our sad sick days!

Well, we haven't written because our days in Peru have not been all that wonderful lately! In every life some rain must fall, and in ours it has been in the form of sickness!!The kids all got some sort of viral disease with fevers running up to 104 degrees! I kept thinking that in the States I would just let it take its course and go from there. Here, thoughts of malaria, dengue, and who knows what other kind of bird, swine, toucan, or monkey flu invaded my thoughts. So, after one day of high fevers, I took Kristi in to the local Posta (that is what they call a clinic here). Thankful that I didn't have to see the Dr. just go for the free malaria test, I walked by lots and lots of people waiting to be seen, went to a door marked Laboratorio and waited with Kristi.  The lady behind the desk asked me to write Kristi's name and birth date on a slip of paper then we were left to wonder what would come next. I prayed we wouldn't be re-using any pricking devices and was glad when a new-in-the-package lancet was used to prick Kristi's finger. The lady then smeared Krist's blood on a glass slide and asked us to be back in an hour. We waited, not so patiently and returned to another room to get our results. Our paper had been marked  with a (-) and for that we were thankful! I asked the ladies that were reading these tests under the microscope how many positives they had that morning and was shocked that they had already had, by 11:30am 6 positives on malaria!  Well, everyone survived the fevers, but Matt. By Sunday, he had gone 48+ hours without food, vomiting, fever, and was saying things like "Mom, there is gasoline in my shoes".  At that point, off we went to the ER, located 45 away by bumpy dirt roads and crazy downtown city roads. What a great Adventist medical facility we have here! After three ER visits, three blood works, 1 IV for Matt, some nubulizing treatments, a shot for Kristi and we were sent home with a bill of just over $120. Cheap for us, practically unaffordable for most!

I wish I could say that was the end, but alas...no. A week later I got the flu, I was down just a couple of days and was better just in time to take Matthew to the Dr. again. Praise the Lord, though, I think we all are starting to feel better...maybe.

Captain Nemo....

Walking home one day after dropping our girls off at school, I was stopped by a lady who had the cutest puppy I have ever seen! She wanted to know if I wanted to buy it. Hmmm, do we really need a puppy? This was the question running through my brain as the puppy, only 4 weeks old, is cuddling up to me. well, my kids have always wanted a puppy, why not here?! Might as well take advantage of the fact that nothing here is ever really clean, so why not!  The owner said she needed to sell it so she could buy her daughter a PE uniform. So, i bought her the uniform, gave her some eye drops for an eye infection and we got ourselves a puppy for a bout $8.00. All 18 kids in our home are LOVING him. Me, not so much in the middle of the night when he is crying. But he is cute...

Not just any home...

The girl's home in Santo Thomas is truly a special place. There are other homes for abandoned and abused children here in the Iquitos area, but I feel that this one is one directed by God's love. Every morning there is a family worship, prayer before meals, church, play time together, prayer when they are being tucked in. God is working on the lives of these girls. Most come in knowing nothing of God and who He is, and slowly we try to demonstrate His love by our lives and how we live it. We have fun as a family, too such as playing soccer most afternoons rain or shine, games, and just laughing. And of course, all of us have our daily chores. The girls take turns cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. It truly is a blessing!

Daily life pictures!

The guys helping with the cooking!

Our room! This is where we sleep and live.

Cleaning our food! Every Wednesday it comes in and we spend the afternoon washing away! And our church! We love the open feeling...

New Additions!

These last 2 weeks have been full and interesting. Our house has had a few additions. On the right, is Briggith who arrived a little over a week ago.Meri who is on the left, arrived last Friday and with her came this wonderful little package!

Little two month old Vivian! Our house is FULL!!