by Grace Kusta-Nasralla

Created on: November 12, 2008

With a thankful heart I recollect the day when we brought our first baby girl home. It was late morning when we left the hospital, we had prepared the room for her a month before my due date as we wanted to make sure things are ready for the precious little one.

My husband and I were alone with no family members to assist or share the joy with. We had few friends around us, but we still felt alone with a precious little soul that we had to care for. What a scary feeling that was! What really gave us the courage and the ability to handle this life changing experience was our love for this little beautiful girl.

Late that afternoon Natalie Nadine started crying uncontrollably. We did everything to make her feel comfortable, but all our efforts went in vain. I tried to nurse her, change her, cuddle her, bathe her, nothing worked! I felt terrible! My first night at home as a Mom and I fail!

Late at night Natalie's color started changing and I felt that her body got so weak that she did not even have the energy to cry anymore. I cannot express in words how scared I felt that night. Our first thought was, let's rush to the hospital... Reality was we were afraid she would not make it till then. Plan B was, let's call the hospital and find out if they can help us over the phone. Within seconds I was talking to the ward I was hospitalized in, and thankfully I caught the nurse that was taking care of Natalie Nadine and Myself for the past two days before she headed home. Her shift had ended an hour ago, but my Good Lord kept her at the hospital so she can help us revive Natalie and bring her back to her old self.

Little Natalie Nadine was dehydrated. She was not getting enough milk to keep her in existence. I followed the instructions to give her a bottle of warm formula milk, and it was that simple! Magic! Amazing what that bottle did! Once Natalie completed the bottle she was back to normal staring at us and eventually had a good sleep.

Our family was very thankful that day for being in a country where we have easy access to medical assistance. That night, and with a burdened heart, I couldn't help but think of children in third world countries that die everyday of a simple problem like dehydration. How can a very simple medical problem, in our day and age, continue to kill children that are meant to live and enjoy good health?

With thankful hearts we stayed up that night watching over our little bundle of joy, feeding her every 3 hours and rejoicing for God's provisions for us in this beautiful country called Canada.

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