contrasts. . .

some days here are filled with such contrasts that i feel they are almost different days or even different places yet they are not. yesterday for example we had babies born, new lives that entered the world. later in the afternoon we had a woman come in severe heart failure and not breathing. the medical team here worked on trying to save her for a couple hours and were not able to. she left this world.

in the midst of that afternoon i had told one of the mothers in the nutrition program to come and was wanting to have her start on the sewing hope project. the project is to have woman sew baby blankets and then pay them when they are finished and then add the blankets to our baby layettes. these woman can hopefully earn money for their families.

today was another example of the extreme contrasts. i went through a tough experience of talking with a mother who brought her baby Israek. he is 4 months old and came with letters from port-au-prince stating that he has tranposition of the great arteries. basically he has a serious heart condition that can't be fixed here in haiti. i checked his oxygen saturation in his blood and it was lower than i thought possible. the oxygen cannula just made him scream all the more and his heart rate go up even more. we prayed with the mother and she really prayed also and stated that she knows her Savior is her only hope. what a reality that is.

in the midst of working with little Israek and his mother this afternoon mama louiska returned with the blanket i gave her yesterday to sew. she did a wonderful job sewing it. what a contrast in my mind, the contrast of a small glimpse of hope in a sewing project to help provide for your children and a mother who knows that her only hope is God healing her child from a severe heart defect. some days it is a challenge to process it all.