Prayers for Raghad's Family

Today we’ve been driving east (again!) to Ocean City, NJ.  We’ve yet to get through Philadelphia, and we were praying not to hit rush hour traffic.  It’s now 4:10, and we’re at a standstill, so it may not work out.  There are worse things.

Imagine being Raghad Hausoun.  Eleven years old.  Only eleven short years of hard life in Syria, filled with fighting.  With diabetes.  And the people your family has paid to transport all of you to Cairo have forced your parents to throw out all of your insulin and supplies.  The fear that must have gone through her heart.  What would she eat?  How long would it take for the high blood sugars to catch up with her?  Your daddy is a pharmacist, he knows well how to take care of you, but you don’t have access to medicine.  Your life support.

Your mother is crushed and sobbing.  She fears for your life, and you want to comfort her.  By the third day you are sick.  Physically ill.  You know why.  Your parents and family know why.

By the fifth day, Raghad Hausoun has passed away.  From no access to insulin.  My heart is crushed.  That her autoimmune system failed her.  That she was born in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That life is so unbelievably unfair.  That human traffickers understand drug needles, but not life-saving needles.  I’m heartbroken for the insensitivity to others in our world.  That this child died much, much too soon.

You can read her family’s story here.  I wish I could make it all better.  I wish for a CURE.  For my sweet kids.  And for all the other children and adults in the world that suffer daily.  And take the gigantic chance that they too could be stranded without insulin.

As I type, my son is down to .775 units.  He’s waited a little long to tell me that he has a low reservoir in his pump.  But I’m thankful I have plenty of insulin with me.  That I can change a site on him within 5 minutes.  That I’m in a peaceful land.

I’m blessed with these kids.  These kids with diabetes (and the kids without).  They’ve helped me see more of my world, made my heart bigger and a thousand times more sensitive.

Today I pray earnestly for a CURE for Type 1 Diabetes, and for peace for Raghad’s family.  May God be with all of them and give them safe landing in Germany.