It has been a rough few days at the Sally Test Center.  On Monday I had to take Eden to get some of her immunizations and one of them gave her a really bad fever.  She was sick Monday and Tuesday and it was hard to watch.  Also, one of the boys that has been a wonderful leader and helper to us at STC took a turn for the worse over the weekend.  He was too weak to even come to the celebration yesterday.
I told one of the guys that works here that in the midst of my excitement about getting to spend time with the kids and hold babies, I forgot that these kids are patients at the hospital.  They are sick and have such sad stories and some of them even die.  The teachers that I work with are wonderful but I have no idea how they do it year after year.
On a positive note today both Eden and Michael were feeling better.  Eden ate two bowls of cereal for breakfast (she normally doesn’t finish one) and she ate well the rest of the day.  She even ate an entire banana before I left at 5.  Michael was up and walking this afternoon and said he still felt tired but he didn’t feel as sick.  He gets daily chemo treatments so he’s bound to have low periods.  Please pray for the kids and the adults that are at the Sally Test Center.  We have fun, but there is a lot of sadness, too.
I met with Eden’s social worker from the hospital today.  She wasn’t able to give me very much information but said that she would talk to the chief children’s officer at the hospital and have information for me tomorrow.  At least we got the ball rolling.  YEA!!  🙂

Meghan and I decided to try out a local church here on Sunday. We forgot to arrange going with anyone, so we went to the big church near the hospital that had posted their times out front. They had three services: 8am English, ?? English (Main), and 11:00 Swahili. Since we couldn’t remember the main english service time, we were forced to go to the early service (early service!?! :-(). I can’t remember the last time I went to an early service in the States, but its probably a lot like this was! This was a big pretty big church (see picture of it on our photos page), but there were maybe only 10 people in there when we sat down!

We had been hoping that the English service would have at least a few white folks: we were right, Meghan and me! So that was a little odd, but we got a program, sat down and waited. The service started on time (not on Kenyan time, ON time!) with about 20 people.

After a few hymns there were about 30 people and it happened. Its what every new church goer dreads: we were called out. The pastor said, “We would like to welcome all of our visitors (bam! 60 eyes on us) to Assembly and we invite them all to stand up (bam! 62 eyes on us as the pastor looks at us). Meghan and I debated for about 2 seconds faking like we were regular attendees, but for some reason I don’t think that would have fooled anyone. So we had to stand, people clapped, the assistant pastor shook our hands, blah blah blah, we’re going to the 9:00 AM service next week!

After church we walked back by the Sally Test center and spent some time with Eden and the other equally cute babies (you wouldn’t know it from how Meghan talks about the STC though!). Meghan had packed a sandwich for herself, but I just bought some corn on the side of the road for 14 cents (picture on photos page). It tasted like a 14 cent piece of corn too! The corn here is more like field corn, not as tender as in the US…and just grilling the corn doesn’t help it any!

That afternoon I went with some of the AMPATH guys to play soccer. Its the first time I can remember playing an outdoor pickup game, on a mostly uncut field, with a bunch of Kenyans, and just some posts for goals! It was quite fun. The altitude (7000 feet) was killing me, but I managed to score. Even though we ended up losing 5-3, I went home satisfied!

For dinner we finally cooked the frozen whole chicken we bought last week. Our Kenyan roommate (Pamela) helped us cut it and then saute/boil it. It turned out to be pretty good, but Meghan was thoroughly grossed out by the whole cleaning, gutting, carving procedure. I’m pretty sure we’ll just be buying the chicken breasts from now on!

I’m up and watching the Colts beat up on the Cardinals at 3:30 AM. Our neighbor has a 42 inch TV and a satellite: this is a very nice taste of home!

We had an ultrasound today over at the Riley Mother and Baby Hospital. Sierra was able to see the baby’s head, arms, heart beating, ribs, and legs. It was being a little difficult so it took her a few minutes to get the wand in the right position. Meghan turned a little bit and … Click to continue »

Ben and I met a woman from the US that lives here full time and has an OB/GYN office here. She was at dinner with us tonight and she said that we can go in tomorrow afternoon (assuming she doesn’t have any emergencies) to have an ultrasound to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. YEA! We’re super excited to get to see the baby again! Please pray that everything goes well and that things look good!

Good news! I found a meal that I consider a success! I made Mac and Cheese last night with a slightly varied recipe because we could only find Parmesan cheese in the store, but it was really good. Ben says he liked the soup better, but I know that I am right. 🙂

I have been very busy at the Sally Test Center. We go in the morning around 9 and I stay until Ben is done with work at 5. We dance with the kids from 10-11 and 2-3 each day. The rest of the time is spent playing, holding babies and planning lessons and dances. It’s really nice to be busy during the day and to be able to use my skills in a helpful way.

I have already completely fallen in love with one of the abandoned babies (I know, you’re all shocked). Her name is Eden and she is SO cute. They are guessing she’s about 10 months. She was found alone and brought to the hospital at the end of August because she was so malnourished. She is doing really well and is crawling some and will pull herself up on my legs to get me to pick her up. She likes to stick her tongue out at me so that I will stick mine out at her, then she tries to grab my tongue. The Sally Test Center closes at 4 but since Ben doesn’t finish work until 5, I sit in the waiting area in the peds wing and hold her. When the babies leave the STC at 4, they are put two to a “crib” in the wings. I will have to take a picture of the wings. They are shocking. No private rooms just rows of beds. And the cribs are like cages. One of the peds docs told me that during the night (from 4pm-8am) no one holds the babies and they rarely have diaper changes because the nurses are so busy. It’s really sad and when Ben comes and I have to put Eden back in her crib she cries and cries and I want to join her (but I’ve only done it once).

Anyway, I’m trying to come up with a great plan for a way to adopt her before we come home in December. Any great ideas? All suggestions are welcome! Hope you enjoy the new pictures!