Tuesday's Child

Sometimes it's hard to see that a Tuesday's child is full of grace. The baby that had been so placid for her first few weeks suddenly became a terror. Daytime fussiness was a way of life, she seemed to be always hungry but wouldn't eat for more than a minute or two. Nights were filled with pitiful cries for no apparent reason, disturbing the neighbors so often they called CPS. But investigation showed a home that was tastefully decorated and filled with love, no signs of physical trauma to the child, and parents who had tried everything they knew, to no avail.

It was a CASA volunteer, also coincidentally born on a Tuesday, who wondered about it for prayer-filled days and sleepless nights after the visit, and asked the family to make an appointment with a particular pediatric specialist, who noticed a slight, almost inaudible sound in her ears when she listened to the little heart. A valve had not closed after birth, as it should have. The baby's plaintive cries were simply a fight to try to get air into the tiny lungs.

Surgery took care of the problem. And finally the Tuesday's child began to thrive. Tantrums after that were simply a result of the terrible twos, and dealt with in appropriate fashion.

Two years later, the little family invited the CASA volunteer to their home for Christmas Eve dessert. Over homemade pie, Mom wrestled the little one from left to right arm and back again, and said, "I never got a chance to ask you before, do you have medical training? Is that what led you to suspect the heart problem?"

"No," the petite blond answered with a sweet smile, "but I serve the Great Physician. I approach every case with the same first step: I pray, and I ask God to show me the right thing to do, and then I wait for His answer. It doesn't matter whether the scenario is complicated or straight-forward, I simply believe it is a matter of faith to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves."

And so today I celebrate CPS and CASA volunteers; pediatricians; surgeons; NICU and surgical nurses; all those who solve the puzzle of a child in distress, and make it right, on a Monday, or a Tuesday, or any other day of the week.