Jesus and Milagro

This past week we admitted a longtime acquaintance whom we have known since we first arrived in Honduras. Jesus, now about 20, arrived with her 10 day old little girl, Milagro, who had been born at 30 weeks gestation at home. John had admitted her to our hospital several weeks ago to stop early labor, and had transferred her on to the public hospital in La Ceiba where she was treated. Fortunately, she was given steroids to mature the fetus's lungs, because when she resumed her labor several days later and was prevented from going to either hospital by the heavy storms in our area, her little Milagro (Miracle) did not have the respiratory problems one would expect from such a premie.
Having been told by the local Health Department not to bring the baby in until she reached 5 lbs., Jesus obediently kept Milagro home with her, weighing her in at the local pulperia (little storefront) in the vegey scale. She thought she'd weighed about 3 lbs. By day 10, Milagro was weakening and her own supply of milk was about gone. Jesus arrived very ill herself, but is improving. We've successfully helped her restart lactation and begin giving her own milk to the baby. Two nursing missionaries on site contributed their own milk in the days before Jesus's supply became sufficient. 8 or more missionaries volunteered to take l feeding a day to ease the load on the overworked Honduran nurses, every 3 hours. We've been rewarded in seeing Milagro begin to suck better, increase her ability to tolerate the feeding amounts, open her eyes...and to see the joy in her mama's eyes when she is able to use her own milk to satisfy her firstborn. Pray for Miracle Baby, as Benton calls her. She weighs in just over 1 Kg.