As mothers are celebrated on Mother’s Day, the amazing faith of a mother to believe for God to do miracles in her child’s life burns bright when the child faces sickness. The struggle of a mother whose child is seriously sick is real, and it’s gut-wrenching.
A mother sometimes has nothing and no one to depend on except the Lord God — and only a miracle will save the child. This is the story of so many mothers who suffer, strive and persevere in silence, seeming powerlessness and anonymity. Their ordeal is part of the fabric of their Mother’s Day this weekend.
A case in point: A mother who lives in poverty in Venezuela had to watch her newborn baby suffer in intensive care at a local hospital last year because the baby’s red blood cell count was dangerously low and she had heart problems, but the mother told no one. She only prayed to God for a miracle.
That day, she received a prophetic word from Christians in another country that God would do a miracle in the baby’s heart and clean her blood. On the next day, the baby’s heart was healed and her red blood cell count went back to normal levels. The doctors could not explain it, according to the mother.
“I love to see the faithfulness of God in my baby girl’s life,” said Mariannis Quintero, the mother of this baby, whose name is Kaitlyn Aguilar. “Through all the pain, my faith has increased. God told me it was necessary to go through the tribulation. I asked God to give me the strength and to spare the life of my daughter.”
The battle of one mother for the sake of her child is the battle of countless mothers forced to the brink of despair because of a life-threatening illness in a child yet finding the courage to believe in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Faith rises. Reliance on God becomes a mother’s greatest strength.
When Mariannis gave birth to Kaitlyn during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the baby could not breathe. She was choking on her own saliva. She was quickly diagnosed with esophageal atresia type 3, which is a blockage in the esophagus. The baby needed surgery right away because her lungs were filling up with fluid, but all the hospitals in Venezuela were filled because of COVID. Doctors said that nothing could be done.
Mariannis and her husband were told to just wait for the baby to die.
In response, Mariannis started to fast and pray. “Faith is not tested in abundance, but in the difficult times.”
The government ended up forcing a surgeon to perform surgery on baby Kaitlyn, but a mistake was made during the procedure. The baby got infected and had to be intubated. She had two respiratory attacks and had to be revived twice. The baby went into shock. The health care staff prepared paperwork for the parents, believing that the baby would die.
The mother refused to accept the medical staff’s giving up on her daughter. Putting her trust in Jesus Christ, she prayed fervently, and the baby started to get better. After 64 days, the baby was released from the hospital. In virtually any other developed country, a baby in this condition would not have been sent home.
“When I have felt overwhelmed, the Lord has told me that even if the vision of healing is delayed, I should wait on Him. God told me in my heart that we will cross to the other side and sing a hymn of victory.”
The hospital forced Mariannis to go see a psychologist to help her with her stress, but the psychologist was not very helpful. “Only God gave me strength to continue,” Mariannis said.
Last September, the baby started to turn yellow. Tests were conducted, and baby Kaitlyn was diagnosed with a type 2 choledochal cyst. Mariannis was told that her daughter would need liver surgery within three months to survive.
However, even though the surgery has not been done yet because Mariannis cannot afford the procedure, baby Kaitlyn, who is almost a year old, is still alive after more than six months. The mother gives credit to God for a continuing miracle.
“It’s different to hear someone say God will provide and actually seeing God provide,” she says. “God has been providing. Just when it looks like all is lost, God provides. It’s amazing.”
She is trusting God for the resources to have the liver surgery done soon. Only one doctor in all of Venezuela knows how to do the surgery, and this surgeon is with a private medical clinic that is expensive in a country of disproportionate poverty. No public hospital that is covered under the socialist system of “universal health care” can do the surgery.
Once again, Mariannis turns to God in her time of need.
A GoFundMe campaign has been established under the name Kaitlyn Aguilar, with hundreds of dollars already raised toward the goal of $25,000, which is the cost of the liver surgery for the 11-month-old baby. In Venezuela, this cost is like the equivalent of a million dollars in the U.S. for an impoverished mother.
Even in a country where the government is portrayed as more powerful than the Lord God, the love of a mother comes to the rescue when rooted firmly in the faith, hope and love available in Jesus Christ.
This Venezuelan mother attests to the Holy Spirit touching her heart, giving her the strength to carry on — despite the setbacks, adversity and feeling of being out of control — and fight for her daughter’s life.
Mariannis’ prayer on Mother’s Day is not for herself, but for her baby. She believes God has a plan. She has not given up hope that she will sing “a hymn of victory” as she sees the hand of God perform another miracle to save the baby’s precious life.
Anthony Hart is a freelance writer for Charisma Media.
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