On Tuesday, March 4th, I met a little boy named Nthembe and his mother at the hospital that we visit in Manzini. He was two months old and wearing a pink shirt, which threw me off and first made me think that he was a she. He was so beautiful and had these big gorgeous brown eyes. The conversation that I had with his mother was light, mainly that her son was sick with diarrhea and vomiting and that he was her only child. When I returned on Thursday though, the relationship began to grow. By then his vomiting and diarrhea had stopped, but he was somewhat dehydrated at that point. There were three other baby boys next to him that Kyleigh, Megan, and I had given “American names” to (Benjamin, Joshua, and Jacob), so I asked my friend if she wanted her son to have an “American name” as well. She agreed and I gave him the name Nathan. That day I got to hold little Nathan for the first time and I gave him water to help hydrate him. By the time we were about to leave, Nathan’s mother asked me to pray for him. Immediately after I did, she looked at me and said, “He will be healed no because you prayed for him!” As I looked into her eyes, I wanted to affirm her sincere belief, but I knew that I could not because I didn’t know whether God would heal him or not, only that God could and would do what He wanted to do.
By the next Tuesday, Nathan had been moved to a different area because he had needed oxygen on Monday, but was off it by the time I visited. He still had no vomiting or diarrhea, but his belly was bloated and he was hooked up to an IV. I sat with him and prayed over him that day, but that was about all. It was on the following Thursday though that I truly bonded with him. When I arrived he was falling asleep and his mom was obviously exhausted. All the other times I had seen her, it was apparent that she had fixed her hair in the morning, but that morning she had not. After some light conversation, I told her that if she would like to sleep that I could stay with Nathan. So for the next hour and fifteen minutes I became the babysitter. It was amazing! I held him and walked with him, sang to him, fed him, and even changed his dirty diaper (because it had gone through all his clothes and couldn’t wait). For the first time, I saw him smile. The best moment was when he smiled while I sang, “Jesus Loves Me”, and he smiled through the whole song. It was that day that I completely fell in love with little Nathan. But this story does not have a completely happy ending. I found out that day that Nathan is HIV positive and that his mother is not giving him his medicine. Part of me is frustrated with that, but there is so much shame that goes with HIV/AIDS that I understand why she would try to hide that her son has HIV. Still, I would take him home in a heartbeat. No, seriously, I almost carried him out of the hospital with me and if I were to adopt any of the children that I’ve met here, he would be first on the list.
This week when I was at the hospital, I looked for Nathan and couldn’t find him. The plan was that he would go home the day after I last saw him, so I assume that is what happened. It breaks my heart that I may never see him again, especially knowing the condition that he is in, but I have to trust that he’s still in God’s hands. I may see him again if he gets sick again, but I don’t want to hope for that. God, I pray that you will keep Nathan in your hands, that you will protect him from sicknesses that could cause him great pain, and that, if it’s in your will, you would completely heal him from the disease that is destroying his body.
