After today's session, she informed us that we would have a few weeks where she couldn't come to work with Meagan because she would be going on a trip. I remember her mentioning before Christmas about a trip to Africa. I asked today if it was recreational. She told me that she was actually going over for two weeks to work with nurses and programs in Africa where special needs children are cared for. She goes and sees many patients in the two week span to hopefully educate nurses and parents on how to better help their special needs children progress and reach goals, goals otherwise thought impossible.
I was really taken aback by the conversation with Meagan's PT. Her story brought to mind a charity we came across after Meagan's diagnosis called CURE. For many children like Meagan in other parts of the world, there is no hope. While we had to struggle with a doctor suggesting termination here, we at least had our own strength, education, and support system to bring Meagan into this world, and be her best advocate. In other parts of the world, there simply isn't that education or support, and many children like Meagan are simply discarded. One illustration that really opened my eyes to the whole situation was a video I found from CURE, describing how many local people in the area where CURE works deal with and view children with Hydrocephalus. I have posted a link to the video below - and a fair warning, it is not for children, and not for the faint of heart. It is the truth, but a brutal truth that has made a permanent imprint on my mind and heart.
CURE International is doing wonders in providing education, medical care, life-saving Hydro surgeries, and support to families who have a child with Hydrocephalus. The work they are doing is literally saving lives, and giving parents hope again. With January focusing in many aspects on the pro-life movement here in the U.S., culminating in the large Life March in Washington DC at the end of the month, I thought there was no better way to start off the month on the blog than by bringing to light this wonderful charity.
I would highly encourage you to visit CURE's website. There are details on the website about the work they do, what it entails, where exactly all the money goes, and what they provide to the Hydro children and their families. (They also do extensive work with children who have many other birth defects and congenital conditions - we just chose to specifically highlight Hydrocephalus since it is what has touched us personally through Meagan). To learn more about what CURE does in saving lives and providing hope, you can click HERE .
If you are touched by the work the people at CURE are doing, as we were, and would like to make a donation towards a life saving Hydro surgery for a child in Africa where care and support is extremely scarce you can visit Meagan's own donation page HERE . Also, please keep the CURE doctors and volunteers in your prayers. Nothing is as powerful as prayer, and the work they are doing not only saves a physical life, but saves the world's soul, one special child at a time.
The world is vast, and there are many needs among our fellow humans. From small to great, every need is important and deserves attention and prayer. But something I learned today is that even in this great big world, God gave us all our own struggles so we can not only learn from them, but pay it forward through them. I was reminded of that today knowing Meagan's therapist is doing just that as she goes to Africa for the 5th year in a row to give a little of herself and her talent to better strangers' lives.
I hope that as we continue to highlight Meagan's story, it gives a little bit of light to someone's darkness, a little bit of hope to seemingly desperate situations, and perhaps makes this great big world seem a little bit smaller....small enough to know that even one life valued, one life saved, is worth it.
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