SugarHouse Mama

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who helped and donated supplies and money for William. I received an email from our Nurse/Mom, and we now have 3 months' worth of supplies for him! We were hoping for 6 weeks, but you all amazed us!

This means William will have enough supplies to last several months, even if something happens and Becky can't return as soon as she is expecting.

Here's the email:


I have an update for everyone...I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED FOR WILLIAM!!!

All the gauze, all the Telfa, all the Kerlix, all the antibiotic ointment. I have it all. I even have extra coming today. I'm counting donations that I don't have in my possession yet, but I know they're on their way. I'm set. And, the best part is, that's three months worth. I'm just taking it all with me right now, in case there is some sort of emergency that prevents me from going back.

When I originally asked for donations, I asked for 6 weeks, knowing I would need at
least 12 weeks worth of bandages. People just kept sending things. So, I recounted, and we were so close to everything that we needed, that I just decided to ask my church for help. Their donations, plus the donation from the person who would prefer to remain anonymous has REALLY helped. Amazing.

YOU DID IT!!!! In a "recession:", with the economy so bad, everyone still donated a ton to help. We even had a little extra money. I bought 4 cases of nutrition. Well,
I bought 3 and the lady at Nestle's Health Nutrition line included a fourth case. That stuff is SO expensive. But, it will mix into stew SO well, they won't even know it's there. And, it adds 300 calories of protein to each meal. Amazing.

I plan to save the extra funds, see what is REALLY needed and then when I go back, I'll just bring it with me. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! AND, THANK YOU!!!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

I Am So Blessed to be a Part of Luckyhill

As the donations and supplies come rolling in for little William, a prayer of thanksgiving enters my heart.

I am so thankful our little one is safe and healthy, for sure. But I am so incredibly grateful for all the generous souls who have donated. We have many people who have donated time, money, and supplies for William. It is awesome, and truly inspiring.

It really restores your faith in humanity when you see a child in need, and are able to experience the rallying forces that gather around him.

I learned one thing for certain: it doesn't matter how much (or how little) you give, but it does make a difference that you gave. Even little donations and efforts make a difference, and when you combine everyone, it is humbling.

Our wonderful nurse/mom who is going to Ghana to care for William will be leaving on the 28th. She will be there for about 10 days. Her plan is to return in a few months to check up on him and make sure his skin is healing properly, etc.

So if you'd like to join in, there is plenty of time. You still have a few days to make this first trip. If we receive your donation after she has gone, we will save it for her second trip.

Thank you to everyone! We have almost reached our goal!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Update - Bandages Needed!

Hey everyone. First of all, thanks to everyone who has helped little William. The generosity people have for each other never ceases to amaze me.

I got an email from our Nurse-Mom who is going to Ghana to care for William. Here's the update on what is still needed. Again, if we all pull together we can make sure this boy doesn't lose his legs (due to infection) and that he will be able to walk. I know it's super-cheesy for me to even say this, but we can be the family he doesn't have.

If you'd like to order supplies and have them shipped directly to Becky, leave me a comment or email me and I'll send you her address.

Here's the update from Becky:

Hi all,

I've had emails pouring in about toys, tube socks and medicine for William. Lois had someone email and offer a huge supply of protein powder for free, that they already had. Praise God! We just need to figure out how to get it there, since it is a white powder. And, well, large amounts of white powder probably look a little suspicious in my checked luggage. Any suggestions?

My main concern now is the actual wound supplies. I know people have been donating money. That is SO great! We'll use anything we get to buy the cases of supplies we need. Lois should be calling me to update me about how much money we have.

Please encourage more donations! If people are uncomfortable donating money, please tell them to order the Kerlix and Telfa pads that Jessica has linked on her blog, some can be purchased for as little as $1.00. They can send them directly to my house. I can't even begin to explain how many bandages he is going to need for me to really make some progress with those wounds. Any extra money that is donated will be put toward buying him extra food to fatten him up! I'm SO overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. God is moving people to help his little boy that is on the other side of the globe. That is a true miracle.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Update on Little William

One of our wonderful adoptive mothers is a nurse. She is taking time off and leaving her family for 10 days to go and care for William. She will teach those at Luckyhill how to properly care for his feet.

She sent the following email regarding the supplies she will need to gather to take with her. She is leaving in two weeks, so if you can, please find time to help this week. If you would like to contribute money to help buy supplies, please send a check made out to Luckyhill to :
LUCKYHILL
C/O LOIS MARTINO
3220 East Horse Thief Dr.
Heber City, UT
84032.
If you would rather send supplies, please read the information Becky provided and leave me a comment with your email address ad what you are going to send. I'll send you her address so you can ship supplies directly to her.

Thank you all so much! With all our efforts, we can save this poor boy, and hopefully he will not lose the ability to walk!

Here's the email from our Nurse-Mom:

I think everyone should just send money to Lucky Hill. Then, I'll have Lois or Jessica purchase the supplies with my address as the 'ship to' address. We'll purchase them in about a week to be ready to go.

I just feel like if people think they're donating to an individual, rather than a foundation, they'll be a little wary. And, if extra donations come in, beyond the $$$ we actually need now, Lois can save it for when I go back again to buy round two of supplies.

I did send the links for the two kinds of bandages we need to Lois. I'll post them here too. They're very common. You could even find them at your local pharmacy, so if people wanted to donate actual bandages, please ship them to me.

This would be the bandage that I would wrap his feet in. He'll probably use almost a roll for each foot...daily. So, I'll need almost a case of them to get them through the next six weeks. Then, I'll take another case with me when I go back, if he needs them. I'm hoping that after 6 weeks, he'll be to the point that we can use less and just wrap them a little more loosely so he can go and play. I'm not picky about the size, I just picked a larger size so that it would mean less wrapping. Wider is better. It HAS to be non-stretch though. It can't use an ace bandage, the pressure will affect the fragile healing skin. I also need to be able to just throw it away. I'll just go with whatever I've got.

This is what I'll be actually putting on the burns after I put on the antibiotic ointment, before I wrap them. I know eventually we'll need a full case of them, but we should just see how many individual boxes we can get donated right now. At $11.95/box, that would be any easy thing to donate.

I have three tubes of antibiotic ointment donated right now (with the promise of three more). I also had someone donate 6 boxes of gloves already last night, so I think we're set. I'm just going to use gentle dial soap to clean the burns. There is Silver Sulfadine cream that someone mentioned, but I'm going to stick to over the counter supplies right now. If he has an allergy, I just don't want anything to happen. I would feel terrible, if I actually made things worse.

I'm going to REALLY try to get him a Tetanus shot, or to find out if he has had one. I hope so. I'll ask about antibiotics too when we get to the clinic, and pain medication, because I absolutely can't take those with me. I have some open toed plastic slippers with rubber soles for William to wear. I have NO idea how weak he is (he looks very weak), but I would love to see him able to at least stand on his feet by the time I leave. If he has slippers, we'll be able to gently slide them onto his feet over the large bandages to get him up in a standing position.

I would like to cover the bandages with some large tube socks before we do that. And, after he heals his skin will be SO sensitive to the sun (if it gets to much sun exposure, it will be very damaged). He needs socks. I'm sure this will be weird for him, but for a while, we'll need to adapt. So, we need large tube socks. They'll keep the dust off the bandages too.

I know everyone is doing a really great job at Lucky Hill, but we need the bandages to look a lot cleaner than they do in the pics. Hopefully, just changing them everyday will fix that.

We'll also need nutrition donated. I'm looking for some sort of powder that is tasty that will add a TON of calories to the water he needs to drink. He needs complex carbs AND more fluids. I'm sure they're doing the best they can, but if he had someone sitting with him all day to remind him to drink, he would hopefully look a little more perky. And, that will really help the healing process. His body is using all the calories its taking in right now to try to heal the wounds, that's why he looks so thin. He's being fed, it's just not enough. He probably doesn't "feel" like eating either. Even burn patients in the U.S. have to double their calorie intake to promote healing.

There are a couple of praise God's here:
1. I'm so glad these burns aren't on the bottom of his feet. We actually have a possibility of getting him up to shuffle a little so that his body remembers how to walk.

2. The burns don't look infected to me yet. It's hard to tell because of the purple, but they actually look ok for now.

3. They're not over a major joint, like a knee, where we would have to worry about the skin scarring down. There is a little spot on his ankles, but they're more to the side. It really is a better situation than I imagined!

Please continue to pray, pray, pray that we can hold off infection. That is what I'm most concerned about. Also, and this is MUCH less of a priority than bandages (so maybe us Lucky Hill folks can work on it), I would like to bring him something to do while he lays in bed. Coloring books, crayons, books that I can read to him, workbooks with puzzles that we can do. He's just lying there, that would never happen here.

As a RN on a peds floor, I used to spend ALL my spare time playing with the kids. Here, he would have a boatload of toys, movies, food, books, all for him to have any time he asked. I'm worried about his little spirit too. He's probably SO depressed. If I can give him a few little things to make him feel special, and put the spark back in his eyes, that will help him heal too.

He deserves some treats (not food), but some things to really cheer him up when he starts to feel "down", which is common for kids. They feel sad one minute, they cry, and then if you redirect them they feel alright again. I just want to have things to make him feel better. If he feels like he has a few bright spots (like new toys) with this whole ordeal, he might feel a little less blue overall. I don't have a 9-year-old, so anything anyone isn't using would be great!

Again, I obviously, need the bandages MUCH more, but if you have things that you're kids aren't using, I'll take those too. No stuffed animals please. Thanks so much! I'm awed and humbled by the mountains God is moving to help heal this little guy.

Monday, April 13, 2009

A Desperate Plea for a Desperate Child

I don't have much to say. I'm speechless, actually. I just received the following email from Kingsley - he runs the orphanage Adjoa came from:

Hello,

This is the photos of William, He was burnt some few weeks ago, and his condition is very critical, he can not walk or place feets on the ground. I have sent him to the hospital but still there's no improvement.

Kingsley.



His name is William. He has a younger sister, Pacience, who lives at Luckyhill. He was running and playing, and ran into a field where grass had been burning. Obviously, the fire was still smouldering.

They ran out of pain medication, and can only afford to change the bandages every 3 days. If you can spare anything, please click here and donate to Luckyhill through paypal so this child can receive proper medical care. He's about 9 years old.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy First Easter!

Ok, so you can totally hear my sick-voice and a cough here and there. Sorry about that.

I also have to apologize for the lengthy vids. They are the sort of thing that are only interesting to grandmas and grandpas who are far away and couldn't be a part of Adjoa's first Easter.

Consider yourself warned.


Opening Easter Presents

Easter Egg Hunt



And finally, here's a cute pic of Adjoa all ready to go to church Easter Sunday.

Thanks for the darling Easter dress, Nana! Adjoa loves it!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Do Re Mi

I would give my right eye to have been in Antwerp at this moment. I've watched this a couple times today and it brings a smile every time.

Enjoy.



I particularly love the bystanders who join in. I like to think I would have been one of them....

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Black Babies: Hollywood's Hottest Accessory?

ABC has a great story on transracial adoption today. It's a spinoff of Anderson Cooper's interview last night with various adoption folk about Madonna's recent Malawi adoption.

For me, I don't really care that many Hollywood stars choose to adopt transracially. It wasn't something that influenced our decision at all. Well, I suppose I did hope that with the recent buzz about Hollywood adoption, it would sort-of make it more mainstream.

Mostly, it's funny that it's getting all this attention that is tied to Angelina Jolie and Madonna. There are TONS of Hollywood folk who have adopted throughout the years.

Anyway, ABC doesn't offer a easy share with blogger, so you'll have to click on over if you want to read the whole article. They bring up some great issues regarding transracial adoption. There are some points that might surprise you - like in looking at the adoption trends, it doesn't appear that Hollywood really impacted the overall adoption trends. African American children still lag far behind white children in American foster-care adoption.

I thought that was interesting.