This happened in Diamond Lake, Michigan - not far from where I live in the Grand Rapids area. It's shocking, and yet it's not, because you and I both know that the culture has led us to this.
The basics: A dog is leading his owner Jeff Kopp along the path, and as he pulls the owner toward the side of the path, the owner assumes he's found a rabbit or something along those lines. Nope. Under the brush is a newborn baby - umbilical cord still attached - and the child doesn't appear to be moving at first. Kopp called out to his wife and daugther. The daughter, Cathleen Neal, arrived and picked the baby up, at which point it started moving and it became clear that the baby was alive.
As all of this was happening, Neal said, she saw a teenage girl watching from across the street. Sure enough, she turned out to be the mother.
WOOD-TV has the full report:
Michigan has a law that allows mothers who are inclined to abandon their babies to safely hand them over to authorities or to hospital personnel, no questions asked, within 72 hours of the baby's birth. It's the sort of law that no one entirely likes because you hate the thought that a parent could just walk away from the responsibility of caring for a child. But it exists to prevent situations like this one. Obviously it doesn't work in every situation.
Apparently the mother and the baby are now being cared for at the same hospital. For the time being, no charges have been filed, which is not to say none will be.
It simply breaks your heart to think we've come to this, but we all know we have so we might as well wipe the tears and start figuring out how to take this territory back from the enemy. In the meantime, if there's any good news here it's in the amazing ability of dogs to recognize and understand a situation that wreaks of distress and requires help. Dogs don't have the ability to engage in cognitive reasoning, of course, but they clearly have the instincts to know when someone needs help, and to respond by going to get that help.
The Kopps' dog, Bobby, saved this child's life. He will never understand that, but he did. Way to go, boy.
As for the baby and her mother, we can only pray that they both get what they need - materially, emotionally and spiritually. God help them.
