A MIRACLE!

First, just take a look at Fernanda at her smallest being prayed for.
I'm sure you have all been wondering about her. The last post I wrote about Fernanda was entitled "Transformation..." other than a quick update. This one even more appropriately is entitled, "A MIRACLE", because that is indeed what she is.
Just look at her...
She weighed in at 10.4kg this morning...that's almost 23 pounds!!!!!!!!!

There are no more ribs showing as you can see. She is quite the silly little girl at the moment. She loves to make faces, play peek-a-boo, and she laughed all morning at her own picture on my camera. It was hysterical! She absolutely loved it!

She is not a big fan of the other kids yet. I think she knows she is older than them even though they are walking and she isn't. She doesn't like them to come take her toys and run away or to crawl up in my lap when she has already claimed it for herself. But she does have a big heart. She loved Graca. Somehow she knew she was suffering. She knew she needed love. She wouldn't ever push her away and when she cried she would crawl over and take her hand. She often reached out of her crib into Graca's to hold her hand before they fell asleep. She somehow knew.
I pray she grows up compassionate. I pray God has given her a HUGE heart through this miracle. I pray she has compassion on others the way God had compassion on her during her time of need. I pray she grows up with God's eyes for the broken hearted. She is certainly quite the miracle, and I love every chunky piece of her!

Serving the Community

It all started with a phone call. Moises, one of the head educators on our base, called me after church one Sunday morning. He was telling me about a boy with a very bad "ferida" (this is the Portuguese word they use for anything from a small paper cut to a gaping wound). At the time I thought it was one of our center boys so I told him to meet me up in the clinic. Turns out it was a 10 year old from a community near our center who goes to church there...another Iris church.
He had been severely burned by a lamp in his house. Most of Mozambique does not have electricity, so oil lamps that can easily burn children and start fires are a norm. So at the time I had no idea what to do for him. I looked it over (looked a bit infected to me already), cleaned it out really well, bandaged it up, started him on antibiotics, gave him some ibuprofen and paracetamol (Tylenol) for pain and told him to come back Wednesday...that's the day we see community members in our clinic. I wrote a note to his mom in my best Portuguese saying please bring him back Wednesday and ask for Mana Meghann.
Honestly, I wasn't sure I would ever see him again. But I prayed God would place it on his mother's heart how important it was for him to come back for care. I got even more discouraged when I realized Wednesday that week was a national holiday, so our clinic was closed. I was sure I would never seem him again at that point...but I kept praying. And I spent most of that Wednesday walking up to the clinic to see if maybe they would just be waiting outside for me. Thursday I got a call from one of our workers in the clinic who said...Meghann your boy is up here. I was SO excited!
I headed up to the clinic. His mom, baby brother (about 1), and him were sitting up in front of the clinic. His wound was unwrapped, and he was blotting it with an old piece of cloth. I wanted to cringe. But instead I nicely introduced myself and told them they could come into the clinic.

**Side note- by God's amazing provision Dan, a US ER nurse and clinical specialist, was here at the time. I had already told him about my little boy, and he said he would be more than happy to look at the wound and see what would be best for it. Also, by God's grace Erin and Jannie (other nurses) had been collecting wound care supplies from the States for quite some time.

So...Dan and I took a look at his arm. Dan was encouraged by how it looked. He seemed to think the infection I saw on Sunday must be better because it didn't look infected at all. It was only a second degree burn...meaning it was not full thickness. Dan thought with the right care and cleaning it should heal up just fine!!!!
Dan showed me how best to clean it...God made male nurses for a reason...they are so much tougher than I could ever hope to be with patients. But I will say I have washed his arm just as Dan showed me since that day! We covered the burn in a silver cream (the best thing you can put on burns...that they actually sell in this country...another provision of the Lord)! We also had silver coated dressings in the stock we had been hording and used these to cover it, added some padding for protection, wrapped it up, and with some ibuprofen, paracetamol, and the rest of his antibiotics sent him on his way.
I got to talk to his mom just a bit before they left. She profusely apologized for not being able to come Wednesday (the day before). She explained they got as far as our gates and guards told her the clinic was closed so they went home. :( But...what an encouragement...this mom wants to help her son and wants to do the right thing. I don't think I could even tell you adequately how unusual this is here. I was amazed! I told her to give him plenty of fluid, to come back if he couldn't move his arm well, and that I would see them again in 2 days.
The next time he came, his 15 year old brother brought him. Here's the 2 of them outside of my house:Close your eyes if you get queezy...but here's a close up of his wound:
After cleaning it again (scrubbing would be a better term), covering it in cream and silver dressing, and wrapping, I sent them off with transportation money and apples...smiles covered their faces!
He has come back every day I've asked him to since then. Last week his arm had improved so much...take a look (all the light pink part is healed over!!!):This week he showed up with his brother again at almost 5:00 at night...it's getting dark here between 6 and 7 now and being out after dark for little boys is not safe at all...especially on public transportation. I just had a feeling something was up. I washed and dressed his arm and then his brother looked at me and said...our mom left. I was a bit shocked but did my best to ask questions...where did she go? a city up north, why did she go? to get new ceiling tiles, who else is in the house? 2 younger siblings (ages 3 and 5), where is the baby? with mom, when is she coming back? maybe next friday (it was friday at the time). I asked them to go wait outside for a minute and phoned Steve (one of our directors). He said bring them to his house...he'd help sort things out. Praise God for people who know what to do with this type of situation. Turns out they live right next to one of our pastors...he knew the mom wasn't home, neighbors were helping look after the kids, and they had food in the house for the whole week. I know, I know...this isn't acceptable in the least by US standards, but this is somewhat normal here.
So the boys headed home and showed back up at the clinic Tuesday like they were suppose to. My little one was sick with vomiting and diarrhea...I tested him for malaria and sent him home with treatment. All seems well now and he'll be back Tuesday for another check up!
I share this with you to show you the reality of life here. A burn like this could cause an overwhelming infection and kill a child. A mother leaving 4 children with her 15 year old (the one standing up in the picture above) for a week happens. This is reality and these are the people I'm called to serve!

In her Father's arms

It's with tears streaming down my face that I write you this. I just read through the many e-mail responses I got assuring me supporters were praying on the other side of the world for Graca's (Pequena's) little life. Many of them wrote about the work I'm doing and how proud they are...I can only say at this moment I feel helpless, exhausted, hurt, frustrated (angry might be more appropriate)...but that is all because I have responded to God's call on my life. I know He is in charge; He will forever have the ability to do the impossible; and He loves his children more than I could ever hope to.

Graca passed away this afternoon. She just stopped breathing. I'm sure her oxygen saturation (the amount of oxygen in her blood) had been slowly decreasing all day but because the hospital took her off the monitor sometime before Erin saw her this morning they would not have known. I am sad, I am hurt, I am questioning, I am angry...but more than me I am asking for prayers for others...
~Graca's father- he has been so involved since Graca came to live with us 6 weeks ago. He has visited many times, every time asking if he could feed her. He has held and cuddled her in his arms. He is a young father and here it is VERY unusual to have a father who has been left by their wife who wants to keep their baby, not to mention one who is young. He has stole my heart since day one. Pray for the peace that passes all understanding to pass over him. Pray he somehow is able to see God in the midst of this tragedy. I thank God he was able to see his little girl one more time today before she left this world to live with her heavenly father.
~Our tias (Katia, Razu, Madalena, Kristina, Lucia, Anastansia, and Leanora)- These women are my heroes. These women love our children like they are their own. These women share the love of Jesus with the heart of the Father. These women spent countless hours trying their absolute best to get Graca to even eat a 1/4 of a banana. These women fed her around the clock for 6 weeks. These women loved her when all she did was cry all day and vomit after everything she ate. These women are hurting. One of them just kept saying "dor" (pain in Portuguese) over and over again as we prayed with them this afternoon. Erin was able to tell them thank you for all the work they do and the love they show. I so desperately wish I had the language to do this but through my tears I tried my best. Please be praying for their comfort and peace. Please be praying the devil is not able to gain and stronghold by placing blame on them. This was no one's fault but in Mozambique everything has to be someone's fault. Also we are praying against the fear of disease here. We are praying this women don't believe that after watching 3 babies die in less than a year that if they or their family is sick they are destined to die. Please join us.
~Erin, Jannie, and Sheri- the other nurses who worked with Graca. I pray they feel God's peace and love as well. I know we are each hurting in a different way. Many are angry or frustrated/confused by the medical system here. I just pray we each are able to grab ahold of our Lord and find peace in Him.
~Bercario missionary staff (Neil, Hilda, and Nancy)- these three missionaries each spent countless hours holding Graca, trying to calm her through tears and coughing fits, praying for her, being vomited on, and just loving her. Just be praying for their hearts as well.

Graca's funeral will be on Saturday morning. Please pray this is a time of closure, understanding, and peace for all involved. Know your support and prayers carry me through each of the tough situations I face here. You are each loved and appreciated.

Pequena Update...

This morning we headed into the city to bring the new tia to stay with Pequena. Erin by God's grace was able to sneak in to see her. She is still on high flow oxygen (14 liters) and they have taken her off of the SaO2 monitor (don't ask me why)...but there is no more nasal flaring, no more grunting...just retractions left. She is certainly not out of the woods, but Erin was encouraged by how she looked...but please keep the prayers coming. She has a feeding tube at the moment but is not eating anything. The tube is ventilating her stomach that otherwise would fill with oxygen because of the high flow.
There is a new tia there with her now...Katia left us to head home to take care of her children. Life here is tough. Katia stayed up all night in the hospital and now will go home to her own family. It makes me again stand in awe of the women who serve our children. They are absolutely amazing.
Keep the prayers coming for little Pequena please that God who be her strength, healer, and sustainer. Also be lifting up Lucia the tia that is with her now. Thank you and I'll keep you posted as we hear more.

Internet and Pequena (small in Portuguese)

OUR INTERNET IS BACK! That is all you need to know about that.

Now I have an urgent prayer request for you. We have made the choice as a medical team to do our absolute best not to put medical information regarding our children up on websites. So...I will refer to her as Pequena from now on.

Tonight I was called by one of our nurses, and she asked if I could come up to the clinic and take a look at Pequena because they had already put her on oxygen. Of course I headed right up. It turns out she had aspirated vomit (that means sucked it into her lungs for non-medical people out there) and went downhill very fast. They tried 2 nebulizers back to back and then went for the oxygen we have stashed in our clinic. She was on high flow oxygen for about 15 minutes by the time I saw her. Let's suffice to say...she didn't look good.
Soon after I got there we called our director (another nurse) and decided we needed to transfer her to the hospital. We have no portable oxygen and the hospital is 45 minutes away. It was decided we would have to get some boys to put the oxygen tank we have (it's about the size of me) into the back of our ambulance because that's the only way she would make it. After finding a driver, getting together all of her medications (because they won't provide those for her), figuring out what nurse would go, figuring out what tia would go...we finally packed Erin, Pequena, and a tia in the back of the ambulance and prayed them off.

(Side note...this is honestly what I was thinking...Dino....Dino...Dino! I couldn't get him out of my mind. What he looked like when we entered the hospital...that they only put him on oxygen after 5 hours of nebulizer treatments...that he died less than 24 hours after entering that hospital. I know it terrible...but I will say it gave me a HUGE will to pray for God's intervention because obviously we needed it.)

So we prayed for Pequena, tias, Erin, doctors, travel mercies...and we waited to hear from Erin (who I knew was worried but held it together amazingly well). This is what we know now...she was looking terrible by the time she got to the hospital. She is now on high flow oxygen and her oxygen levels are better (not great but better). Katia (one of our tias) is with her now. Erin, Jannie (another nurse), and I will go see her tomorrow. Please be praying for Katia, Pequena, the doctors and nurses, and our staff here.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the BABY who takes refuge in him." ~Psalm 34:8

NO INTERNET!

Ok...for all those wondering we have no internet on the base at the moment. I have tons of things to tell you about and share with you but this is the first time I've been on the internet in 13 days! And we have no idea when the internet will be up and running again on the base. NO GOOD AT ALL!
All of that to say, don't worry about me if I don't respond to your e-mails or there are no updates on here...I'm just fine just stuck back in the early 90's with no internet!
Love you all!

We almost hit a cow...

****If you care deeply about me and are going to be really upset to hear about the craziness of car rides in Moz please stop reading NOW! (Mom and all other relatives and probably Clemson Crew readers...that means you!) All others enjoy the hilariousness of a developing nation!

So it all started with a text that read something like this..."We have the white Mazda for Friday. Can we use that extra mattress in your building?" I know you're thinking one has nothing to do with the other. Not true. They are very closely related because the text was from Rebbecca (another missionary), and I knew exactly what she meant and why she was asking. The background is this...4 of us needed to go on a border run. That means driving to the country border, stamping out and back into the country to fulfill whatever visa exit you have. I have a 30 day exit...so every 30 days I have to leave the country. And as for the white Mazda, I'm sure you have figured out that is one of the cars here on the base. Well it is a truck that has 2 seats in the front and a covered back bed that usually has benches along both sides for passengers. But thanks to the vehicle inspections Moz has adopted this year the benches were being redone and so it was just a covered bed at this time.
Side note- this vehicle inspection is the CRAZIEST thing I've heard of yet here. It is supposedly something the people wanted. Actually...news flash...the people wanted safer cars on the road not ones with no doors, no windsheilds, wheels falling off in the middle of traffic jams, buses (or chapas as they are called here) with so many people in them some are being pushed out the windows, cars that actually have headlights and taillights needless to say ones that work...they did not want vehicle inspections that don't pass cars because of a tear in the seat fabric or low washer fluid or ones that aren't aligned properly when you can't drive a mile without literally falling in a pot hole (please tell me how your car is suppose to be perfectly aligned!).
Ok...I'll get off my high horse on that since I don't even own a car here. Back to the text...so what Rebbecca wanted to know was...could we put the extra mattress I have in the back of the truck for three of us to sit on during this 2 hour long trek to the border. I replied sure! We met up the next morning, carried our mattress over the the car park (I've become English; it's true), and headed off. First things first...as usual the guys at the gas station flirted with all of us in their best possible English...it was a lot of how are yous and are you married. Then Fi (another missionary) and I were feeling sick about 10 minutes in...the window between the front and where we were was so dirty you could barely see the road. No good for car sickness.
Other issues...the back door doesn't really latch very well. Here's how I felt about that......just a bit nervous!
So on the way there we saw quite a few cows just hanging out on the side of the road. I didn't say anything but thought...I hope there aren't any IN the road. We made it to the border with only two slamming of brakes...one was because a large truck decided to pass a guy and remain in our lane until well he was just going to hit us. That's normal...a normal way to drive. Don't ask me why. It's just a fact. The other was because we hit the town close to the border and it is FULL of speed bumps or mountains they should be called. Our driver must have forgotten about these because the three of us in the back literally hit the ruff on the first one...hence the brake slamming!
Next came the prayers that no one noticed 4 white girls stamping out and then back into the country after about 5 minutes and just walking around the building. Apparently this is frowned upon. Ooops! Anyway we were caught but just ended up walking into Swaziland stamping in, walking around their building, stamping out, and then heading back to Moz. All in all it went pretty smoothly. We did however run into 2 other guys who were doing the same. But oddly enough they have Mozambican passports. We couldn't figure out why they would need to stamp in and out of their own country...we asked what they were doing. They replied "business"...very very very very sketchily I might add. Rebbecca and I looked at each other and both said in unison..."illegal business"! I'm not pointing fingers just saying it was a bit sketchy!
Ok...we were back in the car, back over all the speed mountains in no time. We had a youth driver so trips happen a lot quicker than if you have an older driver! So all is well, the music is on, Emily (another missionary) is laying down taking a nap and all the sudden I look up through the VERY dirty window and think I see something. You guessed it...a COW, in the middle of our lane. Our driver must have seen it at exactly the same moment because then came the screeching brakes. I went flying forward, our mattress slip foward so far that emily was no long laying on her back but instead on her side with the mattress up against the front of the truck bed, and Rebbecca was basically on top of Emily. All I said was...a cow and we all started hysterically laughing! You can absolutely always expect the unexpected here. Here's the cow that caused us so much greif...we maybe stopped 4 feet from it...
There was only one more brake slamming experience, and we were all the way back in Maputo at this point. I'm sure a very nice person decided to change lanes basically into us. Our driver quickly responded and all was well expect for the back flip Rebbecca did in the midst of the stopping that ended in a quite large bump on her head.
So that was our trip to the border...seriously we were only gone about 4 hours in total. It's normal to expect the unexpected. Everyone says when you drive here you can always expect people to not do the normal thing. The opposite is probably what they will do. With their left turn signal on they will turn right. From the left lane they will turn right. When the light is red they will go. People will walk out in front of you while you're driving. When you go to pass someone they will speed up and veer over toward you. The unexpected is normal and somehow expected....
...oh Mozambique...

Meet our Gêmeos (Twins)!

So I know it has been forever since I've written. That is not because of lack of things going on but instead because of lack of time to write about everything that has been happening. Just a bit of an update before I do introduce you to our new twins...
1- Fernanda- she is still doing absolutely amazing! God has completely turned her life around. She is now crawling toward people every time we walk in the room. She has become quite silly, laughing, giggling, and smiling all the time! And she is chubby!!! She now weighs over 20 pounds! She is a miracle!2- Graca- she is still struggling but gaining weight slowly. Food is still a bit of a fight but she has started eating a bit of yogurt, plumpy nut (a fortified peanut butter the government uses for malnourished kids), and baby cereal along with her milk. She doesn't cry all day long any more, which is a HUGE improvement from the first few weeks.3- Aleya (a fellow nurse and my roommate for 6 months) has left us. She spent her last week here with her brother visiting. It was a great way to get to say goodbye and have some fun all at once. We spent a great day in the city together...and even wore bibs during our "seafood rice" lunch! I had no idea what I was agreeing to, but apparently here in Moz that means crab legs, shrimp, clams, muscles shells and all in a big bowl of seasoned soupy rice...it really was amazing...messy but amazing- hence the bibs! But it was a sad goodbye and my house and world seem a bit quiet and empty without Aleya...I certainly am going to miss her!
4- We also said hello to a new nurse, Sheri. She worked here about 3 years ago for 2 years and has been away in England getting married. Now her husband Matt and herself are here to help! They are super funny and great to hang out with! Sheri will be taking over Erin's position when she leaves us the end of May. As for my position...basically the same as before...passing back my clinic responsibility when Iarra gets back (June 1st) and continuing to help in both areas (clinic and Baby House that is)!

Ok...on to our new twins! They are 2 1/2 years old and their names are Marta and Eugenio. They are definitely a bit malnourished and Marta has a few developmental issues but we are working through all of that. Eugenio has quickly joined the rest of our 2 year old gang of boys in the Baby House at the moment. He has opened up into quite the chatter box. Marta is still VERY cautious at the moment. She watches everything her twin does to make sure it's ok...eating, taking medications, walking toward us. But she's warming up as well...slowly but surely. Today she was laughing with me in the car on our trek to get chest x-rays. The twin's mom abandoned them with a grandmother who can't care for them. God willing these two will only be with us for a year or so until they are old enough to return back to family safely. For now be praying they get to feel the Father's love and their bodies develop properly and absorb all the nutrients they have been missing!

Here's Eugenio during our car ride this morning:Here's Marta in the car with me as well:One more of me feeling like a real Mozambican mama carrying the twins for their consult this morning...and then we went to ShopRite (our grocery store) after. Eugenio road in the cart and I kept Marta on my back...many people stopped to ask me about them. "Are they your children?" "Are they orphans?" "Are they twins?" I'm sure we were quite the sight!