Sabbatical

May 16 2014

Dear Blog:

I have not been faithful to you.  I am sorry.  Many other things distracted my attention from you.  I am here to apologize.  Please hear me out and you will surely forgive me.

Do you know what burnout is?  It's when a person works themselves beyond their strength and still doesn't stop.  Eventually the person is completely drained and has nothing to give themselves or anyone else.  That happened to me.  It culminated in July 2013, about the time of my last post to you, dear Blog.

I knew I had to return to the US for a time.  Friends confirmed that.  My ego wondered what would happen to the kids.  So focused on myself was I, I forgot that the kids belong to God, not me.

First the Lord sent Tori Beckham from Alabama to watch after the kids.  She was perfect!  Tori took the kids for walks and on field trips.  She spent most of her days with the kids.  She zoomed in on their personalities pretty quickly and dealt with them accordingly.  Importantly, she provided a lot of structure for them.  She communicated with me very well so I always felt involved.  Tori is my hero!

Aaron, the sweet little boy I wrote about in my last post, had a sickle cell crisis while Tori was there.  She handled it perfectly!  He was in serious condition, hematocrit of 13, hemoglobin around 3.  Aaron needed blood immediately.  The Red Cross wouldn't give blood unless someone gave blood to replace what he needed.   Our Haitian staff refused to even try.  (In spite of education, many Haitians are still superstitious and /or uninformed about giving blood.)  Tori usually is not allowed to donate in the US because of low iron.  She really didn't think she could but tried and it worked!  Aaron recovered after a few days in the hospital.

The came Erin Fairbanks, a nurse from Michigan who has worked free-lance in Haiti before including at our house.  She has been there since late October.  She arranged for our Emmanuella to get a gastric feeding tube.  You can see in the before and after picture below how much she has filled out since the surgery.  She has the energy now to be happy and to interact with us more than before.

While Erin was at the hospital with Emmanuella, a little boy was abandoned there.  True to her compassionate nurse's heart, Erin ended up bringing him home with her.    That's how Dorval came to stay with us!  He was sick and malnourished, has cerebral palsy, and had no one to love him.  Irresistible!  

Dorval at the hospital, Nov 2013

Dorval ready for church, April 2014

As you can see, God sent the perfect people at the right time to keep Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue, going and even growing in my absence.  From now on, though, I am going to follow His plan, i.e., a full day off every week and a sabbatical every 7 years instead of every 10.