Emma Natalie

On On March 4, 2010 a little girl entered the world. Less than twenty-four hours later without so much as a name this little girl arrived at The Ark. She had been found by police alongside the road. This little girl is now known as Emma Natalie and at 6lb 4oz she is super tiny.

Emma came on Friday March 5 and she had just arrived when we got home from the jungle. She was immediately put in isolation for her own protection so I did not have the privilege to meet her until Monday morning. Monday morning I got to feed her and give her a bath before Veronica and I took her and Maria to the doctors. Now I can’t go anywhere without people looking at me rather strange. Blond hair, blue eyes, and really tall according to Ecuadorian standards, it makes me stick out like a sore thumb. Anyways we waited in the waiting room for quite some time and at one point a Veronica went to see if the doctor was available and older couple came up and asked how old the baby was. I told them she was five days old (at that time we thought she was a day older). The man got a very worried look on his face and proceeded to tell me that I should not be out less than a week after having a baby and that she might get sick being at the Hospital. I then in horrible Spanish told them that the baby was from The Ark and she was not my baby. It is times like that that I really want to laugh trying to explain to people about la fundación del Arca. After our adventure at the doctor he told us to come back the next day for Emma because he was closing for the day. I got to take her home, feed her a bottle and put her in bed.

The next day we took her and Mary, another little one, to the doctor and he checked them out. When we got home I got to feed her and change her and put her in bed. I have been very blessed to be with her every day since then except Wednesday and I love it. She is so precious and today she thought that I was there to serve as her diaper changer. We went through four diapers and three outfits this morning in less than a half hour. Tonight I was getting ready to head out for the night and Doris, one of the supervisors, came rushing up and asked if I would change and feed Emma. I went and changed her, washed my hands and got her bottle and when I came back she was wet again. This time she managed to soak her diaper, her outfit and her sheets. I changed her, washed my hands, came back and fed her. She guzzled her bottle, downing about 3oz before giving me this look as if to say “okay, thank you I’m done”. Once again very dirty I changed her diaper, got her a new sheet and settled her in her bed.

Well, hopefully you have now gotten small glimpse of our little girl. Hopefully you can tell by the pictures that she is a beautiful baby…but then again I am slightly partial! It is sad to think that we only have three weeks left with her and I can’t wait to see how she grows and changes in that time.