Miracle

   Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was a foster care counselor in a very rural area of Florida.
 

    On one occasion, I was assigned another counselors caseload for a couple of weeks while she went on vacation. I found her casework and files to be in excellent order and that her visitations were always accomplished, except for one.
 

    Surprised by this, when she called the next day after she arrived at her destination, I asked her about this file. She said. “Oh, don’t worry too much about her, (referring to the 6 year old client) she’s in excellent hands and besides, she's in a residential facility out in the next county.
 

    Now, this story is not about the wiles and horrors of the foster care system, but suffice it to say that it is always in a constant state of mayhem and confusion and there is never enough time, counselors or foster care homes to do a proper job!
 

    Anyway, even though I had my caseload to ‘juggle’ along with hers, I decided to take a day and go see this ‘young lady’ in the next county.
 

    Now let me tell you, rural doesn’t even come close to describing the location of this place. Desolate would be more like it! It was out ‘in the swamps’, with nothing but dirt roads the last few miles to get there.
 

    What I found is that it was what used to be an old ‘school for blacks’; deserted in the 60’s as a result of integration, and that it had been renovated into being an adult home for ‘the mentally challenged'! (Called ‘retarded’ back in those days)
 

    Anyway, the reason this little girl was at this home in the first place was because her mother was a patient there, also. Not only was the mother mentally challenged, but already into Alzheimer’s at the age of about 45!
 

    When I got there, the director met me in the lobby and ‘babbled’ on about how well this young lady was doing, and said they had her ‘ready’ for me to see her. Not knowing or suspecting anything out of the ordinary, I followed the woman into the room where the child was. 
 

In the room were two other women gathered around a gurney, which to my chagrin held the little girl. All three women smiled at me with radiant faces which seemed to glow, then stepped back so I could see her.
    I’ve got to confess right here and now, I almost ‘lost my cookie’s’; for on the gurney was this naked, twisted body, the width of her shoulders couldn’t have been more than 15’ wide, on approximately a 4 foot tall body.
    The director cooed to the little 'form' on the gurney. “We brought somebody new to see you, baby, and he loves you just as much as we do!”
    As the little Haitian girl heard the familiar voice, she turned her oversized head toward me, and ‘hissed’ like a snake! Another woman said. “She likes you, she’s smiling at you!”
    As I looked at this deformed little body, her skinny little legs so twisted that they almost looked like a ‘corkscrew’, with her mouth drooling as she hissed  (and looked) like a snake, all I could think of was: “Why does God bring children like this into the world?”
    When I asked why the little girl was naked, I was told that when the other foster care counselor came; she wanted to ‘check’ her out closely, because historically, she said to them, these types of patients are very vulnerable to abuse!
 

    I told them right then and there that from now on that would not be necessary. I felt the little girl had enough problems without having to suffer the humiliation of lying naked in front of strangers!
   After the director and I left the room and went to her office, I asked her how long (I tried to pronounce the little girls name, but couldn’t began to pronounce it) she had been there, she interrupted me and said. “We can’t pronounce her name, either, we just call her, ‘Miracle’!”
    When I left, I’d like to tell you how ‘macho’ of a man I was on the way out of there, but it would be a lie, for I stopped the car and cried like a baby!
     I cried, in the first person, this time. “God, how could you bring  ‘something’ (Yes, I said something, later to my regret) into this world as pitiful as ‘Miracle’?”
    And then it ‘hit’ me like a ton of bricks, it was almost like a voice talking to me; It said: Bringing children like Miracle into the world isn’t so much about her, it’s about the challenge it brings to society to see how we will deal with these kind of situations!
    Then I remembered the scene in the room with Miracle and the three women, their faces all-aglow with smiles and love, and I recognized now what I should have recognized then; that we had just experienced a profound spiritual experience together, and I almost missed it!