gratitude and faith ...

It seems Razaa was too eager to come into this world. My sister (Nancy) went into labour pain on 12 March - immediately after completing 26 weeks. She had been going through a difficult pregnancy. Being a doctor, she knew that there were some complications and there were chances of the baby being born prematurely but none of us had suspected that it would be so soon. The doctors tried to delay her labour by giving her medicines but nothing worked. The doctors in our hometown - Patiala said that there was no way they would be able to save the baby as they do not have neonatal care facility. The whole family was devastated. Amidst all the disappointment and confusion, Raminder (my brother-in-law) called one of his friends who is a pediatrician and he suggested that there were some chances of saving the baby at PGI (about 1.5 hrs drive from Patiala), Chandigarh. Without any further delay, Nancy was rushed to PGI, where she delivered a small girl. The baby was put on a ventilator and since that day, this tiny little girl has been struggling to keep herself alive.

Nancy and Raminder decided to name this little wonder - "Razaa" meaning God’s will. Her chances of survival started from 0% and slowly kept growing and today, she seems to be doing pretty well. She has gone through quite a lot - jaundice, sepsis shock, kidney failure, PDA, advanced ROP (a condition of the eye that could have resulted in blindness) but every time she bounced back and kept our hopes alive.

Her brain ultra sound had shown mild damage but the doctors are not sure what effect that damage could have on her. The scars in her brain could self-heal and she could lead an absolutely normal life. So what is important is to watch the milestones. Her first smile brought tremendous joy into our lives as that was the first indication that her brain is progressing normally.

Now, we all are waiting for her to start rolling over and to start sitting on her own. The muscle tone in her lower limbs is high and that is a little worrisome. This could result in her not being able to do fine moments but again the doctors and we all are quite hopeful that with time the muscle tone would be normal and she would start crawling and walking. She has shown positive signs – she has started moving her legs more vigorously and we can also make out that she makes an effort to roll over. We seek your blessings and prayers in this regard.

The other condition that she is struggling with is her eye sight. The laser surgery that was performed to correct the ROP condition was successful but the surgery damaged her retina. The effects are still not known so far except that her eye sight is always going to be weak and she might require glasses at a very young age (may be 2 years). She also has a squint in her eye and her eyes are photo sensitive i.e. she cannot keep her eyes open in the sun for long. Again, the doctors say that since she is so young, her retina might self heal and needless to say that we are very optimistic J Our prayers are with her and knowing the fighting spirit of this girl, I am very hopeful that she would be able to beat this odd as well and will be able to see this beautiful world that she was so eager to enter.

"Doesn't matter whether one believes in religion or God - the important thing is to bring ourselves in a state of mind closest to a prayer"

thank you...

During this difficult time our best companions have been "prayers" and my family's constant Faith that there is somebody out there who would take care of this little angel. A lot of people have prayed for Razaa and surprisingly, that includes a lot of strangers who have never met any one of us or Razaa and who would probably never meet us also. They formed a beautiful connection with us through their healing prayers.
We had put a healing request for Razaa on some healing web sites and many people came forward to give the gift of prayers to Razaa selflessly. I have been sending regular updates about Razaa’s condition to these healers and my faith in their healing prayers have grown with time. Every time, I share an update on Razaa with these strangers, I feel blessed. Their responses and capacity to love and bless a stranger has amazed me. I have this growing feeling that Razaa could not have made it without being touched by all of these healers.

I have added all the updates that I have sent about Razaa’s condition below. I have also put the responses that were sent to me by the healers as comments to these updates. This is my gift to our little family angel. I hope she will grow up to appreciate the selfless gift of blessing given to her by these selfless strangers from all over the world.