Finding Faith in the Battle

I am greatly benefiting from being here, surrounded by the amazing cooks in our mission. They share all their recipes with me, and I can’t believe how simple it actually is to make most things. I've had my problems. For example, did you know that garlic salt and garlic powder are not the same thing? And that mapeline can not be substituted for vanilla? But overall, it's been "a piece of cake." Now, I’m not saying I’ll continue to roll out tortillas or strain curdled milk to press out my own cream cheese when I no longer need to. But to whip out a cake with hardly a second thought? Awesome! I do have a question, though, for all you chemistry buffs out there. Take the following recipe for Wacky Cake (try it, it’s amazing!) 3 c flour 2 Tbsp vinegar 2 c sugar 2 tsp vanilla ½ c unsweetened cocoa 2/3 cup oil 1 tsp salt 2 cups cold water 1 ½ tsp baking soda Mix first 5 ingredients together well. Make 3 wells in the powder: in 1 well, pour vinegar, in the second, pour vanilla...

It’s April 7th. Exactly 2 years ago today we landed, jet-lagged and emotionally exhausted, in Malawi. We walked down the stairs off the plane and onto the tarmac. Anya stretched out her arms, turned in slow circles, and declared in awe, “home, sweet home, sweet home...”. At the same time, Ethan collapsed spread-eagle on the ground and wailed, “I just can’t take any more!” And Isaac took it all in stride, like there was nothing out of the ordinary happening. Now there are times I resonate with how Ethan felt that morning. But for the most part, it’s flown by with relative ease. Seriously...2 years? It hardly seems possible! I don’t want to pretend that it’s been easy. A couple things have been particularly challenging. One is just missing family, knowing that our kids are growing up and they’re all missing it. A second thing is the sea of ‘angst’ I find myself floating in most of the time: having so much more than others, and wanting to help, but knowing that so many well-intention...

Life goes on with predictable unpredictability . Omara has hit 4 months, smiles like crazy, laughs every now and then, and has rolled over once. She loves her maize cereal, though I'm not sure how much actually makes it down her throat. She has entirely rejected the pacifier (yeah!) in exchange for her thumb--whoops. I sucked my thumb until I was in 4 th grade, and I thought I might actually escape having a thumb-sucker myself! That appears not to be the case. I think it's why she sleeps through the night though, and to be honest, I'll take the fight to wean her from the thumb in 3 or 4 years over exhaustion right now! Chad's done with his quarter and has a whole 4 weeks off. In that time he is going to an evangelism community outreach weekend in a village up north (it'll be great but no vacation!) and a week-long mission meeting, as well as reading up to prepare his lectures for next term (Revelations!!! Yikes!) The clinic is going fine--we had a 9-yr old girl d...

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 ...