I am working in the Pediatrics unit, in the Pediatric Intensive Care ward.  I am busy working with little ones, trying to keep them alive, trying to keep from any unexpected problems from creeping up.

I am taking care of two kids:  eight year old Trinh Vu Hoc and six-year-old Henrietta Grace Talbott.  Henrietta was in a bad car accident (head injuries, broken bones, numerous contusions), and Trinh was brought in after police discovered him in his closet at his house, unconscious and barely breathing.

Trinh has been in our hospital for the past month, and he is facing a very long, difficult recovery.  I am happy to say he's emerged from his comatose state, but he may have suffered some brain damage: he can't talk, and he is having trouble moving one side of his body.  He is going to need an awful lot of physical therapy to bring him back.

Sadly, Trinh's parents won't be able to visit their son.  See, they are both in jail, where they have been charged with a number of crimes, including neglect of a child, injury to a child, and abuse charges, amongst other things. 

This isn't the first time Trinh has been in the hospital.  In the past he's been in for busted ribs, burns to his arms and legs, and other "suspicious" injuries.  This last event, however, has been the worst by far; this was the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, before the police finally intervened and took over this heartbreaking situation.

Now that his parents are in jail where they belong, maybe Trinh finally has a chance to recover, finally has a chance at peace.  He will no doubt be placed into foster care once he is released out of the hospital because there is no way he can ever go back to his parents.  What's to say they won't do this kind of thing to him again??

We have been praying hard over this broken little boy, and we have since fallen in love with him.  He is so sweet natured, and it breaks our heart to think that adults could do such horrible things to him.  He didn't do anything to deserve being  beaten like this; he was only an innocent child badly in need of a parent's love.

He'd already been through enough living in his native Vietnam; now instead of love, all he got was grief, and now he is paying dearly for it.  We were afraid we'd lose him a couple of times; but somehow, somewhere, God intervened, and He brought this child through the fire.  Now he has a chance at life, and maybe, somehow, somewhere, someone else can give this hurting little boy the break he so desperately needs in life.

~To be continued.~