New Faces

There was a new tiny face in the nursery today. His eyes were shut and a feeding tube came out of his nose with a syringe of formula on the end. I peered at him through the incubator, keeping him warm and monitoring his heart rate and oxygen.

“Where was he found?” I asked the nurse who had just arrived.

Lawrence, as they now called him, was just picked up and brought to Watoto yesterday. A police woman had found him on the side of the road alone, outside an elementary school. They'd been trying to find any parents, but to no avail. He didn't look preterm or underdeveloped, and through a series of physical and neuromuscular tests, it determined he was approximately 37 weeks. Term.

It's a mixture of feelings. On one hand, I hope they can find his mother. I want her to know that he is safe - that he is well. However, would his life be better growing up in the community with his own family, who seems to be absent at the moment? In this way, he would have an identity with his own blood – knowing his mother, maybe his father, perhaps his siblings. Or would he do better being adopted and raised in the Watoto family, yet missing from his own, in a safe and healthy environment provided? I know these are situations that the organization sometimes faces, as some little ones are only here for some time, before they are “found” or claimed again by a relative.

Then there's myself, who somewhat wants to adopt all eight babies in the nursery. Yet they would probably do a whole lot better being raised for Christ in their own country, among their own fellow citizens, brothers and sisters of Uganda...

Sing time

Cuties