What Baby Miracle’s life told us

By Mata'afa Keni Lesa 18 June 2018, 12:00AM

Now and then, people come along and things happen near us we can’t quite work out, let alone explain. 

You see it’s natural for us as mere mortals to always try to rationalise, reason and figure out everything that happens near us. It’s just the way we were created. 

And our Creator in all his infinite wisdom would probably not have it any other way otherwise it would be such a boring life.

Indeed, people exist for one reason or another. It goes without saying that everyone has a purpose in life however long they walk the face of the earth. Some people get a lot of time, others don’t. 

The ones who are taken early though often leave us asking questions. The biggest of them all is why. But some people come along and you just know that their purpose in life is to inspire, encourage and motivate.

When they leave us, they hold a very special place in our hearts, they are dear and unique.

One such life was that of Baby Miracle Nanai.  A remarkable young girl who lived to defy the odds, she finally passed away last week, more than ten years after she was born.

The story of Baby Miracle has been well told. Born with severe facial and boty part deformities, health workers told her parents she would not live for more than a day.

“After four days she was still breathing,” he father Nanai told this newspaper. “I still remember when I walked in on the fourth day to say goodbye to her because we were waiting there for days for her to die.

 “I bent over and told her that I was leaving and if whatever happens she has my heart. That’s when my daughter turned her head at me as I whispered in her ear. I will never forget that day.”

What happened next is the beginning of a beautiful story between a father and daughter that should be a constant reminder that love knows no boundaries.

“They just gave an IV and said that was feeding her,” he said.

But Nanai wasn’t satisfied. He had to sneak in bottles of milk to feed.

“I felt that my daughter was hungry when I walked in to see her and felt her cheek. So I hid the bottles of milk under my arms and took it in to feed her,” he recalled. “I took two bottles of milk and both of them were finished. She was hungry.”

From that day onwards, Baby Miracle’s story would be one that is told not just in Samoa but all over the world. 

The fact she survived amidst what would have been a very difficult first few days is testament of how she overcame her health challenges for the next few years.

But her survival is credit to members of the community who reached out and offered a helping hand. 

No one more passionate, caring and prominent than Good Samaritan, Papali’i Carol Ah Chong. With the help of her family and a community of kind spirited people, they proved that Miracle deserved to live. 

And not just live too. They showered her with love, making her life as normal as any other child would have.

Sadly, Miracle’s life has ended.

The sentiments expressed by her father at her passing is shared by many of us who followed this story from the start.

“At the end of the day, He is God and does whatever that pleases Him. Our thoughts will never be his thoughts and we can never understand the reason He does the things that He has done,” Nanai said.

“Through Miracle’s birth, it taught us endurance in the middle of chaos and how the society viewed us. It was hurtful, but I loved my daughter. I have learnt that through tough times, it teaches us patience and to wait on God in everything.

 “There is no person that God has ever created for them to look like an animal. They called her names and later on accused of things that I have never done such as eating the pig of the Church Minister.

 “This face is what Miracle grew up with and a lot of statements have said it’s a face of an animal.”

That might have been how some people viewed her – which is very disappointing. But we know this much, God is not in the business of accidents. He does not make mistakes. 

Baby Miracle lived to prove that it is indeed God who giveth and taketh away, in his own perfect time. That no matter what people think and say, God is sovereign, all knowing and he does what he wants whether we agree or not.

Have a wonderful week Samoa, God bless!

By Mata'afa Keni Lesa 18 June 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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