Don't want to say it wasn't a miracle...

The baby I talked about below died yesterday. While we rounded, she started having spells of not breathing. Over and over. She never really breathed on her own again though we were able to give her so much oxygen that she lived until last night. It was sad. This mom had lost the last two babies to prematurity and I think she was really starting to hope (as we all were) that this baby was going to live. Despite all odds, she was going to make it. But it didn't happen. I prayed with her in my terrible Bambara at one point. I know others prayed for her as well. I hope that despite the loss of her baby she at least saw the love of God while she was there. So sad. As we kept working and working on her baby, she realized her baby wasn't going to make it. Small tears fell down her cheeks. And then it was done. I don't know how they do it here. I'm sure she cried more once the child died but still, there's not a lot of allowance for grief. Such an interesting approach. 

Then this morning Brett went in because another baby was about to die. It was a 6 day old that had an infection which went into the bloodsteam. They started treatment but it was too late. So two little babies in less than 24 hrs have died. Yuck. The reality of life here is just ridiculously sad. 

Starting at the hospital

I started working at the hospital this week. I feel dumb saying "working" because really I'm walking around like a blumbering idiot. I don't know that I do anything but get in the way. My french is totally inadequate (we won't even metion Bambara) and my medical knowledge is ridiculous. Seriously. I was learning how to receive a baby after delivery- a nurse told me to check respirations- I had to stop and think a minute on how to do that! Augh! I can't believe I'm even admitting that. It's been 4 years since I've worked in a medical setting. Crazy. The first day I felt like a preteen girl on her period. I wanted to cry when I saw each patient. A mom had delivered a baby the night before- it was her first baby of I think 6 pregnancies. She had gone into preterm labor with all of them and lost each baby somewhere between 5 and 8 months of pregnancy. She was just beaming with her newborn. She had laid on a bed at the hospital for weeks waiting to have her baby. Losing a baby anywhere is tough- here it's also a social stigma. If a baby dies, people say it's because of the mother. She's not good at it. It's her fault she went into preterm labor, or her body didn't make milk enough to feed her baby, or whatever the cause. It's sad. So that was a happy moment. Then there was this kid who apparently has typhoid fever. He is not comatose, but severely neurologically altered. He just lays there, sometimes with his eyes open, but never really seeing you at all. He was treated before, but with a medication he was resistant to, so now he's here trying to get well. He's in his third week of the illness which is the most crucial stage. Often they can get a hole in their instestines. There was the mom who was in labor and couldn't push the baby out. Her stomach had just looked weird the whole time and though she was 10 cm and ready to push, her contractions were far apart and not doing much. It ended up she had to go have a c-section because they thought (and were correct) that her uterus had ruptured. So they had to tie her tubes. Thankfully it was her third baby but she's still young to have that happen. And then there is the miracle baby who was born at little over 800 grams (1.8 lbs). I cannot believe she is still alive here. Amazing. She had a seizure the other morning. Very often this means that she has bleeding in her brain. We are hoping that is not the case. Only time will tell. But she is so tiny. I just can't believe she's been living this long (a little over 2 weeks). 

Here are some pictures of the little baby. They aren't that great but still it's amazing to see how little she is. And she's living on nothing more than some oxygen and feedings through the nasogastric tube. 

The plan is that I'll start working with the HIV patients who deliver here. There's often just 2-3 women diagnosed each month. I'll work with them with the meds, explaining the illness, encouraging them to go to the main hospital in town that has the medications (the government provides the treatment for free, but it's only given to government hospitals and in not sufficient quantities). I'll also work with a pastor from the hospital that will counsel her and offer his time for her to come and talk to him as needed. HIV stinks. You feel terrible for these women. It's the modern day leprosy. We just hope that we can provide some support for them as they deal with the knowledge of the illness. 

So that's been my week. Completely overwhleming. Feeling totally inadequate in every way you can imagine. Hopefully it will get better! 

Thought I'd just add a few pictures and a note a few of the funny things Dawson has said recently.

Here's Silas with his new smile- takes over his whole face. 

I've mentioned before how much the boys love super heroes. And by love, I mean love. Always playing. Lately, they've been wanting caves for their heroes. A bat cave. A cave for Word Girl. Anyone. Dawson often comes up with new heroes for me to be. He is regularly Batman, Superman or Word Girl. Kenan is Superman, Batman, Batgirl, or Captain Huggie Face. We fight a range of people. But what I really like are the names he makes up. One day he was Mr. Peach (because his bike has peach color on it- I think that's why). I'm sweezy sweezy goola or some random combination of words. My favorite- Geezer geezer girl.  But he says "gi-arl" each time. Anytime he says girl. I don't know where he learned to say it that way. I'm not that southern. I asked him what a girl was- he said it "was someone really old or someone really small or something like that." 

Their cave/house we made out of all the couch cushions. (The difference between a cave and a house according to Dawson- a cave doesn't have a door, a house does. )

We had a stomach bug run through our house last week. One day I had it so I kept a "throw up bowl" near me in case I couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. Dawson has already learned the importance of this bowl and knows it should be around when you are sick. But he looked at the bowl I had and said, "Is this your hiccup bowl?"

Kenan's favorite things to say are "you bad" and "me good." He gets really upset when Dawson picks on him and calls him bad. That is a serious offense. I can't tell you how many conversations we have in a day discussing who is bad and who is good. Kenan, though, is never bad, just in case you were wondering.  

Looks like all the boys are playing together...sweet, huh? The older two pushed Silas away seconds after this picture. :) And if you're wondering why all these pictures show the boys without clothes, well, it is because they rarely wear them. Only when we go out or have guests over. Our goal last year was to make our kids wear clothes. It lasted a few weeks. It's just too hot. So one day they'll wear clothes...

It is ridiculous how good Silas has gotten at crawling in such a short time. He can be across the room in no time. I just thought this was a cute picture. 

Ok, enough for today.

I'm DONE!!

This morning I took my LAST and FINAL Bambara test!! And I passed!! Praise the Lord! I'm so glad to be done and not have that hanging over my head anymore. Now the real learning begins as I am keenly aware that I am no where close to being able to truly communicate in Bambara. Part of the test today was having to share the gospel in Bambara so somehow I can do that (only because I knew in advance and practiced a ton) but I can't carry on a normal conversation with someone beyond the basics. A ka gelen de. One of my favorite proverbs in Bambara is "don o don tulo be taa kalanso." Everday, the ear goes to school. I think that's true for everyone, but especially here as I am constantly learning new words- in bambara and french. Next week, I'll begin working at the hospital (FINALLY!) and then again the new learning starts...how to care for kids...all the new medical vocabulary that I don't know...the list goes on...at least there aren't any official tests I have to take anymore. I feel like now, when I'm home, I won't have the thought hanging over my head all the time, "I should study bambara." Now I can relax and do my learning outside the home. Yeah!

A knock on the front door

As I was finishing up exercising today, I heard a knock at our front door. Hating that people always find me sweating like a pig, I was glad when I looked and no one was there. I saw the body of a bird fly away so I assumed a bird had tried to get in. Then it happened again. And this time he stayed on the door. That's when I realized it wasn't a bird. It was a BAT!

Now we have a lot of bats at night, but I didn't realize that they were ever around in the day. I'm glad we have screens on our windows so he only hooked into the screen and didn't come inside. I'm even more glad that we have house help whose job includes killing the mice and bats and whatever else comes around. Amazingly, they do it with such ease. I showed Jeremie the bat, he walked right outside with a rag and just picked it up. There's no animal control here!

Here are some more pictures of the bat in case you've never seen them up close. Kind of interesting and kind of gross. Brett had to take these pictures because anytime the bat made noise I just ran. I really need to get over these silly fears. They don't seem to be going away, but rather they just keep coming. I am at least better with roaches now, well, sometimes. The other week we had people over for the first time for dinner. The mom, Alison, was in the kitchen talking to me as we waited for the pizzas to finish in the oven. I went to get a hot pad out of the drawer and there were two roaches. Rather than taking care of it quietly, or even just closing back the drawer and not saying anything, I told her there were roaches in the drawer. She, not knowing the size, said she didn't mind them unless they were big and went to start to get them. Well, they were big, but she pulled out the drawer nonetheless and took it outside. I say that like it was a casual movement, not so much. But we finally got them killed and her husband was really surprised that it was her that actually dealt with the roaches since she never does at her home. So I guess it's natural to defer to the man, because after all, he is manly, right? And killing things is part of the man's job. Now if this had happened in the States, I probably would have been mortified because I had roaches in my kitchen as I was cooking dinner for guests (and some of you are thinking that's inexcusable) but that's just life here. There's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing anyone can do about it. So I was just trying to be a good host- letting my guest take care of my roaches! Ha! But enough about roaches, here's more of the bat.

Yuck!! Good thing we've had our rabies shots! 

Seasons of Mali

There are basically three seasons in Mali. Cool season is from November to February. Temperatures get down into the 70s at night and up to high 80s/low 90s in the day. It is by far the best season here. It's great. The mornings feel like spring mornings back home. We wear jackets and pants. It's a nice change. Very refreshing. I've decided it's the only season without difficulties. It's also probably the most productive time of the year. People can sleep at night and work without getting too tired in the day. You can tell why Africa hasn't progressed like other places- it's just too hard to live here. Once you're done living a day there's no time to work. Especially in hot season. This is from March until May. And well, it's hot. 110 + degrees. Often doesn't get below the 80s at night. The house feels like an oven that just bakes all time. There's no central air. So yeah, it's hot. At least we have fans and (now) A/C window units in our bedrooms. We can sleep at night. Malians, however, really have trouble sleeping this time of year. They sleep outside of their mud homes just because it's cooler. No one can get a lot of work done. It's just too hot. You're always tired, always needing a break...and a drink of water.  All this time (November to May) there's been no rain. Well, in March or so there are like 2-3 rains called mango rains, which if you don't have, the mangoes won't be good. But besides that, nothing. But then, the rains come. Rainy season is starting now and lasts until October. It's nice because it brings cooler weather, but it has its annoyances as well. With the rains comes malaria. With malaria comes prevention medications and mosquito nets. And as good as these things are, they are just annoying. (Though I must brag a moment and say that our boys can already swallow pills- they were even doing it last year which is pretty impressive in my opinion). Also a random note on mosquito nets- we bought new ones this year that are treated with an insecticide. Aparently the ones we bought were REALLY treated. The first night Dawson slept under his (Kenan and Silas'are old, but yes still have the insecticide) he woke up screaming in panic about his eyes hurting and then said he was itching all over. I put up the net and told him to come into our room. The boy was restless all night. I soon realized why as all around my eyes started burning. It lasted until the next afternoon. So we let it hang for awhile without being used. We started to use ours last night and thought we had let it hang long enough, but no, about midnight I woke up (thanks to Kenan) and realized I was all tingly around my eyes again. Our net hadn't breathed enough yet. But anyway, back to the point. There's also the problem of water always getting in the house from the rains. Our bedroom gets wet each time it rains. And our yard floods because the rain comes down with such force in such a short amount of time. Then after the rains, the flying termites come out. They are everywhere. It's like something out of the twilight zone- hundreds hovering on the windows trying to get into the light. And when they are really bad, they just fall in through the windows through the cracks we didn't know existed. But always, they get in the house. They fly around, end up in every room it seems and then within an hour or so, they die. And then that's when the ants come in and start eating them. Yes, this is going on in our house. Yes I try to prevent this but it doesn't work. So after franticly killing  the termites as they are flying around at first and trying to convince the boys they aren't going to hurt them, you finally just give up and go back to whatever you were doing, knowing full well the ants will just come get them in a little bit. The nights that they are really bad our night guard can sweep up a full bucket of them and there they are just buzzing around in the bucket. Gross. But actually a lot of Malians love this time of year. They love eating the termites. They say they are really good. And it's hard to take them at their word when their main staple of food is what every other developed country feeds their cattle. Seriously, one year when their was a drought and then locusts came in and ate all the crops, the US sent them cattle feed so the people could eat. Crazy. But anyway. One other annoyance I must mention are our windows. We open them when it rains as well as being open a lot during cool season. The open into the room. They are made of iron. The bottoms are way too close to the level of kids' heads. I can't tell you how many times we have hit them. Dawson and I have both already had stitches in our heads from banging the windows. I guess that will just be a right of passage living in this house. Dawson was pretty proud of his stitches when he got them. I wasn't so proud. But alas, that's life. 

Again, as I've said before, I'm not meaning to complain about life here. I just thought I would mention the challenges of the seasons since we are in transition right now. We are happy and enjoy living here. Brett made a great statement yesterday (as we were swimming in the pool) that we don't need to sit and wish away the days eagerly waiting to go to the US but find ways that we can relax and really be happy here. I think that's key. And the Lord is working and blessing us so that we can honestly say we're happy. Brett's coming home earlier each day which is great; he just decided that there will always be work to do and there's always tomorrow to do it. So that's nice. We have new friends who live IN KOUTIALA (have I mentioned them before?) who have young kids and enjoy playing with our boys. It's been great for Dawson to have another kid his age that he can talk to. And another mom of small kids that I can talk to. So we're doing well.  

Okay, enough talking, here are some pictures...

Our yard after a rain

The flying termites

The iron windows waiting to hurt us all. 

Our pool!!

We now have a pool in Koutiala!!

This is our old "pool." We did enjoy it as it provided some relief, even if it was small. 

But now we could never go back because our new pool is awesome. We are enjoying it a ton. We go a couple times a week. We still often forget we are in the middle of Africa when we are swimming in it. The blue liner is so great because it makes the water look beautiful and it is so peaceful. Sorry no pics of the boys actually playing in the water- too crazy with three kids in the pool at one time. Dawson, though is really doing well and swim across the full length of the pool. He kicks very well. (He always wears floaties- as does Kenan). He's even jumping in the pool by himself now. Can't wait for my mom to get here in August to teach them how to swim. We are so thankful for this pool!! Isn't it beautiful?

Eating

You can tell the differences in our boys by what and how they eat. 

Dawson is our all-American boy who eats like a champ (when it's what he wants). Here he is eating the cake we had on Mother's Day.

And then there's our Malian boy, Kenan. He loves mangoes. Loves them. Thankfully, we have two huge mango trees in our yard so he can enjoy them anytime he wants (at least for a little bit longer). It is amazing, by the way, how many mangoes we have this year. Last year, our house guy and nanny took so many all the time we never had any- I always had to buy them. This year we have more than enough!

I don't know if you can notice, but his skin is all red on his cheek. That's what is left over from the band-aid. :)

11 days

Yup, this boy left the band-aid in his hair for 11 days! Brett finally got it out one day at the pool. I really thought he would forget after a day or two about it so I could take it out, but no, every single time I tried it was "no, me bweedin." Kudos to Brett for finally getting it out. And before we could get the one out of his hair, he had to add another one to his face. While I was at the hospital one morning, Kenan apparently scratched his ear and it started to bleed. Big brother Dawson came to the rescue and applied that huge band-aid to his ear and oh yeah, half his face. That one stayed on 3 days and really irritated the skin. It's days later and his face is still red. Gotta love them!

Random pictures

So I just have a few random pictures I wanted to share....

Here's Bocar. He comes by almost everyday. He so wants to work but we keep telling him to wait. 

Kenan has had this bandaid in his hair for four days now. Every time I try to take it out he says no and "I bweedin'" as if he were still bleeding. Funny thing is, he never bled to begin with, just hit his head. So we'll see what gets it out because two baths and two trips to the pool later it's still there. (So yes, if you are thinking about the number of days vs number of baths, the pool does count as a bath...at least at this stage of life. And by stage of life, I mean my stage of life with three little ones, not their stage in life. If there was just one, or maybe even two, they'd get a bath everyday, but that's just not reality unfortunately) 

We gave Silas mac and cheese the other night for the first time. He liked it. I think now he wants food he can pick up and not baby food.  Oh- and I forgot to metion in the Mother's day post that Silas also crawled for the first time today. He's been moving around a ton but today was the "correct" method of crawling. I get excited when they start doing something new and then I think, why did I want him crawling???

One day we had "fun in the sun." It was coming in quite beautifully in our house and we thought we should take advantage and get some pictures.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day today. I had no expectations. Last year taught me not to. All I wanted last year was to sleep in. Didn't get to. Kids screamed all day. Fell backwards into the mud. House flooded. Power out for hours. It was terrible. So this year, I decided no expectations. 

ALL THREE boys slept ALL night!! Talk about a gift. That was great. It has now happened 4 times total that all three have slept the same night all night. Now I just have to learn to sleep again. :) But that started my day out great.

I did get to take that shower long enough to shave my legs! :) Now I'm ready for the pool.

The boys gave me colored drawings and this little note. So sweet. Brett wrote out the words and then Dawson traced over them. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. (Yes, Kenan's name is there, on the left).

They also had recorded on our voice recorder things like "I love you, mommy" "thank you for reading us books at night" etc. Cute.

Dawson also asked for chocolate frosting...so I had to make a cake...a Duncan Hines nonetheless. And we just had to eat it right from the oven when it was hot and wonderful. So glad he asked for it so I could make a cake just because. :)

So it was a great day. There was peace, no fighting, no stress. So nice. 

Hope all the mothers out there had a great day as well! Thank you, mom, for being a wonderful mom, for always loving us sacrificially and giving of yourself constantly. I hope I can be half the mom you are and that one day my kids can say of me as I can say now of you that I can never think of a time that you weren't there for me, that I know without a doubt you love the Lord and desire us to know Him and serve Him too (even if that means living overseas), and that I know you will drop whatever to be there for us when we need you- even if that is flying across the world in the middle of the school year just to help. Thank you! I love you!!

Trip to Teriya Bugu

Two weekends ago we went to Teriya Bugu, a little getaway place on the Bani river. I was going to call it a resort, but since it is so far from an American resort, the word seems kind of silly to use. But regardless, it is the nicest place in Mali. And interestingly, it's a "green" place. They use solar panels to heat the water and run pumps for irrigation, they make their own biogas, etc...WAY ahead of their time here in Mali but they'd fit in really well with the US. They grow all their food (even the rabbits and ducks they raise are on the menu, and yes, we ate one of those ducks (or two) before we left). Anyway, we went with our friends Jessica and Saskia. Jess goes home next week for a year so we wanted to be able to hang out with her before she left. Though the two hr drive there and the family sleeping all in one room is tiring, it is so nice to get away from Koutiala now and again.

Kenan with Jess

Silas with Saskia

I can't remember if I was blogging when we went to Teriya Bugu before. Well, they have these paddle boats that you can take out. The very first time we ever went there we were with my parents. We took the boats across the river to this island. It was a lot of fun. So we set out to do it again. Our trip the time before was hampered due to the rudder on the boat not working. We got stuck in the middle of the river and we not able to get back. Thankfully, a nice Malian guy on his perogue towed us back to land. 

The boys were really scared by the whole event and didn't want to ride the boats again. So this time,  we decided that we would try the paddle boats again, hoping to help the boys like it again and to actually make it across the river. Well, it didn't happen. We decided to go along the land toward another island, where there is a village. We were going along and I noticed a lot of people were just looking at us. I felt slightly unnerved, wondering what it was that we were doing wrong- we were heading into a place where there were crocodiles or something? Yes, my mind wanders and Brett is often tired of my many (ridiculous) fears so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I even noticed there were tons of polls around in the water, I assumed they were for catching fish, but then quickly forgot about them. Wish I hadn't. Before we knew it, we were stuck, I mean stuck in fishing net. Saskia jumped out and tried to untangle us. It was no use. 

We had to call out to these guys from the village and ask them to help us. They thought they could just pull as well and unhook us from the net, but no, it took a big knife. But finally we got free. And we went straight back to the shore. No more paddle boat rides for awhile.

Kenan trying to drink his beloved water despite the humungous floaties while we wait on the paddle boat.

Wearing Dad's hat as we wait in the hot sun.

I don't know why I love them doing this in the pool, but I think it is just so cute.

We love to get to swim here when we can because before last Sunday, there wasn't a pool in Koutiala (besides the 4 ft deep and maybe 8 ft in diameter pool). But now we (not at our house, but in Koutiala) have a POOL!! They just finished it and it is great! Pictures of that will come sometime...

The boys on the see-saw

And now some family pics....and yes, we are all sporting Carolina blue.

What it is REALLY like trying to get a family picture

My favorite boys