Okay, no. I will spare you all that...for now anyway. I don't have anything profound to say except that pregnancy, well, pregnancy = suffering for this girl. I am almost at 6 months, completed 5, and I have had maybe, maybe, 6 or 7 days of feeling o.k. Not good, but o.k. In 5 months! That is like 150 days or something.
I never knew it was so hard. I have so much more respect for, well, every woman who has carried a child to term and delivered, because for every person I look at, someone had to go through some kind of terror to bring them into this world.
Well it isn't news to anyone that I was blessed with hyperemesis gravidarum (the best diet known to mankind (if you're not pregnant)) for 4 months, but that goes away, I think, and a week later I get parasites, yes, a form of E. Coli. And, as if that isn't bad enough, I am diagnosed with a bacteria infection which causes me to immediately regurgitate anything solid I put in my mouth, and of course, gastritis, which means eating or not, I have acid burning mad in my esophagus, and if I am lucky, my throat too, almost all the time.
So, I've been giving our doctor really good business lately. Medicines are my new best friends. And don't worry, Mary Charis is growing just fine and has firmly rooted her butt right on top of my bladder, literally. Today during the ultrasound, she was sitting with her head upright, right at the base of my sternum, her butt straight down and her knees pulled up to her chest. Just hanging out in there with all her new little friends I suppose.
How did I get all these little playmates for my daughter you may ask? Well, someone didn't cook their feces good enough for me, and I ate them. Nice, I know. * Note to self * next time be sure to order them well-done. Noted.
Enough about me, we all know you are reading this to find out about the children's home. Well, it's still not there. We are still waiting on more funding. While we have been super blessed in the donations we have received recently, we still lack roughly $6,000 to start and $26,000 to finish. Some people, knowing we do not fund-raise, have felt led to fund-raise for us. It amazes me the things the Lord lays on the hearts of His church (the people, not the building). And last month was an incredibly special month with some of the donations we received, including the Morris Ave SGA donation. Those kids collected coins every day for two months for us and even won an award for it! That's incredible. A HUGE "thank you" to every single contributer. Way to make a pregnant woman smile!
So, what did we do all month last month, you ask? Well our guard and his wife got saved in our living room. Amazing. Our pastor came over to answer some of his questions and we chatted a while about salvation and my two humble friends decided it was time to make a profession of faith in Christ! Bam. He came to church with us to receive classes on baptism, and now we are planning their baptism for the next few weeks. Wow. Those of you who have been here know him, Julio, and others of you may have eaten his wife's food.
Our neighbor, the very very poor one, with no running water, no bathroom, no electricity, and no teeth...well her oldest son I found lying on his bed in tears with a fever of 104.6. I asked her why she hadn't taken him to the doctor and she told me, "He said he didn't want to go." End of conversation. I was like, "He is 12 years old, who cares what he wants?" So we scooped him up, carried him to the car and drove him to the emergency room. Got some tests done and found out he had parasites and a very bad bacteria infection. Yes, ironic isn't it? I know. We bought his medicine and within a week he was getting back to normal.
We started the sueing process of the bad, dirty, evil lawyer (see last blog). We will see how that goes.
We visited Henry (see many blogs ago) and he was still there, lying in his soiled bed, with long fingernails and curling toe nails. We still sponsor him monthly by buying a good bit of food and medicine, and it helps, but he needs nurses and caregivers. Still no news about the home in Antigua and whether they have a space or not.
We had my mom come down and visit for a week and stocked up on lots of little girl baby stuff and got to eat some really, really (shaking my head thinking about it) good food while she was here. Including Hard Rock Cafe, mmm. It was good to have her here and I didn't like seeing her leave. That was actually a few of the 6 days where I felt better. She has turned in to quite the tech-saavy grandma always on that Iphone 12 or whatever, snappin' photos and postin' them before you even knew she took one.
And well other than being pregnant and trying to survive, that's about it. We are preparing for a team to come down in June and pave half the driveway. That will be a huge blessing. And in between spending a little time with the kids at the dump and waiting patiently through all the hot weather and earthquakes to get started on the next part of the home, we've been seeking the Lord's provision. We're ready and so are the kids who will one day live here, they're ready too. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. We love you!
Love, Jenna
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