Kids, kids and more kids!!

Hello my friends and family, what an adventure life is! I apologize that my updates have been few and far between! I know that all of you are eager to know how to pray specifically, and I am going to try to be better at equipping my fellow prayer warriors over this last month. Our cup here at Serving His Children is always full, and so is our dinner table! In the past few weeks we’ve had kids in and out of the house with different ailments that range from infected cuts and fungal infections to Typhoid and TB as well as severe malnutrition. To learn more about what has been going on here in the past few weeks you can read Renee’s blog; http://www.servinghischildreninuganda.blogspot.com/. How I wish I could recount all of the precious details of each child who has come through our doors and into our hearts, but with so many babies in the house it is impossible to spend that much time at the computer! I will just give a brief description of what the Lord has been doing with some specific children recently so that you can worship along with us in thanksgiving over all of the ways He’s been showing His face!

Meet Selah Grace. Praise the LORD for His gracious character and His sweet loving-kindness! Her name is a reflection of what our God has chosen to reveal to us through her. My heart is overflowing with joy from the blessing of this baby girl, and the honor of being a part of God’s plan for her life, even if only for a short time. Selah was a nameless 10 day old baby girl that was brought to us a few weeks ago by one of our neighbors. She had been abandoned by her mother, and the woman she was left with wanted to throw her in the latrine. Our neighbor somehow knew of the situation and told her that she knew of some white girls who would take her. Of course when we saw her our hearts were captured and after only a few hours of thinking and praying about what to do with the situation, Renee and I were already excitedly discussing the name Renee had thought of and all the little outfits we could put her in! When Selah came to us she was covered in a strange chaffing rash from never being bathed and she was loosing weight because of poor nutrition. She rarely cried, which generally means that they had not been holding her and she had given up on crying. Today, she is a healthy 5 ½ week old, gaining weight, cooing and even smiling occasionally in response to big kisses from her aunties! J This week Renee met with the probation officer for the Jinja area and we’ve been told that he is going to grant a foster care order so that we can continue to care for Selah legally. We are so excited for that huge answer to prayer!

This is Shaquille. (His real name is Shakul, but we have another little boy with the same name so we had to rename him so that we would not get confused!) Shaquille is one year old and is still drinking milk as his only source of nutrients. He has a cleft pallet which makes it impossible for him to suck, or eat anything that could get caught up inside his nasal passages. Because of this he is developmentally behind schedule. He is very small and has very little muscular strength. When he first came to us, we were told that there was no one in Uganda who could do the surgery, and that he was just going to die from malnutrition. This week, because of God’s provision, we’ve travelled to Entebbe twice and Shaquille is at a brand new hospital there waiting for his surgery that is scheduled for next week. He has gained a ton of weight since he’s been with us and is a happy little boy. Please pray for the whole procedure and the recovery, that the Lord would protect him from infection.

This is Shakul, a 1 ½ year old who 2 months ago was seriously malnourished and dying from HIV and malaria. While in local children’s hospital doctors tried to inject fluids through an IV in his head. When the needle fleshed out because his veins were so small, they forced the injection through anyway and caused a large chemical burn. When he came to our house he never smiled, the skin was falling off of his head and you could see his tail bone sticking out even with a diaper on because he was so emaciated. Over the past two months he’s gained about 3 or 4 pounds, has bubby cheeks and a round belly and the cutest smile ever. This boy has a very strong will, and even has enough energy to throw some giant tantrums, but we’ve grown pretty attached regardless! We’ve recently discovered that he loves hats, so we bought him an orange bucket cap and he loves to wear it all the time, he even gets mad when we take it off for bath time. He is growing in size, muscular strength, and even in good humor and we enjoy watching God work in his little life.
This is Allaphat, and Praise Jesus, after a long and terrifying battle with many ailments, this giggling, galloping little boy was healthy enough to go home! He was here about 3 months and in that time there were many many tearful nights spend on my knees asking the Lord to please let him live to see morning! (My last blog post was a reflection of a few weeks of staying up with Allaphat for feedings.) It was a painful process for all of us, but the Lord was so faithful and showed His strength in bringing healing! Allaphat is HIV positive, so he will always be immunity impaired and struggle to keep away sickness, but he’ll be facing the future with the right foot forward now since he is back to his healthy weight. He was very sad to go home because of all the fun he’s had with us since he’s been healthy enough to play, but he comes to visit nearly everyday and pops his head in to say, ”Auntie Heidi, How are you?” J Even now I can hear him outside singing his favorite song from bible study, “Pharaoh, Pharaoh” at the top of his lungs! Please continue to pray for him as he comes from a Muslim home and my heart hurts for him to grow up knowing Jesus!

Maurine is still healthy and doing great! She is learning English very well and becoming quite the little helper with her “siblings.” Faith is big and healthy and has also been well enough to go home, but her mother is now employed by SHC so she also visits everyday and comes to play. Our hearts are so full with love for all of these children! Thank you for your prayers for them, it is an indescribable blessing to watch them all grow and learn and know that our God has a specific plan for each of their lives and we get the honor of helping and watching it to unfold!