A Beautiful Boy

I walked in to school about two weeks ago to see a picture in the newspaper of the most adorable baby boy staring at me. He has limpid eyes that spoke of a contented peace and I yearned, absolutely yearned, to hold him, cuddle him, make everything right in his life.


He is from Ethiopia, and was born with hydrocephalus. He was brought to the United States to have the necessary surgery to preserve his life, and he is residing in my town. There were photos of the nurses crowding around him. I was jealous.

Juddah has journeyed further in his young, 4 months of life, than anyone I personally know, and more than most of us probably will. And through all of this, he still has that beautiful, peaceful face. Please view the blog (click on the first link) to see his whole story. His American guardian is regularly updating his progress.

But the point to my story is that, several weeks later and on a whim, Steve and I went to Target to pick up a few items on which we were running low. We split up in order to speed the trip up - this wasn't a casual "Let's hang out" (Yes, we do that in Target. Leave me alone.), but rather, a quick in-and-out trip. I was pushing Sydney, who was getting fussy for dinner, in the cart and we turned a corner. There, those deep pools of dark eyes were staring at us.

Juddah was fussy, too. He was crying weakly, half-heartedly, but as soon as he and Sydney locked eyes, both stopped their fussing. They stared at each other, enraptured by the sight of the other. His guardian and I spoke briefly, and she gave me a picture of him, which I scanned and posted below. I was so excited to meet Baby Juddah, and I will follow his progress on his blog.




I couldn't resist sharing the experience with my faithful readers. The picture in the lower left is his mother, holding him, and his grandmother, holding his twin sister. Baby Juddah, you are in my thoughts as you continue your journey.