I am currently in my 4th year of studying Occupational Therapy. As part of our final year practicals we worked in the Mamelodi community. During this period I treated a Cerebral Palsy baby who is 2 years old. I struggled a lot with treating her as she was unable to control her emotions and would often start crying for no reason and non-stop or she would not respond to anything I tried with her. She never smiled when I saw her and she was unable to show emotions due to her condition.
On the last day of our time working there I had to do a treatment with her as part of my exam. The day before my exam when I went to see her, she was crying even more than usually and I was unable to do any treatment with her. This upset me because it made me very sad to see her crying like that and not knowing what was wrong or how to help her. So I decided to stop treatment and just held her. While I was holding her I started praying for her. I prayed that the Lord would help her and comforted her because I didn’t know how to. When I left her she was still crying.
On the morning of my exam, on my way to her, I prayed again. This time I prayed that she would be happy. Not just to help me do my exam, but also because babies are supposed to be happy. Even if she was unable to regulate her emotions, God was able to.
When I arrived at the Centre for my exam I walked into her room and there she was, lying on her bed, with no tears or signs of being upset. During the exam God gave me a gift, right in the middle of my exam, my cerebral palsy baby, who never showed any emotion, smiled and gave a little giggle.
That was the only time during the 6 week period that I worked with her that I ever saw her smile, nevermind hearing a little giggle. God can do the impossible and He listens to our prayers. I will never forget that moment that God made His light shine through a 2 year old baby with Cerebral Palsy!
Andrea Kendall
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Glory to God!