So we haven’t posted anything in a while and apparently folks are getting antsy! 🙂 Ben and I have been pretty consumed with trying to get the Eden situation worked out. It’s really been a roller coaster. One day we get great news and the next we get awful news. Ben and I are not sleeping well and Eden apparently hasn’t been either. The nurses told me that she just cries all night long. I think she also isn’t feeling well. A couple of the other babies had colds last week and I’m afraid that Eden caught it. I was very careful to keep her away from the germs but when I got to STC on Thursday one of the girls was feeding Eden and one of the sick babies with the same spoon! Ugh!

Anyway, she has been taking really long naps and hasn’t been her normal cheery self. Today she threw up on each of us. Ben mostly got water, but I definitely didn’t. She did start feeding herself for the first time today and Ben got it on video and will post it soon!

We file in Children’s Court tomorrow and hopefully will be able to be heard tomorrow as well. If things go well there, Eden should be able to come home with us right away. We’ve already been to the store to buy all the necessities and we even got a pack-n-play. It’s red and gray for all you West Side fans! We aren’t allowed to bring Eden here, so if she is able to come home with us, we will have to move across the alley. The family there owns their house (our house is owned by IU) and they are willing to rent us a room. It will be really nice to still be on the compound where we know everyone. We’ll be sure to post an update as soon as we have one! Please pray that things go well on Monday and that Eden can come home with us!

Today I am 20 weeks! It’s hard to believe that we are half way there. I feel like a giant. I recently saw a video of me pushing a wheelchair and carrying Eden while dancing at the Sally Test Center and I looked enormous!

Baby Andy is moving around a lot more. Several times now, I have had to stop what I was doing because of how or where he was moving. It’s fun for me but poor Ben is so desperate to feel him and it hasn’t happened yet. The only other thing that I have really noticed is that my belly button seems to be slowly disappearing.

I have my first check up down here in 2 weeks and then the ultrasound to confirm that Andy is Andy the following week. We appreciate your prayers and will keep you updated!

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 »