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DEL.ICIO.USChild’s smile melts hearts, renews hope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baghdad, Iraq — Journalists are not supposed to become part of the story they are reporting. All week long, I kept telling myself that I had to keep my distance.
It wasn’t easy.
The subject of my stories was a beautiful 3-month-old baby who represented all that is good in the midst of an ugly war that randomly snuffs out innocent lives almost every day.
Noor al-Zahra, born with a severe spinal cord defect, could not understand why Iraqi doctors lacked the resources to make her well. She didn’t understand the incredible risks her family and American soldiers had taken so that she might have a new chance at life.
But Noor could flash a smile that melted hearts.
She could fix her gaze on mine and take me away from the evil that lurked outside — the rocket attacks, improvised explosive devices, car bombs and gunfire.
She took me away from the shocking living conditions of her neighbors; away from the children with no shoes playing in mountains of trash and streams of sewage that snake through eastern Abu Ghraib.
When Noor’s grandmother Soad handed me the tiny child, I held her in my arms.
“She is hungry,” said Soad. “Can you please hold the bottle? She likes you. See, she is smiling.”
Soad needed to use the restroom. She needed someone to watch the baby. Noor’s father was in Baghdad obtaining necessary paperwork for the family to travel to Atlanta.
There were no other women around. The Georgia Army National Guard unit that discovered Noor is an infantry unit and has no women assigned to it. It can be tough to take care of a fragile baby on a military base designed to house rough-and-tough soldiers.
Soad asked me for help. I could not refuse. To do so would be to betray all compassion.
Over the three days that Noor and her guardians spent at Camp Liberty, I helped change diapers, mix formula, burp the baby and keep watch over her while her grandmother took breaks.
Soad and I exchanged long conversations through an Army interpreter.
She pulled out a small photo album from her bag and showed me pictures of her six daughters and three sons, a trip to Iran and family gatherings at her home.
She peppered me with questions about Atlanta. She was nervous traveling such a long distance. She had never even been on a plane before. She was nervous about Noor’s pending surgery. How long would she have to be gone from home? She asked if I would go back with her.
I explained to her that Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer Curtis Compton would be making the long journey with her, Noor and Haider. He would be documenting their trip. I told Soad she should not worry.
All the while, Noor lay on my lap, gurgling like babies do. Occasionally she would raise her arms and grab my hair, though she never kicked her legs. The military doctors who examined her here said she would probably end up with paralysis in both legs.
Noor’s spinal cord was not fully closed when she was born on Sept. 23. A pinkish cyst-like growth consumes her little back in place of a normal spine. Doctors in Iraq gave her no hope for survival.
Her family, like so many others in poor nations, accepted Noor’s condition as the will of God. The young, helpless parents, Iman, 18, and Haider, 23, could do nothing for her.
That was until soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment’s Charlie Company stormed into their home on a December night. The troops were searching the area for suspected insurgents.
Instead, they found Noor.
The Gainesville-based soldiers wanted to do something good here. If they could help save the life of just one Iraqi child, their entire deployment in the war zone would be worth it, many of them told me.
There are days, the soldiers said, when they come back to their trailers wondering what they are doing so far from home, separated from their own children. There are days when they question why their fellow soldiers are dying.
After seven months of grinding urban warfare, Charlie Company soldiers had found a child who reinvigorated their purpose here.
Getting Noor to the United States for treatment was a mission that would help them sleep well — at least for a night.
Someone here at Camp Liberty asked me why the U.S. media were making such a big deal out of one baby. There are, after all, thousands of other Noors in Iraq who desperately need assistance. Their stories may never get told.
Perhaps Noor’s story did, not just for the sake of the child, but for all the other lives she has touched in the most profound of ways.
Noor, whose name means “light” in Arabic, stole our hearts and, even if for just a moment, took away the darkness in our lives.
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Comments
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By Poppa
December 31, 2005 12:31 PM | Link to this
Yesterday I told my wife Jennifer that little Noor “smiled with her eyes,” much like our grandson Elijah - now almost two-years-old. My office cubicle is a testament to Elijah’s - and his little eight-month-old brother Ethans’s - growth. Two more pictures were posted on the fabric wall above my monitor - the smiling eyes of a beautiful baby girl for whom my prayers are offered. Then this morning is a headline remarking on that smile. Thank you, Moni and Curtis for this wonderful, hopeful smiling eyes story. Allah be praised.
By Heather
December 31, 2005 03:18 PM | Link to this
Thank you, Moni and Curtis, for such a beautiful tribute to a wonderful child (she too, melted my heart with her smile the moment I saw her first photo) and to a unit that truly seems to care about this child.
It’s brought back a sense of peace to this holiday season.
She, you, and those involved in her care will continue to stay in my hopes and prayers.
By Scott Hall
December 31, 2005 06:23 PM | Link to this
I am a 36 year old male from North Carolina and like baby Noor I too have spina bifida. I know all too well the struggles this little one will face thru life but I would like to offer my deepest thanks to the soldiers of Charlie Company as well as to all the other doctors, reporters and airline personnel who made her life saving trip a possibility God bless you all and God bless the USA!
By Bill Faith
December 31, 2005 07:07 PM | Link to this
There’s no way anyone could see that smile and not care. Thank you for doing such a great job of covering this story.
By Debby
January 1, 2006 02:22 PM | Link to this
Thank you to all that has covered this wonderful story. A big thank you to our american soldier’s God Bless all of u. I will be praying for the recovery of noor she is a wonderful cute little girl and that smile of hers just wants to make u pinch those little cute cheeks of hers. To noor and her family a great big HUG from our family to yours.GOD WATCH OVER AMERICA’S CUTE LITTLE ANGEL AND BRING HER THREW THIS ORDEAL SAFELY.
By Lisa Riggleman
January 1, 2006 05:56 PM | Link to this
I am 36 and also have spina bifida the same form as baby Noor. I have had many trials in life and kind people have gotten me through them. I am so grateful to Charlie Company for saving this small life so that her light may shine for a long time. My boyfriend was a soldier in the first Gulf War and was so moved by this story he can’t put it in words. We both are praying for this little girl for a speedy recovery and a great life. May Christ love go out to Gods little “Light” Noor.
By military wife
January 3, 2006 01:23 PM | Link to this
I understand that the soldiers did a very special thing for this baby but please start reporting on the soldiers in Iraq again. I thought that is why you were in Iraq with the 48th Brigade was to report on the soldiers. In the past couple of days, I haven’t seen anything regarding how the soldiers are doing in Iraq.