Got up early this morning and went with Dick to pick up Jessica and her mom at Casa de Fe. Mom said Jessica had hardly slept at all last night, and she would cry if anyone but mom held her. I did manage to get an almost smile out of her, though.
We got to the hospital about 7:30, and thankfully were #1 in line to see the pediatrician (due to the efforts of another Jessica, the head therapist at the hospital). This meant we only waited until 9:50 for the doctor to come in. He seemed to give her a pretty thorough exam, asked mom a lot of questions, and then sat down his desk and began writing for about 10 minutes. I can't get used to how medical treatment is given here. Not once did he speak to Jessica, and he only spoke to mom when he was asking a question or telling her to do something. No explanation, no reassurance, no humanity. I finally could stand it no longer and waited for him to pause writing for a moment to ask him if he was going to admit her to malnutrition.
He looked at me as if I had fewer than 3 functioning brain cells, and slowly explained that that was what he was doing. Evidently, it didn't seem important to him to discuss this decision with mom, or anyone else. . .luckily this mom was prepared for Jessica to stay, but I had to wonder what would have happened if Dick hadn´t done such a thorough coaching job with mom before we saw the doctor. But mom, who is a widow raising 6 kids, is willing to do whatever it takes to get her healthy, so Jessica was admitted this afternoon.
As I watched the doctor examine Jessica, I couldn´t help but think of the verse in Ps. 22, that says, "I can count all my bones." I literally could count the vertebrae in her spine without even trying. What shocked me more than anything, though, was when Dick reminded me that most of the kids we find who are starving have cerebral palsy or another health problem that makes it difficult for them to eat. He reminded me that this is not the case in India, Africa, or many other places where healthy children are starving for lack of food. And I know that even here, for every one Jessica we find, there are a dozen more dying in hammocks in back of their homes. And I can't help but ask why. It would be easy to blame God, but I also know that if everyone who claimed to be a Christian fed just one starving child, there would be no starving children. I think of the jokes I've heard around many dinner tables, when parents tell their kids to eat because there are children starving in India. I pray that God convicts every parent who has ever said this to their child (me included) to actually DO something about a starving child.
Sometimes I don't like to take Scripture literally. . .
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