(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Joyful News From Ghana [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-27 My heart is singing this morning. Very good news from Ghana last night. The photo above is from about a year ago. MY friend John is in the background. The little girls are Blessing Sr and Jr. They are twins, though you could hardly tell it. They are two years old in the photo. The little girl in her daddy’s arms is Blessing Jr. She was born with water on the brain, hydrocephalus. About a year ago the distraught father came to John begging for help. The girl was seriously ill. Her head was swelling, in fact John could see it visibly larger every day. She was in pain and crying through the night. The mother had abandoned them, believing the child was possessed. The father was poor and simply could not take care of her. John took the daddy and the children into his house while I struggled to raise money for the operation. Even by Ghana standards it wasn’t cheap, but we managed to do it and the child had her surgery. Upon hearing this the mother returned to her family. John gave her quite a lecture on her responsibilities but I don’t know if it had any impact. But that is beside the point, I guess. The little family was back together. John went hungry that month as he spent his money on the foods the doctor said the child needed. When Blessing Jr was recovered enough from the surgery the father then took his family back to their village where the people could help care for the little girl. They recently returned to the area where John lives and he went to see them yesterday. The child is much, much better. She is actually holding her head up on her own and is even sitting up! This is a little girl who almost died a year ago. The father asked for a small amount of money for a ceremony they need to do for the child. I am not sure just what it is. I don’t think it is a naming ceremony, which is extremely important there (they believe the child may be taken back- die- if it is not ritually named soon after birth.) I will see if I can provide the money, though as always there are many pressing needs there that must be taken care of. Anyway one step at a time. A beautiful family and a little girl who almost died but now she has a chance to live and thrive and be just a normal kid like everybody else. I am very happy. I thought we could all use some good news this January morning so I am passing it on to everyone here. (I am not sure of the exact medical diagnosis and I am not, obviously, a doctor. From my layman’s understanding this is what the little girl was suffering from. At any rate the diagnosis is up to the doctors. I apologize if I have it wrong.) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/27/2149611/-Joyful-News-From-Ghana Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/