31 Days Reflecting on our lives in Haiti...Day 7

Day 7

Adventures in new medical care:) 

I think it may shock most people to know that we, of all people, decided to move our kids to a remote town in Haiti. You see, our youngest boy, Caleb Anthony was born 9 weeks early! He was a tiny 3lb 12 oz boy and Praise Jesus, he truly had no major issues! But he did remain in the NICU for over a month and came home on an oxygen machine for months. That experience alone changed Aaron and I in so many ways...not all good! 

So here we are, living in Haiti and fully aware that we quickly become our first response, triage center in our home! The first time we had to rush to a doctor was when both Caleb and Isaiah spiked fevers over 104 and the medicine wasn't breaking it. Thankfully we had a neighbor with a car to drive us down to a local doctor who spoke English and had some training in the US in medicine. He did every test he knew...didn't have any idea what it was, but at least...it wasn't Malaria!!! Sent us home with vitamin C liquid and a local cough syrup(great mom moment...had no idea what the cough syrup was but it sure knocked the boys out. Then I translated the jar and it was Thyme alcohol...old school remedies:) 

So moving forward about 2 months. I was down in the center of town on outreach. We had decided to do trash cleanup in the square with some old disciples from the first Rock missionaries. I was sitting on a bench with Mike from our team engaging a couple locals about Jesus and just began praying over them when my phone rang. All I hear Aaron say is "Get a taxi. Malachi's foot is cut bad. We're going to the hospital."

I booked it to a taxi and tried to encourage the taxi to drive faster! On my way up the mountain all the sudden I see our neighbor, Mark Donald, driving a motorcycle with Aaron on the back holding Malachi across his lap with a massive white towel around his foot!! I got to our home and opened the massive front gate. I saw the other 3 kids and our cook standing on the porch. The kids of course rushed to tell me that Malachi and they had been playing soccer in the dirt streets with neighbor kids and Malachi was playing in flip flops. Not bad compared to most kids here with no shoes. He and stepped back and kicked his foot back into the bottom of a corrugated tin fence and lifted up. Yep, sliced deep into his heel. I looked down and saw blood on the porch. Our cook was so shaken she didn't even speak. What I would later understand was minor injuries...minor fevers...to us in the USA don't lead to major problems. But here, most of the time, even with what care they can get, leads to great illness and death. 

Well, I'm not able to tell you exactly how Malachi felt being taken into the "ER" portion of the local hospital, but I can describe what he shared. Because he was white they knew we would be able to pay so he was taken immediately to a bed. No sheets...nothing. The Cuban doctor on hand was able to look at his wound and decide to numb it and clean and stitch it. She did know he didn't cut his Achilles tendon!!! On the bed next to him Malachi saw a local woman screaming in unbelievable pain, as she had crashed her face and parts of her body into something; most like a motorcycle crash. They were just wiping down her wounds with the rags she had. No pain medicine for her. She most likely, like almost everyone there, could not afford any medical care. So, here is how the hospital works in Haiti. You arrive, if you can...and are looked at by 1 triage doctor. They then tell you what they believe is wrong and give you a prescription paper. If you cannot go buy what you need...you get no care. You purchase the oxygen, bring your own bedding, your own food and pay for every single thing needed to care for your sickness or wounds. So almost every day outside the hospital people sit and hope someone will walk by and pay their prescriptions to get them in. And every day little kids and adults are left there with no food unless someone comes to bring them food. 

Malachi was shocked. I know it left an impression on him. The fact that he walked out with stitches and would be OK for a grand total of $2 and this woman may not have the ability to get the help she needs left him thinking about gratefulness and true needs. 

These photos were that night. 

He also began the amazing process of understanding that he could walk through suffering and see God in it and the strength God has given him to not fear suffering. This is only the beginning of that journey for him, but so powerful to watch him grow in an area so difficult for most of our culture to be free in. 

This is truly part of my own journey in breaking off the fears I had welcomed over years and years. I didn't just welcome fear from Caleb being born early, but so many came from that experience. I had no idea that I had so many fears, until the Lord allowed me to be in a place where all I truly had was the Healer and the Comforter. I will never be able to write every moment that I grabbed a fear and put it in my heart. Oh, how I wish I could. But He knows. He has revealed that I had been stockpiling fears and using the words "wisdom" and "knowledge" to cover up what truly was fear. I am grateful that He wants us to walk in understanding and wisdom in what we do. To give us doctors and amazing brains out there to show us His creation and the sickness He didn't create and how to be wise. I am grateful He started that wisdom all throughout the old testament! And I am so very grateful that when Jesus went to be seated with Father God, He left us Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus to learn from! To never tremble in the presence of sickness. To be in constant communication with the Father and seek His wisdom. To not let my heart be caught up in fear! 

That's it! 

To rest in knowing He is all wise and all loving and will guide me. He has so often guided me to the right medicine and more often now guided me to praying for healing in Jesus Name. And either way He leads...I sit peaceful. 

Oh, the journey to walk this life with stillness of heart. Without the weight of fear in my life. I pray I never, ever, ever, allow it back in. I am so grateful for each opportunity He has allowed me to suffer and to see my fears and surrender them. I just want to be like Jesus...every day.