Monday, June 30, 2008

Long Overdue...

So, maybe the stew was a mistake because now I've made stew four times (including tonight, and each batch lasts about 3 days - eating it at every meal!) and I feel like I may just start dreaming about stew. But really, what can ya do when all you know how to cook is stew and grilled cheese sandwiches? Seriously, the lack of macarroni & cheese in a box took away one of my staples... Though I did find teriyaki sauce in the store tonight so I am back in the game with my teriyaki chicken & couscous dinners. :o)
When things happen over here it seems that they all decide to happen in the same week! This week our sweet open heart surgery baby from a couple months ago was back in the hospital on life support again. And again, against all odds, he pulled through and will be just fine! (Though I could definately do without standing next to the bed of a baby while they start crashing in the future!) His lung collapsed last week and in the process of trying to fix that the doctors discovered that his trachea had been almost entirely blocked by scar tissue from the ventilator he had during the last surgery. SUCH a good thing that his lung collapsed or we may never have known that he could hardly breathe! He's such a happy baby, he never complains, even when he's on the verge of suffocation, which is a little frightening for those of us who try our best to monitor him... But before this whole issue with his airway, he was doing beautifully! He was off of oxygen, except at night and had learned to sit up for the first time in his life....
So now we're back to square one with him (minus the scar tissue which was surgically removed), but a good square one because he will be able to breathe this time and his heart is still doing wonderfully!
And in the midst of wanting to be with him at the hospital every day (which I have managed to do, thankfully) I've had a team of Americans to host. It never seems to be just one hat or the other... always wearing a few at once!
Okay... sorry to be so brief! I need to head to bed! But I have promised Sarah that I will write "A Day in the Life of Kelli" this week... so there is something to look forward to! :o)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A Momentous Occasion...

TOTALLY forgot to mention the big news in my last post, but... ready for this?! I COOKED!!!!! Like really, from scratch (mostly) cooked! On Sunday I made a stew, it actually turned out to be good even though I didn't have a recipe and just guessed on the entire thing. The only problem was, I didn't really know what I was doing, made too much, and have eaten nothing but stew ever since Sunday because it would have gone bad and there wasn't space in my freezer. So, though I had quite a few moments of "Hmmmm, how much salt? Oops, okay, that much!" etc it tastes good! (Or it did for the first 4 meals!) :o)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Autumn in June...


So... I just deleted the sentence that said I didn't really have anything to write about, because after taking 2 more seconds to think about what to say I realized that there are always a truckload of stories I can tell! It's strange how things that I would have counted as "big news" before can almost be put at risk for becoming "ordinary"...

The thing that I am finding the most odd at the moment is the fact that we are now right in the middle of fall in South Africa. Leaves seem to almost attack your car as they fall constantly from the trees while you drive down the street. (You can't really walk down the street here, even in your neighborhood unless you're with a group that includes at least one big man... and I haven't found many of those yet, though I'm holding out hope :o) )

Now for a story or two...

It is amazing how often God does miracles here. And not even the casual joke kind like "Wow, the grocery store finally had the kind of pasta sauce I wanted - it's a miracle!" But honest, "You shouldn't even be alive right now" miracles! A VERY exciting one from last week is that the baby who had open heart surgery back in April - you know, the one we took off of life support with doctors saying he would live an hour at most - came off of the oxygen he's been dependent on for his entire life! For the first time in his two years he is breathing completely on his own not hooked up to a single machine and has also learned to sit on his own for over an hour at a time.

Another absolute miracle happened last Sunday. I honestly don't think I've ever been so scared in my entire life. I was lying in bed early Sunday morning having just wished by brother a happy birthday when my cell phone rang again. I didn't recognize the number so I debated not answering thinking that it would probably be someone wanting something that would require me to get out of bed... but I answered anyway. It was one of out management team and she said "Kelli, a child's been run over by a volunteer's car at one of the homes and you live the closest!!!! Can you go now?!" She was in such a panic and I felt the adrenaline start rushing through me as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt over my pajamas before even hanging up the phone.

I phoned the child's house as I drove (won't say how fast) and the assistant told me that the child was still lying under the car screaming and the ambulance hadn't arrived yet. I drove through every red light figuring that if a policeman tried to stop me at least he would end up at the home to help at the same time that I would. I prayed so hard during that drive, both that the child would be okay, and that the ambulance would get there before I did so that I would not have to be the only one in charge of trying to manage what I imagined to be a horrifying scene.

I drove up to the house and immediately saw that the ambulance still wasn't there (it had taken me 10 minutes to get there) and started running down the driveway hearing this 10 year old boy screaming from beneath a car that was tipping over a retaining wall. Just then we saw the ambulance drive past the house so I ran back out to the street to wave it down. As the paramedics came running in I ran into the house to make sure that the other 9 boys couldn't see what was happening. Thankfully their house mom had locked them in the living room with a security gate so all that they could see was that an ambulance was at their house (very exciting to most 5 and 6 year old boys!). I ran back outside (don't think I've run so much in quite a long time!) and the paramedics had lifted the car and pulled the child out and were giving him oxygen on the ground. As they loaded him into the ambulance they told me that it was critical - I started praying minimal internal bleeding.

I drive to the hospital in between the ambulance and fire truck, both with sirens blaring, and once there they immediately whisked him into a trauma room for a full body scan. While he was being assessed, I asked the volunteer what happened and she said that while they were loading the boys into the car for church he had taken the keys to unlock the door but then also leaned in and started the engine without anyone noticing. The car had been in gear and so started jumping forward and when the volunteer reached in to try to turn it off they both fell, with him underneath the car and her wedged between the car and a wall. His head was being crushed face down between the undercarriage of the car and the brick ledge that the car was teetering on. Thankfully the volunteer's body just stuck in such a way that it stopped the car (she was fine by the way) just before it would have taken the child's head off.

An hour after we arrived at the hospital we got the news that the body scans had come back completely clear. The house mom began crying with relief and I had to sit down with my head between my knees because the adrenaline that had been keeping my upright was suddenly gone.

To have seen the after-effects of the accident has made me so amazed by how God so perfectly saved this child. He had deep cuts along both sides of his head from his cheekbones to just behind the ears, one side from the car and the other from the bricks. There had been so much pressure that he couldn't chew well for days because his teeth hurt so badly, and his face swelled up to the point that you couldn't see his eyes very well. Now that the swelling has gone down, the whites of his left eye is red like blood from the blood vessel that burst under the pressure. I don't know how he could have had that much weight on his head without crushing his skull except for the grace of God.

He has the innocence of a child and told me on the day of the accident, "I'm so glad God saved me. He saved me from Hell!" I asked him what he meant by that and he said "Under the car! That was HELL!" I told him that it was so good that he had been screaming under there because then we knew that he was awake and his lungs were working. I also said that it was good that he had been kicking his legs because we knew his back was probably okay. He answered "No, I was kicking because that lady on top of my feet was fat and I wanted her to get off!" The honesty of children...

He started back to school yesterday and said "My friends at school are NEVER going to believe this! They didn't even know that my head is like Superman and can hold up an entire car!"


Such amazing miracles....


On a note to vent my frustration for the day... one of my favorite little girls (though I know I'm not supposed to have favorites) is 2 years old and was born with a twin brother. She is HIV positive while her brother was negative. Because of that, their mother kept the brother but abandoned this little girl (who I think may be the smartest 2 year old I've ever met!). Her "mother" wanted to come visit her today so we took her out of preschool and she played with me in my "off-y" (her word for my office) while we waited for the "tummy lady" to arrive. (I started calling her the tummy lady because I can't stand that she would call this woman "mom". I just told her she lived in this lady's tummy before she was born.) Well, once again, this woman failed to be there for her child. Drives me absolutely crazy that someone like her can even have the right to visit. Since she's only come once in the 2 years we've had her little girl I think the child will probably start screaming if she tries to hold her of she ever shows up again... and frankly, hope she screams a lot! Okay, that's pretty horrible of me, but at the same time, another wonderful woman is the one getting up with her daughter 3 times a night to help her get potty-trained, so she is the one who deserves to be called "Mom"!


Okay... back to work :o)