Finding Faith in the Battle

Agnes, our beloved nanny, has children the same ages as ours. She started working for us when Isaac was just 5 months old, and her son Clement was just 3 months. Perhaps it's the working-mother thing, but my heart went out to her immediately, knowing how hard it is to do the juggling necessary to make ends meet. Clement was hospitalized several times that first year, for malaria and asthma and double-pneumonia and measles! Every time the phone rang at 4:30 or 5am, I knew he was sick again and she was taking him to the hospital. I didn't even know about the children's ward's 70% mortality rate then, but I still knew enough to start praying! I didn't know if I would survive the stress of that first year of Clement's life, let alone if he would! But he did, and he's now a healthy, active 2 year old--talking circles around Isaac and already potty-trained! And then, as I was starting to get big with Omara, Agnes tearfully confided that she was unexpectedly pregna...

Omara is 3 months old already! I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying with her baby-days, perhaps because she remains so easy to accomodate. She smiles more, laughs and coos, and is unsuccessfully trying to roll over. We found vaccine for everything except pneumococcal (pneumonia), and she's 5.25kg (11.5 lbs) and ready to start malaria preventative meds this week, if we can find any (of all annoying things to have shortages of!) Meanwhile, the other kids are doing great also. Anya continues to thrive at ABC Academy, where she's on the swim team, in ballet, and in the choir. Her teacher is great, and her confidence has never been higher (that brings it's own host of challenges, but better that than the alternative!). Ethan has settled into the routine of real homework (yes, in KG) and is reading like a champ, whizing through math, and continuing to charm with his great smile and adorable owl-hair. Isaac is back to hearing English and Chichewa, so he's slowed dow...

My professor in Nursing school, affectionately known as "Ma Barker," had a favorite saying: When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebra. The meaning? Common diseases happen commonly. A patient with nasal congestion is much more likely to have a cold than Wegener's granulomatosis. Obviously! But I had a thought yesterday, as I reviewed my textbooks in some clinic down-time. What if you live in Africa??? There is a whole host of diagnoses that aren't even on my radar because they're such 'zebra', and yet here a fever is more likely to be a potentially fatal malaria than a virus. A sore knee is often septic arthritis. I've seen chicken pox for the first time in my career (!), and I have to think about diptheria, measles, and tetnus as possible diagnoses. Stomach "bugs" and coughs could be caused by all sorts of nasty worms that I can hardly think about, lest I get nauseated. (Did you know that one of the common parasitic worms travels thro...

She's sweet, she's calm, she sleeps all night--so far, I've finally gotten my 'easy' baby! Omara is 2 months old and already over 10 pounds. Her newest trick is a toothless grin to show off her dimples. It's always such a milestone when they start to smile, since it's the first evidence of her acknowledging me as anything other than a food-source! I started back at the clinic this week, and was a bit nervous about leaving her. It's gone so well, though. She's taking a bottle like a pro for that one feeding, and she and Ms Agnes are getting along great. I've had moments of wishing I hadn't asked God for a chance to work in a clinic again--like when my first patient reported loosing his "voice and legs" suddenly. After I convinced him the laryngitis and legs probably weren't connected, I had to work for 15 minutes trying to figure out what he meant by the fact that his knee joints were numb (he had quad weakness, making his knees ...

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say it’s almost inconceivable—Y2K was just the other day, wasn’t it? Anyway, the calendar tells me it is indeed 2011, though the New Year slipped by with little fanfare by us. The rest of the missionaries got together to party, but we (the youngest) bowed out and went to bed early. I tell myself it’s because no one else has kids who wake them up the next morning at 5:30am, but I was left with a distinct feeling of getting old! We’ve started the new year by getting ourselves ready for success, just like I’m sure many of you have. You know what I mean…the typical resolutions. We’ve committed to exercising together 3 times a week, I’m working on being better at reading to the kids before they go to bed, rather than watching videos (the power being off several nights this week sure has helped!), we de-wormed the kids. You know, the typical new year stuff! We had a great visit with Miriam’s family, though it’s left us battling some homesickness now that...

I’ve been back for 10 days now. I have to say, it’s been a little harder than I expected. Not that I thought adjusting to being a family of 6 would be a walk in the park, but Omara’s almost 6 weeks old already. I thought we’d done a lot of adjusting already! There haven’t been any major issues, but normal every day life here can be issue enough to make anyone crazy. And it’s all the little things, you know? Like trying to get kids to school on time, and all the stores running out of milk, and Isaac being back in the world of needing 2 baths and 4 changes of clothes each day, and mud everywhere, and flies swarming, and killer mosquitoes on the attack (Omara is too small to take malaria-prevention meds). Oh, and that’s not to mention the unbelievable headache of having our modem-phone stolen (which eliminates our internet access from the desktop) at the same time the lap-top crashed (again!) so we’ve been frantically trying to get back on-line to submit year-end budget and ministry repor...

Omara is automatically an American citizen, having been born to American parents. However, to formally file her birth and claim said citizenship, we had to meet with the US Consular at the Embassy today. Actually, Chad had to go last week and file permission for her to get a passport since he wouldn't be here for today's appointment. They require both parent's notarized request for a passport to keep one parent from being able to kidnap a child. Anyway, armed with all the necessary documents, I headed out today to file for "Birth Abroad" and request a passport. These necessary documents were no small feat! In addition to the notarized "letter of concern" from Chad, I also had to have the passport application, birth abroad application, her birth certificate, our marriage license, my passport, and last but not least, 2 passport photos of her. Yes, of Omara, at 2 weeks old. In order to get these, I had to lay her on the coffee table on a white blanket durin...