Baby Boy Baby Boy Baby Boy

So much has been happening in the last 3 days I don't know where to begin. Sunday afternoon at about 4:30 brought us a brand new(3 hours old) little boy who we named Micah. His mom is very anemic and somehow managed to WALK, yes WALK down here with her baby and her mom(who works for us) before heading to the hospital to get much sicker. She asked us to take care of her boy until she is better, and as she was so obviously sick and unable to breastfeed, we took him in. We have not heard much about Micah's mother yet, but Micah is doing great!! He weighed in on arrival at 3.8kg and seems so huge in his health!

Then, Monday mornin, my friend Melissa and I hopped in the truck at 7:30 to go and buy some hair as she was planning to get her hair put in extensions that day. As we headed up the hill we saw an lady carrying a baby walking with an old man, and as we approached them, they stopped to look at us quizically and then we passed them. I said to Melissa, "I wonder if they are headed our way?", as the time they spent looking at us was more than the usual stares us white girls driving a truck usually get!

When we arrived at our gate just before 8:00, there they were! I drove the truck in the yard and went to see what was happening. My first glimpse of the baby shocked me, as I was not at all extecting to see a completely listless baby with no blood flow to his hands, feet, eyes or mouth as all of these areas were completely white! I told them to follow me quickly and left them in the porch and ran upstairs and said "I found a baby for you and he needs some oxygen or something really bad! And I'm not kidding!!!"(there are a lot of practical jokes that get played at this house!) Melinda came downstairs and took one look at the baby, who we learned was named Carlos,and whom I lovingly refer to as Calliou, and she said to the family that she would do what she could, but she could not guarantee that he would make it. They looked a little shocked, but then nodded in agreement that Melinda could take him and do what she could. We immediatly started him on oxygen, but he was so dehydrated that we could not find a vein. Melinda tried over and over to get an IV in him, but could not, and resorted to using clysis (inserting fluid under the skin close to the spine) to hydrate him . After 10 hours she finally found a vein that didn't blow, and we were able to give him a blood transfusion. His family told us he was 8 months old, but as he has gotten stronger we can see that he is more like 18 months, as he tries to hum songs, and is very particular about how he plays with his hands and such. Yes, he is alive and geting well, twiddling his thumbs and all!! It has been amazing to see his toe and fingernails turn pink again and watch him literally come alive. He still has a long way to go, but he has come an amazingly long way the last 48 hours!!

Carlos was/is severly anemic and was desperate for blood. His is the foot on top compared with a healthy baby his age

This is Carlos "Calliou". The "pudginess" that you see is all water collecting in his cells as his body is unable to circulate it properly.


That same morning, at about 11:00 one of our workers came up the stairs and said that there was another baby on the back porch. I didn't believe her at first, as 2 had already come in less than 24 hours, but sure enough there Stevenson was. Tears flooded my eyes at my first sight of him, and Pat had a hard time keeping her tears under control as well. This little boy looked like an old old frail man, his body covered in dead skin, sores covering his head and his skin literally folding over on itself there was so much extra. We took him upstairs and Melinda was able to get an IV started in him quickly. Pat and I washed him up and while she and Melinda fought with Carlos to get him stable, I sat and fed Steevenson a bottle of which he drank about 1oz before he was unable to suck anymore. When Carlos was somewhat stable for a while, Melinda cleaned Steevenson up the rest of the way, and shaved his head and removed all the dead skin that she could. 4 hours after wrapping his head he looked a lot better, though he is by far the most pitiful baby I have seen since being in Haiti. He is 16 months old and weighs just over 9lbs....the same weight he was at one month old. Over the past few days we found out a lot about what has happend to Steevenson, and it's so terrible it hasn't really set in as reality for us yet. His mother left him with his father and at some point some woman did something that they believe cursed the child, and when Steevenson began to get sick his father took him to the doctor who was unable to get him well. Then out of desperation and superstition, he was taken to the witch doctor, and after his father realized the witch doctor could not help him, Steevenson's father brought him to us. We are not sure all of what the witch doctor did, but he is passing some very odd stools, and the hair all over his body has been singed off, and it is quite likely the same heat that did that also damaged his skin integrity even more than it was damaged due to malnutrition. At this point Steevenson is holding on, though he cannot maintain a temperature and just moans pitifully for hours on end.

Steevnson:after his bath we still could not see what was sores and what was dead skin. Notice the unhealthy light pink color(it should be much darker) of his tongue

After getting more dead skin scraped off and his head shaved and wrapped

It has been very surreal to be seeing the very things that you know exist and happen but don't really understand. Lots of feeling have been coursing through me. Anger, fear, resentment, pity, frusteration, and an all over inability to understand WHY these things have to happen before these children come to us. I've been reminded over and over of how Satan come only to steal, kill and destroy and how so many people are missing out on the abundant(though they still may be poor) life that they can have in Jesus. It's so blatant here!

Please continue to pray for all three of these new little ones in our house, as well as for the rest of the staff and children as these very involved cases affect the workings of the house!

On another note, my mom and some good friends arrived on Tuesday to spend the week painting and tiling and helping out and getting to be a part of what I am doing here in Haiti. I am so excited that they are experiencing what I love so very much, even when things are so sad and frusterating!