Today was a really tough day for Lawik as well as his mother. Even so it was just an admission to hospital, because of his major surgery tomorrow, everything took a long time which was really heavy for his mother. During the whole procedure she worried for her son and sometimes couldn’t hold back her tears. I know that it must be very hard for her, alone in a different country and fighting for the life of her son. So I tried to comfort her and reassure her that the doctors know what they are doing and that her son is in good hands. Thankfully Lawik’s mother can speak not only English, but also Arabic, so that she can communicate to the doctors and nurses as well as the other moms in hospital. She already made a friend with one of the moms during her stay with us in Ashdod, which is a great relief for us.
Before Lawik could go to his room in the ICU, he needed an ECG and Echo. The doctors explained they wanted to measure his heart to compare it to the size after the surgery. That’s why the Echo took a long time. Lawik didn’t like the echo at all and also was really tired as he couldn’t sleep well at night in the past. The doctors who did the echo were really patient with him and took their time to treat him carefully. Because Lawik didn’t stop crying, the doctor just took him in her own arms and waited until he fell asleep. After that they could finally start the echo and while one of them held Lawik in her arms, the other one was doing the echo. Lawik didn’t complain at all and after some time they were finally finished. For me personally it was so great to see that not only do we care for these little children, but also the doctors and nurses at Sheba Hospital do. They stayed by Lawik’s side and made sure he was okay before they would start treating him.
A bit troubling however was when the doctors in the ward tried to take a blood sample from Lawik, but didn’t succeed. In the end, one of the doctors told me to stay out of the room with Lawik’s mother until they were finished because it would have been really hard for Lawik’s mother to watch them trying to put the IV canal on his arm or somewhere else while Lawik was crying non-stop. It took longer than we expected, so Elise and I decided to just pray for Lawik and his doctors. Right after I spoke out the words to help the doctors, one nurse came out of the ICU and said that we could come back. Unfortunately they didn’t succeed, but told us they would try again in the evening.
Surely it was a tough day for everybody, especially for Lawik’s mom who was really worried and tired the whole day. Please pray for this little boy and his big surgery tomorrow. And also for his mother, who is only thinking about her son. Today she said several times that as long as Lawik is good, she is also fine. How greater can the love of a mother be than this?