By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director
…but instead, I ended up in Timbuktu.
No parent plans for childhood illness or disability.
As a baby’s birth approaches, pregnancy is usually filled with hope — a joyful anticipation of new life and all the possibilities ahead. Like planning a dream trip to Paris, parents imagine what the future will hold and prepare their hearts for celebration.
But sometimes, life takes an unexpected turn.
During her first pregnancy, a close relative of mine received devastating news about her baby’s health. In a single moment, the future she had imagined disappeared. Instead of preparing for a healthy delivery, she was suddenly facing the possibility of losing her child — or walking a lifelong road of disability and medical uncertainty.
She often described it this way: “I planned for Paris, but I ended up in Timbuktu.”
Everything familiar changed. There was no way back to the life she had expected.
This is the reality many of the parents we serve in the NICU face every single day.
Over the last month, through our group therapy sessions for NICU mothers, we have walked with women standing in the fragile space between hope and despair, exhaustion and resilience, numbness and grief. We have watched mothers strengthen one another simply by sharing their stories, speaking encouragement, and realizing they are not alone in their suffering.
At the same time, the life-saving medical equipment made possible through generous donor support is giving doctors and nurses new tools to fight for these tiny, critically ill babies. Your support is already changing outcomes and bringing renewed hope to frontline medical teams.
Yet medicine alone cannot heal every wound.
Some families still face heartbreaking diagnoses and uncertain futures. That is why these support sessions matter so deeply. For the first time in Albania, mothers in the NICU are receiving structured emotional and psychological support as they navigate trauma, grief, fear, and the exhausting marathon of caring for a critically ill child.
And today, we are taking another important step forward.
We are launching “Heal the Healers” — group support sessions for frontline NICU staff. These doctors and nurses carry enormous emotional burdens every day. Through this program, they will receive tools to care for their own mental health, communicate more effectively, and better manage the intense stress and anxiety that accompany this work.
Your support is helping us care not only for fragile babies, but also for the parents who love them and the medical workers fighting for them every day.
Thank you for standing with these families in their hardest moments.
I have attached photos of some of the equipment your generosity has made possible.
Faithfully yours,
Lizzy
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By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director
By Elizabeth Grezda | Executive Director
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