Winner was so sick. Literally, I was carrying around a feverish rag doll who did not smile, talk, laugh or play. She slept (and only with me within .5 inches of her), cried, ate a little, and was basically just limp in my arms for hours on end. It was awful. I never knew how you would know if someone had a fever, but with her, it was like carrying around (or sleeping with) a 103 degree heater. It's already hot here, so of course that made me even more miserable, but the truth is, it was scary to have a sick kid and be thousands of miles from home (and from my husband, who can always bring order to difficult situations). She was obviously sick the first day, but the second day was bad. I debated about what to do. Taking her to a hospital could have been worse because a hospital in Africa is full of people much sicker than she was and how many hours would we sit around waiting for non-westernized medical care? Do I find a doctor to come to us (they make house calls here)? Just go buy more medicine? Was it Malaria? Do I fight to try and go home? Betsy to the rescue! I sat around and cried and she figured it out. Another family here was bringing in a doctor for their daughter and she asked if that doctor would see us. He was supposed to come "before noon" and then it was "this afternoon", but he eventually showed up. He was amazing! I'm still kind of wondering if he and his wife were actually angels. He didn't charge us a cent. Came into my room, examined Winner and gave us some medicine. More than anything, just having a professional look at her brought peace.
Not minutes after he left, it was like I had a new kid (especially since the one I had didn't have much of a personality). She was laughing and talking, smiling and playing and crying because her brother wouldn't share. I'll take that over crying because she's sick any day. I'm not kidding, for the first two days, the kid said nothing and did nothing but be sick. Awful.
Of course, while Winner is languishing away, I still had to take care of Malco. He is such a good boy and easily entertained, but he needed my attention, too. So while Winner was sleeping, we took to the iPad. He loves it, but it's a bad idea to give a kid who has hardly had any kind of stimulation an electronic device like an iPad. I'm not a fan of kids with electronics, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He mostly figured it out, but then would be frustrated by something he couldn't do. He kept saying "Dora". Like he wanted a Dora game or movie and I didn't have one and couldn't find one on iTunes. Anyway, I was trying to download a game for him and he kept trying to play it while it was downloading, which just slowed the download down. I said, several times, "don't touch that now." (He really does understand A LOT of English, but speaks only a little). And finally, I had to take it away. Tears followed-for both of us. He hasn't cried or been upset the whole time, so it was super upsetting to me that I made him cry. I just held him and talked about how hard and confusing this must all be for him. After he settled, I gave him two choices of what to do- cars or books. He chose cars and it was fine. But I went into the other room and cried hysterically. I honestly felt like I have finally done it, I've ruined my life forever. Why did I want kids? What was I thinking? Here I am on the other side of the world, all alone taking care of two kids and now here we go, this is my life with no end in sight. It was a horrible feeling. I'm sure I was feeling a little sorry for myself, but honestly, I was really scared that I had ruined my life. Don't worry, don't worry the feeling passed. I love these kids so much! It's hard to start out parenthood a. in Africa, b. without my spouse c. with a sick kid and d. with kids who don't speak English.
Yesterday ended fine and we all got some sleep last night! (I still had to share the bed with a small child who takes up more space than my husband ever does, but I slept and so did she!)
Praise GOD for these miracles:
-the adoptive families here at St. Annes
-Betsy!
-the angel Doctor and his sweet wife
-an adoptive family whose wife is an RN and was willing to be the bad guy and make Winner take her medicine (we didn't have to resort to that, but we thought we might need to!)
-being able to Skype with Andy and having him say, "Hi Malco, how are you?" and Malco saying (every time) "I'mfinethankyouandyou?"
-another day done and closer to home!
Please continue to pray for our exit letter. Getting it early would be amazing! Pray for us to sleep, especially me! and pray for Andy who is far from us and probably really missing this time.
We'll be home soon, friends and I can't wait until you get to see the African treasures I bring back!
1 comment:
Just want to testify:
1. It ain't easy.
2. Those were angel doctors and let us not forget that late that night they delivered the one medicine we were missing.
3. These two kids get 2 awesome parents
- Betsy the Auntie
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