Bye-bye Brynnie

Bryn ended her internship at HFC on Wednesday this week and went home to Spokane. She was there for a whole year, so she and the kids were quite close. Please be praying for her and them because it's very difficult to be separated after such a long time together.

Fre'm Sam and Mama Casey

Sam and Casey came to Haiti to spend 2 weeks with us. We had a wonderful time with them and we were very sad to see them go. Well, then Dorothy got appendicitis and next thing you know, Sam and Casey were on their way back to Haiti. So in the past month, Casey has spent 3 weeks with us and Sam has spent 4. They flew out for good this morning (assuming no one else gets appendicitis) and we miss them already.

Sam was my right hand man. He accompanied me on errands all over town since I don't like driving alone here, especially with the mechanical problems our car has had lately. He did odd jobs around the house, making repairs and keeping things shipshape. He entertained us with music at all hours. Yes, I mean ALL hours. He was my DIT (Doctor in Training), assisting me with walking the ravine, doing burn dressings, and meds at the house. He picked me up from school, usually in the car, but once on foot. He made me sandwiches and brought me drinks. Basically, whatever I was doing, Sam was doing it with me, spoiling me rotten the whole time.

Most importantly, Sam was a big brother to Kervens. Kevs is normally the big brother of the house, the one that 22 children look up to and fight to be around. This month though, Kevs got the chance to be a little brother: to wrestle with someone tough enough to take it, to tease someone who can tease back, and to talk about guy stuff with someone who understands. In a house full of women, Kevs desperately needs Christian male influence and Sam gave him that.





Casey was my relief pitcher. She came in on Saturday morning after my all-nighter with Levinsky and took him off my hands. She assumed most of my responsabilities with the work team while I was sick so that I could get some rest. She even made me soup and played with my hair to cheer me up.

Casey gave our children so much love while she was here. If there was ever a time when I could not find Casey upstairs, I always knew to look where the babies were. She would be sitting in the midst of them, often covered by 5 or 6 different children. She took them dancing, she taught them words, and she just loved them, nonstop. Casey has a great sense of humor - for example, we were all doing an impromtu opera one night and she had us all falling on the floor every time she started singing in her old lady frog voice. (Her real singing voice is actually quite lovely.)






Both Sam and Casey were a huge help and encouragement to us all. They were always building us up and making us laugh, often simultaneously. It feels like a big part of our family is missing today, but we are hopeful that they will be back among us soon.

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.

MVP!!

I know this has nothing to do with Haiti, but I have to share: Dustin Pedroia is the MVP!! I'm so proud of our little 5 foot 2, 115 pound second baseman!

So long as I don't get sick

I was sitting in the hospital lobby with Sam, walking through everything that we had to do in the next few days: taking care of the babies, grocery shopping, getting water, bringing Dorothy home, substitute teaching, doing Vanesse's burn dressings, and coordinating the team of 18 Americans that are coming to Dorothy's this week. "We can do this, Sam." I said, trying to hype myself up for it. "We can do it. So long as I don't get sick, we can do it."

We brought Dorothy home from the hospital on Friday afternoon. She was still suffering from what we guess is an ileus, so she was very weak and only able to drink clear fluids. Chris, a nurse who works at an orphanage near our house, came over and put an IV in for her while I settled down to take care of Levinsky who was still running a high fever. I got the fever down and took him downstairs to the nannies around 10pm, checked Dorothy's IV rate, and went to bed.

At 1:30am, I woke up to check Dorothy's IV again. Just as I was falling back asleep, Levinsky started howling from downstairs. Mama Kathy and I brought him upstairs and spent the rest of the night in the living room with him as he vomited, coughed, sweated and moaned. It was a long night. We finally got him calmly sleeping and downstairs at 8am. Kathy went to the airport to pick up Casey and I took care of meds and other business around the house. I got to sleep for an hour until the nannies woke me up again because Levinsky was sick again.

Saturday was supposed to be my one day of rest between the craziness of Dorothy's hospitalization and the craziness of the American team arriving on Sunday. Instead, it was another case of working the night shift and the day shift back to back. I was wiped out and sort of in a daze all day. That evening, my stomach felt very odd but I just figured it was from lack of sleep.

I woke up Sunday morning with diarrhea and feeling more dehydrated than I have ever felt in Haiti. Monday and Tuesday it was the same story: feverish, weak, shaky, stomach tied up in knots. I needed to eat and drink but the very thought of putting anything into my gut made me feel overwhelmingly ill. All I wanted to do was lie on my bed and feel junky, but there was always something that needed to be done: meds to be administered, a sick baby to care for, team members that needed to be shown around, groceries that had to be bought, a doctor who needed to examine our weaker kids...always some reason why I couldn't stay in my bed. It was a miserable 3 days. Thank God Casey was there to take over some of my duties! I love that girl.

I'm feeling great now, substitute teaching in the morning and running things at the house the rest of the day. Dorothy is doing better; she's finally progressing to solid foods, but she is still very weak. I lose my wonderful reinforcements, Casey and Sam, tomorrow morning, so things will be intense again for another week or so until Dorothy's strength returns. So long as I don't get sick, we'll be fine...

Uh, oh. I really shouldn't have said that again...

She gives love

Sam and Kevs made my day yesterday. First of all, while we were coming home from the hospital, Kevs asked me if I would be his godmother along with Tasha when the adoption is complete. He wants to have a ceremony in which he will annoint the two of us with perfume, just like they used to annoint kings in the Bible.

And that evening, I came into Kevs' room late to tuck him in because I'd been taking care of Johnny. Sam and Kevs were sitting on the bed with the guitar.
"Sit down," Kevs commanded me, as soon as I walked in.
I did, and they proceeded to break into song. It went something like this:

"Kez is great at driving, but she's not good at farting.
Kez is good at loving babies, but she doesn't really like little dogs.
If you ask her to smooch a baby, she'll always be ready to do it.
Especially for her special one, Johnny J.

Oh Kez oh Kez oh Kez oh Kez
She gives love, ya, she gives love, ya she gives love
Oh Kez oh Kez oh Kez oh Kez
She gives love, ya she gives love, ya she gives so much love

Kez is good at healing, Kez is good at eating labouille.
And in case you haven't noticed, Kez is really quite beautiful.
Especially with her baby, Johnny J.

Oh Kez oh Kez..."

Talk about feeling special! What a nice self-confidence boost during a crazy week. Thanks boys!

Fevers, good-byes, and more

On Wednesday night, it was just Johnny with a fever of 104.


Last night though, it was Johnny with a fever of 104.5 and Levinsky with a fever of 103.7! When both your HIV babies have extremely high fevers, something is wrong.


I checked them out. Both boys tested negative for malaria and neither seemed to have ear infections. Johnny's appears to be more respiratory than anything else, so in addition to much tylenol, I've started him on amoxicillin. I found ringworm on Levinsky so I am guessing flagyl will be better for him. I wish I knew more, I wish I had more clues to go by, I wish I had a doctor in the house!

Nerlande went home today with her grandmother. We have been waiting for the woman to visit so that we can send the little girl home. Nerlande is fully healthy and ready to return to life in her family. We will miss her but we are very happy that she is back where she belongs.



The mechanics replaced some parts in our radiator and the car seems to be done smoking. Sam and I made it to the gas station and back for water without any smoke. Yay!! And thanks to the car working again, it sounds like we are going to be bringing Dorothy home from the hospital tomorrow afternoon. I'll let you know how that goes.