Elisabeth: 1.1+1.1 = 2.2 = PARTY!!

Elisabeth was brought to us on October 14, I made the picture with the marker in her hand, just to show how small she was. Today I made again a picture, again with the marker in her hand, you can see what a difference between those two pictures, that difference is 1.1 kg, Elisabeth doubled her weight in 4 weeks time!

When you see the picture at the left you see how small she was, just 1.1 kg. She has been in our incubator until 2 days ago, when another premature baby was brought.

We still feed her by NG tube, but we give her now more the bottle as well, she has now energy to drink, and she also has now energy to cry!!!

We celebrated today her doubled weight with our Amecet family, we prayed for her, thanking God for her life and of course there was a soda, thanking the staff for caring so well for her!

We all toast on LIFE!!

A crazy day.....

Today was a crazy day, I have been running around and I have the feeling that I didn't do that much! First I want to give you an update on Christine 1, who I asked prayer for yesterday. She had a good night, but slept a lot and very deep (due to the injections she was given) The temperature went up again, but the night duty staff have been monitoring her very well and it did not got very high. Today she was at first a bit confused, but by now she is doing well and is eating and drinking. I just had a talk with the doctor again, we don't know what caused the convulsions, we will have to keep a close eye on her. But God answered our prayers! Then Muya Val went to her new adoption mother. We are so happy that she will grow up in this lovely Christian family, the next thing is that Christine 2 was crying from the pain in her stomach, we tested her for malaria and she came out positive. we started her directly on the malaria treatment. But in the evening, her fever went very high.

Today we weighed baby Elisabeth again and her weight is 2.050 kg! I promised the staff that we will have soda's when she doubled her weight, from 1.1 kg to 2.2 kg, so I think we are very close to that!!! Then a new baby came today, a little baby boy, Job. He is one of a twin and his brother died after being born. Then shortly after Job was born, his mother started to bleed and nothing could be done, she passed away. This all happened yesterday. Job had not been fed since that time, except a bit of sugar water. He was cold and weak, his weight is 1.350 kg, so also a very small baby. We decided to take Elisabeth out of the incubator, since she is over the 2 kg. and we put Job in the incubator. Elisabeth stays still in the same room, away from the other children, till she is bigger.

We feed Job via a NG tube, so his energy will go in the growing instead of the sucking. We put little socks on his hands, otherwise those little fingers will put the tube out.

Please pray for Christine 1.........

It is the same Monday where I wrote about earlier, I wrote that I was ready for anything, but I didn't know it was for this.........

I was at the YWAM team meeting at the base, when I was called to come back to Amecet immediately, Christine 1 had fainted. I got Helen and Catherine, who were playing outside and raced back to Amecet. Christine was unconscious and I ran to get Dr. Engule, our neighbour. We carried her to the medicines room and the doctor got a canula in and we gave her injections and started an IV drip. We got a blood sample and I brought it to the laboratory at the neighbours. When I came back, Christine got again convulsions, I had to give another injection and went to the laboratory for the results. There was no malaria, she had again a urine infection and we started treatment for that this morning. She didn't get another convulsion since almost 3 hours now. But she is still unconscious. Everybody is scared, we are still thinking a lot about Immaculate, her death is still so fresh. We still miss her so much, Christine came the same time as Immaculate, a little bit the same case. Please pray for this girl, when I see her picture, I want her to grow up and live!!! Pray for us as well and the other children, who were at her room when she started to have the convulsions, they were scared.

A Foggy monday morning in Uganda....

When we woke up this morning, it was foggy outside. That happens not so very often in Uganda, to me is was almost if I was in Holland, very normal autumn weather. Helen was very suprised and asked which car made al this smoke... So I gave a short lesson what Fog is all about. She still felt it was very strange. In the meantime I had to keep moving, to get Helen and Sarah ready for school, the bus is picking them at 7.15 am. Catherine was sleepy today so we brought Helen and Sarah to the bus, while she was still in her (Hema) pyama. After that we had breakfast together as you can see on the picture below. We still have to bath her, that is a battle, because she hates to have water over her, but the bath ducks we got, may be therapeutic for her.

It is a good start of the week, what ever may happen this week..... we are ready for it!!! (I hope we will have a party for baby Elisabeth, that she doubled her weight. from 1.1kg to 2.2kg. See Blog of 14 /10)

Two new baby's on one day.....

Yesterday we got two new born baby's in our home. We have now 10 baby's, you can image how loud our choir sometimes sings.....

This is Kenneth, he is only 11 days old. His father and a neighbour brought him. The mother died last week from a pneumonia. Maybe she was weak after the delivery, but she left 2 children behind. She was only 19 years old. Kenneth is a healthy baby (2.6 kg.) He was at first not drinking so well, but today he drinks better.

This baby was brought to us by the police. The little boy was found by the police in the bush. They also found the mother already, who is now in the police cells. She dumped the baby and told the people he died. He is only 4 days old. He is a beautiful little boy, his weight is 2.7 kg. He had no name, we have had other baby's who were found and often they were given the name Moses. Sarah told me last night to give him the name Emmanuel, because she said, his mother has left him, but God is with him. And that is what the name Emmanuel means: God with us!! This morning Simon and I went to the police station, to talk with the mother. We would like some more information and also see how and who she was. She is a girl of 17 years, quite confused and refusing to talk. We don't know why she did it, she could not say why she dumped her baby. We asked her about the name, she had no interest and when we asked if we could name him Emmanuel, it was fine with her. Her relatives are called and we wait for that, maybe there is someone in her family who want to care for this precious boy. This afternoon we took him to the doctor for a check up and he was put on antibiotics. He doesn't drink so well and he sleeps a lot. But we know that God is with him!

We gave her the name RUTH.....

In the Blog of the 3th of October, I wrote about a little girl who was brought to Amecet by the police. Her mother had left her somewhere and went drinking in another place. She was taken into custody and the baby was brought to us. The mother escaped from the police cell s and she has not seen ever since. We only know that her name is Apio, we don't know how old she is. She is very small, her weight was only 3.3 kg. But she is very alert and the way she observes makes you think that she must be at least 4 or 5 months old.

She is now one month with us, the mother is gone and we felt we should give her a name. So we gave her the name Ruth. In the Bible, Ruth started a new chapter in her life when she went with Naomi, her mother in law. Our Ruth is also starting a new chapter in her life, her name means Friendship, fellowship. We all wish that for her. She is doing well, the infections she had, have cleared up. It is easier to feed her and she is gaining and smiling! But the problem she still has is her left foot, it is smaller than the right foot and turned inside. On Monday I took her to the specialist and he told me to come with her to his clinic in Kumi (1 hour drive from Soroti) on Wednesday. So today we went! Simon drove, it is a very bad road, full with potholes. But we reached and saw the doctor.

This are the little feet of Ruth!

The doctor decided to put a plaster around her leg and foot for two weeks. We have to come back and they will put probably a new plaster around it, and we will continue until it is right.

She doesn't seem to have pain, it is good that it goes in little steps. Tomorrow we are going to "decorate" her leg. And we pray that everything will work out for good. It is such a joy to see this little girl come to life. I think she has suffered a lot in her little life, there are also some problems at her private parts, she might have been abused. May God use all of us to minister to Ruth and we pray that she will come somewhere where she belongs, like the Ruth from the Bible.

Her legs are made for walking.... (6)

I received an email with the question, how is it going with Gloria? Gloria is a little girl of maybe 3 or now 4 years old. She has been in our home before, then her mother passed away and she is staying with her grandmother. In January this year we decided to take her back in Amecet, Gloria has a problem with her legs and we wanted to help with that. Gloria is also HIV+ and is on the ARV medicines. She is doing very well and she is hardly sick. Only the legs... I have been writing about this journey before, this is number 6 in the serie. We took her to a specialist in Kumi (1 hour drive from here) she got made special splints for her legs, it didn't work, then she got her two legs in plaster for 3 weeks, it looked better, but very soon the legs went to it orginal shape. Again back to the doctor and you can read in the blog of June 22th (Tears and laughter) that we didn't get good news. There was no improvement and there will not be much improvement in the future, that is what the doctor said to us. Then Gloria should go back to the village in this shape??? I felt so sad and what would become of Gloria in the village, who would carry her around when she is 20 years old (if she would make it?) So Gloria is still with us in Amecet. We started to try to make her more verbal and to make the most of her abilities. We got some volunteers who got a heart for Gloria and they started to train her. For example in potty training, in talking, in singing, in spending time with her seperate. It really brings fruit!!!!! Gloria is more verbal, she can talk better, she moves around more (with or without her walker) and she can be a whole day dry!!! They have really a lot of patience with her!

But what I saw yesterday, I want to share with you... Gloria had crawled to the slide and climbed up the little stairs, then she slided down at the other side, you should have seen the big grim that she had on her face, she was so proud of herself!! And when she was down, she crawled around and again went up the stairs, and so and so on. This was the same Gloria as the Gloria from January, only sitting, no playing or moving. Now she is determined to have fun! It really was almost a wink from God, an encouragement from Him. I have been worried about Gloria, what to do with her, we can't keep her for ever, she also needs a family where she belongs. I have faith that something will come around the corner for Gloria! And for now? We just enjoy the slide!!!!