Grief and Joy

I wanted to share some moments of rejoicing with you along with some moments of grief. 

This past week was a very tough and very eye opening week. A few months ago our administrator noticed a girl that went to school at GSF who seemed very malnourished. Alice was 12 years old, but very thin and had large swollen like cheeks that indicate malnutrition. Immediately when I saw her I agree, and urged our social worker to help the family get medical and nutritional help. Everyone at GSF agreed and sought help for her and her family.... Fast forward a few months to this past Tuesday. It was 5 pm, and near the end of the working day. I get told that our administrator is going to take a school girl into Rippon Clinic (our clinic of choice in Jinja). Alice and her mom show up at the offices and I immediately recognize this poor thin girl from before. However, today she can barely walk, her hands and feet are swollen (more indications of malnutrition) and she has a severe cough. She looks frightened and in pain. I ask what has been happening?! She got help from GSF to be admitted to the local hospital a couple of weeks ago and no one from GSF has heard anything since. They has assumed she has been helped and returned to school. Today, however, leaders were informed that she had never come back to school and word was that she was doing very poorly. We asked the mother what happened at the local hospital but she has no papers and did not know what had been done for her child. Sadly that is very common... healthcare workers don't explain very well and culturally families do not ask questions about the care being given. 

So with no medical information we take her to Rippon and luckily get xrays and blood work done... which required some begging because it was the end of the day. Our main doctor we associate with was there and took quick action to evaluate her. It was soon thought that Alice has severe TB and malnutrition- two problems that only make each other worse. She was admitted and I was assured that she would be in good hands. The doctors view was that with treatment she "would be just fine". Since Alice's mom was there and she was not under the direct care of GSF I tried not to butt in too much... I was not her nurse, she did not need me to play mom/nurse...her mom was there and she was in the care of the best facility we have found in Jinja. Basically, I tried not to step over boundaries that I could only because I am mzungu (white/foreigner)... I tried to trust the system. 

I called on Wednesday for an update and was informed more tests were being done but she was doing ok. I thanked the doctor for his care and said I would check the next day. Sadly, I never got the chance. I was informed through a text from the doctor only a few hours late that Alice had died. Poor sweet Alice had not made it to another night. Due to a violent (yet treatable) illness, lack of food (when is the last time you have actually had a lack of food?), and lack of adequate healthcare (I have more to say on this, but have chosen not to do it online!), this 12 year old girl did not get the chance to grow up. 

Please pray for her mom and siblings. I know they are grieving greatly during this time. Please pray for our trust in God when we feel out of control with the medical care here...it is a daily battle we fight. Please pray for wisdom, compassion, and dedication for all the health care workers in Uganda who are providing medical care to children just like Alice. 

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Revelations 21:4

Now for two stories of JOY!

A couple of posts back I talked about a little boy named Innocent who stayed briefly at our babies home. His mom return after being gone for over a month and promised to take care of her children again. We helped return Innocent and his brother Charlie to their home. GSF helped provided spiritual and marriage counseling for the husband and wife. 

Well, good news!! They are doing wonderfully! The family is part of our weekly feeding program and attend the local village church so we are often able to see the boys. Both are doing so well! They are growing nice and fat :) Here is a before and now picture of Innocent. The one of the left is on his first day at GSF, and left is just last week! He is a happy boy in a loving family again! 

Mark, age 26, is a tailor at GSF. Ten years ago Mark was in a car accident and lost both his legs above just right above his keens. Mark has used a wheelchair for those 10 years. He use to get himself to work everyday down a long dirt road with hills... it took him about 30-40 min each morning. Prosthetics are not common in counties like Uganda due to their high cost. However, one generous person donated money to help mark get two prosthetic legs! For two months Mark stayed at CoRSU, a rehab hospital about 2 hours from Jinja. It was a very long process but now he has legs!!! He is still using two crutches to help him walk, but they have confidence what with time he will go to one and then none! When Mark returned to his home in the village most people did not believe it was him... he was standing!!! It was so amazing to watch this process. Mark is a very strong man of God and will definitely use this opportunity to help spread God's love! 

First steps on his going home day!

The "workshop" crew, Mark, and I

These men really didn't want Mark to leave. He has made friends! 

Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fulness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.

Psalm 16:11

With Man It Is Impossible

I write this blog as I am sitting in SAS Clinic in Kampala. I spent last night here with sweet little Richard who is having problems due to his sickle cell. There were not rooms available, so we stayed in a clinic room all night... I got very little sleep.

This is just an addition to the very stressful week. I'd like to share some of the stresses of life over the past few days here in Uganda. I'm sharing because I want to explain what I have been learning and how God is using it to grow me!


Maria

Two little sweet children were brought the GSF last week. Their mother had recently died and the father is unable to take care of them at this time. Maria is 1 year 4 months old. She is VERY malnourished and has a horrible cough. When we took her to the clinic they said she probably has tuberculosis. Although very common here, TB is not something you want to mess with! We knew right away that she was potentially very contagious and needed to be moved from the baby's home. So, we got a daughter :) Dayna, the other nurse, and I began to care for this poor little girls 24 hours a day. She slept in our rooms, we spent 5-6 hours a day just trying to get her to eat, we cleaned up many reusable soiled diapers! The hardest part was that no other children could be around Maria, so that meant one of us had to be in the house at all times with Maria. We need have much needed help from a couple other missionaries, but it was definitely our full time job!
Were we exposed to TB? Maybe....hopefully not...please pray for us! She has officially been diagnosed and started on treatment. We have high hopes that she will be a happy healthy baby once we fatten her up and her treatment starts to work! Because it was impossible for either Dayna and I to be home at all time during the month she will be contagious, Maria was moved back into the baby home but in her own little isolation room. We plan on taking her on many walks...while wearing our masks :)

     

                 

Chloe

Chloe is an amazing 12 year old girl here at GSF. She has a very joyful spunky personality. She also has asthma! She started having a bad asthma attack this week. We have everything we could need to treat her asthma though so we have been able to manage her here. However, this attack hit on an already busy day when I was the only nurse at GSF! Multiple breathing treatments done, an IV placed, multiple IV medications... medicine giving, reassessments done, brainstorming the next best thing to do when there was no improvement... it was a little hectic! It is definitely I different feel that my days in the ER where you have to have a doctors order for everything! Good thing I was paying attention anyways and (mostly) felt confident about what to do next.  She is doing better but still receiving medicine! Luckily we had some time to goof around in-between treatments :D

                           

Tiny Rose

Tiny Rose is our most special of our special needs children. She is not able to speak or move her body purposefully due to cerebral malaria at a young age. She has to be fed by her Auntie and coughs much during feedings. Wednesday night we were at a team dinner when 2 girls ran to the house and out of breath said Nurse Julie come, Tiny Rose is choking! So we all take off sprinting towards her house in the dark! That was my first sprint through GSF thank goodness! Hopefully my last! She was coughing very badly when I arrived but was able to breath. We put her the best position to help her stop chocking on her small bite of food she just took. After a while she was ok and we all calmed down! That experience definitely shook up some nerves! 

Other quick glimpses into the week:

-A youth team of 23 teenagers from FL arrived this week so minister to GSF and the surrounding villages

-Katie, a missionary that lives with me, has had malaria this week and has been very sick 

- Another younger missionary has had some sort of bacterial infection this week

- Ruth, the Ugandan nurse, was home for 5 days for her Easter break so we were down one nurse  

-The toddler house has been a continuous problems of malaria, mumps, and then Richard who became very ill starting on Tuesday. That has ended with us sitting here admitted in Kampala

- On wednesday I took our 4 children to monthly seizure clinic which takes about 4-5 hours.

Ok, so you might get the picture by now... I was stressed and often overwhelmed this week! God has been stretching me and teaching my greatly throughout this time.  Ultimately I have been reminded that we are not in control. Although we try and control every situation, never wanting to make one mistake, or miss one good idea, we can never be perfect! We can never make everything go exactly the way we want it to. This week it was medical problems that were weighing me down. Sometimes its making decisions about the wedding and my future...sometimes I try and control how certain conversation will go with family, friends, or co-workers. We will never have complete control, but God ALWAYS has control! If we just turn to him with every step, every decision, every anxiety, then He will help us carry that burden and direct us where to go next. God reminded me of a few verses this week that really stuck out during this stressful time:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4, ESV)

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27, ESV)


We might feel like we can't survive one more hour, day, week, month...and we can't. Not alone at least. But with God, all things are possible.