Miracles Are Everywhere… What Do You See?

 

There is a sweet girl, Yahdeli, whose grandmother works at Mama Tara’s orphanage.   Yahdeli and her sister are always at Mama Tara’s.  Yahdeli has a beautiful smile and a wonderful disposition.

 

We had not seen Yahdeli in a few weeks and began to ask around about her.  Her grandmother said that she had broken her chin when a friend’s head hit her chin at full speed. The family was told the doctors here could do no more for her.   It sounded very doom and gloom.  The family had absolutely no idea what to do.  This is a family who has never been out of La Moskitia.   The grandmother, Rodillia, speaks mainly Miskito and doesn’t understand much Spanish.  In the past, I’ve given Rodillia a children’s Bible because she cannot read and wanted to ‘read’ the pictures.

 

The morning after I heard the news of Yahdeli’s injury, I went to pick her up and brought her to our house to scan the x-rays and take pictures of her chin.  She was only able to open her mouth far enough to get in a spoonful of milk or rice.  Her beautiful smile was replaced with a painful grimace.

 

We began to pray for options.  We asked everyone we knew in Honduras for help… ideally, we were looking for a specialist in the area of facial surgery.   A few leads came trickling in.  During one conversation, hope glimmered.  There was a contact in Tegucigalpa – a woman who had visited Mama Tara’s before… bilingual, Christian.  She might be able to help.

 

The first time we talked to her (I’ll call her Angel) on the phone, it felt like an answered prayer.   She lived next door to a doctor and a dentist! (did I add that Yahdeli has teeth damaged, too?")    Angel told us to send the x-rays, which we did.  

 

We realized that Yahdeli would need her birth certificate to be admitted to the hospital.   In the States, obtaining a birth certificate is a breeze.   Here, many people don’t even have birth certificates.  Often, birth certificates are issued much later in life, if ever.   In other words, there are no official records of thousands of lives. 

 

Yahdeli is from another area of La Moskitia and the word was that it could take up to a month to get her birth certificate.  Meanwhile, all of the Board of Mama Tara’s and our family were praying for healing and a window to open.

 

Angel found a doctor that was willing to look at her in Tegus, but the caveat was Yahdeli HAD to be there by last Friday.   Sigh.    Only God could pull this off.

 

Alex worked and worked and day after day visited the family trying to explain the situation.  There was serious anxiety about traveling, concerns about who would meet them at the airport,  who would travel with her, etc.   Finally, it was decided that an aunt would accompany her.  BUT, this aunt is a major breadwinner for the family – she has a great job here.   For her to leave would be a sacrifice for this already poor family. 

 

During this wait time, funds were provided for their travel and some extra spending money.   A place to stay was provided by Angel and her mother.   AND… the birth certificate arrived on the Wednesday before by small boat after an 8 hour trip down the jungle rivers.

 

Friday morning was the day.   An impending, serious tropical storm was looming and there was a large chance the flight would be cancelled.   The storm was approaching, but the flight took off and Alex saw the plane fly right between a small opening in the clouds which provided a guiding light out of the storm.  Beautiful.

 

The storm immediately took a turn to the north.  We did get some rain that began in earnest at 12:50 p.m., the exact time that Yahdeli’s flight touched down.   Beautiful.

 

Today, we got word that Yahdeli does NOT have a broken chin, but only a cyst that needs to be drained for several months.   There were 8-10 doctors – a medical brigade from the US and one of the best Honduran surgeons who consulted for Yahdeli today.  They were so moved by her story that they offered her a nice room at the hospital.   

 

Her recovery will be a bit challenging because the chin will need to be drained regularly, but the recovery period will be minimal compared to what it could have been.

 

God’s precious fingerprints are all over this.  A glimpse of what can happen when His people pray together in unity, everyone does their small part and He parts the clouds.