Our first week

It is hard to believe it has been more than a week that Charis into the world. I keep looking at her and can only keep thanking God for taking care of the whole process. There is no way I would plan to have the baby that way. Originally we would be leaving this Wednesday to drive to Nairobi and deliver the baby in the same hospital I had Nevaeh by an American doctor. Now the baby is already here. God is awesome. Charis is doing well even though she could be considered premature weighing 4 and a half pounds. She is eating well (this is the first question I get asked here: "Did your milk come in?" Me: "Why, yes." Inside my my head: "Thanks for asking." Awkward silence then follows.) and sleeping almost all day and all night long. She has some jaundice so we took her to the hospital last week- finally the pediatrician is in town. He wanted to take a vile of blood from her arm but we just didn't feel comfortable with her being so small. In the States they take just a few drops of blood from the infants heal but we are in Africa and they do things differently. What I feel in my heart is God took care of every single detail with Charis' labor and delivery why shouldn't I continue to trust that He will do the same now with her being jaundice? At the same time God wants us to use wisdom so if she still looks yellow on Wednesday we will go to the pediatrician again.





Another tremendous blessing we had was our friend Becky stayed with us the first week. From 8am until 7pm she was Righteous and Nevaeh's constant playmate. Becky is 18 and has been doing a 9 month internship in Nairobi. She got to travel with us and the Bethany interns to Western Kenya and fits right in. A typical day would be Righteous and Nevaeh would play outside with Becky and then come to my room to kiss and hold the baby. Then they would go and make Becky read a never ending amount of books to them and then return to my room to kiss and hold the baby. Each day we did a craft together on my bed (they are now all on the fridge- the latest is we put eye shadow, concealer, lipstick and painted nails on a lady I drew on paper for each of them) I was able to just sleep and recover and I give a lot of credit to Becky- thank you so much! I also want to thank the Bethany interns who came just a few hours after Charis was born bearing gifts of donuts and yogurt. They took Righteous and Nevaeh to church and then their home for dinner and allowed Jason and I to catch up on sleep. Finally I have to thank my wonderful husband who has cooked dinner every night and woken up with Righteous and Nevaeh every morning at the crack of dawn. I don't know what I would do without him.