Oh baby baby, Oh baby baby

Just spent the night chillin with our little baby Annelies took in this week. You know how that goes...

This three month old came to us in the arms of family who told us the mother had died the month before and therefore, they did not have milk for him. We had seen them maybe two weeks earlier and had given them some milk to make at home for him. However, this time around, he did not look good. We decided to keep the baby in the hospital with a young aunt where we could watch him take the milk and just observe how things go. The whole thing was a little dramatic as the family didn't want to stay and there were just a lot of personality quirks flying around. The story got more interesting the next day when the mom showed up at the clinic, apparently raised from the dead. The honesty of Haitians never ceases to shock me.

The mom was obviously ill. It was no shock to us when her HIV test was positive. The story was starting to make a little more sense; not complete sense but a small start nonetheless. And so, mom and baby to stay with us in the hospital for a while. They were among the group Annelies and Esther took on a very tiring "field trip" to LaPointe on Monday for the HIV program there. Everyone was tested and started on appropriate medicines but as for our baby boy, we'll have to wait and see since he is too young for the testing they have at LaPointe.

The next day Annelies decided to take the baby just for the day to watch him and also because he has started to vomit the milk and wasn't looking so great. Plus the pediatrician said he needs very small, very frequent feedings as his stomach cannot handle more. He's pale and still having frequent fevers and is just smaller than a peanut really. I will be shocked if he is negative for HIV. And so, as it goes with every baby that comes to our house, he has started sleeping with us and yes, has a tube. Not because we love doing this so much, but because it was starting to look necessary as over the course of the next few days he vomited every ounce of milk he drank, started to cough and gag on what we think is just severe reflux, and was getting dehydrated. So down went the tube. This was all spearheaded by Annelies and Sara as I'm sorry to say I drag my heals on bringing babies home. But after a few sleepless nights for Sara and Annelies, I was feeling brave and ready to go head on with the baby for the night. And I must say we had a nice party that involved eating a whole pot of popcorn (me) and watching Pride and Prejudice (me and sleeping baby) at 2 o'clock in the morning while he got to drink milk through his tube every hour. Not so bad and even better when there are enough nurses here you can sleep in the morning while the others do rounds at the hospital.

In other news, sadly, we lost a patient yesterday morning who was HIV positive but died because of a severe anemia. This one was hard to swallow because we missed our chance to bring her to LaPointe for a blood transfusion, where that is actually possible. It's hard not to feel guilty about this. She was a scared and was suffering. We sat with her the night before, just to be with her, praying some, as we knew the end was near.

In other odd news, there is a German news team here making a small documentary feature on Michael and Esther's work here. Yeah...just a little odd to see camaras, lights, and all in Passe Catabois!

Pray for us this week. We have a new team here from California who is working on building a church in Vion, but I mostly need prayer because Sara is leaving to go home for two weeks on Monday. I don't know what I will do without my friend who I have been with for 24 hours a day for 3 months! I might go into Sara withdrawals.