NEMA
08/01/2010
Nema&sweet shark hat.
my last day at Anna was absolutely ridiculous. to say the least.
001. each intern gets to choose clothing to take up to $225 wholesale. i was able to get this amazing creme “folk” dress with tons of yellow&green embroidery. its so “Anna” that it makes me want to cry. so grateful i have a sweet treasure to remember my time by.
002. at 10am on friday morning (one hour into my last day) im just eating breakfast and starting morning paperwork when i get handed a $20 bill by Elizabeth (one of the patternmakers) and she says, “Get Beatriz (another patternmaker. my favorite. the sweet “mother” to all the interns. her first language is spanish.) to the hospital.”
OK. breathe.
i didnt even know anything was wrong. everyone begins to freak out and i try to stay calm and get her down the elevator and into a cab and try to navigate to roosevelt hospital. its not until we get out of the elevator that i find out…
while eating a bagel and cream cheese on her worktable…
she accidently swallowed a straight pin.
OH. MERCY.
that is the one thing my waco roommates were always worried about with me. you see, fashion designers always have pins in their mouths. its like a habit, plus you usually need one about every 2 minutes…but rarely have i ever worried about swallowing one. horror.
so we’re in the cab, and i can tell beatriz is trying not to cry but she is freaking out. she’s not swallowing for fear of making the pin go down farther. she seems to be okay, though, so i am attempting to hold it together so at least one of the two of us can remain sane. inwardly, though, i am UNGLUED. i am scared and have absolutely no idea what to do in the midst of this.
and all of this on my last day of work. its laughable, really. no, not really.
i know beatriz is not really religious, but all i know to do is pray for her. i believe that God loves to heal His people right in the midst of pain&injuries to reveal His power and love. so i ask her if I can pray for her. she nods yes.
so i prayed with all the faith and trust that i could muster up. i asked the Lord to just make the pin disappear. i mean, i could pray that they would get the pin out and the pain to go away soon, but i thought, Lord, you hold all the powers of the universe in your hand, and you’ve raised people the dead, so of course you can do this. “Lord, I just even ask that you would make this pin disappear from her throat right now, in the name of Jesus.” and i believed He could&would do it.
we pull up to the hospital, and its not the emergency entrance (thank you, cab driver), so i am walking around the hospital asking everyone for the emergency center. we finally find it and get sent to desk after desk looking for the first place we need to go. i finally find a doctor and as it would be, it is his first day, and he doesn’t quite know what to do (of course, if i was told that someone had swallowed a straight pin, i would freeze, too. ha)…we get sent to be “triaged”…i still have no idea what the heck that means. we walk into triage and instead of being ushered in, we are asked to sit down “and they’ll be with us shortly”… we wait for at least 20 mintues without help. and there are no more than 2 other patients in the hospital.
this is one of those times when my self-control had to kick in.
one: i am a mere “fashion designer.” that is all i have lived and breathed for the past 10 weeks so i am totally thrown being in a hospital being absolutely clueless (it was really my first time to be outside the fashion realm, and it was like culture shock). two: i know that hospitals have a process, and that everyone has to wait so things can be “properly done”…i get that, even though it doesn’t make sense to me. however, in a moment like this, all i care about is getting beatriz help, so it was all i could do not to yell, “she has a pin in her throat! help!” Lord Jesus, hold me together. about every 30 seconds i thought i was going to lose it and just start balling. beatriz was just sitting quietly, with silent tears running down her cheeks. that is what i have loved about her since the moment i met her in may: she is unreasonably selfless. she never draws attention to herself, and she always puts aside her own interests for others…even with a pin stuck in her throat, she waits her turn. i dont know patience like this. Lord Jesus, reveal your peace and comfort to her, now.
after what seemed like an hour (25 minutes maybe), we are finally called in, “triaged,” and given a little room with a curtain. the first set of doctors come in and scope her, but cannot see the pin in her throat with just a depressor. she gets put into a gown, iv in arm, the whole “hospital-9-yards,” and still she sits unwaveringly calm. ive never seen anything like it. because they couldn’t see the pin, they ordered a throat xray. after searching the scans, still they can’t find the pin. maybe it has already gone to her stomach, they reason, so they order a chest and stomach xray. after searching through those…still nothing. though, she still felt as if the pin was right near the front of her throat. they bring in 3 more sets of the doctors, all doing a series of tests, and still they cannot find this pin. they send in the head of the heads doctor (obvious to me because he is in a suit instead of hospital garb) and he does a special scope (the final way to find this pin, i guess) and finds nothing.
no trace of a pin in her body. anywhere.
the pain, they say, is probably from when the pin punctured the side of her throat, so it may feel like the pin is still there for a couple of days, but it is no longer there. the doctors are dumbfounded.
im freaking out again. this time, however, out of joy and thankfulness. my dear patternmaker and friend has been healed, and she is going to be okay. JESUS, you are amazing.
After 2 more hours of waiting, we are discharged, and she is back to her normal self. as we are leaving i say, “beatriz, remember when i prayed for you in the cab, and i asked the Lord to make the pin disappear?! He did it!!” her face lights up and she nods, remembering, and says “thank God. i cannot believe it.” we get back to work around 2pm and the entire company has been on pins&needles (no pun intended) waiting to see if she is okay. Anna is the first person to greet beatriz and gives her a huge hug saying, “im so glad youre okay,” then kisses her on the cheek. i almost cried again.
the rest of the day the whole thing became a joke, really. beatriz was laughing and telling the story over and over. she made me let her pay for my lunch…again, WHAT?! who is this selfless, giving woman?
the last half of my work day was normal. ha.
here is the clencher…at 7:30am that morning, in our church prayer meeting, i prayed, asking Jesus to give me an opportunity to really be the love of Jesus to the patternmakers on my last day of work. i could not have known…
i am floored. again. by the love and wonder of God. His power. His compassion for His people. His mercy on His daughter, Beatriz. Lord, capture her heart.
i would not have had my last day at Anna be any other way.
of course, the Lord was not done bringing me to nothing in light of His glory and power yet…
last night i went to serve at the ronald mcdonald house with my church here in nyc. my dear friend, Brennan, invited me to go with her.
tangent: Brennan is absolutely wonderful. i started going to her community group 1 month into my time in nyc because i heard she worked in fashion. i was desperate for community and knew that anyone who loved jesus and worked in fashion in nyc was someone i wanted to get to know. she has welcomed me into her life and befriended me in a way i never imagined. she has sat with me as ive worked&processed through questions about my future in fashion, listening to my every rambling. i am sent low as i learn what humility, faith, righteous hunger, and peaceful living looks like through her life and sweet, intimate relationship with Jesus. i will miss Brennan greatly after i leave this place.
anyway–so i went with Brennan to ronald mcdonald house. i found out that we were making and serving dinner for the residents. mexican food, to be exact. perfect. 
i really had no idea what i was getting myself into…just that i wanted to serve the people of this city. after dinner we attempted to get the children to come back for cupcakes&crafts. they told us to just mingle with the families and get to know their stories.
love.
brennan&i sat down at a table to start drawing, when a beautiful older woman came and brought her baby to our table. the little girl had a visor with a big shark on her small head that one of us had given her (we all wore funny hats to serve dinner in and were giving them out to the kids. i wore a visor with a big purple, pink, & yellow butterfly). i found out that the woman was her grandmother. she was trying to get the little girl to come sit next to her but she kept shouting “No!” but when asked if one of us could move her the little girl shouted, “Yes!” i was taken by her immediately. she had this spirit about her that i knew would capture me. even her adorably loud voice pulled me in, and i knew i would be sitting with her all night. we asked her grandmother the little girl’s name and she proudly stated,
“It’s Nema. That’s Amen backwards.”
i was sold.
i began to color with Nema as the grandmother began to tell Brennan their story. the little girl was just over one year old, and after she was born she developed a tumor behind one of her eyes. the doctors said she would never talk, walk, or see. as the first months of her life went by nothing changed. but over the last month or so she started talking and walking. sight was still out of the question, though. just last week (7 days before we were there), the grandmother said she was still blind in both eyes. another group had been there serving dinner, and they played with Nema. even though she was blind, she would still grab for crayons and color and laugh and play. then, just a couple of days ago, the grandmother was sitting with Nema, when suddenly she reached across the table and picked up a small object. the grandmother realized that Nema could see. since then, she has regained full vision in one of her eyes, and the doctors are dumbfounded.
i love when God blows human reason out of the water. twice in the same week.
i could not believe it. Nema and I sat there for almost 3 hours playing, drawing, and together we made her a bracelet and necklace. she picked the beads up out of the bowl and placed them in my hand. this girl is seeing. Lord!!! sight for her other eye, in the name of Jesus!
Nema’s spirit made me giddy inside. she is so full of life. it was literally the most fun ive had so far in nyc. the grandmother sat there the whole time, just staring at her granddaughter in amazement. she took pictures of Nema making the bracelet, and she would tell Nema, “say cheese, Nema!” and she would look straight up to the camera and yell, “CHEESSSSEE!!” Big toothy smile and eyes big&bright. brennan&i were overwhelmed with wonder and joy. such a beautiful family.
Nema stole my heart last night. i can’t get her smile and voice out of my head. i couldn’t have asked for a better last weekend in nyc. i wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.
thank you, Lord for revealing more beauty in this city. i ask for your favor and grace to be upon beatriz, all the other patternmakers, Anna, and Nema&her grandmother. Lord, reveal your steadfast love&unfailing faithfulness to each of them. Lord, make your name famous here in New York City. shine the light of your face upon your people. and even if i dont end up back here, would you consistently bring to mind the people ive encountered here, and would you impress upon me to intercede for them daily. Jesus, you are good. i count it as gain to have been here, to have been tested here, to have been transformed here. even if everything else is counted failure (and ive failed more times than i can count since being here), i know that i am more in love with you today than i was when i got here on may 24. and may i fall more in love with you in the season to come.
I praise you, Lord of Hosts.
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by your name.
Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Nema.
