Life

I close my eyes and I see tiny orange-haired-big-smiled children.I fall asleep and I dream about that late-night-adrenaline-pumping emergency run. I day-dream of eating a gallon of chocolate ice cream, right out of the bucket (because ice cream fixes everything, right?), and then, on furlough have the opportunity to actually do this, I hop out of my air-conditioned car, grab a spoon, open the ice cream and a tear rolls down my cheek and drops in the pail as pictures of small children and IV fluids flash thru my head. I take a bite that I don’t feel like swallowing because, well, it’s actually not as good as it seemed like it would be and I feel guilty eating happy-food when few of my friends can. 

I hike the mountains and pass by a tiny house and piles of children run out to say ”hi”. We exchange quick hugs & kisses and I remember the times I saw them as patients and we shared a lolipop. I think of my nieces and nephews and wish for the chance to hug them tight. 

I go to market and walk through the crowds of people, happy to see so many people out at market who I only know as patients while vendors yell at me to buy something from them. Sometimes I do. I feel refreshed and so happy to be with the people I love, doing what they’re doing. I keep walking and my mind drifts back to the land far away that everyone knows as ”the other side” and remember the grocery store isles filled with piles and piles of box-dinners and hamburgers and all the toppings you’d ever wish for and my brain wants to shut it off. The unfair-ness is too hard to think about it. 

All that said, the differences of my life in Haiti, vs life in the states are fresh in my mind because of a short trip back to the states where I enjoyed a couple weeks with my family and friends. 

Pray for us. Life isn’t fair and we often don’t know how to give and where to give. Be thankful for what you have. The people we work with have so much less than what most Americans do, but they’re happy and grateful for what they have and have taught me so so much. I know that I’ve learned so much more from them than what they’ll ever learn from me. They’re my friends and I wouldn’t trade them or my life with them for anything. ❤️ 

-Mis Emma 

Emergency runs.

  In comes another pregnant lady with complications, head injurys or some for sickness we can't treat and needs to be sent off to town, so we bump out the trail one more time, some days feeling quite worn out and like we can't go on any longer and then getting called down to clinic in the middle of the night repeatedly to check up on a laboring woman. Here's a verse that has blessed me lately.
      And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
     It's around 4:00 in the afternoon clinic is  over and here comes a moto bumping up the trail with a young pregnant lady who is coming to have her baby, she happened to be having some pre labor pain and stayed here for about 3 days. After she went into labor there were some things that where abnormal and we needed to head out to town with her for a C-section, so we loaded up on the UTV and bumped out the trail. 
    We arrived at the general hospital in T-Goave and they didn't have any money on them so we help them buy the things they needed to have a C-section then a nurse takes a blood sample and we find out she's anemic and T-Goave hospital doesn't have blood so they can't do the C-section, this is really disheartening because now she has to bump another hour and a half off to a different hospital and we where not planning to need money for a transfer so we scrounge together enough money and we're able to get her transferred to a hospital that had blood and they where able to have a C-section the next morning and mom and baby are fine.

    The baby hear in the picture is a preemie who was born here at clinic weighing just so 4 lb and needed to be kept on oxygen for the first week and then stayed another two weeks to make sure he was steadily gaining weight, once he finally reached 5 lb we sent them home.

Here's a little child who just got put on the plumpy nut program.

This little boy is just too adorable to not post a picture of him. Sometimes after seeing so many malnourished and unhealthy children it's refreshing to see one who is healthy and doing very well.

     So there's just a few things that have been happening around here, thank you all for your prayers and financial support. ~Ben~