One Family's Journey

Permission Given by family to use Story & Photos

Permission Given by family to use Story & Photos

"Day by day, she was coming back to being a baby Not growing, eight kilos, eight kilos, eight kilos Breathing every second

Nothing changing, not growing. Again, back to the hospital

Again, switching places, I stay, you go

Again, switching hospitals, coming back home to again go back to the hospital Living there

Maybe she’s not going to come back home No immediate solutions

Yet, she is standing by her chair at 2, she has learned to walk at 3, still only 8 kilos Every time, she wants to play

She is making her name special

Maybe she will leave if we, we can take her to that country Hope came with leaving

Hope: tomorrow will be better, we keep going even when we don’t know what will happen. Even the other siblings suffer

The oldest holds her with a new baby on the way, fear sets in

Our sister is mom,, all we have, in this new country is the cause of our sister Yet, leaving comes with jealousy, there is no life in the camp

Happy to arrive in the cold, it is warm inside The doors open

So many strangers, we don’t understand each other except for one A stranger among many, the one who speaks our language

The one who is “doing”, “doing for our family like she is doing for herself”. Waiting in quarantine, waiting in a house of reception

Then, even in this country, back to the hospital, Here again, switching places, I stay, you go

Here again, coming back to the hotel to again go back to the hospital Here again, maybe she is not going to come back to our new home

There is HOPE

Hope: tomorrow will be better, we keep going even though this can happen or this can happen.

Even here, there is no guarantee

“We can’t ask them to stop because she’s sick”, we must trust, we must accept that even here, here again, we are back in the hospital as the “this” that can happen has happened Once again, maybe she is not going to come back home

We had to learn to trust before, we learn to trust again, even here, here again We believe that there’s a solution

Tomorrow will be better

We keep going even though we don’t know what will Even here, once again, every time she wants to play"

A Found Word Poem