TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Monthly Archives: February 2024

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog: February 24, 2024

JUMAIDA IS HOME!

Thank you so much for all your prayers! Jumai­da was sud­den­ly declared well, and released 1 day after you began to pray! What a mir­a­cle!  Her appetite is back and she seems fine, just needs to eat to gain weight. 

A Zinc liq­uid sup­ple­ment with oth­er baby vit­a­mins will soon strength­en her immu­ni­ty lev­el, giv­ing her the resis­tance she needs to avoid infec­tions. We are very hap­py and so is Jumai­da and her fos­ter moth­er, Estefania!
2a958ef38ae4ea08e4b5cdbf9364890c.jpegJumai­da as we were bring­ing her home from hospital.

TWO BABIES WITHIN HOURS OF EACH OTHER

Thurs­day, the Aunt of 7‑month-old new­ly orphaned boy Marce­lo, brought him in to be weighed and receive his milk. His moth­er has been grave­ly ill for sev­er­al months, and sad­ly passed away last week. (Rea­son unknown). Her fam­i­ly thought the moth­er would recov­er and be able to resume car­ing for Marceli­no. The Aunt has an infant of her own that is 6 months old, and the only female left in the fam­i­ly.

This fam­i­ly lives in severe pover­ty, and tak­ing on anoth­er infant was just too much for this young woman and her hus­band. Our staff agreed to accept this hap­py lit­tle boy, as he is one of the babies we sup­port­ed in the hos­pi­tal 3 weeks ago when he had malar­ia.  Marceli­no is very under­weight (5.5kg/12 lbs.) at 7 months. With plen­ty of good milk and Hypo baby cere­al, we expect to see extra grams on the scale next week.

Fos­ter Moth­er Felic­i­na, who lost her fos­tered infant last week, was super thrilled to receive Marceli­no.  Felic­i­na was in the hos­pi­tal with her infant at the same time that Marceli­no was admit­ted with malar­ia. She knows this lit­tle boy well, and now gets to raise him! I have nev­er seen Felic­i­na smile the way she did today when Marceli­no was placed into her arms.  This was just what God ordered to help both of them in their dif­fi­cult situations.Thank you for your prayers for Felic­i­na, as God’s answer brought a smile to all of us!
c72bf5167b3676a0848059368223f125.jpegBaby Marce­lo with Fos­ter Moth­er Felicina.

Thurs­day at 1pm a blind grand­moth­er led by a mid­dle-aged man walked in with a 2‑day-old infant who was very dehy­drat­ed and had a fever. The moth­er died giv­ing birth to twins, with 1 twin dying short­ly after birth.

I took them imme­di­ate­ly to the hos­pi­tal, where baby girl Rige­nia was admit­ted with malar­ia!!! Seems malar­ia can pass through the pla­cen­ta if a moth­er has it and doesn’t get treat­ment. Rige­nia is now in our care at the hos­pi­tal where she must receive the 7‑day malar­ia treat­ment for infants.She will then become a full-time res­i­dent with us.
ef2e3a91d33e4411c2b20b7987066091.jpeg3‑day-old Rige­nia in hos­pi­tal. Born with malar­ia received from mother

TODDLER HOUSE INSPECTION A SUCCESS!

After a hard year of work with many delays, it is WITH GREAT JOY that I announce the open­ing of our Tod­dler Home, as it passed the health inspec­tion on Tues­day!

Fos­ter Moth­ers Lucin­da and Angeli­na moved right in with their 3 fos­ter babies who are now bare­ly walk­ing. Tiny tod­dlers Almei­da and Fran­ciano (boys), and Elsa (girl) are the first res­i­dents in this large 3‑bedroom exten­sion of the Ostrich House. These 5 seem quite hap­py in their new home, and are get­ting to know the 9 chil­dren liv­ing in the orig­i­nal Ostrich House. More tod­dlers will be added to the home as they will soon out­grow their infant home just down the street.
4088cdc856a847e24f7e8bfade246615.jpegFirst res­i­dents of Tod­dler House.
3f30f108f190fe77ca9ecfcb6295277d.jpegMov­ing in day at new Tod­dler House.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED LOVE AND PRAYERS THAT MAKES OUR RESCUE PROGRAM SO SUCCESSFUL.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog: February 17, 2024

FROM: Bush Bun­ny Bren­da
DATE: Feb­ru­ary 17, 2024

IN MEMORY OF MADELINA

On Sat­ur­day night, Feb. 10th at 8:30pm, my phone rang. Nev­er a good sign. Head Fos­ter Moth­er, Gil­da was breath­less and very upset as she told me that Baby Madeli­na (who had been doing fine after being released from the hos­pi­tal 5 days before) was in crit­i­cal res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress. I raced down there, took one look at the infant, and said ‘let’s get to the hos­pi­tal’. Madeli­na was mouth breath­ing at a rapid rate, and had a very dis­tend­ed abdomen with a low grade fever.

The Head of the Emer­gency Room placed an IV into her lit­tle hand, giv­ing her the strongest bron­codila­tor she could take, and IV antibi­otics, as well as the hospital’s pre­cious oxy­gen. All this helped, and her res­pi­ra­tions slowed.

She slept through the night with lit­tle change. She then slow­ly declined the fol­low­ing morn­ing despite everyone’s efforts, and at 3pm on Sun­day, baby Madeli­na grad­u­at­ed to Heav­en to be with Jesus. It was very upset­ting to all of us, as she had fought so hard to get bet­ter after her seri­ous bout with malar­ia. We think that her aller­gic reac­tion to one of the med­ica­tions, as well as the liv­er dam­age that malar­ia can cause, were the cul­prits that led to her demise. 

Baby Madeli­na with Fos­ter Moth­er Felicina.
WE MISS HER DEARLY, but she is in the most per­fect place now with Jesus. He gave her a new body that allows her to play to her heart’s con­tent.  Please keep her Fos­ter Moth­er, Felic­i­na, in your prayers, as she was hit the hard­est of all of us. She cared for this pre­cious infant for the entire year that Madeli­na was with us. Madeli­na had just had her 1st birth­day on Jan­u­ary 18th.

Baby Jumai­da. No cloth­ing as she had a fever.
This week has been a bit rough on all of us as we still have baby girl Jumai­da in the hos­pi­tal, slow­ly recov­er­ing from an uniden­ti­fied infec­tion. She is now eat­ing bet­ter and on the road to recov­ery. Please keep all of us in your prayers, as the needs of our 58 chil­dren are the high­est pri­or­i­ty we have.School is now in full ses­sion, and every­one is set­tling into the school year rou­tine.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR LOVE AND PRAYERS, FOR THEY TRULY KEEP US ENCOURAGED.
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog: February 10, 2024

FOUR BABIES IN HOSPITAL THIS WEEK!

Two of our own, Madeli­na and Jumai­da, as well as 2 orphan boys from our Baby For­mu­la Assis­tance Pro­gram, had to be admit­ted for malar­ia last week.Madelina and the 2 boys were released this week, PTL! Madeli­na suf­fered severe side effects from the med­i­cines, caus­ing most of her skin to peel off like she had a severe sun­burn. She is bet­ter now, but still frag­ile from all she has been through in the last 2 weeks.The 2 boys did very well as they breezed through their malar­ia treat­ments with­out problems.
Sweet Madeli­na when told she was going home!

JUMAIDA, 7 months, is a case for seri­ous prayer, as she is not doing well. She was treat­ed last week for malar­ia and released. But after 48 hours at home (Sat­ur­day), she refused to eat or drink, was fever­ish and very nau­se­at­ed. That left no choice but to read­mit her to the hos­pi­tal.

Blood tests revealed no malar­ia, but she def­i­nite­ly had an infec­tion of unknown ori­gin. Seems her immu­ni­ty has dropped to almost noth­ing, and com­pli­ca­tions of thrush and a skin rash are now present a few days later.She is final­ly eat­ing bet­ter, PTL, but we are far from being on the road to recov­ery.  PLEASE PRAY FOR HER HEALTH TO RETURN.
Jumai­da is strug­gling. Needs heal­ing prayers.

CHILDREN BLESSED WITH MORE CHICKENS AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH

The 29 school-age chil­dren and the 29 under 3‑year-olds at our homes are all doing well. School has start­ed, so every­one is get­ting into their new rou­tines this week.We say ‘thank you!’ to our Mis­souri donor who faith­ful­ly pro­vides the chick­ens and but­ter­nut squash so our chil­dren can have more vari­ety in their diet.
3 of our 7 homes receiv­ing fat frozen chick­ens and but­ter­nut squash.


TODDLER HOUSE INSPECTION SET FOR NEXT WEEK

Due to heavy rains over the last 10 days, the clean-up crew was unable to com­plete the land­scap­ing nec­es­sary for the health inspec­tion that is required before we can open our Tod­dler House.The clean­ing hap­pened this week when 2 days passed with­out any rain! This is vac­cine week so every­one at the Health Depart­ment was busy. Hop­ing it hap­pens next week as promised.
Tod­dler House gets final face-lift. Now ready for instal­la­tors next week.

THANK YOU FOR KEEPING ALL OF US IN YOUR PRAYERS.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog: February 3, 2024

MADELINA STRUGGLING IN HOSPITAL

Baby Madeli­na, 12 months, was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal last week for hid­den malar­ia. An aller­gic reac­tion to the med­ica­tions caused her abdomen and under­arm skin to sluff off, look­ing like she had suf­fered 2nd degree burns. With a change in med­ica­tions, this is now slow­ly heal­ing. Please pray for her com­plete and rapid heal­ing, as she has been through a lot since becom­ing ill.
Baby Madeli­na with FM Felic­i­na, at Bala­ma hos­pi­tal.


MILK PROGRAM BABIES NEED HOSPITALIZATION

On Thurs­day, 2 of the infants receiv­ing Baby For­mu­la arrived very sick, so Cape­na and I took them both to the hos­pi­tal. Both were admit­ted with malar­ia, so we stepped in to assist the Granny and Aunt who care for them.

The Aunt has her own child, so we orga­nized a sub­sti­tute moth­er to be with her Sister’s orphaned baby while in hos­pi­tal. The wid­owed Granny is stay­ing with her orphaned Grand­son in the hospital.Your Love Gifts are pro­vid­ing both of these infants and the Granny with food and oth­er needs while in hospital.THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS ASSISTANCE POSSIBLE!


SCHOOL STARTED JANUARY 31ST

I returned to Bala­ma from S. Africa on Sun­day (Jan. 28th) , just in time to dis­trib­ute school sup­plies to our 29 school-age chil­dren and oth­er orphans liv­ing nearby.Four of our preschool­ers will start 1st grade! Seems like yes­ter­day when these 4 were babies in arms. How time flies! We had to rush through the dis­tri­b­u­tion as it began to sprin­kle rain just after tak­ing the Vic­to­ry House Children’s photo. 
Vic­to­ry House chil­dren first to receive school sup­plies.

God was mer­ci­ful as we asked him to hold off the rains until we com­plet­ed the give out, and He did! Hard rain began just 20 min­utes after the last chil­dren received their uni­forms, school shoes, books, pens, math sets, etc.

All the chil­dren are ready for this year’s learn­ing chal­lenges. They are all very grate­ful for your Love Gifts that pro­vid­ed them with the mate­ri­als that help them meet those challenges!

CIS FOOD GIVE OUT

Our fam­i­ly of ever-grow­ing chil­dren were thrilled to make a group pho­to last Sat­ur­day with the CIS TEAM that pro­vides our twice-month­ly high pro­tein meals.
Our fam­i­ly with CIS STAFF last Sat­ur­day.

We are very grate­ful for this food gift, as it includes deli­cious pork, beef, and chick­en dish­es on a rotat­ing basis, as well as rice, sal­ad, and a dessert.A real treat for every­one! 

YOUR PRAYERS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! THE LORD ANSWERS THOSE PRAYERS AND PROVIDES OUR NEEDS. THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US FOR GIVING THESE CHILDREN A CHANCE AT LIFE.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE FABULOUS BALAMA STAFF