Coming Home

I find this blog a little more difficult to write than the others.  As most of you know we have been experiencing many trials this past month with the culmination being an armed robbery.  We were robbed shortly after arriving in Mzuzu last year but all of us knew that the Lord wanted us to stay.  Even though my emotions were screaming, “go home” Andy and I knew it wasn’t God’s will for us.  Even the kids wanted to stay because as Sarah put it, “who will take care of the babies if we leave.” 

This time it is different.  We were hoping to come home early next year as being here as put a strain on being a family and we accomplished what we committed to do and that was start a crisis nursery for orphaned babies. In spite of the difficulties for our family we still believe that this was where God wanted us.  The robbery made things much different in the eyes of Andy, I and our children.  The kids are all very anxious to get home now.  Regardless of our feelings, we still sought God’s guidance and direction because no matter how frightening it is to be here sometimes, God has sustained and kept us and we want to be where HE wants us to be.  Going home and being out of God’s will is not a place Andy or I want to be. 

Our first dilemma was where we could stay after the robbery as they ruined our front door trying to break in.  Coincidentally (not really), friends of ours were leaving for the states the next day for 3 ½ months.  We stayed the first night in a guest house and moved into their home the following day.  We were told that we could only stay 6 weeks as another couple was coming from the states at the end of July and would be staying here.  The night we moved into this house the couple that was to arrive in July called to say that they couldn’t get tickets and wouldn’t arrive until the end of August; God had made a way for us to stay in another house until then.  That was our first confirmation that maybe the Lord was saying to come home.

If God wanted us to leave then there was one more hurdle to get over.  We would need to find 9 airline tickets the first part of September that we could afford.  We were very doubtful we could find tickets but knew that God in his sovereignty could.  Within a day of contacting a travel agent in the states we had 9 one-way tickets leaving September 4^th that was truly half what a round trip ticket would cost us.  We were shocked and excited but continued to seek God’s plan for us. After much prayer we purchased the tickets and they are currently on their way to us which is another prayer request!

The thought of leaving my nannies and babies is heart breaking and our leaving isn’t a “good riddance Malawi” but a truly sad occasion.  Our somewhat sudden departure has forced us to use the people that we currently employ to fill in the gap.  They are doing beautifully and have been such a blessing to us.  Our prayer and hope is that we can find a director for the nursery before we leave.  So far we have a few prospects but are waiting for God to show us who it will be.  My new supervisor continues to do a great job and we realize that God wants us to let go and trust Him with the nursery.  I don’t always remember that these are really His children and not mine and He will be faithful to them.

We are still trying to finalize Bridget’s adoption which is difficult when the social worker doesn’t show up to the meetings that you’ve scheduled.  Again, we can say that God will make a way just as He has with all our other adoptions that had their own set of troubles. 

Please continue to pray for us as have a lot of work to complete before we leave in September.  Thankfully we have One that we can depend on through all of this.

            Lisa

Mphatso

Mphatso was our very first baby and is very dear to us and to all our nannies.  Mphatso’s father is HIV positive and his mother was too.  We had him tested at 5 months and he also was HIV positive.  Until a baby is 18 months old he is not truly positive as it could be only his mother’s antibodies that are still in his body.  A DNA test can be done to determine their true status but that wasn’t available here in Malawi.  Instead you would just wait until the child is 18 months, do another rapid test and if positive then they are truly positive.

Mphatso has always been a fat and happy baby and didn’t have the other problems that most HIV babies have.  When I took him to a pediatric HIV clinic the doctor said he had never seen a baby so fat in the clinic and he had an awful time getting blood from his chubby little hands.  We have been hoping and praying that he would not be HIV positive once he reached 18 months (right now he is 15 months).

Baylor University doctors are here in Mzuzu and have started a program where you can bring any baby in and have them tested with the rapid test and then if positive with that they take blood to perform a DNA test which will tell the true status of a child.  Previously the hospitals and AIDS clinics would not test my babies and I had to take them to a private doctor.  The importance of testing babies here was previously ignored as you can give babies the ARV drugs right away instead of waiting and it also helps when a child is sick as to how you need to treat them.

Today I took Mphatso and Adam, one of our twins, to the clinic for testing.  We were hoping that if Mphatso was negative we could try and find an adoptive home for him now instead of waiting until he’s 18 months.  He was negative and we are overjoyed.  In the midst of these past few weeks this is a bright spot in our lives.  We can now look for a home as we have some families who are waiting for babies.  Please pray that a family will take him and he can have a real family forever.

            Lisa

The Trial Continues

Yesterday morning at 3 am a baby that was at the hospital died.  Macdonald had been admitted for malaria last week and didn’t seem to be getting better.  The father is from a village that is 2 ½ hours away and with all that has happened we couldn’t be a part of the funeral.  We paid for the expenses and gave our apologies for not being able to go. 

We are very tired and weary but know that God will give us strength.  We still have another baby, Gift, in the hospital and we don’t really know what is wrong.  The hospital doesn’t do much but I don’t want to bring him home unless I feel that he is stronger.  I could write pages on the lack of care the babies get at the hospital but I’ll save it for another day.      

Please pray for Gift and the other babies at the nursery that they stay well.  Lisa

 

O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth…For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.  Isaiah 25:1&4

 

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 1 Peter 4:12-14

 

Robbed again

Instead of an update on our hectic week I will just tell you about the ending--we were robbed again on Saturday night.  This one was much worse as they had a shotgun and fired into our ceiling, tied Andy, Jared and me up and threatened to kill us.  All the kids were in our room so they saw all that happened.  But once again God was ever present and none of us were hurt and for that we are very thankful.  We do have an alarm button which I pushed when we realized what had happened and the response team did scare them off.  The robbers knew what they were doing and seemed to know our house and goings on.  They tied up our watchmen, took the door knobs off our servants quarters so our house help couldn’t get out to help.  They had a tool box and were able to break the lock on our burglar bars, then smashed the door in with a huge rock.  Once in the house the fired the shotgun into our ceiling for a scare tactic I assume.  They demanded money, cell phones and laptops.  We did have 2 cell phones but very little money, and after being robbed of our laptop last year we bought a desktop computer.  Right now we are staying at friends’ house as they left yesterday for a 3 months stay in the states.  We are staying here indefinitely and praying for guidance on our future. 

As you can imagine all our staff is very upset but thankfully the supervisor I hired is doing a wonderful job. Right now we have 13 babies (we received 2 sets of twins last week) and are using our guest house as another room.  We have been working non-stop this past week trying to get everything in order and the robbery was the way our week ended.  I have another baby in the hospital that I’m not sure will make it, I don’t have enough nannies to cover so am working everyone a lot.  We are definitely under a huge amount of pressure but we know that God will be glorified through it all.

Please pray for:

            Continued safety for our family

            Peace of mind for our children

            Wisdom for our future

            Comfort for our staff

            Wisdom and strength for Veronica our new supervisor

            Bridgette’s adoption will be rushed so we can bring her home

 

Lisa

p.s. last night I admitted 2 more babies to the hospital and this morning our sweet little Yamikani went to be with Jesus

 

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

 

 

Update of the Week

 

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7

This week we have definitely been tried with fire.  It started off with our plan to spend the day (Monday) at the beach.  The kids were all excited, scrambling to get things together for the trip while I checked on the nursery.  Gift had been having diarrhea but no other symptoms through the weekend.  On Monday morning it was obvious that he was sick and I couldn't put off a trip to the doctor as he as getting dehydrated.   We took him to the hospital which is where you can see a doctor and they admitted him due to being dehydrated.  They couldn't locate a vein to put in an IV so the plan was to administer oral hydration liquids.  Now I had to return home, disappoint my children and coordinate another stay in the hospital. 

To make up for not going to the beach we decided to go on a picnic.  As we were trying to find a picnic spot we received a call from DSWO that there were twins that needed a home.  Our attempts at a picnic failed so we quickly ate our lunch and headed home to assess the situation.  We had two extra beds only because Gift was in the hospital so we agreed to take them.  They are Adam and Eva, 7 months old, and desperately in need of food; beautiful babies but very skinny.  We all saw God's hand in canceling our trip because the needs of these babies were greater than our need for pleasure.

On my return trip to the hospital that afternoon I found that no hydration liquids had been given and he had been given Panadol (Tylenol) but nothing else throughout the day.  The following morning I had him discharged as we could give liquids to him at home.  Andy and I spent the rest of that morning looking for a house to rent for the nursery but with very little success.  They showed us a house that was almost complete but the owner needed money to finish which is the way life is here in Malawi.  If we could just give them 6 months rent the closets and kitchen cabinets would be put in within a week.  "If" we gave them the money it might be finished in a month of two.  We said we'd think about it.  Our search goes on….

To be continued…

Lisa

 

More Rains

Wow, just when you thought things were almost under control… they aren't.  A while back we reached the capacity for the in-home nursery (eight babies) and have started looking for a house to rent just for the nursery so we can have room to grow.  Houses are scarce in Mzuzu, so we still haven't found one after several weeks of looking.  Now it's been raining babies after not getting any new ones for almost 2 months.  On May 22^nd, we got number 9, which everyone was glad about and we were able to fit him in without too much trouble. Two new cribs were ordered from the carpenter to make sure we have enough beds.  On Monday we got a call that twins were waiting at the Social Welfare office for us; they had traveled from about 80 miles south of here.  So we fit them in. This morning (Tuesday) at a family visit for one of the babies we were told of another set of twins that may be coming.  Then about 4 pm I got a call from the Social Welfare office in Mzimba, about 60 miles south of us, and guess what-  that right, they have a week old set of twins that need to come to us.  We'll fit them in.  Needless to say, there will be considerable reorganization, improvising, and overtime involved in accommodating all these needy infants, but then that's why we came.  Please pray for our wisdom and patience in dealing with this perturbation in our setup.

 

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.  2 Corinthians 9:8 

 

Andy