This has been a whirlwind week, doing the regular things at the village, feedings and medicial work is the norm..it is hot and we are feeling the effects of the humidity as summer approaches.
this week Bri arrived to help, it is so good to see her and have her here for a while.
This week manny is suffering the effects of spending a day back in the village, his breathing is very rough and we had to take him to the doctor for meds. The sooner we can get the mamma to talk to the doctor so she understands why he cannot be in the village the better it will be for him.
Pray for us, that hse understands his condition and agrees to give us guardianship because a return fulltime to the village will cost him his life, that I could not handle.
that about covers this week nothing out of the ordinary , please pray for us as we carry on the work of Dominician Ministry.
Update on Jim, he continues to improve every day a little bit, it is almost 3 months and we praise God every day for the progress Jim is making.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
so much happened so fast over the month of Feb and into the middle of March that for blogging there seemed to be no time. So over time I will try to fill in the blanks, but as for now I am trying to stay current so those of you who are following our adventure will have updates.
March 12 we left for Canada to spend amonth with our kids and grandkids (which went way to fast) and to get some business things attended to.
On April 12 we returned to the Dominician Republic to start our 3 month stay here working with Dominician Ministry.
Monday April 13
this is our first day back to the village after being gone for a month, most everyone was very happy to see us and there were lots of hugs and loud greetings. LOL
Things seem to be quite in order and have carried on quite well, due to the hard work of Mike from the USA and My sister Mar and her daughter Krista and their friends Pete and Laurie.
thanks guys for a job well done.
There are new babies and sick babies and new challenges today and we are into the full swing of being back to Villa Acension,
Tuesday: Update on Jim and Sue
Jim has made amazing progress over the month, he has good movment in his left leg and also movement in his fingers on the left hand....praise God for his goodness and thank you all who are praying so faithfully for his recovery. God hears the prayers of his people for his good servant.
Sue is adjusting and doing well, she does carry a huge load with a Jim condition and with Martha there little haitian girl who is an extremely handicapped phisically and mentaly.
to day there have been some really tough decsions to be made about the the kids Mar and Denny and Pete and Laurie are adopting. With problems in the village, the two younger children have been removed from the village by a man who says he is the father.
pray for safety for them. We are not sure what is happening at this point.
Wednesday : today it is much quieter in the village, things are returning to normal, except for Mar who is on her last day in the village with the children...she got to see and spend time with 4 of the six before she left for Canada, Suzanitia and Carolina were not in the village. Manny is with us today for his first visit back to see mamma and siblings since March , they were excited, Manny not so sure...he is getting old enough to realize that they are not familiar faces.
Today we feed approx 200+ children a meal of rice, beans and pork bits.
thank you God that today there is enough food with acouple of bowls full left to feed some of the pregnant women.
There are a lot of sick children today and we give them the medicene we have and send one to the doctor in a neaby town to get checked there for sickness we cannot treat without antibiotics.
2 pm we are finally home, time to take a rest...NOT.....3pm...phone rings, our dominician friends daughter is in labour and they have no way to take her to the hospital can we come and take her to Puerto Plata to the hospital? off we go, Krista stays with Manny.
We stop on Monteallo to check with the doctor, he says yes she is diffently having a baby now, go "rapido" to Puerto Plata......100 kms/per hour on dominician highway with a screaming woman giving birth in the back seat is not something Bill signed up for, but he is driving there just the same.LOL
after some discusion on the way, we descide that the public hospital is not a good place for a 19 yr old first time mom to give birth so we go to the private hospital...a quick natural birth can't cost much....WRONG....there are major complications, unless she has immediate surgury baby will for sure die and possiblly mamma as well, Good Old Americian Express card can be used anywhere...2 hours of intense waiting and praying with a very nervous father to be and grandmother......We see them coming with a sleeping mamma and a crying baby...both alive and healthy...Thank God one more time for answered prayer...we go home happy but exhasted.
Thursday:
today we are taking it easy in the morning, this afternoon we will go to pick up the food for packaging the food distribution bags for next week. the food bags consist of 1 lb bags of rice, beans and sugar plus a 1/2 litre of oil and some boulliouion cubes. we pack these in 3 different quantities for distribution depending on the size of the family .
the jeep is full to the top when do the pick up because we have enough food for 45 families for 3 days. somedays I wonder how long this poor old vehicle will go.
afternoon we pack the food bags and get them ready for friday.
We call to see how the new baby is and all is well, she can come home tommorrow, WOW, that is fast , ok another trip to puerto plata tommorrow after leaving the village inthe morning.
Friday:
We arrive in the village of Puncha mateo at about 9:30 am, Krista and I are off to a good start this morning, we deal with a machette cut (gross) and a servere burn on a little boys leg, while Bill deliveres the four food bags that go to families here in this village.
Ok off we go to villa asencsion to do our food distributiona and get ready to feed about 200 children their meal of rice and beans and chicken.
and its only 10:30 AM.
today we are to have amission team of 10 helping with the meal, should be a piece of cake with this many people...WRONG...the team do not show up until 11 AM, leaving us with 4 people to do the work of 10, sweat we did but it got done, the team showed up in time to clean up, which we gladly allowed them to do.
Done at the village, home we go to shower, change and go get the new mamma and baby and bring them home..praise God they are well and happy to be back home.
Saturday and Sunday:
thank you God for days of rest, the pool is a God send and we enjoy it to the full
rested and ready for another weel of helping the people of the Dominician Republic.
March 12 we left for Canada to spend amonth with our kids and grandkids (which went way to fast) and to get some business things attended to.
On April 12 we returned to the Dominician Republic to start our 3 month stay here working with Dominician Ministry.
Monday April 13
this is our first day back to the village after being gone for a month, most everyone was very happy to see us and there were lots of hugs and loud greetings. LOL
Things seem to be quite in order and have carried on quite well, due to the hard work of Mike from the USA and My sister Mar and her daughter Krista and their friends Pete and Laurie.
thanks guys for a job well done.
There are new babies and sick babies and new challenges today and we are into the full swing of being back to Villa Acension,
Tuesday: Update on Jim and Sue
Jim has made amazing progress over the month, he has good movment in his left leg and also movement in his fingers on the left hand....praise God for his goodness and thank you all who are praying so faithfully for his recovery. God hears the prayers of his people for his good servant.
Sue is adjusting and doing well, she does carry a huge load with a Jim condition and with Martha there little haitian girl who is an extremely handicapped phisically and mentaly.
to day there have been some really tough decsions to be made about the the kids Mar and Denny and Pete and Laurie are adopting. With problems in the village, the two younger children have been removed from the village by a man who says he is the father.
pray for safety for them. We are not sure what is happening at this point.
Wednesday : today it is much quieter in the village, things are returning to normal, except for Mar who is on her last day in the village with the children...she got to see and spend time with 4 of the six before she left for Canada, Suzanitia and Carolina were not in the village. Manny is with us today for his first visit back to see mamma and siblings since March , they were excited, Manny not so sure...he is getting old enough to realize that they are not familiar faces.
Today we feed approx 200+ children a meal of rice, beans and pork bits.
thank you God that today there is enough food with acouple of bowls full left to feed some of the pregnant women.
There are a lot of sick children today and we give them the medicene we have and send one to the doctor in a neaby town to get checked there for sickness we cannot treat without antibiotics.
2 pm we are finally home, time to take a rest...NOT.....3pm...phone rings, our dominician friends daughter is in labour and they have no way to take her to the hospital can we come and take her to Puerto Plata to the hospital? off we go, Krista stays with Manny.
We stop on Monteallo to check with the doctor, he says yes she is diffently having a baby now, go "rapido" to Puerto Plata......100 kms/per hour on dominician highway with a screaming woman giving birth in the back seat is not something Bill signed up for, but he is driving there just the same.LOL
after some discusion on the way, we descide that the public hospital is not a good place for a 19 yr old first time mom to give birth so we go to the private hospital...a quick natural birth can't cost much....WRONG....there are major complications, unless she has immediate surgury baby will for sure die and possiblly mamma as well, Good Old Americian Express card can be used anywhere...2 hours of intense waiting and praying with a very nervous father to be and grandmother......We see them coming with a sleeping mamma and a crying baby...both alive and healthy...Thank God one more time for answered prayer...we go home happy but exhasted.
Thursday:
today we are taking it easy in the morning, this afternoon we will go to pick up the food for packaging the food distribution bags for next week. the food bags consist of 1 lb bags of rice, beans and sugar plus a 1/2 litre of oil and some boulliouion cubes. we pack these in 3 different quantities for distribution depending on the size of the family .
the jeep is full to the top when do the pick up because we have enough food for 45 families for 3 days. somedays I wonder how long this poor old vehicle will go.
afternoon we pack the food bags and get them ready for friday.
We call to see how the new baby is and all is well, she can come home tommorrow, WOW, that is fast , ok another trip to puerto plata tommorrow after leaving the village inthe morning.
Friday:
We arrive in the village of Puncha mateo at about 9:30 am, Krista and I are off to a good start this morning, we deal with a machette cut (gross) and a servere burn on a little boys leg, while Bill deliveres the four food bags that go to families here in this village.
Ok off we go to villa asencsion to do our food distributiona and get ready to feed about 200 children their meal of rice and beans and chicken.
and its only 10:30 AM.
today we are to have amission team of 10 helping with the meal, should be a piece of cake with this many people...WRONG...the team do not show up until 11 AM, leaving us with 4 people to do the work of 10, sweat we did but it got done, the team showed up in time to clean up, which we gladly allowed them to do.
Done at the village, home we go to shower, change and go get the new mamma and baby and bring them home..praise God they are well and happy to be back home.
Saturday and Sunday:
thank you God for days of rest, the pool is a God send and we enjoy it to the full
rested and ready for another weel of helping the people of the Dominician Republic.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
wow, how time flies, here we are at the end of Feb and so much has happened, I will try at some point to add the details of this month, but as of today here we are, the decsion has been made, we go home on March 10th for one month and will return to pick up the work of Dominician Ministry until Jim and Sue are able to carry on.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Our experiences in the Dominician Republic 2010
Jan 12 2010
We arrive at the Puerto Plata airport via WestJet, back to the DR, this is our 6th trip here to the island and we are happy to be back with our friends here.
JAN 14
Back at the airport to get Denny,Mar and Damian who have arrived for a 2 week stay with us
Jan 15 Friday
We arrive at the Puerto Plata airport via WestJet, back to the DR, this is our 6th trip here to the island and we are happy to be back with our friends here.
JAN 14
Back at the airport to get Denny,Mar and Damian who have arrived for a 2 week stay with us
Jan 15 Friday
Our first day back up to the villages with Jim and Sue...what an experience to be back all the hugs and excitment as the people are so happy to see us
**Ok so my blogging got blogged down, so I will try to pick up when things reall started to change over here. we so enjoyed the 2 weeks we had with Denny, Mar and Damian, our many trips to the villages, and all that transpired there which we try to fill in along the way
January 25 Monday
We were in the village and we heard that one of the twins from a family of nine children was in the hospital in Puerto Plata, after some investigation we found he had been taken to the public (free) hospital which is often only a death warrant for Haitian babies, so I asked Jim if we could go get him and take him to the private hospital where he would get cared for, thus began our adventures
Jan 26 tuesday
Jim and I (Donna) left for Puerto Plata this morning to find the baby. we went to thepublic hospital only to find out they had sent him back to the village the night before. We returned to the village of Acsension and found the baby at his house with his mamma, he is very doing very poorly. Jim decides he needs to see the pedetrition at the private hospital, off we go back to Puerto Plata about a half hour drive with the baby and his 17 yr old brother who the mamma sends along.
We have waited for the doctor for approx 3 hours and then we get to see him, he says the baby is not sick, just starving to death and if he goes back to the village he will die within days... decision time: Can Ido this, or not...I cannot let this innocent little one die without trying to help so we take him back with us to our house....thank goodness , Mar is here to help...I am not used to the mamma thing...diapers, any diapers, feedings every half hour for the first 48 hours, then every 2 hours for the next 2 weeks..he dosn`t have aname that we know of so we name him `manual` in english emmanual :God with us` he is going to need you God and we will too.
Jan 27 Wed
Iam a very tired mamma...thanks to Bill and Mar I was able to sleep a few extra hours this morning, feeding every half hour is tiring....Manual (lovingly dubbed Manny`weighs just under 6 lbs and is 3 months old.
he eats about half oz of formula every half hour or so...
he is so dirty that when we gave him a bath his skin changed colour. he is now a spotty brown with white blotches caused from vitamin deficiencies.
we pick up his perscriptions for all the vitamins he needs and start him on a routine for getting them every day..mega doses..
Jan 28, 29, 30, 31
Baby, baby, baby
he is looking some better and is taking almost an oz of formula at a time. I am sooo tired, God give me strength. Denny, Mar and Damian leave for Canada on the 28th, We miss them so much.
Feb 1 Monday
Manny is doing wonderful and it is time to reassure his mamma that he is alive and doing better.
Little did we know when we left for the village this morning that this would be a day that would test our faith and send us into a path that we had no idea was coming.
We spent the day, weighing babiess and doing the regular visits to the people, did the food package distributions and by 2 oclock we were back at the house..Jim and Sue dropped us off and we were planning the day for Wed and the meal program which we be doing where we feed approx 200 children a meal.
6 pm:
frantic call from Sue, can Bill come right away and take Jim to the hospital, he is not well and he seems to have problems with his armm and leg. thankfully we have our friends car so he can go right away...a 15 minute drive to the hospital, and by the time he arrives there , Jim is paralazed on his whole one side and is only semi conscious, he has had a massive stroke caused by bleeding in the brain, he is in criticial condition, the next 72 hours will tell if he will live...not much hope..the doctor says, we can do alot but this one is going to need help from God.
11pm:
a long long night , as Bill gets Sue to the hospital to be with Jim and brings the little handicapped girl that they care for to me, I now have Manny and Martha as Bill heads back to the hospital to be with Sue and await any more updates to Jim`s condition...many, many people are now praying all across the world as the messages on facebook spread and the emails start to go out.
2 am Feb 2
Bill and Sue arrive at the house, the doctors say they cannot stay in ICU as they don`t have room, only for the patients, so Sue is staying here with us, so if they call from the hospital, they can go right away.
7am
Bill and Sue are gone back to the hospital to see how Jim is doing..no phone call in the night so all is the same..we have now made it through the first 12 hours with no change.
10 am Feb 2 Tuesday
Jim is criticial but stable..thank you God
today is spent drving back and forth between the house and the hospital..poor Sue, he is her everything..but she is holding on the fact that she believes God will look after him. Their daughter is making plans to come from England asap.
Feb 3 Wednesday
the work at the village has to be done, Sue takes Martha to the hospital with her, we take Manny with us and off we go to do what needs to be done...God help us to get it all right..
3 pm:
back at the house, tired but all went well
Jim`s report says he is still criticial but stable.
Feb 4 Thursday
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