Tom & Jerry

We got a call from Mt. Meru Hospital on Friday asking if we could come pick-up a baby whose mother had died. So, Claire, Derek (her father who's visiting), Mama Musa, and I traveled to the hospital to pick-up this new baby. Upon arrival, we learned that another baby had just been abandoned and so we would be bringing home two new babies. While the nurses washed and dressed them, I wandered around the NICU ward looking at the many other new babies. Some of them were fat and healthy while others were not much larger than the palm of my hand. Some had jaundice, others had sad skin conditions. The room was full of cribs with multiple babies lying side by side, each wrapped in a colorful piece of khanga or kitenge from their mother who was recovering in the room next door.
I would describe the experience of being in this baby ward as beautiful and sad at the same time. Each baby was beautiful in his or her own little way, wrapped in beautiful material and breathing the first breaths of life-each one a child of God. At the same time, though, the experience was heart-breaking because some babies were so small, they did not look like they would make it with out proper medical equipment and attention. Some babies are abandoned at the hospital, others have HIV, still others might loose their mother...which is a case that happens all to often. Though I wish our two new ones had a family to go home too, I'm glad that we can provide them a safe place with food and love until they can be adopted or go back to extended family members.

Here are some of the precious new ones in the NICU ward of Mt. Meru Hospital...

Claire decided to temporarily call the baby who's mother died, Tom, until his father comes to visit Cradle of Love and hopefully name him. The ideal situation here, is that when the baby is strong and healthy after being weaned off of formula, porridge and onto solid food, the father will be able to afford to raise him with the help of extended family and little Tom can go home.

The other baby, called Jerry, was abandoned at the hospital. He was two-days old when we picked him up and he is very tiny. When he was changed and wrapped up, a nurse plopped him into my arms and from that moment on, he completely stole my heart. I love every single baby here at Cradle of Love, so I'm not sure what makes Jerry slightly different. I don't know if it was the process of carrying him home from the hospital, or changing him when we got back, or giving him his first bottle, or if it's just because he's so incredibly cute, but I have become really attached to little Jerry. He has the cutest cheeks, with a little button nose in between, a head full of curly hair, the cutest little bottom lip that sticks out ever so slightly, and the most adorable expressions as he sleeps and stirs. I'll post more pictures of him eventually, but here's a snapshot of both Tom & Jerry after we brought them back.

 

Tom

 

my little Jerry