The babies are still there

Poutchino has been extremely lethargic lately. He's not sick - no coughing, vomiting, fevers, diarrhea, or seizures - just very tired and inactive. He hasn't been eating much and isn't talking or playing like usual. When Dr Karen was here this week, I had her check him out and she thought his seizure meds may be interacting with his TB meds, making the tegretol accumulate in his body. Sometimes, if tegretol levels get too high they can make you lethargic. So we took him to the lab to have his levels checked and we are cutting back his dose 25%. He is already perkier and more interactive.



Emily should be going home sometime this week. We are waiting for Rusty and Cheryl to come pick her up and take her back to the orphanage at Cabaret.



Patrick is becoming potty trained. He is also expanding his Creole vocabulary immensely. In the past month, I have only heard him say "Yes", "Not yet", and "Yuck". Just this week though, we added the words "Look", "Come here", "Go", "Eat", and "Keziah"!



Jamson is healthy and very very fat. I think JJ is his new role model.



One of the nannies mentioned something about Emmanuel being deaf. It had never occured to any of us that he might not be able to hear, but after checking him out, it seems that they are right. He does not respond to oral stimuli. But he's still a wonderfully cheerful baby.



Gerty is learning more and more English. She has really enjoyed having the team around this week.



Mama Kathy had an empty suitcase to take back to America with her when she left on Monday so we decided to send Cha-Cha along with her.



My Johnny J is doing great. He is eating better but he still has the funniest little body with the twiggy arms and legs attached to a fat belly. He recognizes me and always comes crawling to me the minute I walk in the room. I have heard him say "Mama" but I don't think he really understands what the word means. The older kids talk to him about his Mama but I think in his mind, I'm still just the white girl who snuggles him and gives him crackers.



The team brought new underpants for the older kids. Aren't they pretty?





One of my favorite parts of the day: when the nannies do devotions with the babies before bed. We can hear them singing, little voices mingled with the nannies stronger ones, little hands clapping, little repeated "Hallelujah's!". It makes me smile every night.