When you bring a baby into the world, you form an attachment and a deep bond that can never be broken – and even the most remote story depicting anything otherwise can bring many mums to tears.
This happened to be the case for US mum Dayna Mager, who has become a viral internet sensation after sharing a moving photo of herself sleeping beside her infant daughter, in her crib.
While the image itself is nothing short of beautiful, it is the back-story that motivated Dayna to get into the crib - as close as possible to five-month-old Luella - that has really moved social media users.
The inspiration came from one of Dayna’s first nights spent away from Luella, at a ‘worship concert’, with husband Matt. While there, they heard a missionary who had visited an orphanage in Uganda speaking about his experience.
In a nursery filled with over 100 cribs, each one containing a baby, the missionary was struck by the complete silence of the room. When he asked an attendant why none of the babies were crying, he was shocked by the reply.
"After about a week of them being here, and crying out for countless hours, they eventually stop when they realize no one is coming for them...They stop crying when they realise no one is coming for them. Not in 10 minutes, not in four hours, and maybe, perhaps, not ever,” recalled Dayna.
Needless to say, the missionary’s words deeply affected the mum-of-one, and indeed, they left her feeling ‘broken’ but ‘stirred’.
When she returned home that night, she got into the crib with Luella, to reassure her that she would always be there to dry every tear.
“As Luella rested her tiny little 10lb body against mine and we rocked, I made a promise to her. A promise that I would always come to her. Always. At 2:00am when pitiful desperate squeals come through a baby monitor, I will come to her,” wrote the devoted mum.
And her promise will extend far beyond Luella’s infant years, as she added: “Her first hurt, her first heartbreak, we will come to her. We will be there to hold her, to let her feel, to make decisions on her own, and we will be there. We will show her through our tears and frustrations at times, that it is okay to cry, and it's ok to feel. That we will always be a safe place, and we will always come to her.”
It’s not hard to see why this photo has gone viral.
