So today, we went to the bank to get the bankbooks of two of our girls who graduated from the farm. The goal of today was to get these accounts that were established 15 years ago, changed into adult accounts. Everything was going along fine. I looked over to one of the girls and her baby looked like she was trying everything she could not to fall asleep. Her head was just bobbing around. We all just laughed and continued with our project of the paperwork needed to get the deed done. I was handed back the old bankbook by the one of the bank assistants, and they pointed me in the direction to cancel this old bankbook at the teller window. Our older girl was going to fill out her forms for her new account after I did my part. Rosa and I had a hundred errands and so I was thrilled that the line was not long and that I was almost to the head of the line at the bank. Then I heard a scream. "Mama, come and help us". I thought to myself, "Goodness we are in a place of business, why are they hollering?" I tried to looked around the folks who were in line, and saw the baby's mom crying hysterically and waving for me to come and do something. Then Rosa, who is always composed, was screaming to come and help. The rest was a blur. I ran over there, snatched up the baby and saw that she was listless and blue. There was a lady to my right who was praying in a fierce way and very loud. I praise God for this woman who was interceding for my girls and for me. I ran my finger down the baby's throat to make sure she wasn't choking. Her eyes were closed and I turned her upside down, and hit her between her shoulders, and she breathed in. I flipped her back around and she was with eyes open, but they were closing again. I blew in her face, and she didn't like that. The guy next to me snatched her from me and tried to give her mouth, but she was so listless he could keep her head from flopping around he could not. We worked together and I blew into her mouth, not knowing if we were doing anything at all. I finally remembered that once when my Aunt Bess who lived alone told me a story about getting choked on chips. She flung herself on the arm of her padded sofa on her stomach and she regained her breath. I thought at the time that was pretty intense thinking. Well I didn't do that, but I took my finger tips and pressed in and upward on her stomach. Then I would raise her arms, while the other guy helped me. I kept stretching her arms up, short pushes with my fingertips and she would catch her breath. Then I just started blowing hard in her face and she would catch her breath.
Meanwhile, the mom had lost it. The manager of the bank told me to go with the guard and they took us to his truck that was waiting with his driver and drove us to a clinic. When the truck stopped, I grabbed the baby, and the mom while we ran inside the clinic and told the nurse that the baby wasn't breathing well. The young nurse rushed me to a room and they rolled in a tall oxygen tank and plugged the baby up to an oxygen mask. Zapped her up with an IV and the doctor raced in and saw that it was me and ask if this was one of my girls. He used to work at the public hospital, but now he has built his own little private hospital. I said weakly said, "yes", and thought later "second generation". Then he was all business occupied with the baby and told us that the baby was having a type of seizure. He said she had a high fever and so under his instruction the nurse, put medicine in the IV for seizures for a 9 month old and medicine to drop the baby's temperature. Everything happened so fast. I left my purse, my phone, everything in the bank. I knew Rosa would get it, but I couldn't call her to tell her where we were or what was happening. The bank manager had left the bank and came back into the emergency room with us and said "Listen if I can do anything else let me know". I told him how grateful we were for getting us to this clinic with his driver and that we appreciated his staff and clients there at the bank being so helpful at our time of need. I asked him if he tell would tell Rosa where we were.
The baby and the mom finally got settled down and were okay. So many wonderful things happened during this disaster. The first and foremost is that God showed me again just how amazing He is. The girls who were in the bank getting their affairs in order had come to my house the day before ready to go to the bank like we had planned. But because Rosa couldn't come that day, I postponed going to the bank yesterday and planned it for today. The baby's mom lives way back in the woods and very far away and has no phone or transportation, except for walking. The baby had gotten up with a with a fever the next morning, which was today. The mom gave her teething baby some tylenol, like 98 percent of the moms out there would have done, and continued her plans to go the bank. The baby had no cough or other symptoms and has been a healthy baby up to this point. However, if we had gone to the bank the day before, the mom and baby would have been in their home in the woods when this happened with no phone or close neighbor. If they had gotten miffed yesterday about the change of plans, and decided not to come, they would have been home, again with the same outcome of a possible disaster.
Today, the baby is fine. She is taking medicine and sees the doctor on Tuesday and this precious little family decided to spend the night with me. I really voted for them to stay the night in the hospital, but we settled on a night at mom's, who is close to the hospital than the wilds of Santa Cruz de Rosario. God made a way. I have cried, laughed, almost collapsed one time and generally have been through the wringer with this day. But what I have found yet again, that God continues to overwhelm me with His goodness. I have been amazed at how things are set into place by God for our good. I had told the doctor I was too old to still be doing all this, but apparently I am not. He knows where I am supposed to be. Please to continue to pray for baby and the mom. Life is so tremendously fragile. Like this precious baby, a genuine replica of her mom, teething and toddling one moment, and the next holding on to life like a transparent silken thread. God showed me once again today, how He is so totally in charge of this world and orchestrates this wild band of humans to make the sound of life a little sweeter today.
