve experienced a lot of change lately and I’m just not good with changes. Knowing she was okay all of a sudden made everything with me okay.
Tonight was a beautiful reminder that when we are faithless, He is still faithful. In the anxiety and stress and confusion of this season, may we all be gently reminded of this.
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.
“How sweet! She looks so healthy with her chubby cheeks!”
Sometimes malnutrition is easy to spot– a three month old clocking in at only 3 pounds, her ribs prominent, her crying only consoled by a bottle of milk that she quickly consumes.
But in other cases, malnutrition can be very difficult to detect to the untrained eye. Clothed and standing on a scale, a child can sometimes meet all the criteria to be deemed ‘healthy’, but through skillful assessment and observation, you can gain a more accurate picture of what is going on ‘beneath the surface.’ This type of malnutrition is silent and insidious and is claiming the lives of many children here in remote Guatemala. Hope of Life is fighting daily to reverse the statistics.
So, heads up… NERD ALERT. This purpose of this blog post is to give a little bit of medical perspective to what we see and treat daily here in Guatemala. Today, I am only focusing on the two types of acute malnutrition we treat most often here in rural Guatemala– Marasmus and Kwashiorkor.
We’ve all heard the cheesy story about the starfish, right? Here’s a condensed version — a father and son are walking along the beach, and there are hundreds of starfish that have washed ashore. The starfish are dying because they are out of water. The kid begins throwing them in one by one, the dad makes a remark about how ‘you can’t save all of them’ and the kid replies ‘yeah, but I saved that one.’
I’ve come to realize how true that really is. A few weeks ago, I shared on my instagram a story of the ripple effect that helping others has. I’ll share it below:
Several months ago, Hope of Life rescued a little baby girl named Estefani. She was malnourished due to feeding problems related to a birth defect. Months later, she is healthy and now awaiting a surgery date to repair her double cleft lip and palate. Her precious mama told us about her neighbors who just gave birth to two tiny, precious twin girls. “They are chiquititas, como Estefani!” she reflected on when Estefani was first admitted into our care. Yesterday, Hope of Life arranged for the little 4lb babies to be brought in. They are our third set of twin girls this year, and I’m so proud of Estefani’s mama for making us aware of them. This is why you do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Helping others is not some sort of debilitating crutch that leads them into a life of dependancy… Rather, giving help is an extension of your hand to lift them out of their current situation. If it is done in grace, love, and with some education, it can truly change future generations. Empowered people empower people. [Acts 20:35]Continue reading How to Save the World
“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.” -William Wilberforce
Today was Yennifer’s “going home” day. As morbid as this may sound, I never thought we would see this day.
I remember vividly the day she was brought in. I wasn’t even sure she was alive at first. She was 6 years old and only weighed 9 pounds. “How is this even possible?” I thought to myself.
Her skin was dry and flaking off in areas, her pulse was thready and beating at 38 beats per minute, her breathing slow and still. I choked back my own tears as we undressed her to do a full assessment. She didn’t stir, she didn’t fight, she didn’t even wince. She was much too weak for any of that. Continue reading This is rural Guatemala.
A glimpse inside this family’s smokey home. This home is one room and has over 10 people living inside.
What I do can be so difficult to describe sometimes… I made a pretty detailed blog post about it a year ago… Click here to read more about child rescues at Hope of Life. What I love most about this program, is the opportunity to connect with the mommas. To let them know their need has been seen, their voice has been heard. It paints such a beautiful picture of how God sees and hears us, even in our most desperate moments.
Today, I want to give you a glimpse of some of the families we have been able to help. It’s a huge honor and blessing to be part of the Hope of Life team. 2018 is already shaping up to be a year filled with lots of healing and help here in rural Guatemala. Thanks to each of you that help support this. <3
This man works hard to try to provide for his family. Here, he is collecting corn kernels for about 40q (or $5/day)
He is 75 years old and has 15 children in this home. The youngest is malnourished because the mother has poor milk supply.
I hope this helps to provide some perspective. The disparity here in these mountains is great, Hope of Life is working around the clock to bring hope to those who need it most. Praise God.
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
