Sunday, January 28, 2007

A New Face for Marlie

You know, as Americans we take so much for granted. I don't think that's anything any of us have never heard before thought about on occassion. However, tonight I have been sort of overwhelmed by how fortunate we are to live in America, where we have access to clean water, food, and medical care if we need it.

Tonight I have been watching TLC and they are showing one of those surgery shows and tonight it is about a girl named Marlie who had a 16 pound liesion on her face that has completely disfigured her. She is from Haiti and was on the verge of death because it was keeping her from breathing, eating, not to mention going out in public where people thought she was cursed or a monster.

Can you imagine if that was your child?

Anyways, she was fortunte enough to be able to come to America to have a never before performed sugery and as she was going in for the first part of her operation, her mother and the two Haitian nurses who made the journey with her were singing and even praying the song "God Bless America." They aren't Americans, but because of the medical technology we have in our country, their little girl is saved. We really are blessed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too was watching tlc, and saw a bit about conjoined twins, and how the family was pulling through the situation, and just seeing the girls (attached at the head, one facing one way "normal" and the other behind her facing down) and how they interacted with everyday stuff. They were Russian, and came to America too.
That's always worried me, since the gene for twins is pretty dominant in my family, it would be a horrible fear to have conjoined twins and have to decide to seperate them or not, and everything that goes into it. My dad, being a twin, always feels a great sense of sympathy for those kids bc he felt like he and his brother could've been one of those kids (pardon the phrase)
so that was kinda off, but eh, we do need to feel blessed of the opportunities we have in america, and much more we need to train people to share these advances with other people outside the us more than we do
-Ktb

Anonymous said...

I dont say this out of personal pride, thinking money and research can save everyone (God can do in an instant what technology can never dream of), or thinking that the US is the greatest thing in the world and everybody should become like us (cause that'd suck, i think of myself as a lover of true diversity and hope to see more countries someday). But, this does make me proud of our country. Yes there has been a lot of dirtiness in our country and yes there have been evil things done to other nations by our country, but we really do have a great country. While we should DEFINITELY feel humbled to live here, we should also take pride in the fact that our nation is prosperous because of hard work and solid foundational values (for the most part, i know some might say we bully our way to wealth--which is partially true too).
I can say i'm proud to be an American and i think everyone should be able to say that regardless of what you think about the current state of or past history of the US. Yes there are problems, but i think it is a spiritual principle to take root in your culture and work to change it for the better. I think thats the sign of a real man or real woman--standing to change something instead of running away going on and on about how bad it is. What if the Israelites just left everytime the country went down the drain in the OT? That'd be bad for all of us.
ANYWAYS, i'm ranting. Good story Brooke, i'm encouraged by it and proud to say my countrymen helped that girl.

Anonymous said...

"it's a gift, and a curse" - Monk