400 Pesos

Baria and Alina Maria, La Mosca

We arrived in La Mosca ready to start the day. A Medical clinic. I've always loved doing medical clinics. It gives me a chance to see how the community really is doing. You can tell a lot by the things that present themselves at a medical clinic. Are the people getting enough food? Are they drinking good water? But one thing that a medical clinic always brings are babies.

All morning, young mothers brought their newborns in. One baby was only 3 weeks old. Unfortunately, it isn't uncommon for girls to be as young as 13 or 14 when they have their first child. Several of the women there were 20 and already had 3 or 4 children. The babies looked fairly healthy and really the only recurring problem was that the umbilical cords weren't drying out. Pretty common, even in the states. Alcohol swabs were distributed, the nurses there recommended that the mothers nurse for as long as they could for the health of their babies and the mothers went on their way.

I was busy taking pictures, doing my normal thing when I felt a tap on my shoulder. A mother, holding this BEAUTIFUL baby girl. Tiny. I talked to the little baby for a few seconds and she smiled at me. I thought it was odd just because the baby only looked like she was 3 or 4 weeks old and Landon didn't start smiling until he was at least 10 weeks. So I asked the mother how old her baby was. 2 months. What? This baby was 2 months old. I tried not to show my shock but I'm sure the mother noticed. She then proceeded to talk to me. Not frantically, but with a little bit of desperation. "No tengo leche para ella," she says. She doesn't have milk for her? Maybe I misunderstood her. She repeated it again. This time I knew I heard her right. She began to speak very quickly and I got completely lost. I tried to tell her to slow down but she would start out slowly and then speed up again. I got my friend Cherry. She told her what she had told me. She couldn't nurse because her milk didn't come down and she didn't have money for formula. She has four other children but she can't feed her newborn. My heart sank. Not again Lord, don't break me again.

All of a sudden the world rested on my shoulders. Guilt weighed me down. All those times I was irritated because it was "inconvenient" to nurse Landon. Here was a mother who wanted to feed her baby and couldn't, and here I was, able to feed my baby and feeling inconvenienced by it. What kind of a mother am I?

I had to do something. I thought maybe they sell formula in the colmados. I'll buy it right now. We asked, only at the pharmacy. The pharmacy was far away. The baby was crying now, sucking on her fingers. I recognized her hunger, I'd seen Landon act like that whenever I made him wait too long. There wasn't anything I could do for her right now...completely helpless. I can bring it tomorrow, can't I? She'll be ok for a day, right? Oh no, I could feel it coming...and the tears flowed. I felt embarrassed now, I'm trying to talk to her and I can't even understand myself. I had Mike tell her to meet me here tomorrow morning and I'll have milk for her baby. And I walked away.

When I got home from the day, I bawled my eyes out at my friend Yajaira's house, I held Landon tighter than I ever had before and I got Mike to drive me straight to the store to buy the biggest canister of Formula I could find. 400 pesos. 12 dollars.

The next day was probably the most fulfilling since I moved here. There she was, waiting for me, holding her baby. I gave her the formula and explained how much she should mix. She told me that her baby was only drinking 1 oz of milk (Landon was drinking 3 by her age). 2 scoops of powder, 90 ml of water. Her baby wouldn't be hungry. I hugged her, I kissed her, I held her baby and watched her sleep. I asked her name. "Alina Maria," she replied. Alina Maria, so little, but reminded me why God brought me to this little Island. I can't help everyone, but I can help someone.

Because someone in the States decided to sacrifice a little bit of money that God had blessed them with, I was able to provide food for a baby that didn't have any. Because a church in Kentucky decided to put Missions first, a Pastor in La Mosca has a church, a feeding center and a school. Because God so loved the world, he sent his son to die for us so that we may have eternal life with Him.

What are you willing to sacrifice in order to empower others to do God's work?


Baria, Alina Maria and I