Note from Dan - Sarah on Jacksonville Newspaper website

Dan jumping into the blog: "Sarah mentioned that she had her picture taken by a Jacksonville reporter that was there - while she was helping in the hospital. So tonight I went searching for a Jasksonville newspaper. After a bit of looking, I found the picture: playing checkers with a young boy. Course it didn't help the fact that I really miss her. "

2/16 - updated link:
http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=28012651&event=945336&CategoryID=9088

Monday the 15th

Woke up this morning at the usual time and got ready to head over and see the kids. Gave them their meds and helped feed them breakfast, as usual. Then we had breakfast and headed into Milot again, this time with little Anel. First thing we did was check on Nick and Theo. Theo had his surgery last night as and seemed to be doing alright, though pretty drowsy. He's been eating and they said the surgery went well. I'm a bit sad that chances are he won't come back home by the time we head for home. Maybe I'll get to see him in the hospital later on in the week, though. We then got to see Dr. Brian, who took a good look at Anel. I think I've mentioned it before, but he's 18 months old and can't even sit by himself. He eats fairly well, but is only 10 and a half pounds and his head circumference is about the size of some baby's at birth. He's been at COTP for about 7 months and has only gained 3 pounds (he was 7 pounds at 1 year old!). He's gotten a bit stronger and is rolling over, but not doing much more. The pediatrician who has experience working in other developing countries said he would guess that he had some major oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery and has profound neurological delay across the board. His muscle tone is super weak as well. He's not real sure why he wouldn't be growing because of that, but suggested we check his thyroid levels and some other labs. The best part is he is going to write an official letter saying he feels that he should get a medical visa to the US. This is great news, since he could get regular physical therapy appointments and better nutrition in general in the united states. Oh, I remembered a story that a doctor told me about a father who carried his son (who I believe was either pre-teen or young teenager) all the way from Port Au Prince in his arms. His son has a broken pelvis and it took him 3 weeks to make it. Can you believe that? Well, after getting back to COTP I spent some time kicking the soccer ball with some of the older kids. I helped them out with dinner, then getting ready for bed. They all get several baths a day-one being just before they put on the PJ's. We had a bit of a wrestling match after they got in their PJ's and that was fun. Lots of giggling and tickling. We just had a dinner of mac and cheese and I think we'll head to bed soon. It's super early, but oh well.
Over half way over.

Sunday the 14th

Today is a day off of sorts at COTP. We woke up and got the kids their meds and then decided to go to church. It's a 3 hour ordeal, but since we didn't understand a bit of it, we stayed on 1 1/2 hours. It was pretty small compared to previous weeks, I guess. They sang a bit, had some preaching an offering, pretty much like usual except all intermixed. They sing a song and then preach for a bit, then sing another song, then more preaching and on and on. After getting back, we hung out for a bit reading, etc. for an hour or so then made some lunch. At about 2 we headed to the hospital to check on our boys. Theo hadn't gone back to surgery because another boy in the community with hydrocephalus had the surgery done first and then they were bumped several times for cesarean sections (I know that feeling!). I've been so impressed by the people working at the hospital. Everyone I have met has been so friendly. They love to take time to talk to you about different patients and what the plan is for them. So many doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners have spent time with me, making me feel so welcome. They have really gotten the cream of the crop for workers here. The party for the kids was cancelled because it's been raining cats and dogs all day and it was going to take place outside, but we ended up spending quite a bit of time there anyway (me, Marv, Mary, Kristina and Neil-all short term volunteers who have come to love our little hydro boys as they've been termed at the hospital). Since we were coming to the hospital anyway, we brought along some pediatric walkers, crutches and some boxes of honey nut cheerios, which had been donated to COTP, but had an overabundance of. They were pretty excited to have them. I then went over to talk to Dr. Jolie-an ER pediatrician about possibly seeing another one of our little guys who has been here since July and is 18 months and 10 pounds. He hasn't gained really any weight or grown at all since coming here, despite being fed 3 meals a day. I wonder if their is a thyroid problem or growth hormone deficiency. She said she would love to see the little guy, but would also like another Dr named Brian to take a look at him because he has practiced quite a bit in developing countries. I got to meet Brian later and just like the other people, he was so friendly and helpful. The plan is to bring him in either tomorrow or Tuesday as both Brian and Dr. Jolie will be leaving on Wednesday. I'm hoping they can run some tests to see what's going on with him. I don't think it's just failure to thrive. It's got to be something more. So, another bumpy ride with a baby is in store for us. Speaking of bumpy rides-I don't think I've ever seen so many pot holes in my life! I thought the road I grew up on was bad. Well, there is nothing like this. I kept thinking I need my husband and our old pathfinder and we'd be in for a good time. I also got to spend some time talking with the neurologist who will do Theo and Nick's surgery. He will be leaving in a week, so he is teaching one of the doctors in the hospital how to do the surgery, since at some point they may fail, come apart, or just need to be replaced because of growth. Once again, I was impressed by the spirit of comraderie and teaching. After speaking with the neurologist we took off back home. During the time I was gone, mom helped with snack, made dinner for all the volunteers and took care of Jenna. After I got back, mom and I worked on medications, we ate some spagghetti for dinner and hung out a bit with the other volunteers. Jenna has made some serious leaps this evening. She is waving and even clapping. I've watch Heidi sing "Clap Your Hands" with Ben and Sam and they have loved it, so I gave it a try with Jenna. After going through the song a few times, she has started clapping! You can tell she's pretty pleased and loves an audience. We even got a bit of a smile from her-well a half smile. She will wave at just about anyone and has started playing a bit with some toys today. Mom has done a great job taking care of her. I can't wait until she comes completely out of her shell. She is such a beautiful little baby. I wish I could post some pictures of her. We got her on some worm medication this morning and are wondering if maybe that is why she is already starting to feel a bit better. That about sums up our day here. I'm laying in bed listening to the rain and am reminded of home. This has been such a wonderful experience, but we both look forward to coming home to our loved ones. In one week we will be catching a ride to the states. I can't believe it's half over.

Saturday the 13th

Today has started out really well. We both got a good nights sleep with Jenna sleeping until about 4 am and going back to sleep after that. She had thrown up quite a bit, so mom got her cleaned up and back to bed. We woke up to some really good news, though. Theo and Nick (the other boy with hydrocephalus) will be seen by a neurologist today, so we have to get them all packed up to go. Nick has had a shunt placed before, but it has failed. I'm not sure if the plan for him is to place another shunt, or just try to get the old one working. With Theo they will see if anything can be done for him. The sad news from yesterday is that the 8 kids that we sent off to Port to be adopted have not left yet. Haiti has declared a national day of mourning (actually, I think 3 days week days total) so everything has been shut down and will not reopen until Wednesday or Thursday. The kids got on a plane last night to return to COTP, but flying over the air strip the pilot decided that it was too dark to land, so they headed back to Port au Prince. Bummer. I feel so bad for Geff especially since he is older and has so anticipated going to his family. Right away after getting up I made my way over to the baby house to give them their meds. I took a couple of them over to a play area where we got out some crayons and a coloring book and spent some time coloring. We headed back to the baby house in time for singing and prayer time. In the early afternoon mom took care of a kid who came with some sort of skin problem on his head-possibly ring worm or some other problem. She also took care of a gal with a bad ear infection. In the meantime we got Nick and Theo all ready to head to the hospital, and since Becca said they would be there for several hours, I borrowed a pair of her scrubs and decided to see if I could make myself of use in the peds earthquake area. On top of all this, the 8 kids from Port showed up. They caught a plane to come back for a few days. One of the little guys is seriously ill with vomiting and diarrhea. The little guys were pretty excited to get out of the car and see all the familiar faces of the nanny's and long term volunteers. It was pretty special, even though it's not the outcome we would have wished for. By about 2:30, after we had eaten lunch, we headed out for the hospital. It's quite the drive as I said with huge potholes and very bumpy the whole way. We were pretty nervous for our little Theo and Nick, but they didn't let out a peep. They actually seemed pretty happy like they enjoyed the ride. As soon as we stepped out of the car, all kinds of medical personnel were taking a look at them and saying "Oh good, they made it!" Everyone was expecting them. They ushered us right to where we needed to go and all the top dogs were there to talk with us about what would happen with them. What an answer to prayer this is. Here with all the earthquake victims I would have thought that they wouldn't have time to see a couple of kids from the community, but the only thing I can figure is that the hospital is so overwhelmed with doctors (I heard 30 more arrived just today) that they are twiddling their thumbs for something to do. Well, maybe it's not that bad. As I think I said on a previous post, it's actually nurses that they've been needing mostly. Anyway, back to the kids, the plan is to place a shunt in Theo tomorrow morning and probably next Tuesday for Nick. We were told that Nick had a shunt previously, but the docs said they found no sign whatsoever of a shunt, so either it had just been a temporary drain, or it failed right away and they pulled it and sent him home. We aren't real sure. He doesn't get to go to surgery for a few days because he was so dehydrated and definitely looks malnourished. Theo, on the other hand, has such a healthy little body, other than the hydrocephalus. I left almost immediately to head to the peds area and got to talk extensively to a nurse practitioner. She gave me the story on several of the kids there. One had something fall on his head, so he had surgery. Still, he isn't able to move the left side of his body and he had a seizure that morning. The mom wasn't even looking at her baby, let alone holding him, so I picked him up and showed her it was okay to hold him. The NP was concerned about her detachment to the whole thing. I was able to help out with a couple of dressing changes and we took care of some items that were donated. I also helped feed a baby for a bit and then I took some time playing connect 4 and checkers with a boy. The kids are just so bored. They really need some entertainment. Many of the kids are healthy enough to leave, but they have casts on and they don't trust them to return to get it removed. That and they worry about infection. So there are many kids who are pretty darn healthy and they have families to take them away, yet they aren't leaving because of discharge problems. A guy from jacksonville newspaper came in and took a picture of me and the kid, named Paul, playing checkers. He took down my info. so maybe I"ll show up in a newspaper in Florida. By about 7, Becca and the gang showed up with all their good news and we headed back to COTP. Apparently Brian and Larry (engineers who deal a lot with systems) were able to talk with the top dog doctor for quite awhile. He sat them down and told them about the situation down there. It is just surprising to me how we've become connected with so many important people. God has provided greatly. It's just an awful situation down here, but I know that he is sovereign and can bring about good through it all. Now I think I'll head to bed, my heart smiling. It looks like I'll be going back to the hospital tomorrow bringing Nick and Theo's medical file to the doctors and checking up on them for Becca because she won't be around tomorrow. While I'm there, I'll probably spend some more time working with the kids in the hospital and also attending a party that I was invited to. Apparently they've thrown a couple of parties for the hospital kids, which I guess are really fun, with the kids trying to dance, etc. I'm going to have to get some video of that! It's nice that they are providing some times of joy amidst all the sadness. Oh, and during this time, mom stayed back at COTP taking care of the kids here, giving them meds, etc. She even took a walk with a few people outside of the compound. She had a great evening, too.
All for now.
Sarah

Friday the 12th

Today is Friday and I can't believe that time has gone by so fast. been gone for almost a week already. I woke up this morning feeling very rested and ready to go in and see the kids. Unfortunately I definitely have a favorite. His name is Rivaldo and he has just learned to walk. When I walk in he stands up and with his balance definitely not great, he makes his way to me with a huge grin on his face. The best part about Rivaldo is his laugh. He has a low pitched little giggle and if you really get him going by tickeling him or throwing him around a bit he just screams with excitement. It'll be really hard to say bye to him. I started the morning with a shower and then got the meds ready to give the kids. The biggest challenge is giving the meds to our two kids with CP. Sometimes it seems that half of it goes dribbling down their face, and some of them are pretty important, like anti-seizure meds. Oh well. Lord, protect them. I'm so happy for them because they both have families working to adopt them. The neat thing about COTP is that all the children will leave by at least 5 years old. They are either adopted, or reunited with their families after getting more healthy and fattened up. Rebecca, a nurse who lives at COTP, had an errand that she needed to run at the hospital in Milan, so she took my mom and I along for the ride. Because we've lost so many kids we've considered seeing if we can work in that hospital, which is overrun with earth quake victims. To give you an idea of how busy they are, they are a hospital with 40 beds. They currently have around 400 patients that they are taking care of. What an experience it was to go there. We mostly just saw the peds ward, but just walking around, we saw numerous people being moved via stretcher with pins in their legs and other such things. We saw a couple of gals that we flew into cap with. They are working at the hospital. We were told that they could use us, so if things get really slow here at COTP, we may work their for a day or two. The main part of the hospital is seeing the very sick "non-earthquake" patients and then there is another area for solely earthquake victims. Walking into the peds area was heartbreaking. So many children have amputations. I think of how their life will be just living with an amputation and then to compound that, many of them are orphans or have lost many family members. And they are definitely short on workers. One little boy who is probably around 2 has no family. The brother of another patient has been caring for him. He looks to be a young teenager, but he has been holding him, loving on him, tucking him in a night and he's never even met this boy before. Everyone is just having to pitch in and help where it is needed. Another boy with pretty significant injuries was found alive under 4 dead bodies. It's just packed to the brim with patients lining the hall ways. The earthquake peds area is just a big room with matresses all over and little walkways so people can get around. I can't imagine it getting any busier, but the helicopters just keep arriving. In many ways I'd love to be of assistance there, but we've actually stayed very busy at the orphanage. WIth the hospital being so busy, they aren't seeing anybody else unless it is an emergency, so people are showing up at COTP for assistance. For example, today we helped bandage up a couple of kids that got in a dirt bike accident. One kid lost a pretty good chunk of meat off his leg, so we cleaned it up and bandaged it up real good. I'm hoping it doesn't get infected. We told him to come back so we could look at it again and change the dressing. Back to Milo-while we were there Rebecca, or Becca as most people call her, took us up to see old ruins of a castle. It was just so beautiful. It must have been glorious back when it was in use. The view is unreal and the architecture is pretty stunning-being there you forget you are in Haiti. As Becca said, if this was in Europe, people would pay big money to come and see it. After that, we headed down the hill to pick up the gal who needed the prescription and took off back to COTP. After getting back I was able to spend some time with the kids and also tried to get their prescriptions ready for tonight. Unfortunately there is no machine to dispense the medications. After getting them all ready, I ran over to the baby house to give them to the kids. Now mom and I are winding down and getting ready for bed. Jenna is sound asleep and has had an okay day. She's been eating fairly well and I almost got a smile out of her-not quite though. Mostly she's just a little blob. That sounds really bad, but she just has no expressions. She puts two of her fingers in her mouth and cries only occassionally when my mom sets her down. We'll crack her though, I'm sure. That pretty much sums up our day. It was an eye-opening experience. One that I will never forget.

Thursday the 11th

Woke up this morning a bit tired after such a long and crazy night. I got some dish soap and did my laundry in the sink. It's now hanging up drying-I hope it dries quickly! After that, I checked my e-mail and figured out what I would be doing for the morning. Jamie set my mom and I to work cleaning ears. Most of the kids don't particularly like it, some absolutely hate it, and some seem to like it. The ones who really didn't like it seemed to need it the worst, probably because they also don't like their regular daily baths and so, don't get as clean. We got through quite a few of them, but not all of them before they headed down for their naps. I spent a lot of time with a new gal named Mary, who is going to be keeping Theo tonight. She is doing such a great job with him-reading to him and really not leaving his side. We spent quite a bit of time with him and I have loved every minute of it, but we've also been doing a lot of other things throughout the day, so he gets left alone quite a bit. She said he hasn't slept much (maybe because she's been interacting with him so much) so hopefully that will mean a good night sleep tonight for them. Next came lunch, which was so good again. It's been a bit hard for them making enough, since they have no idea how many people will be eating, so there hasn't been much quantity, but that's okay. We haven't needed to supplement too much with our snack foods. After lunch we had a new admission named Jenna. I helped do the initial assessment and gave her a bath. She was very sad to leave her father, but as her mother has passed away (not sure how long ago), he needs help getting her healthy. She is 14 months and only 10 pounds. I keep thinking how many babies I've seen born her size and larger. She doesn't smile and mostly just sits there, although this evening she started picking up cereal. The nice thing is she has been eating pretty well since we got her. She will be staying with us tonight and Theo will be with another gal. She's been taking such great care of him. I just love that little guy. He breaks my heart because he is just so sweet and chances are very good that he won't be on this earth much longer. The only comfort is that he'll be with Jesus soon and you can't get any better than that. I just hate to see him hurting at times. We finished up cleaning ears in the afternoon and our cerebral palsy kids seemed to just love it. I thought we were gonna have quite the time, but they were so relaxed. In the evening we ate dinner and I handed out the meds that some of the kids are on-a task I've recently acquired.It can be quite a trick getting them to take them. I guess that's about all for today. I'm hoping for a bit more rest tonight. Hopefully Jenna will accomodate that :o). I think right now I might get ready for bed and read a little. Actually, a couple of the girls said they were going to watch some Friends episodes, so I think I'll join them. Sounds very relaxing.

Wednesday the 10th

On to Wednesday. I woke up and headed over to feed the kiddos breakfast. I spent a little time holding and loving on them. For breakfast with had waffles. Some of the crew started cleaning out the depot, but mom and I spent one on one time with the kids. We put them in the swings, in the wagon and just walked and played with them. It was fun to work on getting them smile. With some of them it's easy, with some of them its near impossible. After spending quite a bit of time we started to cleaning. This place is getting a serious work over, which is great, since there aren't a whole lot of kids. Mom cleaned some of the dining room chairs and I cleaned the fridge out. Not exactly my favorite job, but it's so rewarding because it looks so dogon good when it's done. Lunch was so good-Haitian style Mexican with homemade tortillas. I finished the fridge project and then we gave snacks to the kids and played with them a bit more. We've spent a lot of time talking with Rebecca about certain kids and their diagnosis and what might be the problem with them. It's difficult to figure out without the tools needed (blood work, etc.). There is a lot of guess work involved. We of course spent time with little Theo (our roomie) and hung out with some of the other volunteers. Six more came tonight. Let's hope some kids show up. So far it's been fine, but I can't imagine 6 more hands. Jamie has some plans for painting, which will keep us busy for a bit and we may look into volunteering at a local hospital, which is extremely short-handed on nurses. One of the volunteers who left yesterday got supplies for quiche, so we started making dinner for everyone. It was a big project, which kept getting interuppted over little things. Eventually we got it done, though. We had staff/volunteer BIble study (every wednesday) which was really good. SInce there are so many short-term volunteers it was interesting to hear what brought everyone here. We listened to a video I think called Nooma, by Rob Bell. It was really good and something we should totally look into for our small group. The video is pretty short (like 15 minutes or something) and then they provide discussion questions. It was great! I took a shower and got our beds ready. We moved rooms b/c of the new volunteers. We had such a crazy night. 3 of us had just one kid named Jerry. He slept good for 2 hours, but then woke up and did not want to go back to sleep. I finally got him to fall asleep laying on me, and after a while I got him to go back to his bed. However, after heading back to sleep it was so noisy outside. I could hear the rats outside (also in the kitchen) and the dogs were barking like crazy. I had noticed that there was a hole in my window, so I was really nervous about a rat running across me at night. Finally it sounded like there was some noise pretty close so I turned on my head lamp and sure enough, while I was looking at the window I saw a rat run into our room. I sat up and told one of the other gals here, Gina, that a rat just came in the room and went under my mom's bed (who was still sleeping). I didn't want to wake her up and freak her out, but finally I just had to. I heard one of the long term volunteers walk into the kitchen, so I ran out and told her what was going on. We poked around to find the rat and he jumped up on my bed, onto the window sill and out the hole in the window by where my head is at when I sleep. We tried to block the screens as much as possible. It took me awhile to go back to sleep because I wasn't sure if there were actually two rats and not just one. I had seen a rat twice in pretty close succession in two different places, so I couldn't be for sure. By this time it was about 4 in the morning. I did end up getting a little more sleep, so that was good. It's a night I won't soon forget. Tonight, Jamie and Jenny's dog is going to be in the house with us on rat patrol and hopefully some of the men will fix our screens so the rats can come in our room.