TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail
FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
 
BABIES LOVING PLAYTIME
 
With 12 infants in our care, I have warned the moth­ers that the “fun” times are com­ing when all 12 start walk­ing!
I’ll call it chas’em and corral’em!
 
Eight of the twelve are now offi­cial­ly “tod­dling” or crawl­ing while the oth­er 4 are “observ­ing their sib­lings” and think­ing about crawl­ing.  I want to share 2 impromp­tu pho­tos I snapped this week. I caught these curi­ous tykes play­ing while their Fos­ter Moth­ers worked near­by to cook a meal.
 

L to R. Julio and Chebane love their sand­box at house #6.
 

L to R. Fati­ma, Gil­da, and Juma hav­ing fun out­doors.​
 
FRIDAY EMERGENCIES KEEP US ALL HOPPING. 
 
Phone rings 6 a.m. with the Chil­dren’s Direc­tor,  Anna, say­ing our newest infant, Regi­nal­da, had sus­pect­ed malar­ia. She need­ed me imme­di­ate­ly, as this baby is still on the “severe­ly mal­nour­ished” list weigh­ing only 4.7 kgs/10.3 lbs. at 7.5 months of age. Five min­utes lat­er, I loaded them into my King­cab, and off we went to the hos­pi­tal for a malar­ia smear.
 

Baby REGINALDA last week before malar­ia hit her.
 
While Anna and Angeli­na,  the Fos­ter Moth­er, wait­ed for the lab results,  I rushed back to our mis­sion to find our con­struc­tion trainee, Alferes, hav­ing a grand mal seizure!
 

Alferes hard at work yes­ter­day,  before becom­ing sick this a.m.​
 
Cape­na rushed to help me by bring­ing a Land Cruis­er (sin­gle cab pick­up) to the dorm, so we could load him into the open back in a lay­ing down posi­tion. Cape­na and Pas­tor Jose rushed him to the emer­gency room, while I head­ed off to treat tod­dlers Julio and Sal­vador who are present­ly on malar­ia treat­ment at home. Once a baby is over 5 kg/11 lbs., he is old enough to take oral med­ica­tion, PTL!
 
It felt like I was coor­di­nat­ing a dis­as­ter scene instead of an orphan­age this a.m.!
 
We had to call in our “hos­pi­tal helper moth­er”, Mari­amo, to be with Fos­ter Moth­er Angeli­na in the hos­pi­tal.  One moth­er watch­es the infant while the oth­er takes a break.
 
Since Angeli­na is the head moth­er of the Ostrich House, Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor,  Fati­ma, will “live in” tem­porar­i­ly at the Ostrich house until REGINALDA is released from the hos­pi­tal. 
 
Thank­ful­ly,  our staff is very good at “flex­ing” to what­ev­er job needs doing. 
 
Out­comes:
1. BABY REGINALDA was admit­ted for 5 days of malar­ia treat­ment as she must have I V med­i­cine (not oral) due to her low weight. The malar­ia lar­vae ate her red blood cells caus­ing ane­mia. With her Hbg now down to a crit­i­cal lev­el of 7 she need­ed blood. Nor­mal is 12 to 14. She is being trans­fused as I write this Fri­day evening. 
 
2. ALFERES does not have malar­ia, PTL,  and his seizures stopped with prop­er med­ica­tion. He was sent home Fri­day after­noon on bed rest, and the dorm father,  Arman­do, will keep a close watch on him. His seizures occurred because he for­got to take his Mag­ne­sium for the last few days. I don’t think he will for­get again.
 
3. Julio and Sal­vador were out play­ing as if they weren’t sick, so no wor­ries there. Amaz­ing how fast lit­tle ones over­come this killer ill­ness when the right treat­ment is giv­en imme­di­ate­ly after symp­toms begin.
 
NEVER A DULL MOMENT WHEN KIDS ARE INVOLVED. 
 
Plz con­tin­ue your prayers for all of us. With food give­outs com­plet­ed on Thurs­day,  we all expect­ed a sim­ple day on Fri­day.  Just Prais­ing the Lord that it is all under con­trol now, and the sick are on the mend.
 
FYI: Two oth­er infants with very low blood counts ben­e­fit­ed from the pint of blood giv­en to our Regi­nal­da. PTL for Jesus’ heal­ing pow­er that spreads to oth­ers as He heals our lit­tle one.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE FANTASTIC STAFF IN BALAMA