inspiring

I will always know December 17, Tim’s birthday.  Last year gave me another reason to remember it though.  At the hospital the Medical Director sought me out to tell me of an abandoned child and ask me what I was going to do.  She was around 12 months old and had come for treatment.  Her mother had asked another to hold her whilst she went to get some food, and that was the last anyone knew. 

It is rare, though sadly not the first time it has been seen at the hospital.  The hospital took hold of the child and found her with severe scabies and impetigo, so admitted her to the paediatric ward whilst trying to trace her mother.  Though they knew both mother and daughter, contact could not be established so on Day 5 “we” made a plan to look for a foster family and funding (of course).  I got great advice from charity HQ in London and started to do some practical things, like pay for the child’s urgent meds.  The hospital got a local magistrate to come and certify the child as abandoned and so allow the fostering process to continue. 

By Christmas Eve I was trooping round the city trying to buy some hard-to-get and so obviously expensive meds in the city.  I think it was Pharmacy number 11 where I finally found them.  By this time it was Christmas Eve and I wanted, like others, to skive off early, though it was not to be.  With the foster family found and the legal process complete it was time for the baby to go to her new ‘home’.  On the journey I found out that the mother had had a dream of adoption a week earlier.  Though she already had three children, she had a yearning to give more and she clearly interpreted the dream as a sign.  She had worried what her husband would think and when she got home didn’t know how to tell him.  On that day her husband was out so she explained the situation to her children (14-18 years) who made the decision for her.  They bought in straight away and summoned him hope.  Dad’s response, a not uncommon “si Dieu vle” – if God wants.

The hospital and foster mother already knew the child.  Mother was her physio; she was being treated for Cerebral Palsy.