New year, new challenges.

January 20, 2017 It has been a very busy month! We started the month with sickness, seizures, hospital visits, and more than a little morning for baby Maggy whom we lost on Christmas Eve. Savanah and Alex joined our intern team and are living in the home to work as nannies, and work evenings and weekends when staff is not in the home..I had only one short week with them, but after only 1 week they seemed to be adjusting to the fast pace of the home. In addition, the Gross family arrived a week before I left, leaving us with a very full home of 12 kids in the home, 4 fulp kids living at home, 4 interns, 2 parents, and 4 Grosses.

Savana (far left) and Alex (4th from the left) our new interns
Madison Gross (far right)

The Grosses put an offer in on a home large enough to house the next group home, Hogar de la Fe, although they still await a response. This property is large enough to house the home, and the ministry supplies which are currently in another building because there is no room in Hogar de la Esperanza. Please be praying for them as they continue into their cross cultural immersion, language classes, and house hunting. Further, my last week in the home was also the week that one of my home churches, Pleasant View Missionary Church sent a team of 5 ladies to minister to children with special needs in a variety of venues. Among them were my sister, one of my best friends, and three women for whom I have had much respect over the years. They were a blessing to us, and they got to experience several aspects of our ministry including time in the grouphome, in a local hospital/long term care facility for individuals with special needs, in the homes of specific families in Escuintla, and at a feeding program in the community around the Escuintla dump.

Deborah and Alison

Gloria and Edy

It was incredible to share our lives with them. On Wednesday, half of the team went out with Daryl and Mr. Gross to check in on some families, and help in specific situations with families who we do not see monthly. The other part of the team came with me and our team to Sipacate, and La Gomera to visit our montly sponsored children who receive food, medicine, or other monthly help. Like our team, we were once again blown away by the generosity, and love shown by these families who have become quite precious to us. In Daryl’s group, they met a new family, and were offered a live chicken by the mother. After quietly speaking with her, it was determined that they actually did not have enough food for the family. This woman was so gracious as to offer precious food to people she had just met when she did not even have enough food for her own family. God provides. She, who was so generous as to share all she had, instead received food from a source she had not expected, just when she needed it the most. Praise God! In our group, I explained to some families that I would be leaving for the states, but only for a matter of months. I was shocked at the responses I got, and the love shown to me. But you see, our monthly visits are not about giving material supplies to people. They are about building a relationship which can be used to show Christ’s love. Month after month we visit these families. Month after month we ask about their lives, and struggles. We listen and love them. And every month we pray for them. They have become very dear to us. It is not about the supplies. And so it should not have surprised me how our families responded when I said I was leaving for a time. There were hugs and kind words, and sentiments of safe travel and quick return. I was struck yet again at how incredible our families are.

Alicia

Manuel

Deborah and Christy's first coconut milk,
here only about 70 cents each

While we visited the home of Hector, a young man with cerebral palsy whom we visit every month, I started talking with his sisters who always greet me by name are are excited to talk with me, even though my Spanish is still not very good. They help me find words I am looking for, and they were happy to meet my sister and friend who traveled with us that day. When they learned that back in my home, Ohio, there were no banana trees, and nothing was growing now because of the snow, they ran off beckoning for me to follow. Their yard is full of banana trees, and they wanted to send me and my friends along with a few dozen bananas for the trip home. I love these girls so much! So after a very busy last week, I joined the team in flying home. For once, this trip was quiet and uneventful, a nice break from my slowly growing airport mishap stories! After a long break, I got to see my parents again, and my siblings and nephew. I am in Dayton, close to WSU campus for the class I can’t get online, but sadly I have had a number of issues meeting some of my other objectives here. I am waiting for a current TB test before I start shadowing a wound care specialist near Troy, and I am very grateful for a great many nurse friends who helped me make the necessary connections to gain this experience. We have a great many wounds in our rural areas, and few resources so this experience is necessary.

In the time that I have been in Ohio, I find it harder than ever to feel at home. I very much feel like I don’t quite fit here anymore. There are the little things like getting food frozen, or from a can instead of fresh, and using minute rice instead of regular. But then there are the habitual things like flushing the paper, checking my shoes for spiders, wanting to thank cashiers in Spanish, and waking up without bright sunlight through the windows and skylights (which does not fully light a room even midday). All of these are small, and really not a big deal. But talking with people is different. People talk about things that do not hold significance to me anymore. On my campus the young adults talk rudely about professors, parents, and boyfriends. They talk about clothes, new make up devices, and the latest iphones. But even off campus, most conversations lean into things I can’t relate to. It is certainly a challenge both to be here in this culture, and to be away from my friends and family in Guatemala. I love this place where I grew up, but it does not feel the same as it used to. But I take great solace in talking with my family, all of whom are supportive of my life in Guatemala. Those who have not been out of the country for ministry, still understand better than most. It is great to visit with friends and family, and I know God has a purpose for this time.

Cesar in our home

Alejandra in our home

Alison and Edy from our home

Since I have been home, the group home accepted a 17 day old baby with renal failure, although the courts later assigned her to another home. We have since learned that they cannot take her because she has a colostomy, and is on dialysis. To my knowledge, they have not asked our home again to take her. From the sound of it, she should be in a hospital, although there may not be a hospital safe enough for her in the national hospital system. Please pray for this precious baby.

Gifts on Loan

December 16, 2016 Today Giovanni, Raquel and Esther all came to visit with their families. The twins have been living with their new family for a year now, and Gio for 6 months. This is the first time I had seen Gio, and my second seeing the girls since they were adopted. It was incredible to see them again. At first Gio was a little overwhelmed, but by the time Esther and Raquelle arrived, all three were soon running around squealing like the old days! It was amazing to see just how much they had all grown. Gio is now 4, and the twins 5. Gio is speaking now more than before, and using a lot more English. Esther and Raquel speak in articulated sentences now. All three have grown so much physically, and developmentally. Praise God for such incredible families who now love our children. Both are amazing families who truly love these children. Praise God for forever families! Now it seems natural to watch them run to their mothers’ with arms outstretched, confident in the comfort and support they will find there.

December 19, 2016 And just like that your life can change! God calls us to faith. A faith that can change the entire landscape of our lives instantly, and trust that it is in his hands.

Today the call was for a three month old girl with microcephaly. We said yes. This is scarey because she may be very fragile, and we are already struggling with a very fragile little Edy. We probably won’t know any detail about her, not even her name, until she arrives. Oh, and did I mention she arrives today?!?

December 23, 2016

Her name is Margareth, and she surely did give us a scare. We were told she had microcephaly. She does not. She does have a history of seizures, and as we learned later, a significant heart defect that will require open heart surgery, and she arrived with pneumonia. Margareth came from a national hospital in Guatemala city. The national hospital system is… not good. She should never have been discharged.

When she arrived, we checked her from head to toe, and knew that something was very wrong. She lacked a lot of reflexes normal for babies. Her arms and legs hung limp when we moved her for her shower. She had a soft cough that we were told was normal for her. She was very pale, and all but unresponsive. Also, she did not cry. We thought she must have some significant brain damage, or neurological issues. But we did not know anything about her except what the courts had told us, which we couldn’t trust because she clearly does not have microcephaly, and clearly did have some other issues. We lacked any form of baseline for how she should look and act. That is why we didn’t realize that as frail as she was, it was due to an acute sickness, and not chronic like in a neurological illness. Wanda stayed with her the first night, and I left early for distributions and family visits in Guastatoya. At 4:45 when I left, she was sleeping, but not well.

While we were beginning our visits with the families in Guastatoya, we got a call that Margareth had stopped breathing, and Daryl had done CPR for over 5 minutes to get her back. The bomberos, or ambulance drivers, had not answered when they called, so they drover her into a private hospital in Antigua where we take our kids because they are private and worlds better than any national hospital. Here they discovered her pneumonia, and here I sit with her as she received IV antibiotics. The national hospital in Guatemala city had discharged a gravely ill baby girl who stopped breathing less than a day after she left. Less than 12 hours after she was in our home, she is now back in the hospital. The children in our home never got to meet her since she was there so briefly overnight.

Hospitals here are a bit different. Our three month old is in an sized adult room, and one of us stays with her all through the day and night. She sure is tiny sleeping in that giant bed. And the Spanish… that’s a bit tough for me at least. I can communicate now, but sometimes I bumble over my words and take a long time to say what I want to be said.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve, so we hope and pray she can leave with us tomorrow, after 4 days in the hospital. We have two medical professionals living in the home who know how to care for critically ill children. We have experienced family members who have cared for very fragile children. We have oxygen for the ride, and at the home. We have medical equipment; a suction machine, oxygen and supplies, a nebulizer for aerosol medications, IV equipment, syringes, formula, medications, and so on. Our doctor lives two blocks away, and is on-call. With all this in mind, the doctor said that if all goes well, she may be discharged tomorrow, but continuing her IV antibiotic regimens, and after training us how to administer it, which will go well because have administered many IV medications, and Daryl has experience and previous training with IV fluids as well. Our staff is off over Christmas, and we are a little short handed with one of us at the hospital at all times. Further, we truly desire a Christmas together as a family, so we pray she is strong enough to come home. She is still very sick however.

December 24, 2016 Maggy came home from the hospital today. And later she went home to Jesus as well. Next to her bed we set up our oxygen generator, suction machine, and equipment for her IV medications. Truly, we had everything set up that was on hand in her hospital room, and a few extra things.

Being Christmas Eve, we had family activities set up, and after the kids went down we would watch the nativity story together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Wanda sat down to feed her her bottle. But as the movie started, Edy stopped breathing. After a long episode, he began breathing again on his own. But at that point we learned that in the excitement, Maggy also had stopped breathing. We carried her to her bed in the corner where all our equipment was, and Daryl began giving her rescue breaths. Soon later, we had to begin CPR. We worked so hard. But after a little over half an hour, we lost her. She was so very weak.

Our doctor, who had not yet had a chance to meet her, shared with us that there really was not anything we could have done. He learned from her files that she had 7 serious life threatening illnesses, and would never have been strong enough for the heart surgery she needed. In some ways, knowing this helped, and at least she was not suffering anymore. But then floods in the anger. The national hospital had discharged her knowing this. Which means they were either extremely negligent, or intentionally sent her away so they would not have to deal with it over Christmas. In either case, it is hard not to be livid.

But we know that this was truly God’s design because if they had not discharged her, she would have died alone in the hospital instead of surrounded by her family who loved her.

We are all so raw right now.

December 25, 2016 Today we started our Christmas day by burying a tiny baby.

I can’t quite put words to it.

We fought so hard to keep her. But God wanted to give her the greatest joy in spending Christmas with him.

So we are mourning the loss of a baby, while celebrating the birth of another baby. And it is through the death of this baby Jesus that we have hope for the future life of our baby Maggy. And therein lies our comfort.

Despite our hurting hearts we wanted to celebrate the life of Christ through Christmas celebrations. There have been lots of tears and lots of laughs today.

December 28, 2016 The day we accepted baby maggy into our home, we got a call about another girl. This one was three years old, and all we were told was that she could not move her hands or feet, and could not talk. We had to say no because we were full before we accepted baby Maggy. They begged us to take her, and said that they had heard that our home was the best home for girls like her. After we said no, they asked us to please call them if anything changed. Well, something has changed. We were not going to accept a 13th child, but God opened our hearts to Maggy. We had just figured out how to adjust everything to accept one more little girl, and now there is one waiting.

This is hard because we are very much still mourning a tiny little baby. Daryl asked for more information. Her name is Genisis, and from her story she sounds like she could use a loving home for her emotional needs, as well as a specialized home for her significant physical needs. We have decided to move forward and accept her into the home.

Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to receive another little girl, and as we continue to work through the torment of emotions left with us after Maggys death.

Praise God that there is a place for Genisis. We serve a God who has a place in His heart for all these precious children.

January 5, 2017

Well, the new year sure started out rocky. We welcomed the new year with behavioral issues in a number of the kids, diarrhea, runny noses, and respiratory infections for all, and a grand mal seizure from Yenny. Most distressingly, Edy, who had been struggling with a respiratory infection, and on oxygen while receiving antibiotic injections, was declining and we decided to take him to the hospital. We took turns with him, and the majority of the time he was simply miserable and could not be consoled. Praise God, he came home again yesterday, and is happy and relaxed. Through our short time with Maggy, and the reminder that our days with Edy are limited, I have been reminded that each of our children are gifts to us on loan. They are really never ours, only a brief gift on loan to love on and hold until God takes them back. So we cherish each day they are lent to us, and praise God for these precious gifts.

Today we are receiving two new interns, Alex, and Savana. They will be helping in the home through May, which will help cover my absence while I am away.

This week we are also receiving the Gross family, who are moving here to open our second group home. And on Sunday, a team from my home church is coming. With them will come my sister, so suffice it to day I am eager for their arrival. Sadly however, I will be leaving for the states when they leave in less than 2 weeks.

As I mentioned previously, I will be fulfilling my commitment to finish my BSN. While I am there however, I have made arrangements to follow a wound care specialist in a health center nearby. I will also have some needed time with my family. This is quite challenging however because I will be away from the kids, and the ministry for a few months. It’s hard to think of the kids growing and developing while I am gond. It’s harder still to understand that some of the kids may not be here when I come back. I surely love these kids, and this family I now have. I thank God for giving me such a family while I am here.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support. I will continue to send updates while stateside, however they may be fewer and shorter.

~Katie~ --after His heart--