Tons of Updates!

I've been promising updates...so here it goes...

#1- There have been MANY medical staff changes.  To list a few:

-Iara and Marcia left.  They are two amazing Brazilian women who have been working in our clinic for close to 10 years.  Iara was the head nurse, and Marcia dealt with all the finances and buying.  They are truly missed!

-Pauline joined our team for 10 weeks!  Pauline is a nurse from New Zealand, who now lives in Texas with her husband and gorgeous daughter.  Their family joined our long term team for some time.  Pauline worked here several years ago and was instrumental in getting our clinic off the ground in the beginning.  She was a HUGE encouragement to our whole team, especially me.  She opened my eyes once again to the need around me and re-sparked my flame!

-Sheri took on the overseeing position in the clinic from Iara, but only a few weeks later left for a few months to be with family and friends back home.  So we have all pitched in to cover this large position while continuing on in our normal roles as well.

#2- In all of this change, my official job is overseeing all the medical needs of our 55 youngest kids, including the Bercario (nursery), Baby House, and Tracey’s dorm (the transition dorm from the Baby House to the older dorms).  But, on top of this I am the one with the most current experience living on the base at the moment, so the other two nurses come to me often with questions, concerns, and issues.  So in reality I have my hand in all areas of medical.  This has meant long trying days filled with answering questions, feeling inadequate, and constantly looking to God for the wisdom and direction to get through the day.

#3- We also have coped with Mozambican staff changes as well.  Aurora (our Mozambican nurse who works in the Baby House) has been away on holidays since the beginning of April.  I for one cannot wait to welcome her back the beginning of May!  And due to scheduling, legal, and ability issues for the moment we are again without an afternoon nurse in the Baby House.  We worked on training up the two nurses for a few weeks, but it has not worked out.  There is still hope that one of them may be able to cover an afternoon or two a week for us, but that is still undecided.

#4- In the midst of all of those changes, the babies have made it through some rough sicknesses.  After the crazy sickness of late February passed and I got better along with all the babies, we were hit hard in the Bercario (nursery).  Several babies got a respiratory virus that caused them major issues breathing.  I ended up with one little 6 month old on oxygen at 4am praying she would be healed so I would not have to bring her to the hospital.  They each slowly improved but only after days of me and the other nurses making trips up to the Bercario all day and night every 3 hours to check on them and give them breathing treatments.  It was certainly a trying week or so.  Other than that, there have been the normal ear infections, continued issues with pink eye (me included), and a chest infection here and there.  Plus now the temperature outside is beginning to change.  It is much cooler at night and some days are cooler as well.  This always brings about a bout of runny noses, colds, and coughs.  But no one has been hit too hard yet.

#5- And to update you on Shelton, the little boy I e-mailed and wrote about, who was brought to the hospital the beginning of March.  He is basically back to normal!  Praise God!  His swelling has gone down (his abdomen and face were swollen before) and he has been generally healthy for the past month.  I pray God’s healing in him comes to completion!  He is a sweet little boy who loves the Lord!  And because he is doing so much better, he got to spend a night with his grandmother this week during school holidays!  She doesn’t have the means to take care of him full time but was delighted to have him for a night!  Again I say, praise God!

#6- Our clinic was inspected by the ministry of health.  This was a HUGE deal and has brought about lots of protocol changes in the clinic.  We are still working to get in line with all the things they told us about.  Please join us in prayer for God's hand of protection over our clinic, that it may continue to be a blessing to all who enter!

I think that's all the work updates I can come up with for now.  I have tons of other stories and things to tell you all but will do that through other posts!