Baby Christine

There is no way to write this.  Josephine has suffered another loss.  Last time I met her she was working for pennies, suffering with malaria, had a 104 degree fever and 9 months pregnant.  Today her daughter passed away.  She was only 1 year old.  Baby Christine was tiny and fragile.  She was here briefly and was the apple of her mother's eye. (See my earlier blog at:  http://melodypahlow.blogspot.com/2011/07/had-day-filled-with-hope.html)

I don't have a way of expressing my sadness. I first saw Christine as she was sleeping on a potato sack.  When she woke up I began feeding her crackers which was the first food she had eaten in 3 days.  She was inquisitive and clinging to her mommy. She loved my shiny bracelets and I gave her one.  I can't get the image of her peacefully resting on the ground out of my head.  She is probably buried in that sack now beneath the very ground she played on.

Baby Christine's family was recently sponsored and maybe, just maybe if we had gotten there 1 month earlier her life could have been saved.  I don't know the circumstances but now I only feel regret. Certainly God has a plan and Christine is in a better place.  There is a feeling I have that I am up against a 30 foot crumbling wall of poverty and my hands are just too small to clog all the tiny holes.  Little rocks are falling all around me and I am bracing for a crash.  

For now, another little pebble has fallen at my feet and I am so sad that I couldn't stop it.  Dear God please bring more help quickly so that little girls like Christine have a chance to know you and live a full life.  Amen.