Service Over SelfService Over SelfThirteen months after my daughter, Kayla was born, I gave birth to an 8-pound boy. Like Kayla, Kyle was delivered by caesarean -- with dad right there in the operating room.
The next thing I knew, curtains were pulled around me in the recovery room as Brian, my husband, came in to tell me that Kyle could not breathe. The Meducare helicopter was on its way to fly our baby to a more advanced neonatal unit in Charleston, SC. The flight nurses came to my room and encouraged me to touch his leg through the incubator -- no easy feat, as I was still numb from my chest to my toes.
The nurses left me with three blurry photos of my child before
taking him away. My husband and my father went to Charleston to be with Kyle. I
was left in Georgetown, not yet able to travel. Through those next excruciating
hours, I hardly dared to answer a ringing telephone for fear of news on the
other end. It was like looking down a huge black abyss, feeling pulled to give
up and fall in.
About 17 hours after Kyle's birth, the neonatologist called my hospital room to explain that my son had only a 20 percent chance of survival unless they tried a relatively new procedure -- a heart/lung bypass system called ECMO. This machine would breathe for my child and circulate his blood and beat his heart for him.
As I lay in the hospital bed in Georgetown and tried to picture what must be happening to my son, I remember conjuring up this image of ECMO -- a cartoon-like machine with a head and strong arms and muscular legs charging in to save my child. I realize now that all of my hope was in that image of strength.
Finally, I was strong enough to travel to see Kyle and witness how he was being kept alive. According to the doctors, if an infant is to survive, he typically remains on ECMO five-seven days before being ready to make it on his own. Ten days later, Kyle's condition was very grave and the neonatologist told us that the only thing we could do was to pray.
Our Prayers
A friend came to see me and asked to say a prayer for me and for Kyle. While she held my hand, she prayed and asked Jesus to come down and wrap his arms around little Kyle and keep him safe. Her words filled my body with peace -- and somehow, suddenly, gave me a sense of hope that was unexplainable. I never had considered the magnitude of the words "may the peace of the Lord be always with you" until that moment.
Miraculously, on day 12, Kyle was well enough to survive on his own. Five weeks later he was off of the respirator and on his way home. I still use that image of Jesus wrapping his arms around us, around those who are helpless, homeless and in need -- when I am seeking comfort and peace.
New Direction
On the heels of Kyle's
recovery process, I felt strongly called to a different career. I felt a need to
somehow "repay"
my good fortune, a need to give back the generosity that had been given me. When
I was asked to become the Executive Director of a new youth volunteer
organization, Service Over Self (SOS), I gladly accepted.
Since February 1997, SOS has grown from six eager volunteers to a database of more than 400 middle and high schoolers from throughout our county. The mission of SOS is "to instill an ethic of service in our youth..."
The youth of SOS provide hope to our community by assisting
local non-profits and service agencies to clean our environment and help the
needy, and by serving as activists at community forums, to the school board and
in their own schools where they have established SOS clubs.
We have awarded two college scholarships to youth who each had earned a minimum of 100 hours of service and two Service Grant Awards to youth who developed a plan to improve our community. One recent Service Grant recipient devised an idea to build and plant a community garden at our local senior citizen's center. The SOS volunteers work on the garden each month and will maintain it along with the senior citizens once it is completed. The presence of the SOS volunteers in our community offers a reminder of the hope that exists for each of us through our children.
Children See Possibilities
Children are creative, energetic and valuable resources in our
communities. Children see possibilities where others may feel frustration.
Children are ready to serve and to be included. They need our guidance, our
love, but mostly, they need our faith. They need our faith in a world where
their peers are harmed -- even killed -- on their own school campuses. They need our faith in them that they can
make a better world. We can give the youth hope in the future by giving them our
faith today. The volunteer base of SOS has grown so quickly because of the need
for the youth to be respected in our community. They come to SOS to be
recognized, to be valued, and to "prove"
to the grown-ups that teenagers are untapped resources. In fact, on Youth
Service Day 2000 in April, SOS will boast nearly 300 volunteers working on one
day at twenty worksites to make our community a better place to live.
I am thankful for the opportunities in my life that have given me a chance to resurrect my own faith and hope in life, in love and in this world. I am most thankful, however, for the children who remind me of that hope and faith everyday.
To foster in our youth an ethic of service and an appreciation for the diversity in our community.
To create new communication bonds between races, generations and the various Georgetown (SC) communities.
To empower youth and senior citizens.
To teach young people how to create and implement significant service projects.
To engage youth as participants in the community by introducing them to new aspects of the community.
Amy Brennan lives in Georgetown SC. She writes "My husband is in his ninth year as a teacher. SOS has grown to three employees. We've stayed in touch with the hospital...like a family."