Uuuggghh

You never know when some creeping bug (bacterial or otherwise) is going to pounce on you. At any given moment. We are vulnerable to about 40-11 different things to get us sick. Right now 3 of us, including a 2 year old, a volunteer and I are suffering from an intestinal bug. At first, I thought I had food poisioning as well as the other volunteer but as we all seem to have the same symptoms, I have come to the conclusion that we all have the same Gastro-intestinal infection. ie...fever, nausea....you dont want me to continue. Checked for malaria and its negative, thank goodness, however, it sure is debilitating and I sure feel lousy. Could use a few prayers my way..
It has kept me home for the last 2 days. Grrrrr!!!
Printer went out in the office and I cant print any of my med sheets or feeding charts or anything. It is also hard to find a printer in town that is colored. That is a prayer need. I can't even read. I am so tired and sleepy that as soon as I do I fall asleep. Oh well, Im sure I can use the rest. Funds are running low so I don't drive the car much either. I try not to complain to much about the power outages that have been significantly increased lately. Gets old always being in the dark at night. Hmmm that sounds like a complaint. I should Praise God in the midst of it and Not worry. Now there's a novel idea. PRAISE GOD!!! I sure do and I sure am thankful for His presence. No snakes this week, that is a real good thing!!!!!!

donations

ThunderMt51 asked about donations. Please email me at drsoxxatamani@gmail.com with your name and repeat the interest. I have no way of contacting you this way. Thanks. By the way this sounds like my school district at home and a familiar middle school

Quiet Sunday

Just thought you would like to know, that today I led a peaceful, Non-snake invaded Sunday. I was blessed with a wonderful, beautiful not so hot day today. Praise God, how he watches over us. I have been working on updating and changing the nutritional plan and diet regime for the kids at the baby home. Mama Cook (Sarah) makes delicious meals but we need to tweak here and add there (as much as money and availability will allow) so that the kids have a better nutritional intake. It has taken me two weeks almost to get it finished and on paper. Tomorrow we start implementing. The kids are such sweet blessings here at the baby home. I enjoy them immensily. I feel like I have accomplished much over the last week and Thank God for it. I can't wait to see what this next week will bring (besides a trip to the dentist in Kampala). Blessings

Valentines Day Surprise

There are some ministry things I try to do outside the walls of the baby home. I like to refer to them as my outreach ministries. Some way to help some people that truly need the assistance. I think some may remember Amina the little girl with the birth defects who died last Spring 07. But currently, I have been assisting a Ugandan young women and her husband with pre-natal exams and agreed to act as midwife for the couple. Their very real fears of the lack of OB skill here at the local hospital terrified her. She works for a missionary couple in town. On Valentines Day I was priveledged to deliver their precious little girl who was born at 10:05 AM and weighed in at 3.05 kg (6#7oz). It was a great joy to participate in a field of nursing for which I am trained and have much experience. Little Valentine (who really still has no official name) decided to try and deliver with a loose cord around her neck and both her hands on her face. In so doing mom required some stitching despite the extra care for the contrary. At any rate, Praise God mom and baby are doing very well and just for you OB fanatics. Baby Valentine's Apgars were 8/9 and she came out to be 40 Weeks AGA. It was the best Valentines Day I have had for some time.

Amani Baby Cottage

Days roll into each other sometimes here in Uganda, so much sometimes its hard to tell what day it is. It is always busy and always there is something to do. The kids are a joy and a pain all at the same time, but then, so is every kid on the planet. Here at Amani, we try to provide as close to a real home setting as we can possibly achieve. With our limited funds we don't always get what we want or need, but we try so hard to provide as much as possible. In comparison to many Orphanages, we have a great place.

We, again, God be Praised, have a 8 more children who are nearing the tail end of their fostering/adoption process. This includes Danyne, Debbie and Stacie and 3 families stateside. It is difficult for those who have never been here and even those who have, to understand just what we go through to help these parents get their kids home. There is so so so so much footwork, endless phonecalls and endless "do overs" in regards to paperwork, trips to Kampala, headaches, heartaches and explanations to our local goverment. Costs keep rising and we have NO choice but to "charge" for those costs.

Amani suffered greatly last year with costs from the last group simply because there ended up being so much more to pay for than we ever dreamed. As we are a NGO we do not have a bank or money tree to draw from. How I wish we did. I wish it could be done cost free. Each and every schilling we ask the parents for goes into COST. Amani has NEVER pulled a profit from any parent, nor will we ever.

I cannot even begin to imagine what the stateside costs for these parents must be. I have heard that some have paid around 14,000 USD just for the stateside costs. Ours, we have figured, have roughly increased to about $3,000 USD and unfortunately that amount changes all the time. As this includes court costs and lawyer and other goverment fees, we never know when we will have to pay out some more schillings to achieve our ultimate goal. TO GET THESE PRECIOUS GIFTS FROM GOD INTO A LOVING CHRISTIAN HOME.

Today, Danyne is trying to finish her adoption that has been 5 years in the making. She has worked so hard to facillitate adoptions and fostership of all the other parents, she has had little time to try and complete her own adoption of Danyne and Diana whom, she has had for 5 years. Debbie has worked on finalizing hers for the last year and has had Sonia for going on 4 years now. Stacie while trying to facillitate the fostering of this latest american group is working on her own with Annabelle as well.

What a job these ladies have. What a joy it is to see it finally come to fruition. I am so blessed to be a part of it. As the medical director of ABC, I am a part of the greater good and I help wherever I can.

Blessings to these ladies and all we strive to do for these kids. Praise God things are going better so far in Kampala than they were in Jinja.

I pray that these children will one day know what their 'parents' went through, the many trips to Uganda, the money, the joys, the pain, the waiting, the changes, the agonies and all the unknowns. How could anyone love another child more!!!

Snakes, Bugs and other fowl creatures

Ok so I can live with the birds, because they are beautiful, exotic and down right facinating, the bugs though I dislike them immensily especially in my house are livable. What I can't stand is the snakes. For going on three years I have lived and worked here and have never had a live snake encounter until this last week. NOT only one snake but two encounters in one week. The first at my back door so close to it that when I stepped out, I stepped right on (thank God in Heaven) its head. It was smaller (about 12" long and as round as pencil). The second much bigger and much more frightening. It was on my window shelf in my living room and I nearly touched it before seeing it was a snake curled up on the shelf. 5ft from its head I screamed and flew off the chair I was standing on when I saw its slithering tongue come out at me. With me trying to talk through my hysteria, Stacie realized there was a true threat in our home called our night guard at the baby home and he came and killed it (with me safely esconsed in my bedroom) and took it away. It really served to dampen and ruin my beautiful Sunday. It was at least 2 1/2 ft long and about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. VERY GREEN!!! Yes, both these snakes were Green Mamba's. Though deadly, Praise God they rarely strike. I am suffering physically both yesterday and today from that encounter. I truly abhor them and feel ill from it. Ok there's my second entry

The Beginning of this blog

I am attempting something new. Not sure if it will work for me but it is worth a try. So all you blog reading friends out there. Let me know if you like this or if you think it will work for my newsletter and ministry tool for updates and communication about the latest and greatest of Siouxanne in Uganda.
I am excited to tell you that I will be starting my furlough home on June 25. I will board a British Airlines flight to London and have a 24 hour layover there. What should I do this time?? Then I will fly directly to Denver the next day where I hope my kids will be to pick me up. If you desire a visit with me or a presentation at your church or civic group, contact me for appointments. If you just want to have a meal, I am always up for eating. Blessings