Baby News

About three weeks ago we received a new baby, Deborah. She was six days old and premature. She was tiny. She wasn't eating a whole lot and not gaining weight. While we were in Gorom she was treated for thrush (which I'm not really sure about, but it's a bacterial thing in the mouth and babies who have it have a hard time eating) and they (our nurses) put a feeding tube in her. The feeding tube was removed shortly after we returned, but she still wasn't eating a whole lot. There are six other babies in that room and she wasn't getting the attention that she needed. As we talked about our concerns for her we realized that if she was at home she would be in the NICU and have individual attention 24/7. I weighed her the other day and she weighed 3 1/2 pounds. She is TINY. I decided that I would take her in. That I would be her "mom" and she would sleep with me and go with me wherever I went because she needed it. That was Thursday. I spent the afternoon feeding her every hour or so and changing diapers. There wasn't much time for anything else. Thursday night came and I was up most of the night feeding her, changing her diapers and cleaning up after she threw up twice. Once was all over my bed and so I had to sleep on the floor...It was a long night. But there was grace. I prayed a lot. For myself and for her. She is just so small and weak. Her little cry sounds just like a cat meowing. In the morning, Lynn came over and said that in the middle of the night she remembered that there is a hospital for premature babies in Ouaga. We called, and while they can't take her for a long time (they only take babies who are less than a month old and she is a month), they did say that we could bring her up for a few days. We took her and one of our caretakers, Pauline, to the hospital yesterday. It was clean!! And the nurses were kind and there were pictures on the walls...all good signs that they will do what they can for her. I feel relieved that she is there with people who actually know what to do with premature babies. None of us had any idea what to do. I'm still a little unsure...a little unsettled. We probably should have brought her there before now. Like when she first came. So I'm praying for Jesus to show His faithfulness in her life. We had another new baby, her name is Safi...something. I can't ever remember it. She came while we were in Gorom and had all sorts of things wrong with her. She had a cut in her mouth and down her throat so she couldn't eat, and she had sores all over her head. She couldn't close her mouth all the way (not because her cheeks were too fat which is the case with one of our other babies, Perpetue). Her family told us she wasn't sick, but it was obvious that she was. While we were gone, they took her to Dr. Zala (I think I've mentioned him before. He is an amazing man who loves Jesus and children which is a rare thing to find in a doctor here). He did what he could and sent her home. Yesterday Nichole spent a lot of time with her because she was starting to become more and more worried about her, but we didn't know what else to do since she had already seen Dr. Zala. I slept in a little bit this morning (seeing as I didn't sleep well the night before and I spent all day yesterday running around in Ouaga) and as I was waking up and still lying in bed Nichole came in and told me that the worker in Safi....'s room and our night guard came and woke herup (by tapping on the window) at six this morning because she had died. It doesn't make a lot of sense because she didn't seem like she was dying-sick. And the worker said that she had eaten during the night(which, I know just because someone is dying it doesn't mean they can't eat...) it all just seems weird and surreal. Babies die so easily here and it's hard...it always seems like we should have done more....but being here in Africa there's not much more we could do in any of these situations.
On a lighter note, five of our kids got baptized today! It was held at this lake-type thing on the outskirts of town. A lot of churches were involved, and so we got to watch about thirty or so baptisms. It was beautiful. Our kids were really excited (Pauline, Ange, Lazar, Michel,Marcel).
Everything is brown again. It turns brown just as fast as it all turned green. And the weather is finally cooling off. We laughed the other day because Nichole and I were wearing T-shirts (with sleeves...normally it's too hot for sleeves) and feeling very comfortable...almost a little chilly. Our visitor was saying how she was so hot and she was sweating.We looked at a thermometer that she had brought (ours is broken) and it was 82ish degrees!! hahaha!! I guess my body has acclimated to the heat when I think that 82 degrees is almost chilly. I have a blanket on my bed now (just a thin fleece) and I usually wear socks to bed. Our kids are actually wearing clothes now and they all look adorable. Its so fun to see them in clothes (most of the time they just run around in their diapers because its too hot.
I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two weeks!! We are going to go into Ouaga and eat with some American missionaries and then head over to the American Embassy for dessert....Not quite like home, but we will still get to celebrate and that's exciting. I don't know if I said this before or not...but Ruth has gone home for the next few months. So it's Nichole and I here. Lynn helps us out a lot in making decisions...but mostly it's Nichole and me. Its not an easy job....it's only been a week so I'm thinking that it will get easier...