Yesterday, I got a frantic call from Nixon, who is the administrator of the Jesus Healing Center here in Haiti. When Nixon calls me to come, it is something urgent or “strange.” It was both.

The mother, 40-year-old Madamn Justin sat on the chair, just staring ahead, and then grinning and laughing. The nurses told us she was “crazy” and lived by herself, but she was always pregnant. She had no husband, but had “five children.” However, they were all dead and her last little girl “disappeared!”

She had not bathed or breastfed the baby since he had been born! The doctor asked her what she had been feeding the baby, because he was bloated and swollen from malnutrition. She replied, “candy and flour with water!”

The doctor told her to breastfeed the baby so he could determine some things. She started but stopped in a minute. The doctor was getting aggravated because the baby was starving!  We went out and bought formula and a bottle for the baby. The doctor told her to feed the baby. But, when she gave it to him, she took it out of his mouth in less than a minute!! We let her go with the baby but called the Department of Social Services and they told me, “Take the baby home and we will do the paperwork next week.”

We immediately took two nurses and a security guard with us. She lived in a dirty house and everything she touched was dirty. We did not know if she would give the baby up. The nurses talked to the neighbors and the neighbors told the nurses, “she’s crazy and dirty and everyone thinks she killed her five kids with Voodoo.” Then, they told the nurses, “right before you came, she grabbed a knife and said she was going to kill the baby!” However, she did give the baby to our nurses. Then the neighbors said, “We think a family member came and took the little girl to save her.”

When we arrived at our orphanage, there were so many sweet little girls wanting to see their new brother! Everyone wants to think of a name for him! What a good ending to a sad story! We will keep you posted on our “baby report.” God bless you, Sherry