Our time at the nursery…

             We have spent the last 2 days at the crisis nursery here in Lilongwe (LLW) and will spend a lot of our remaining time in LLW at the nursery.   Currently there are 25 babies living at the nursery ranging in age from 5 months to 18 months.  It is difficult to guess their ages because they are so small in general and some are obviously less healthy than others.  

            Our days there have consisted of holding any crying baby and then handing them to the mamas (nannies) when they need a diaper change.   As each day wears on they seem to cry more and more—I believe that they have quickly figured out that crying brings action from these white people.  It has been a blessing to watch my children reach out to these little ones.  Sarah, Alina and Jared are natural caregivers with Kris helping more than I expected.   Andrew tolerates them and Matthew will help when we need an extra arm.  After the first day Matthew said to Andy, "I know why you had to come back."   As you can see all our hearts have been touched by these helpless children—children who are precious to God as well.

            Yesterday we stayed later in the day and helped with porridge feeding.   It was quite an event with baby after baby being brought out and laid on the mat—we would feed one and then move on to another.  The mamas use a tablespoon to feed them and they just dump a pile in and scoop up the rest as it falls out. I fed an 18 month girl who arrived at the nursery yesterday after being abandoned at the market.   She only ate about ½ the porridge so I fed another baby with the rest.   Once she saw me feeding the other baby then she was hungry again much like all children can be.   It was very heart breaking to watch her as she didn't want to be held but she would lean against my leg and let me rub her neck.  Her eyes were the saddest eyes I've seen yet.   I just prayed that someday she would know Jesus.

            Sarah has found a favorite baby named Wezzie.  She is very cute and about 10 months old.   Sarah has her on her hip the entire time we are there.  The ladies said that Sarah knows how to feed the babies and is a natural.   Alina always wants to hold a baby and asks, "Mom, can you get me a baby that doesn't cry?"  The problem is that they aren't crying when we hand them to her.   We give her the smallest and she is delighted.  The ladies put a baby on her back using a chitenje which is a large piece of material that they wrap around their waist and head and they use to carry babies or anything that they carry on their head.   It was so cute; this little white girl carrying an even tinier black baby.

I am typing this as we wait to be picked up to go today (Wednesday).  We asked to be picked up at 9 am and it is 11:02 and still no sign of them.   We are definitely being exposed to "African" time; if it happens sometime today then it is not late.  We are considering renting a vehicle to give us the ability to go when and where we need to.   It will also help in finding a car to buy.  Please pray that we will find a vehicle soon as we need one before we can head up to Mzuzu.

 

UPDATE:  Soon after I typed this we received a call from Jodi McGill, the missionary from Mzuzu who has done everything for us, found us a house, purchased furniture, etc. and she just happened to know of a doctor who had a van in great shape that he wanted to sell but she didn't know if we had already bought one.   He wanted to sell it for ½ of what we were expecting to buy one for.  In addition, they are coming to LLW tomorrow and if we were interested they would drive it down for us and leave it with us.   God is so amazing.  Our prayer had been that God would bring the car to us and we wouldn't have to run around town which would take away from our time at the nursery.

"In all thy ways acknowledge HIM and HE shall direct thy paths."