Suffering.

I’d like to begin with a brilliant observation I had today. It goes like this: Hips are made for carrying babies around on. God had a design in mind when he made a woman’s body because a little one can fit PERFECTLY on the side of a woman. Like exactly… to the T! I realized this today as I was hustling around trying to get a lot done, while I still had a sick baby who I did not want to leave. I just popped him on my hip, had one arm free to do whatever work I needed to do, and wa-la! Simple and convenient… God designed girls right! So the next time you are thinking that your hips are too big, remember how God designed you that way!!! You were designed for a beautiful purpose, and it is awful nice to have some hips to hold kids up on when you’ve got a million other things to do J.

Speaking of sick kids, we have had a few of those recently. It started with one boy who started throwing up every single thing he’d take in… this went on for a morning and afternoon, but then we decided to stop giving him fluids by mouth and just start an IV for him. Dehydration in children is dangerous… their little bodies need the fluids regulated very closely or it can be deadly. Once we had the IV in him, he started on the long journey back to health. In fact, he’s still on that journey… slowly but surely he’s coming around.

The next day, one after another started throwing up and we decided to make a bit of an infirmary out of one of the extra rooms in the guest house. Not wanting to keep spreading the bug to every other child staying out in the baby house, we would isolate the children with similar symptoms to our little makeshift “infirmary”. Now, truth be told, I’m pretty proud of our infirmary. We had two kids with IVs, lots of Pedialyte, Clorox wipes, and diapers galore. In just a matter of a morning and afternoon, two amazing Canadian volunteers and I cleaned up more vomit and diarrhea off ourselves and the floor then we’d like to recall. But by nightfall, we returned a few of the children back to baby house because their symptoms were relieved. The rest stayed in our rooms away from the other children for another night. To my very pleasant surprise, I got a boy named Givens……..

Givens is a special boy. Case in point: when they announced that Givens would be staying with me that night, I hurried to our “infirmary” as fast as I could to pick him up. When I arrived, there he was in all his smiling glory…. His face just completely and entirely encompassed in joy! GIVENS!!!!!! I think I can say this without sounding too conceited: Givens loves me almost as much as I love him!!!!! This little guy turned one year old the day after I arrived in Haiti, and I remember how incredibly tiny he was compared to the boy who he shared a birthday with. I am pretty sure he’s about half the size…. That day on his birthday I was still brand new here so I decided to just pick him up and start playing with him. We bonded that day, and the bonding hasn’t stopped since!

Givens is known for his smile. He smiles with his entire face so much that he squints his eyes (squinty eyes… where have we seen THAT before? J) & he holds this face for a solid chunk of time! He is the most pleasant little guy. Oh how I wish I could show you pictures! So Givens and I retreated to my room and watched “Toy Story” until his bedtime, and he was so precious the way he would look at the screen and then look at me as if to see if I approve. Then when we woke up the next morning, we went for a walk before anyone else or any work called my name. Givens fit perfectly on my hip…. J

Do you remember a girl named Udashka that I’ve talked about before in a blog called “And I’d like to introduce you…”? Well Udashka comes every two weeks for a check-in as a part of the formula program. I’d just proudly like to show off my little Udashka now….

Before:

After:

Udashka is starting to recognize me now I believe, or perhaps more so would like to believe! She smiles and loves to be held. She turns 6 months during this week, and I hope her appetite continues to be all that it has been as she can venture into the world of soft solids instead of just milk. Udashka is going to grow up to be the loveliest girl. I think she’s going to touch many lives in Haiti… she just has that look in her eyes.

In the past few weeks, we have admitted a two year old who weighed only 14 lbs, a five month old who weighed only 6 lbs, and a six month old that weighed only 7 lbs. It is interesting to see how quickly they start gaining weight and filling out once they have a steady supply of food and care. It is incredible to be working somewhere that sees results like this!

This next story is devoted to my little sister Tessa, because of her heart for special needs children. Last Saturday, a girl was brought in that was extremely thin by her loving mother. She didn’t want to give her precious daughter up, but she wanted to see if we could help her when many doctors had turned her away. So Amy and I got to bring her back into our pharmacy for a listen to her story….

She was two years old and weighed a mere 14 lbs. This weight at two years old meant only skin, a tiny bit of muscle, and bone. She didn’t have the normal fat that a two year old should have. Her ribs were showing and she had extremely developed veins and muscles for her tiny body. Amy explained that seizures and muscle rigidity caused this. They burned up the calories all too quickly and left her body way too thin.

She also had cerebral palsy, which made it difficult for her to eat. She could not really suck, so the only way to really feed her was to pour fluid in her mouth from a cup. At this point, she was on no medicine and definitely not getting enough calories. So Amy evaluated the situation and decided we should help her out with an antibiotic, multivitamin, anti-seizure medication, and an extremely calorie-dense food called Medical Mamba. She taught the mom how to mix the peanut butter based food with water so that this girl could drink it from a cup. Sometimes mothers catch me off-guard with how thankful they are. This mom did just that! She seemed so grateful that finally someone (AMY!!!!) listened to her story and helped her suffering daughter regain some normalcy. It made me really appreciate Amy and her ability to listen to stories of brokenness in Creole. Hopefully someday soon I will be able to understand the language that way.