Emmanuel

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Originally uploaded by megan_petock

This is Emmanuel.

He had a tumour removed from his face. He's nine and a little shy. He likes to be hugged.

Tonight when I started my shift I started I stopped by Emmanuel's bed to give him a hug and a hello.

"He has so many girlfriends,'' commented a nurse.

Emmanuel broke into a shy, happy, and slightly-embarrassed-but -not-really smile. Apparently I was not the first to give a specified hello to him.

''You (the other nurse and I) can both marry him,'' stated his mother from the far corner of the room.

Emmanuel tried to conceal his enlarging smile.

''I think I am a little old for Emmanuel, I would have to wait about thirty years.''

At this point, Emmanuel broke out into a fit of loud giggles.

Before he fell asleep, we sat and the end of his bed , read the 23 Psalm, and said a bedtime prayer. He melted his small nine year old frame into my side with one little arm wrapped around my waist.

Emmanuel has been rejected. He has been tough to look at. He has been teased by his peers. He eats up any attention he gets.

It's amazing to walk through the wards and realize they are filled with outcasts, many of whom are experiencing love and acceptance for the first time. You watch them come insecure and timid and gradually build up confidence and trust, until their personalities are spilling out.

We witness their physical and emotional transformation.