Day #10 - Its the little things

After many ups and downs, I think the Lord knew we needed a little bit of encouragement. Today I worked an A.M. shift at the hospital and I was working with my 'usuals' - genetics, 9th floor. As I walked into the room, the usual energetic greetings to the babies ensued. It was so nice to see the kids come to life as the team picked them up and loved on them. Especially encouraging though was the way Samuil went from clenched fists and tensed muscles to a calmed, relaxed, and pleasant child. Little Roxanna, the baby who wouldn't let anyone touch her, let Marilyn (teammate) hold her for the 3rd time this week. It was such an amazing moment - almost surreal - as I watched Marilyn hold the baby the nurses had written off. It was one of those moments in time when everything else in the world stops and you're overtaken by the great gift of love.
Second only to the children is the encouraging progress we've made with the nurses. I'm not sure if they felt threatened by us at first or simply regarded us as "in the way," but the relationship between the nurses and our team has improved leaps and bounds from our first day. If day #1 was a three, today was an eight! Trust is beginning to form and I believe they are truly starting to respect our work here. Although there are still some ongoing issues with a few nurses, our communication has improved drastically with the nurses as a whole and I feel much more confident a I go about my work at the hospital.
Though today saw its share of sadness, I kept recalling in my mind the visible, tangible change we're seeing...a fruit of our labor, i suppose. Keep praying as the children are still coming in - re-abandoned and scared - but make sure to include thanks to God for all He is doing and has already done. We had one child returned today that had been picked up from the hospital only a week before. Denis is healthy and has no need of a hospital so everyone knows what his drop-off meant today. We did our best to comfort him but he's got some tough days ahead. Keep us in prayer as well, that we can pour out the love of Christ into Denis' and others' broken hearts.

<3 Lindsay