Baby Sarah touched all of us who knew her. There was something irresistible about her dainty features and her searching eyes. Maybe it was a fascination that one so tiny and frail could even exist in such a harsh land. Maybe it was knowing that her young mother had died and she had no family who wanted to keep her. Maybe it was just a feeling that this baby was extra special.
Whatever the reason, many of us here at Namwianga and many blog readers fell in love with this five-pound sweetheart. We joined Lauren on the "Sarah roller coaster" and lived the highs and lows of her struggle to survive.
Thursday Sarah took a sudden turn for the worse, and Thursday evening her struggle finally ended. Here at our house, Lauren held Sarah and loved her as Meagan, Louisa, and I surrounded the two of them and watched Sarah take her final breaths. Friday morning a handful of the "aunties" who care for the Haven babies joined all of us and Kathi Merritt to bury sweet Sarah.
There is an ache in our hearts. We grieve for Lauren who loved and nurtured and fought for Sarah so valiantly. We grieve for Sarah. In some ways she was a symbol for our hopes for this land--surely one who fought so hard against the odds could make it. And so we grieve for a land where babies like Sarah die every day.
Lauren has written a beautiful account of Sarah's life and death. Click on the title to link to her blog entry.
Friday, October 20, 2006
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Sarah's story touched our hearts. So sorry that her life was so short. But Lauren's story, telling about that final sweet smile, leaves me with a sense of hope in the midst of such sorrow and grief. Wish we could know what Baby Sarah was seeing as she passed from this world to the next.
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