Gifts

Walked down to the little cemetery at GSF today. . .

I've been there before but it had been a while.

And in a while . . .

Beautiful Norah with hope in her heart that she would someday see her Savior saw that someday in September.

Charming Emmanuel learned that Jesus could give him a body that would work so perfectly that he would dance before the King and he did just that in early January.

Incredible Gloria who taught me so many things learned in March that God would heal all her wounds and infirmities and make her new.

But I stand here in this little cemetery and cry and thank God for the gifts He gave me in these three precious lives! I also stand here and thank Him for the 80 other precious lives He has given me on the other side of the hill from the cemetery.

SEB

Sebastian, 18 months old, has been in our feeding program. Because he was not getting bigger and because of issues not to be mentioned, the feeding program was not working for little Seb.. Yesterday, I went with our social worker, Keren, and several others to this little guy's home and village to pick him up and bring him into GSF. We discovered at that time that there may be health issues that had never been discovered during the feeding program days. We took him to a doctor today for a thorough check-up. It was discovered he has a bilateral cleft palate.

I looked up bilateral cleft palate on the internet and found this statement, "it is typically diagnosed immediately at birth." This little guy is 18 months old and is not very big because it has been hard for him to suck and food goes back through his nose. It has saddened me that a little guy who could have gotten help has suffered with this for 18 months.

Please pray for little Seb. We will consulting be with the doctor soon and may even have surgery next week.

Lessons learned from Gloria

GSF is full of sweet and great stories of kids whom God obviously has His hand on. One of the sweetest is of Gloria. It has been said that Gloria's mom had measles when she was pregnant with Gloria. Gloria was born with severe cerebral palsy and mental retardation. I have been told that many kids from Gloria's tribe who have deformities "accidentally die" as babies. But Gloria did not die--God had more for her to do! She came to GSF 5 years ago in 2006; she was estimated to be 4 years old at the time. She received much therapy and love. Her story taught me that God values all life!

When I first saw Gloria, I didn't know how to approach her. She would want me to lift her but she was just too big. Finally one day, an ENT came to visit GSF and went to look in Gloria's ears. I sat down to hold her so he could check her. I cradled her in my arms and she immediately snuggled in! I was floored! She just wanted to be cradled. God taught me through Gloria that everyone desires love in one way or another and I should strive to give it. I loved going and holding her and she loved it as well. I grew to love Gloria dearly.

Early last year, Gloria got really sick with Typhoid. How she got typhoid, we will never really know but she became very weak and small. She was in the hospital for a long time but finally got to come home and we all rejoiced. About a month later, chicken pox spread around the orphanage and Gloria got it the worst. It was all over her body and inside as well. Eventually Gloria recovered from chicken pox and we were all relieved. She then began a cycle of being in and out of the hospital due to pneumonia at least 4 times. Several times we thought we were going to lose her. We have sent out blog updates asking for you to pray for her numerous times and you have prayed and God always answered our prayers. Many of you will remember the entry about Lilly going to the hospital and praying for Gloria. God taught me again that God had Gloria's life in His hands and He was a miracle working God.

Through this time of Gloria's illnesses, we had 2 other children die (Norah in September and Emmanuel in January). Both deaths were difficult and very eye opening into the differences of how this culture deals with death compared to the culture I grew up in. Both deaths were in the early morning and it was so difficult waking up to the news and sharing it with others. I began to dread the day that God would call our sweet Gloria home and even asked that He would take her during the day. At the same time, when I would see Gloria suffering, I would ask Him to take away her suffering. I knew she would be so much better off. One evening, Gloria was gasping for air after choking on something. We had to rush her to the hospital. I asked God if this was the end and told Him I was dreading it. Gloria defied death again and came home the very next morning smiling and alert. God gently reminded me that everything was in His timing.

Three weeks later, I was sitting on my veranda and got a "Gloria update" from Sarah, one of the nurses. She seemed okay but did have a fever and was having a difficult time breathing. None of us thought much about it as she had struggled so many times before. About an hour later, Mark walked out of the back room holding my phone and said that Sarah just called and she couldn't find a pulse on Gloria. I stopped . . . what was the scene going to be like when I went to her house. Mark raced on over but I hesitantly put on my shoes and had a chat with God as I walked over to the house. Believe it or not, when I arrived I came upon a very peaceful scene. They had Gloria laying out on a mattress on the back veranda working on her. We had said we wanted to do what we could to try to save her life. So the nurses and others were courageously but so peacefully working to see if she would begin to breath again. Gloria went into the presence of her Heavenly Father March 14, 2011 at approx 8:30 am. A glorious morning--praise Him that it was a beautiful sunny morning! The arrangements were taken care of effortlessly (unlike the other two). We had the memorial service for Gloria at 4:30 that same day. Her uncle and aunt took the body to her grandfather's land many hours away the next day for the burial. In all of this, God taught me that even when He takes one of His loved ones home, He still provides and lovingly cares for those left behind. I so often dread those things that God in His time gives me the grace and peace to deal with.

God is a God of peace! God teaches us even through those whom the world calls the "least of these." He loves and cares for them and wants us to learn to love and care for them. Praise God for Gloria's life!

Our newest "resident"

This week we discovered a new resident on our 110 acres of land. "There's an armadillo in the tree," was the first indication that something new and exciting was going on outside. I went out side to see one of the gardeners at GSF climbing a tree and asking for a stick. The gardener saw it in the tree and knew it wasn't harmful to humans so decided to show it to Titus, Eli and Henry. It drew quite a crowd and as you can see it was a little nervous and probably regretted deciding to live at an orphanage. The picture below is when it got knocked on to the ground and realized it was surrounded by screaming children.




What is it you ask? It is not an armadillo but a pangolin. I am guessing by the looks of it that it is the tree climbing variety.


Thought I would also add pictures of 2 of the brave Gwartney crew who were willing to touch it. A special thank you to Debbie Rohrer and Caralina for the fabulous pictures!

Special Girls

Before we moved to Uganda, I had not interacted much with special needs kids. I didn't think I really had a heart for them and definitely not an understanding. Once our family arrived here, I began to get to know these special kids and now have such a love for them and a passion for their livelihood. They are incredible kids who deal with difficult situations but so often have a smile on their face. I have learned such valuable lessons through them. Mark and I have become convinced that these kids teach a whole lot more to all of us here at GSF than any of us could ever give to them. Thought I would share some of my favorite photos of the 4 special needs girls here at GSF. These girls are some of my favorite people in the world.

GSF Babies

Caralina is our master photographer in our home right now. She absolutely loves taking pictures and loves babies even more! Here are some recent photos she has taken of the babies at GSF. I love looking at the smiles and chubby faces. All of these kids have come to GSF because of difficult situations and it is beautiful to me to see their bright eyes full of hope. Praise God!

A note on the last little guy. . . He arrived at GSF a month ago severely malnourished but is doing very well and growing as you can see from his fabulous smile!

One of these kids doesn't look like the others. . .

I have a picture of my T-man but you have to try to spot him. This is very common place for our little guy who in May this year will have spent 1/3 of his life in Uganda. And when you hear him playing and talking with his friends you would never it was a little boy born in the Mid-South of the US of A.