Baby Development

Over the past several months the Lord has brought a young girl across my path named Lucero who lives in the Rio.  Lucero is 14 and two months ago gave birth to Jesus Calet. (I wrote an earlier post about her baby's birth.) During her pregnancy I was able to pray with Lucero and encourage her often. When Jesus Calet was close to two months old Lucero and her husband (16 years old) came to the soup kitchen for a birthday party and tried to feed their precious baby cake! As I talked to them I found out that they had tried feeding him rice and given him tastes of coffee as well!!! Don't get me wrong, these parents love their baby, just honestly have no idea about baby care and development. I arranged a time to meet with them and then went home to look up all sorts of information in Spanish on baby development. 

The next week I was able to sit down with mom and dad and talk about what 2 month old babies can and can't do, what they can and can't eat, etc. We talked through developmental stages for the first few months, healthy eating habits, how to prepare a bottle, and how to relieve gas and constipation in a little guy. Jesus Calet has been having constipation problems since he was born, so praise be to God, I was able to show them how to do different tummy massages, bicycle legs, and give the advice of a warm bath to help him. 

In my last semester of college I happened to take a class where I could shadow a Help Me Grow worker in order to skip the final. I shadowed the worker for 2 weeks. During those two weeks we went to homes of teenage moms and poverty stricken girls who had at risk babies to help educate them on child development and baby massage. I had NO idea how much this would come in handy! I LOVE the Lord!!! I love that He prepares us in advance for what He has for us to do. He can use EVERYTHING and I believe has a purpose for everything that happens in our lives. 

This past Saturday Lucero came up to me at the soup kitchen, very excited. She told me that she has been doing the things I taught her to help Jesus Calet with his tummy and that it had worked! Excitement and relief were written all over her face. 

Praise Jesus for His wisdom and understanding! I loved the time I got to spend with Lucero and her husband educating them about babies... it felt exactily like a hand in a glove for me. I'm praying about what other opportunites the Lord has for me in this arena. 

Brian, Lucero, and myself reading and talking about baby development.