Da-dee's a Boy, Mommy's a Girl, Adjoa's a Girl, and Eden is Lost

So last Friday Adjoa let Eden outside to go potty. Without telling mom.

We have spent the week frantically searching for Eden. Crying almost every night. Stressed about Eden being hungry or cold. I think Adjoa has a keen sense of what it's like to be alone, without your family, hungry, and cold at night. She was really sensitive to the whole issue.

Yesterday, we were driving back {after spending a few hours looking for Eden again} and Adjoa astutely observed:

Dadee is a boy. Mommy is a girl. Adjoa is a girl. And Eden is
lost.

Never fear, the story has a happy ending.

Eden is home today - after nearly a week!

A couple days ago I made a giant sign and put it on our fence that runs along the busy street. Hoping someone would see it and call.

A friend from church saw the sign, put two and two together, and came up with Eden.

Her neighbor's house is being remodeled. The guy doing the work has a Weim. Suddenly, he had two. She asked about the other dog and he said it was a "Rescue" dog.

A day or so later, she saw our sign. She talked to him again and he said he found the dog in the neighborhood - actually, right next to our {I knew she wouldn't run away!} house. He had put a new collar on her and renamed her. He wasn't even trying to return her to her home.

A BIG thanks to our friend! We would NEVER have found Eden if she hadn't been so observant and actually asked some questions. We are so glad she took time to find out if it was our dog.

Eden is so happy to be home. Adjoa has been loving on her non-stop and of course, Eden is eating it up!

Sass-a-Frass

Sometimes Adjoa gets on a kick where she's sooooo... African. I don't know of any other way to describe it - she's a sass, for sure.

It makes me smile. It makes me want to grab her and give her a big kiss. It makes me miss Ghana. It makes me wish I had my camera.

I hope she never loses it.

Luckily, yesterday my camera was actually handy when she started getting into it. I caught the tail end.

Hope you enjoy! I'll try to get her again sometime when she's really getting into it.

What Were YOU Doing at 12:30 Last Night? Me - I Was Spying on My Child Who Was Serenading Her...Well, I Don't Know What/Who She Was Singing To.

She's a night owl, what can I say. I promise I put my child to bed at a somewhat decent hour.

Willaim: Mission Accomplished

Here's our Nurse-Mom's update on William. I know many of you are wondering about him and praying for him.

His progress is a miracle! Thank you, everyone who helped and prayed!

Take a look at what has been accomplished.

Feet have been healed. A child that I worried would never walk again doesn’t need me any more. Mission accomplished. God DID NOT forget.

Three pounds each have been added to two children who DESPERATELY needed weight. I don’t show faces, because their struggles are theirs alone to share. But, trust me, these brothers pull at my heart like NO one ever has before (and I have four, soon to be five children). Something about the way they have survived makes me love them in a different way than I have ever experienced. They will not be my children, but they are truly special. God DID NOT forget.

Three days after I got here a boy appeared that I recognized vaguely. I realized that I had his picture, but that he was now markedly skinnier. He is 12 and weighed in at 73 lbs. He told me he had “Malaria”, which is the diagnosis for any fever here. Water with re-hydration salts, a portable fan and Tylenol helped. He was up and walking around with the other boys a day later. He went to church this morning and chased the other boys around the yard afterwards. God DID NOT forget.

I have bandaged 4-5 wounds per day. Wounds like I have NEVER seen on our tender little American children. A boo-boo half the size would send our children to the ER for a tetanus shot and stitches. Here, they come to me with dirty cloth bandages. I have watched wounds close that I thought would for sure mean my introduction to a Ghanaian hospital. I prayed, and got up every two hours overnight to change bandages and rub them with antibiotic ointment. In the light of day, it looked better already. God DID NOT forget.

I have listened to lungs for signs of heart failure, and prayed that the sounds would be normal. What would I do if they weren’t? I have no clue. So far, following the child all day with water, reminding her to stay in the shade and fanning her during the heat of the day worked. A lot of hugs and praying has worked well. And, when it got the better of us, we cried together, and then sent it up to God, because He WILL NOT forget her.

I have been blessed enough to have brought everything Lucky Hill will need for their infirmary. It will be stored here in plastic until the building that is currently being constructed for it is completed. I have promised to come back then, and stock it appropriately. I have, and will continue, to work with the staff in a culturally sensitive way to discuss first aid. God WILL NOT forget the children who have yet to come here and will need the medicine that I was lucky enough to have donated to me.

God didn’t forget me either. He sent me here. I needed to be reminded that there are miracles every day, all over the world, miracles that I don’t see in my disillusioned middle class, American, subdivision. Miracles that I struggled to find until I got to Ghana and looked into the faces of these children. They are all miracles. Every.single.one has a story that will bring tears to your eyes. They aren’t wasting away in a corner crying. They were all just under the giant shade tree with me, chasing bubbles that you sent them. The biggest miracle of all occurred when I handed out granola bars today and the sassiest child of all turned around to come back to me and said “THANK YOU!” Thank you, for the important respect to my culture.

God is good. He is VERY good.

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!!!!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!