US soldiers try to save an Iraqi baby:
When troops from the Georgia National Guard raided a Baghdad home in early December, they had no idea that their mission in Iraq would take a different turn.
As the young parents of an infant girl nervously watched the soldiers search their modest home, the baby's unflinching grandmother thrust the little girl at the Americans, showing them the purple pouch protruding from her back.
Little Noor, barely three months old, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column fails to completely close. Iraqi doctors had told her parents she would live only 45 days.
Those soldiers have now made it their mission to get baby Noor to the US and get her treatment. Doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta have promised to perform the surgery to close Noor's back for free, if she can get there. There's no guarantee that she'll be okay, but it's a start. Here's the saddest part:
But for all of their help, the soldiers realize they're also possibly endangering the little girl and her family.
"We are always concerned that talking to anybody longer than a normal conversation will put them in danger," said Sgt. Archer Ford.
"We did a lot of things to protect the identity of these people," [Lt. Jeff ] Morgan said.
Blessings on little Noor, her family, and those soldiers.
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