Three of our babies specifically need your prayers.

Today’s blog is dedicated to three of our special babies who need prayer. Of course they are all special and they all need prayer, but these three have challenges that I want to share with you.

Solomon

Some of you may not know who Solomon is.  He is counted in our “40”, but we hope that one day he will be returned to his mother (she is moving to the Sicalo Lesisha Kibbutz at Project Canaan with her 5-year old at the beginning of October).  If you go back and read my blog at http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-would-husband-and-wife-arrive-at.html you will learn about how we first met Solomon.  After giving his father a job and taking his mother and Solomon to the hospital to start on HIV medication (and treatment for severe malnutrition) we thought we had helped in a way that the family could move forward together and not have to abandon their children.

Well, the father didn't like working for a living and quit working at Project Canaan after a couple weeks. The mother and child started HIV treatment, but she just couldn’t seem to get Solomon stabilized (the child was HIV positive from birth, but the mother hid it from the father so the child needlessly went without treatment for 13 months).    Eventually the father ran off with another woman and impregnated her, leaving the mother with a very sick baby (so she could not work because she had to care for him).  I received a call from the hospital Social Worker one day and she asked me to come and meet a mother and baby in extreme need.  When I arrived I saw Solomon and his mom and knew their story.  After several hours of talking, praying and trying to find another possible solution, the hospital and mother begged me to take the child, and I did.

Solomon is now 15-months old.  He has Stage 4 HIV (AIDS) and his CD4 count is less than 200. He has extreme muscle wasting (i.e. he can’t put any weight on his legs and doesn’t sit on his own) severe weight loss and frequent infections that make him really sick which causes him to lose more weight.  He is suffering from malnutrition and only weighs 8.1 kg (17 lbs), which is 3% less than his age group.  His Gross Motor Skilss are at a 2-4 month old level and his verbal skills are at a 6-9 month old level.  Solomon is a very sick little boy and we are struggling to keep him alive and well. 

Our prayer is that he will stabilize, start to grow as healthy food and Anti-Retroviral medication start to work in his body and that his body will heal as he is given tender loving care and lots of prayer.  Our hope is that once he is healthy and stable and once his mother is also stable and working well, that we can reunite this child with his mother and brother and they can live happily together.  This may take a year or more, but we are committed them.  Please pray with us for this entire family.

Beth

Little Beth came to us after her mother handed the baby to a neighbor and said she was going to the toilet, but never returned to get her child.  The neighbor took Beth to the hospital and left her there, as this single young man was unable to care for a stranger’s newborn child.  Beth is a sweet, beautiful, happy child and a joy to have at El Roi.  She is now 5-months old and recently we became suspicious that there might be something wrong with Beth as her head always leaned to the left and her left eye was starting to droop slightly.  This past week she went to see the doctor and was diagnosed with mild Cerebral Palsy.  The doctor assumes that she had a head injury at or near birth and she also has weakened/damaged muscles on the left side of her neck.  We are uncertain as to whether she can see out of her left eye, but will have that tested next week.  Beth will also start Physical Therapy (Physiotherapy for my Canadian readers) and we hope to help her strengthen as she continues to grow.  Please pray with us for complete healing for Little Beth.

Grace

Sweet Grace came to us after having a rough start to life.  She as left on the side of the road by her mother because she was sick and the mother wanted to go see her boyfriend.  Grace was in a coma by the time someone took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with Menegitis and Tuberculosis.  When her fever finally broke and Grace awoke from the coma the doctor discovered that she was blind.  After several weeks the doctor was convinced that she could see again and her body was well enough that he discharged her to her Aunt, but sadly the Aunt had no means to care for this baby. Grace had regressed and at the age of 14-months was not able to sit, crawl, or even roll over.  That is when the Aunt took the child to the Social Welfare department for help and that is how Grace came to us.

When we got her we didn’t know that she was blind or sick, we just knew she needed help. The Aunt really just handed her off and left – no mention of medication, treatment or blindness!  She has now been also diagnosed with Hydro-Cephalus (water on the brain) and Cerebral Palsy.   Grace is taken to Physical Therapy sessions once a week and the Aunties work with her daily to strengthen her muscles. She is such a sweet baby and loves to be held and loved. 

When I was in Taiwan last month I was speaking at a Literature Conference for High School students. At the end of the day a young blind girl was brought to meet me.  We had our photo taken together and I told her about our little blind baby back in Swaziland.  The 16-year old turned her head towards me and said, “I am blind and I am a Christian. I will pray that Grace is completely healed and that one day she will see”.  I almost fell apart in front of 200 Taiwanese students, but managed to keep it together until I got to the car.  I too believe that Grace’s sight will be restored, even though her eye examination shows that would be impossible, but nothing is impossible for the God I serve.

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Helen Muli, Thabile Mbhamali, Gcebile Shongwe and all the other women who care for and love the children at Project Canaan.  They are the ones who change the diapers, administer the medication, clean up the vomit and wipe away the tears on a day-to-day basis.  They are angels here on earth and we give thanks for their selfless service.

Today, and every day, we are praying for complete healing for Solomon, Beth and Grace.  We also pray for mental, emotional and spiritual healing for all the children that have been brought to us for safekeeping.  El Roi, the God Who Sees them, loves them very much and we are thankful that He has sent each of these precious children to us “for such a time as this”.

Live from South Africa … I am giving thanks for health and life.

Janine

Confusion, lies and a new set of twins end up in the hospital

This was a whirlwind week beginning with a call from the Social Welfare department on Monday

morning saying there were three babies in desperate need.  We were already awaiting the arrival of a newborn (who at the time of this writing has still not appeared, despite an October 4^th delivery date).

I was told that one of the babies was a newborn and was dropped in a pit latrine (I never get used to typing those words), but was not ready to be released from the hospital.  The others were 9-month old twins who were in a very serious situation (not to suggest that being dropped in a pit latrine is NOT a serious situation!).  Tuesday Helen and I made the drive to Siteki to visit the baby in hospital and pick up the twins.

The mother of the baby gave birth in a pit latrine that had not been finished yet.  I never thought that I would write this, but unfortunately there were no feces/urine in the pit latrine to catch the baby when it landed, and instead the child hit his tiny newborn head on the bottom of the 6’ deep hole.  The mother left the child and it was only 12 hours later that he was found by a family member who heard his cry. It is a miracle that this baby is still alive, but not without injury.  He has several large wounds on his head and an abscess of some kind (the size of my fist), so we will not receive him from the hospital until the surgeons are finished and confident in his recovery.

From there we drove to the office to pick up the 9-month-old twins. I am not quite sure how to explain what transpired in the minutes to come, other than to say that there was a lot of confusion, there were lies, and then suddenly we had a set of twins in the car.  Their story took twists and turns that started with them looking like they were 18-24 months old and ended with them not even looking like siblings or the same age (let alone twins – neighbors maybe?).  The problem is that our policy is to only intake children under the age of 12 months because there is such a great need here in Swaziland for a home for little babies.  We want to have space for children of that age when a hospital or Social Welfare office needs to place a baby.  Secondly, the little ones come with much less hurt and emotional challenges than the older ones, and so our first children can be the leaders of the younger ones in the future.

But God is God, His plans are not our (my) plans, and He cheated and tricked me. I was “hoodwinked” as Ian told me later.

The children were living 100 km from Siteki, which is a 90-minute drive from Project Canaan. The police were the ones who reported that the children had been abandoned, so they were asked to drive the babies to Siteki and we would meet them there “half way” so to speak. By the time we arrived, the police had dropped the babies at the government office and turned back home. We looked at the children and laughed because they were walking, likely talking and had a full set of teeth!  I told the Social Worker that there was no way that these children were 9-months old and she insisted that is what she had been told. Well, maybe that is what she had been told, but there was NO way that was the truth.

 

Then there was the confusion. The Aunt of the children was the one who told the police that the mother had abandoned the children at her front door step when she wasn’t there (in fact she didn’t arrive home for three more days!).  The father of the children is HIV positive and has fathered 22 other children, to her knowledge, and was focused on passing on the deadly disease to as many women as he could before he passed away.  He is living in South Africa now.  When we asked how the boy was so very dark and the girl so very light, we were told, “Oh, the mother is a Zulu and the father is Afrikaans, that is why”.  Oh brother.  That might be true, but the mother is not a cat!

And then it got worse.  What are the children’s names?  Well, the Aunt didn’t know because she hadn’t seen the babies in six months, so she named them Rose and Gabriel. Why those names?  Because the girl was as pretty as a rose, and the boy would be protected by the angel Gabriel.

I told the Social Welfare officer that I really didn’t think these children qualified to come to El Roi as they were too old, but she assured me that they were less than one year and I couldn’t say no.  Where else would they go?  And so Rose and Gabriel, our “twin 9-month old babies” came to El Roi that night and it became their home.  They are actually 22-months old, the eldest children at the El Roi home for abandoned babies.  (Just for the record, I do believe that my friend at Social Welfare had no idea that the children were more than a year when she first called me.  She was only working from information the police had given her).

We have some issues with these beautiful children. They are angry, afraid, very hungry and both showing signs of severe malnutrition.   While they look round and plump, they are suffering “Kwashiorkor,” a form of malnutrition that is caused by inadequate protein.  In fact, yesterday afternoon we had to admit them to the hospital because their condition is acute and in the final stages (life threatening) according to malnutrition doctors here in Swaziland.  They will be there for 10 -14 days and that means that a caregiver from the El Roi baby home must be with them 24 hours a day.  There is no question that they have been abandoned before and mistreated based on how they cling to/fight for food, scrounge for tiny kernels of rice left on the floor even after they have had a full meal, and how they will bite in self-defense even when self-defense is not required. 

We have a long road ahead with all of these children, but we know that the Creator of the Universe and God who SEES them has brought us all together and He will make the way straight as we continue to seek His will and direction.

Thank you for reading this blog and for your continued support and prayers.  I can honestly say that I am at peace about what we are doing here and I believe that I have the best job in the whole world.  The rains are starting to fall again, the vegetables are being harvested and sold, and the babies are starting to crawl and walk. God is good and I am thankful.

Live from Swaziland…we have 14 babies!

Janine

PS - Just want to shout out to Beth Blaisdell, Kim Kennedy, Pam McReynolds and Sherri Troyer from the US Bank who were visiting this week and were a huge gift in assisting with many moving parts and sick children.  Special thanks to Beth and Kim who did "night shift" at El Roi last night with Helen while Thabile was doing night shift at the hospital.  We are so thankful for your hearts and hands.

5-month old baby is dying from malnutrition in prison, but can we help?

If you read my blog of August 25th blog you may remember that I spoke of a 30-year old woman who has eight children and was going to prison for three years for multiple counts of stealing baby formula, diapers and lotion. Her husband is in prison for ten years for the same crime.  Yes, just pause there for a minute and think about that.

We met her in the hospital as she was trying to nurse her 4-month old baby back to health from a severe case of malnutrition before being taken to prison. Children under the age of three go to prison with the mom if there is no father available to care for them.  She asked us numerous times to please take her baby because she thought the baby would die in prison.  The day she was released from the hospital she had the Social Worker from the hospital call us to come get the baby, but we couldn’t, there are laws in place systems that must be followed.

Today Helen, Thabile and I went to visit her in prison to see how she and the baby were doing.  As it turns out, they were only in prison for four days before they were sent to the Government hospital to try to save the babies life, again from malnutrition. They spent the next three weeks at that hospital.   They returned to prison yesterday, and we showed up today for a visit.

We arrived at the prison and had to sign in with our official ID’s.  Then a guard led us through an armored, locked door and we were asked to turn over our cell phones, wedding rings, earrings, car keys and our official ID documents.  No, we weren’t going to stay in prison, just visit there. 

We sat on a concrete bench on one side of a gated window and she sat on the other.  The first thing she asked us was why we had abandoned her and didn’t come to take her baby when she needed us to?  I carefully explained (and Thabile translated in to siSwati) that we must abide by the laws of the land and that the Social Welfare Department must be involved and be the ones to request the placemen of the baby. 

It seemed cut and dry until we saw the condition of the baby. He is now five months old and only weights 4 KG (8.8 pounds).  The mother is HIV positive and refuses to start ARV (anti-retroviral treatment). The baby is also HIV positive and we don’t know if he is on treatment or not, but he looks very sickly and has some telltale signs on his face and neck.  Helen looked at me and I thought she was going to break down. I firmly (in love) told her to keep it together or I would lose it too and the whole thing would fall apart.

During the next part of the conversation we learned that this young mother had no information about what had happened or what was happening to her seven other children since she had been incarcerated.  She had no idea about their situation, no idea how to find out and no energy to change it.  She started to cry.

At that moment I asked the Guard, who was sitting beside her listening to the conversation, for help.  We need to “call a friend” and the only person who might possibly help us was that Guard.  And help us she did.  After explaining the situation she told us that the baby’s health was in an “emergency” state.  She suggested that we meet with the Head of the prison (the Commandant) and we did.  I was so incredibly impressed with the woman we met with.

In addition to her wanting to help, she also committed to personally go and get the 18-month old and bring her to the prison to be with her mom.  WHAT!?  (you might ask?).  But yes, right now we believe the 18- month old is being cared for completely by her siblings who are age 3,4,6,9 and 11 (the 15-year old lives elsewhere).  Collectively, we believe that the 18-month old would be better off in prison with her mom.  I know, hard to read… and process. And, what about the other kids?

What will happen? We don’t know.  Should the baby stay with his mother?  Yes, in an ideal world she should, BUT the mother will be in prison for three years, is HIV positive (and without treatment, may not make it that long), and is dying in front of us.

The story doesn’t end here, it will continue to Part 2 next week when we may or may not have the opportunity to try to save this little baby’s life at the El Roi Home for Abandoned Babies.  But it is Saturday morning in Swaziland and I wanted to give you an update from the week, even though it is not complete.  I have no photos for this week because I believe that would be inappropriate and insensitive.  Every week I struggle with how to tell a story in a way that you, the reader, will respond to, while still helping protect the dignity and honor of those I am here to serve.  I am sure that I sometimes do it better than others. 

It is 6:15 AM Saturday morning and I am heading in to town,, at the invitation the Child Protection Services, to speak at a big rally at a city police station. There is a rising incidence of abortion, attempted abortion and dumping babies (it is an industrial center) so they want me to share and encourage people to make different choices. I plan to share that my mother was 15-years old when she got pregnant, and if she had aborted or dumped me, I wouldn’t be here today.  Please pray that I will have the right words to say and for Jesus to be present. I am so happy that my dear friend Lori Marschall will be along for moral support.  Another day in Swaziland, and I give thanks.

It’s Saturday morning… and I am out the door!

Janine

The face of hope in Swaziland … a dying man, an HIV positive baby and a new set of twin boys.

This week was all about hope, but I am learning that “hope” rarely has the face that we expect it to have.

Caleb (age one) is HIV positive and has been on ARV’s (anti-retro-virals) since he was born. His mother died of complications due to AIDS shortly after Caleb was born and his father took him to the Pediatric AIDS clinic for testing and treatment.  Because the child was positive, the clinic’s policy is that they will care for any other immediate family member who is also positive (mother, father, grandmother, etc), but the child is the primary patient.  While Caleb’s father was HIV positive, he still refused to start treatment, and was getting sicker each day.

This week I learned that more than 50% of the adult/parent patients at the Pediatric AIDS clinic refuse to start treatment (life-giving, life-changing, life-saving treatment) because of the stigma around it and the knowledge that they will have to remain on treatment for the rest of their lives.  The number is staggering and I am still processing this new information.  Not only will the adult get sicker faster, but they also are more infectious to others when they are not on their ARV’s (of course they are encouraged not to participate in sexual activity).

Caleb’s father landed in prison not long after Caleb came to the El Roi baby home. Caleb was very sick and there were several weeks when Helen feared that Caleb wouldn’t make it, but he did make it.  Two weeks ago at his check up we learned that Caleb’s father was out of prison and was considering starting on his AIDS medication. We also learned that he would be back at the clinic on Wednesday, August 1^st to get his medication.  Helen asked if we could go to the clinic that day and take Caleb to see his father.  Why?  Because Caleb is the face of hope.

We arrived at the clinic at 7:15 and waited.  There are no appointments set and patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis.  Within 90 minutes a man was pushed in to the clinic in a wheelchair.  It was Caleb’s father.  He was bone thin, was clearly wearing an adult diaper and required assistance to stand up and get weighed (which is the first thing you do when enter as a patient).  Helen gasped when she saw him.  The last time they were together was in March and he was walking and “healthier” then. Now he was in bad shape. 

Helen held up a smiling Caleb and the father looked as if he had seen a ghost.  He believed his son was dead, but there was Caleb, right in front of him, laughing reaching, chatting and almost standing by himself.  The father said, “this is a miracle, he is alive”.  Sadly (but not unexpectedly) Caleb did not recognize the man who was reaching for him and Caleb took refuge in Helen’s arms.   But over time, he looked at his father and his father stared in awe of the miracle in front of him.  Helen was amazing and told the father that the child is alive because God saved him and he is taking his medication.  She encouraged the father to take his medication so that he can see his son grow and be strong.  We gave him (his sister) our phone number and asked her stay in touch and if he wanted to see Caleb at any time, we would bring him.  I believe that Caleb’s father saw hope in his little boy’s face on Wednesday and I pray that the next time we see him he will be on a better path to health.

Minutes after we left the clinic we met a Social Worker from the hospital who asked if we could help with transport to do a home visit on the twins that I had seen back on June 5^th when I was at the hospital picking up four-month-old David (see June 9^th blog).  Their story was complicated and involved a parental father raping the girl, the girl abandoning the babies and an Auntie agreeing to take them.   I was very concerned about the twins and have prayed for them daily since I saw them there, always having a feeling that I should follow up.  Wednesday the Social Worker asked if we could drive her to follow up on those very twins and so at 7AM the very next morning Helen and I picked her up and we headed out to the homestead where the babies had been dropped of. 

Helen brought some small clothes to leave with the Auntie (or whoever was caring for the babies) and our fingers were all crossed that we would find them well.  After driving for hours and covering much of the country of Swaziland by car we finally found the babies and they were in bad condition.  The Auntie couldn’t care for them and gave them back to the mother.  She was young, not stable, had run away to live in a slum (I didn’t know there were slums in Swaziland until I found myself in one that day) and she couldn’t buy any milk for them.  One of her nipples was infected and the other was providing minimal milk for both babies.  The mother is HIV positive so the milk she was providing could also be passing along HIV.  The babies were severely malnourished, weighing approximately five pounds each (they are eight weeks old).  The mother didn’t want to care for them and talked of taking them back to the hospital and dropping them off, but hospitals here (much like at home) have a “no return policy” on babies.  They were cold, naked and very despondent.  Helen immediately went and bought the smallest diapers she could find, cleaned the babies and put them in the clothes we brought for the mother.

The Social Worker was very concerned/upset about the babies and worked very caringly and diligently to speak with the mother about caring for them.  Although the mother acknowledged that the babies were in bad shape, she also knew that she had no way to provide for them and knew that if something didn’t change that they would die.  The Social Worker spoke for with the mother for a long time to try to find another/better solution for the babies.  We even got back in the car with her and drove to a distant homestead to seek assistance for the mother and children, but the answer was “no”.  The Social Worker then asked us if we would be able to make room for these two?  Bringing home two new babies was not our intent when we started the journey on Thursday morning, but by 2:30PM we had two new baby boys on their way to the El Roi home.  The firstborn is named Paul.  The second one, who appears quite sickly, is named Ishmael. 

The El Roi Baby Home was named “El Roi” because that is the Hebrew name for “the God who Sees Me” found in Genesis 16:13 when Hagar was still pregnant with Ishmael.   Our God, El Roi, saw the pain that the mother was in and the pain that these twins were in and called in his servant, the Social Worker from the hospital, to go and find them. 

Strangely (or not) that very Social Worker was reading Genesis 16 in her office when we picked her up on Thursday morning.  I didn’t find this out until much later in the day (!).  When we reminded her of where the El Roi name came from, we all gave thanks to God for His ways are not our ways, but they are perfect.

I saw hope in the face of Caleb this week.  I saw new hope in the face of Caleb’s father.  I saw hope in the face of a young mother, who was watching her babies die and could do nothing about it.  And I saw hope in the face of a Social Worker who is doing impossible work with no budget.  But I know that it really wasn’t those three who showed me hope it was my Lord and Savior who gave me hope by using those people in my life. 

Psalm 25:5 says, “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long”.

As we continue on through these turbulent waters I am determined to keep my eyes on Him.  That is not always easy and sometimes requires hourly reminders, but that is my hearts desire.  My hope is in Him and only Him.

Live from Swaziland, I am determined.

Janine

You thought you had a bad day?

Miriam was having a really bad day.  She was only 11-months old and weighed 14 pounds when her mom gave her away to total strangers on Tuesday.  Suddenly she found herself in a big room with bright lights that smelled funny with many sick children coughing and crying.  People were holding her down, sticking needles in her, poking at her eyes, ears and mouth, and then pulling off her diarrhea filled diaper.  To make it worse there was a very, very white lady there with white hair that made the whole experience more terrifying because she had never seen a white person before. On Tuesday, July 10^th, Miriam had a really bad day.

Here is the back-story.

On Tuesday morning Helen and I met this young mother who was mentally ill.  She was holding her 11-month-old baby in her arms while she sat quietly at the Social Welfare Office.  The mother’s uncle brought her there and charged that she often went off and left the baby alone, sometimes for a week at a time.  He was desperate for something to be done because if she left again, the child might not live and he already had too many dependents to care for.  We were asked to make El Roi the home for this beautiful girl, and we said yes.

The mother told us how very happy she was that the baby was going with us and she headed off to the bus stop to go home.  The baby was asleep as we got in our van and headed directly to the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic in Manzini because our standard policy is to have every child tested for HIV as soon as we receive them.  Miriam (also known as Thembalethu) tested negative, even though she was exposed to her mother’s HIV status when she was born.  This was good news, but suddenly she got a fever, started coughing, her heart was racing and we knew we had a sick baby on our hands.  Thankfully we were right next to a hospital and headed directly in to see a doctor friend who specializes in malnourished children.  He examined her right away and admitted her immediately.  She has severe pneumonia and is malnourished.  She is being fed F75 formula (which is miracle food for children in this situation) and is on IV antibiotics.  We believe she will be well and come home soon. 

The rest of this blog will give you a few helpful tips if you ever find yourself on a day or night shift at a Swazi hospital.  I hope to not offend anyone in any way, but alas, I will share what I experienced that day with a few pointers for others.

 

• You can’t admit a child (or anyone) to the hospital without being there to be the primary caregiver.  There is only one nurse in the pediatric ward and she can’t be the caregiver, so you must be there to cook, clean, etc.

• You need to sign a paper committing to pay the bill at the end, as this is a private hospital.The

    cost to stay per day is E6 (six Emalangani or six Rand), the equivalent of .73 US cents per day, plus medication of course. 

• There were 9 children admitted the evening we were admitted so, unfortunately, the nurse wasn’t able to check Miriam’s admission forms until the next morning.  Therefore, no medication or food was given until the morning. Note to self – bring bottles and formula in case the special food doesn’t arrive when it is scheduled to.

• Other packing needs: You must bring your own sheets, blankets, towels, soap, diapers, formula, diaper cream, food, cell phone charger and chair to sit on beside the crib.

• Bath time: The time to clean the baby is around 5:30-6:00 AM, so be sure to have your cleaning bucket, soap and supplies ready (oops, we didn’t have those).

• You will be pleasantly surprised when a lady in charge gets up and starts singing in siSwati and all the women answer in song around 7:15 AM.  They sing about how big and deep and wide God’s love is for us.  It is inspiring and beautiful. 

• Immediately following prayer, a photo flip chart will be presented to all who are there to explain how you get HIV/AIDS and how NOT to get HIV/AIDS.  There is a reasonable amount of Q&A before going back to look at the babies in the cribs.  You are free to ask questions…in siSwati.

• Pay attention when the lady in charge starts to explain the importance of proper hand washing with hot water and soap so as not to spread germs around the pediatric ward.  It would be a terrific idea to have hot water and soap in the ward for all to practice with, but alas, there is only cold water.  If you forget your bar of soap at home the whole concept is lost.

• Don’t pay attention when the woman who usually mops the floor walks through the pediatric ward with a chain saw…I am sure she has a good reason for it.

• Don’t be offended when the Swazi women start to talk amongst themselves in siSwati across the entire ward and point at you and laugh.  Surely they are not making fun of you.

• Don’t take it personally when several of them correct you firmly for leaving the cap off your baby’s bottle, thereby exposing it to germs in the room.

• Don’t act surprised when the ladies who were worried about your bottle cap share a 2L bottle of orange Fanta around the ward OR when their 5-year-old boy stands up on the bed next to you and pees into a plastic grocery bag beside the Fanta.  Maybe that is why they wanted me to keep the cap on the bottle…that makes sense now.

• If you choose to make conversation with the other women, some will enjoy it, but most don’t speak English.  Asking questions isn’t for the faint of heart though.  You may find out that one child is there because their babysitter broke the 3-month-old baby’s femur while the mother was at work.  You may discover that the little baby beside you is actually 6-years-old and weighs 22 pounds.  You may also wonder if she will be alive when you arrive at your next shift.

• Feel free to give any or all of your diapers to the woman next to you because her son has chronic diarrhea.  She has no income and the 8-month-old baby’s father died in a car crash before the baby was born, so how could she possibly pay for diapers?  Thankfully she only has one little one.  Her only other child is 18-years-old now.  How old is the mother, you might ask?  She is 30.  Quick math confirms she was 12-years-old when she had her first child.  That is a good moment to look back to your crib.

• Caution: The hospital kindly provides food for the caregivers/mothers (which I haven’t seen in an African hospital before), but be prepared to stand in line with a plate for your neighbor, even if you don’t want to stand in line with a plate.  She may encourage you (bully you) into doing so, so that she may have two meals.  Be prepared for the glaring eyes of others who will believe that you are eating/stealing their food.  Just close your eyes, hold our your plate and bear it.  Go immediately back to your happy place and look at the baby.

• There is no need to take an iPod.  There is an old TV suspended from the ceiling with a snowy image, but Justin Beiber is clearly singing in the background.

• It is good to know that if you have Manna Packs from Feed My Starving Children you may be able to convince the doctor to release the baby from hospital early if you promise to give the oral antibiotics and the Manna Packs.

• Checking out of a hospital takes about 4 hours and the cost for our 3 night stay (including special food and x-rays etc.) was approximately $15 USD.  Prescription medicine is free.

• The most important thing you need to know (if you have skin that is as white as mine) is that many babies, including your own new one, might find you absolutely terrifying and there is nothing you can do about it.

I have been in many hospitals around Africa, the worst clearly being the pediatric burn ward in Lilongwe, Malawi, but I was still unprepared for my “day shift” with little Miriam yesterday.  I am thankful for Thabile from the El Roi Baby Home who came back from holiday to do the “night shift” at the hospital all week long.  I am thankful for our interns who are helping out at the baby home this week so that Gcinile and Helen can take turns doing a job that I was totally unqualified and ill equipped to do. 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  We now have nine beautiful babies and we give thanks for each of them.  Caleb celebrated his first birthday on Wednesday and we are giving thanks for his improved health.  We hope that his legs will be strong enough to start crawling and then walking soon!

We need to get started on our Toddler home because when the babies turn two they will move to the “big kids” home.  If you can help fund this or fundraise for this important project, please go to: https://heartforafrica.secure.force.com/pmtx/cmpgn__donations?id=701C0000000UCGO or contact me directly at Janine@heartforafrica.org.  Thank you in advance for all you can do and give.

It’s Saturday morning and I am emotionally drained.

Janine

Ditched baby update and some "first world problems".

We have just finished our first full week living in Swaziland.  It was a lot harder than “planned”.  I am a great planner, and you would think that since I have spent 150+ weeks in Africa over the past nine years that I would know that things never work out here the way I plan them, but alas, I had higher expectations, and my own expectations created a bumping landing here in Swaziland.

First, the good news; if you read my May 23^rd blog you will remember the story of the young girl who gave birth to a baby and dropped it in the ditch only to be caught by police and put in jail for abandoning her child.  Well, it didn’t quite happen like that, in fact after the young mother abandoned the baby she ran away so that the police wouldn’t catch her and put her in jail.  The family promised the hospital to come for the baby, but they never did.  I dropped in to the hospital on my first day here to check on a different baby (a newborn who had been found in a bag up in a tree) and instead I found the little one whom we thought had been taken home by the family, as promised.  After a good conversation with a very helpful doctor and a wonderful Social Work Department we were able to bring the 4-month-old baby back to El Roi while the police continue to search for the mother and/or settle whether the family does want to keep the child or not. 

Spencer was with me when we drove in to pick up the baby boy (who we will call “David” for now since he is not in our permanent care yet).  The Social Worker took us to her office and we passed by two tiny little bundles sitting on the chair outside her office.  It was a set of twins, maybe a day old.  I asked the Social Worker what their story was and she told us that the babies’ mother had been raped by her own father.  The twins were a result of the rape.  The man had been charged and was given 27 years in prison, which is excellent and very uncommon here in Swaziland.  Incest is considered private and rarely goes to public court and is almost never settled in public court, so this is good news.  The Grandmother of the babies (who could be the mother of the girl or could be another wife of the man) has offered to raise the babies.  I am not convinced that this will work out, but we will keep tabs on it.  Sorry that was all so confusing.

As Ian, Spencer, David and I headed back to El Roi I received a call from Helen Mulli who said we had just received ANOTHER baby from a different hospital.  The hospital Social Worker and people from the Social Welfare Department stopped in unannounced with a little 3-week-old child.  His name is Jeremiah and he was found abandoned at a bus stop in Mbabane at the age of one week.  He had been in hospital for two weeks and now El Roi is his home. We now have seven babies under the age of one year, and they are all doing very well.  By all accounts this was a great start to my first week living in Swaziland.

So why is it then that I let the rest of the week fall apart?  The container we shipped two months ago had landed here weeks ago with our furniture, clothing, food, beds, towels, sheets and every other earthly thing we could have shipped, but was stuck in red tape at customs.  Our house, which we are building on Project Canaan and which was to be completed in April, is not finished.  After talking, pleading, crying (and some gnashing of teeth) we finally moved in on Thursday, only to find toilets overflowing (or not working), no hot water in some rooms, doors with no keys, workers all over the place looking in windows with no curtains, and worst of all, there is not a single electrical plug (or mirror for that matter) in ANY of our bathrooms.  We have since learned that it is against fire code to put them in bathrooms in Swaziland.  Sigh.   I thought I was going to have a stroke.  We couldn’t get people to understand the urgency of getting settled so that we could get on to the work we were here to do OR to get Chloe in her new school (having showered and with clean clothes!).

Side note:  For those of you in the mission field I know you are cracking up at this, but for those of you in your comfy homes, a little empathy is much appreciated.  J

It was at some point on Thursday, when Lori Marschall and Jana Franz arrived to help get The Lodge ready for our Summer Interns, that I realized I was really tired of hearing myself complain.  I was also disappointed in myself that I couldn’t be more “go with the flow” now that I live in Africa and even more disturbed that all these comforts were so very important to me.  It seemed that I am happy to serve Jesus, but not until all my boxes are unpacked, the toilet works and the shower has hot water.  Oh, I also would like my fridge to work, the electric fencing to be installed to keep us safe, maybe a washing machine to wash our clothes, and really, would an electrical socket and a mirror be too much to ask for in my bathroom?  If I had all those things sorted I could really really serve the Lord and the people of Swaziland better.  Sigh.

The scripture tells us that we are to give thanks in all things.  I wasn’t giving thanks for the beautiful home that we were building.  I wasn’t giving thanks for the people who were trying to help, and I had quickly forgotten the blessing of having two new little babies.  Yes, I am human.  Yes, I like nice things and comfort.  And yes, I am learning.   I seem to be a slow learner, but He is a patient teacher and for that I am thankful.

It is Saturday morning in Swaziland and I am alive. Today is a new day and I look forward to enjoying the view of the mountains, spending time with my family and listening for His small voice in the wind.

Thanks for reading. 

Janine

What if I had said "NO"?

In 16 days our family will be getting on a plane to Africa.  My head moves quickly from having no thoughts to write down to having too many thoughts to write down. Maybe that is an aging thing?  A woman thing?  A mama thing? Or maybe just the reality that we are moving to Africa in 16 days?

Five and a half years ago we moved to Alpharetta, Georgia.  To explain it in "Christian-ese"  I thought I had "given it all up for Him", but down deep I really did love my house, my yard, my neighborhood and my life in Canada.  If I was going to move ANYWHERE I thought it would be to Africa.  Didn't God know that I wanted to move to Africa?  Wasn't I really clear with Him on that in my prayers and daily conversations?  Had He forgotten the children living on the streets that HE introduced me to?  Had He forgotten those that I longed to care for, encourage and love?  Instead, He moved us to a wealthy, (largely white) suburb of Atlanta - this from Toronto, the largest multi-cultural city in the world.  I was not pleased.  We moved into a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood, and I was miserable.  I was angry.  Why America (no offense meant to all my American friends), but why not Africa? 

As I look back on the past  5-1/2 years I am in awe of the people whom we have met, the places we have gone and the miracles that we have seen.  If we hadn't moved here, and moved straight to Africa (my plan) we would have missed so much.  I am thankful for North Point Community Church and for Chloe's small group and small group leader (shout out to Alyse!) who have come alongside Chloe to encourage her to be the most amazing young woman she has become.  I am thankful for the theater department at Milton High School where Spencer has been able to thrive, grow, create and learn.  After watching the incredible Cirque Kuwa performance (over and over again) I thought to myself, "what if I had said NO to moving here - Spencer would have missed this opportunity."  You see, our plans, our desires and our obedience have direct implications for everyone around us - especially our immediate family.

If we had not moved I would never have met the amazing Birk family and seen God's glory pour through a family's worst nightmare.  And of course, without that nightmare, we would not have the El Roi Baby home today.  Without the loss of little Jared Birk, our five little babies (Joshua, Esther, Caleb, Levi and Anna) might not be alive today.  Oh, what I would have missed.

So I repent again and give thanks, again, for His plans are not our plans, but they are BETTER than our plans, every time.

I continue to find it interesting how others perceive our move to Swaziland.  We are not moving there to be missionaries just like we didn't move to Georgia to be missionaries.  We are just a family moving to serve in another country at this time.  But this time I feel like I won the lottery.  I get to go and spend time in a beautiful country, serve with people I love and respect and serve people who are in desperate need.  "Religion that God our Father considers pure and faultless is this; to look after the orphan and widow in distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27

For the past 5-1/2 years I could look after orphans and widows from Georgia, but it was a daily struggle to keep myself from being polluted by the mall, Starbucks, Macy's one day sales and NCIS marathons on TV.  You know what I mean?

I look forward to long walks around the farm, driving Chloe to her really cool International school, sipping coffee with Ian looking out at our amazing view of the fields, Skyping with Spencer to hear about his life at FSU, having philosophical conversations with Kaleli, rocking babies to sleep with Helen and visiting orphans and widows in distress with Pastor Mike.  I have won the lottery, no doubt in my mind, and I am so VERY thankful that I didn't blow it by saying, "no, I don't want to move to Georgia." 

Is there something that you are doing because you want to, not because you believe God has asked you to?  Are you avoiding doing something that you know you are supposed to do?  A phone call perhaps?  A move?  A job change?  Don't put it aside for another day.  Don't blow it.  His plans are better than our plans, I promise.

Thankful in Georgia.

Janine