After breakfast we had morning prayer and then we went over to the Azzeale. I'm still trying to get used to the flow of the reading and the responses whenever it's time for either morning or evening prayer, but I think I'm way better than when we practiced at the retreat.
The walk to the Azzeale was a bit of a hike, but it blew by pretty fast. I wasn't excited or anything like that, becuase I egnerally hate hospitals, but the idea of being able to gold and play with some babies seemed rather appealing and definetly made the walk much quicker.
When we got there, there were less babies, becuase the lss critical ones were premitted to return home for the holidays. The first baby's cib that I approaches, he didn't seems that eager to get out f his crib, so while everyone just grabbed a baby immediately. I kind of just stood by his crib and let him feel me out. We sort of had this game going. I would tickle him and then turn away from his crib really quickly, and then he would tap me and we would go through the motions again and again.
The second baby I just jumped right in for, I picked him up and we went out to the porch to hold him, where some of the others were, with their babies. I just held him close to my chest for a while, just rocked him until the silence was ever present and the connection was so strong that I could feel the wheesing in his chest everytime he took a breathe.
It made me cry, I was over the idea of not wanting anyone to see me cry -- after Nick and Chantal both cried in last nights reflection, I wasn't worried about anyone judging me, we were all undergoing the emotional stress of all the things going on right now in Haiti.
I continued to cry, tears kept falling, and I kept praying that God heal this baby. That God remove this cough, that God absolve him of sickness. I told him that I loved him and then rocked him until the tears stopped.
Soon he was ready to get up, we were walking around the floor together. More like, he was running and I was following behind trying my best to ensure that he didn't hurt himself. He was amazing, full of smiles and energy, he didn't let his sickness overpower him. I was envious.
I did a couple more rotations with different babies and it was already time to leave. The walk home seem to be so much longer than the walk there, it's nothing like having to walk away from a crying baby to make your walk feel long.
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