Nurse Notices No One Has Visited Baby Girl in the Hospital for Five Months — Story of the Day

A childless nurse becomes attached to a tiny baby girl whose family abandons because she was born with health issues and decides to adopt her.

What Nurse Jacky Monroe had dreamed of since she was a little girl was becoming a mom. Sadly, Jacky and her husband Hank had been unable to conceive, and they were told they weren't good candidates for IVF.

So Jacky poured her love for children into her patients — the tiny little babies at the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. Jacky found herself spending more and more time with one particular baby — little Ellie, who had been born a premmie and with terrible birth defects.

Jacky had worked the night shift for the last five months since Ellie was born, so she always presumed that Ellie's parents visited during the day until one of her other little patients had a problem and the pediatric surgeon was called in for an emergency consult.

After the doctor had checked on the little boy, he walked out, but he stopped by little Ellie's incubator. "That little girl is one hell of a fighter, nurse," he exclaimed, gently caressing Ellie's cheek. "Bad luck with her parents though."

"I've never met them," Jacky said.

"And you never will," the doctor said sadly. "I operated on Ellie's heart when she was born, but I told the parents we'd have to wait until she was a toddler for the major reconstructive surgery to her face, and they said they couldn't handle it."

"They what?" asked Jacky in disbelief.

"They basically abandoned her. They haven't visited her in the last five months, and have put her up for adoption," the doctor said angrily. "I've never seen anything like it!"

Every child is precious and deserves to be loved unconditionally.

Jacky reached into the incubator and lay a gentle hand on Ellie's little back. "But she's so beautiful! And don't they know that the cleft palate will be corrected? It's just a matter of time!"

Jacky went home that night and she couldn't stop thinking about Ellie. She even told Hank about her. "Can you believe that her parents just walked away because they don't want a child with issues?" asked Jacky. "And we'd love that baby, we'd love any baby!"

Hank reached over and held Jacky's hand. "So why don't we?" he asked. "We could adopt her. Talk to the parents, see if they would agree to a private adoption. You love her already, and she needs us."

Jacky thought about it for a few days, then she reached out to the hospital administrator. The administrator, a kindly woman, agreed to be a go-between, so Jacky never met the parents even though she did catch a glimpse of Ellie's birth mother once.

Faster than Jacky would have believed possible, Ellie was hers and Hank's! Because Ellie had been born so small and was still recovering from open-heart surgery, she stayed at the hospital another two months, but she had visitors each and every day.

Not just Hank and Jacky, but her proud new grandparents. Ellie grew quickly and proved herself to be a fun-loving bundle of mischief who was more than a match for her doting parents.

When she was a little older, she went for a series of reconstructive surgeries. It was a long and difficult journey, but by the time she started school, she was a little beauty and no one could tell she had been born with a problem.

Ellie became quite a little fashion plate and was very particular about what she wore, and her hairstyles. Jacky took her shopping when she was about to start primary, and she picked up the cutest outfits.

On the first day of school, Jacky and Hank proudly took Ellie to school and watched as she ran in, looking like a perfect little doll. There was a woman standing next to them, waving off some boys, all of them older than Ellie.

The woman turned to Jacky with a wistful smile. "I envy you!" she sighed. "I've always wanted a little girl, but I have four boys! What a perfect little beauty you have there. I wish I'd been that lucky!"

Jacky looked at the woman and her blood ran cold. She couldn't believe it! She was Ellie's blood mother! "You were that lucky," Jacky said coldly. "Or have you forgotten?"

"What do you mean?" the woman asked, shocked.

"I know who you are and what you did," Jacky said. "You had a precious gift from God, and you were so stupid that you threw her away!"

The woman stared at Jacky and her face drained of color. "I thought...She looked..." the woman gasped, her color going from dead-white to scarlet in seconds.

"You know what she looked like to me?" asked Jacky. "She looked like a sick, fragile baby who needed love, so I gave it to her! Stay away from me, and stay away from my daughter!"

Jacky and Hank walked away from the woman who stared after them with huge horrified eyes. Jacky later learned that the woman had transferred her four sons to another school across town.

What can we learn from this story?

• Every child is precious and deserves to be loved unconditionally. Her parents couldn't 'deal' with her facial deformity but Jacky loved Ellie for her fighting spirit and her sweetness.

• Bitterest regret is what bad decisions taste like. Ellie's birth mom was shamed when she saw how beautiful and bright Ellie was.

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