Jean Marc
by Angie Koch
I remember the first time I held Jean Marc. It was Thursday, August 4, 2011. His aunt arrived at Maison in the afternoon with him wrapped in a towel. She sat on the front porch, explaining that the baby's mother was very ill after having given birth on Tuesday, August 2. She had delivered at St. Catherine's, in Cite Soleil, but she had an extremely difficult delivery because she is very young. As I looked at the tiny bundle, my heart swelled. I asked if I could pick him up, and she said yes. I lifted the almost weightless bundle into my arms and peered at his sweet face. Tears pricked my eyes, and I realized he hadn't been properly cared for after his birth. His mother was unable to nurse, and the aunt had no money for formula. The sweet boy had not yet eaten. I knew we had to give this child a home. He wouldn't survive otherwise. Marie France set about filling out the intake form. The mother asked her aunt to bring the child to us. Her own mother had died three years earlier, and she was living in a tent with her father. She is still in school, and has no way to care for this baby. Tiny fingers, tiny cheeks, tiny lips and ears, all in my arms. I took him into the nurse's office for her to check him over. He was not clean, and his umbilical cord was gravely in danger of infection. Our nurse carefully cleaned the area, and fixed the cord tie. She weighed him, just around five pounds. As she handed him back to me, I realized he was the absolute smallest baby I'd ever held. Everything in me wanted to protect this child. The nannies in the baby room bathed him and put him in clean clothes, then put him back in my arms. A bottle of sugar water was prepared for his not-yet-prepared system. They handed it to me, and as I put the nipple in his mouth, I was struck with the huge blessing and responsibility to be providing the child's first nourishment. He was a lazy drinker, but I knew he'd get better.
The sweet boy didn't have a name. Marie France declared him to be Jean Marc, and so he is.
He has grown so quickly. He talks and coos, and plays on the floor. He loves his bottles. He has grown strong and healthy, though he struggled at first to gain weight. He slept for almost his entire first month of life. Now he's on his way to being a preacher, or teacher, or whatever he wants to be. I'm so thankful for the opportunity at life we were able to give this sweet baby boy.
