I'm not sure it could get any better than right now. (But it will--when we walk into that orphanage and finally meet our Z!) It's the 11th hour...we find out about an URGENT need to provide 3 babies living in a remote village in Uganda with what is for them LIFESAVING formula and vitamin drops.
Why do I say lifesaving? Because two of these babies are twins, abandoned in a trash pit when they were first born. Mama has passed away. They have no way to live without formula.
The 3rd baby was just born today. Her mama is HIV+ but not on the necessary ARV's (drug therapy) to keep the virus from developing into AIDS. Her newborn was hungry. She was told to hold on while someone ran for formula...but when he returned, the mother had already begun breastfeeding. (How HARD would that be? As a brand new mother ALL you want to do is love and care for your sweet child...to hold her new daughter close and NOT nurse? OH! I don't think I could have held off either...) But that nursing meant that she just infected her newborn baby with the HIV virus.
We were devastated. But...then came good news! They were able to give the newborn a shot that would protect her! And she was drinking the formula!
Then the problem entered the picture.
The formula was being ravishingly consumed by the twins. They were "blowing through it like you wouldn't believe," they reported. Suddenly it dawned on them: they only had a 2 week supply. In two weeks, all three babies would die for lack of food!
HEL-LO, AMY!!!
YOU ARE GOING TO THAT VILLAGE!!!
God could use me.
My feet. (Yes, I'm a little slow at times. I remember that we named our blog "Feet 2 Our Faith!" DUH!)
So I put it out there on Facebook. The urgent call for formula and vitamin drops. And the donations came. People stopped by our house, people sent money through pay pal, I got emails and messages about the desire to help these babies.
And someone wrote the comment:
And I burst into tears. Wow. Is THAT how that feels? (Why did I think it would be drudgery to do what Jesus commanded?!?!) I am having the time of my life coordinating all this: watching my husband pack and repack, weigh and reweigh so we can get MORE formula in. Hanging out with him with my phone blowing up with all the donations!!
So we have ended up being able to not only fill to the brim our own allotment of luggage but also to buy a footlocker (so cool--we can leave that in the village for the people to store things in and keep the rats out!) and fill it with MORE formula and vitamin drops! And we have the money (thank you friends!) to pay for that overage fee!!!!!!
All this has come together in a matter of hours.
(I cannot even finish this blog post because MORE PEOPLE want to donate! Will we fill a SECOND footlocker??? Only God knows! If you want to jump in on this (and it's not too late--you have about 8-12 hours after I finally post this!!) donate through the puzzle button to the right and note that your gift is "for the babies!" We won't use it for our adoption but to provide more life-giving nourishment for these 3 needy babies.)
Why do I say lifesaving? Because two of these babies are twins, abandoned in a trash pit when they were first born. Mama has passed away. They have no way to live without formula.
The 3rd baby was just born today. Her mama is HIV+ but not on the necessary ARV's (drug therapy) to keep the virus from developing into AIDS. Her newborn was hungry. She was told to hold on while someone ran for formula...but when he returned, the mother had already begun breastfeeding. (How HARD would that be? As a brand new mother ALL you want to do is love and care for your sweet child...to hold her new daughter close and NOT nurse? OH! I don't think I could have held off either...) But that nursing meant that she just infected her newborn baby with the HIV virus.
We were devastated. But...then came good news! They were able to give the newborn a shot that would protect her! And she was drinking the formula!
Then the problem entered the picture.
The formula was being ravishingly consumed by the twins. They were "blowing through it like you wouldn't believe," they reported. Suddenly it dawned on them: they only had a 2 week supply. In two weeks, all three babies would die for lack of food!
HEL-LO, AMY!!!
YOU ARE GOING TO THAT VILLAGE!!!
God could use me.
My feet. (Yes, I'm a little slow at times. I remember that we named our blog "Feet 2 Our Faith!" DUH!)
So I put it out there on Facebook. The urgent call for formula and vitamin drops. And the donations came. People stopped by our house, people sent money through pay pal, I got emails and messages about the desire to help these babies.
And someone wrote the comment:
"For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat."
(Jesus' words to his disciples in Matthew 25:35)
And I burst into tears. Wow. Is THAT how that feels? (Why did I think it would be drudgery to do what Jesus commanded?!?!) I am having the time of my life coordinating all this: watching my husband pack and repack, weigh and reweigh so we can get MORE formula in. Hanging out with him with my phone blowing up with all the donations!!
So we have ended up being able to not only fill to the brim our own allotment of luggage but also to buy a footlocker (so cool--we can leave that in the village for the people to store things in and keep the rats out!) and fill it with MORE formula and vitamin drops! And we have the money (thank you friends!) to pay for that overage fee!!!!!!
All this has come together in a matter of hours.
(I cannot even finish this blog post because MORE PEOPLE want to donate! Will we fill a SECOND footlocker??? Only God knows! If you want to jump in on this (and it's not too late--you have about 8-12 hours after I finally post this!!) donate through the puzzle button to the right and note that your gift is "for the babies!" We won't use it for our adoption but to provide more life-giving nourishment for these 3 needy babies.)
Is this worth praising our God or WHAT?!?!?
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