Caleb

Hi

It's not been a week since I wrote, but my life took a little path out of the norm. What a life, living the kind where you never know what will happen. Now I'm a temporary mama ! I want to introduce you to Caleb.

Caleb was born Feb 13, 2010. He never met his dad - he died in the earthquake. His mom left Port au Prince and went up into the mountains, where she had some family. After she gave birth, she too died. His aunt took care of him for almost 2 weeks, but couldn't continue, so after talking to one of my nurses from Montrouis, she came to Canaan, asking them to take the baby.

At 2 weeks he weighs 3.5 kg (about 7.5 lbs.). There was some discussion on who would take care of Caleb (who at the time didn't have a name yet- me and the other missionaries named him. The name just somehow fit). Right now we're a bit short on steady staff for a baby, and I don't like the idea of a baby being taken care of so many people. So now, Naomi and I are taking care of him. Since she is leaving next month, I'm kind of the mama for him. Naomi is able to take care of him a little better during the day, and we share the nights (I'm glad she's here). He's still waking up frequently, although last night he slept for almost 4 hours. Yea!!! During the day, he sleeps. A lot! We try to keep him up sometime so he'll sleep at night. Basically the only time he cries is from 9-12 p.m.

I realize this is going to make me even more busy. I don't see my whole way through yet, but it'll work out. You may hear from me even less.

Chris Hlavecek was Caleb's fairy godmother (or rather godfather). Since he was coming Monday, I had a day to write him and ask him for some baby stuff. He spread some of it around and they brought a lot of stuff, including the above top of the line carrier. That's a better one than I'd probably ever have bought for myself. It was like having a baby shower! Clothes (needed because we had him in girl clothes), diapers and diaper bag, wipes, good baby monitors (that reach 2000 ft), playpen/crib, bottles, etc etc.

This week we have a team of 17 here. There are three nurses in the team. Besides them, there were two nurses that came at the same time that were actually scheduled to go to the hospital, but because of flight changes and all, ended up here (though they might still work out of PP), so the last two days I've had 5 nurses helping at the clinic. Cool! Today we saw 60 patients, plus about 30 Mamba kids. BUSY! But good.

One case that was bad today was a 12 yr with STD. Forced to sleep with another young girl by a neighbor man, and him watching. You can imagine the rest. What do I do with THAT? And his 9 yr old brother had similar symptoms.

Here's a prayer request: Chris Hlavacek was contacted today by a pastor, who apparently is or has people at another orphanage in Montrouis here. They have the rig to dig wells and wondered about doing one for us. We need that SOOOO badly. Pray that things will work out.

And continue praying for me, that in my schedule I won't leave behind things I need to do. Sometimes I feel like there's always something I should be doing that I didn't. And pray that I can learn to be an instant mom :) It's not hard right now - eat, sleep, cuddle, but the teaching later on is a little different.

Think he'll turn into a computer wiz, if he sleeps beside me while I work? He sleeps anywhere....

So while I was at work, Naomi settled him on the counter in the cafeteria, while she did baking class with the kids. I hope he'll be a flexible kid!

OK, time to settle in for the night. It's my night off from babysitting so I should sleep well. I can see my life already rotating around Caleb. I'm a little concerned about getting too attached to him.

Till later!

Elsie