Babies washing babies

i have a really cute story for everyone. i told you in my last post that we have a new family here, the VanderWerfs. Their youngest daughter, Emma, is only seven years old and last week i got to wash babies with her. On baby washing day last week we had everything set up to get started, we had plenty of people to dump water, wash the older kids hair, almost too many people to do clothes and just the right amount of people to brush hair. But we were a little short on people to wash the little kids. So i went into the tent to help out and i find Emma, sitting by one of the tubs, ready for her first kid. i went to wash with her, figuring she probably wouldn't help much seeing as how the kids are extremely dirty and she wouldn't want to get dirty herself.

The first kid comes up, a boy probably her age and definitely bigger than her. Emma grabs the shampoo bottle and squirts a big glob on his head. She scrubbed and scrubbed that little boy's hair, telling him to close his eyes when she dumped a cup of water over his head. When we were done she grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his arms and tried to pick up that little boy that was a head taller than herself. i took over then, lifted him out of the tub and brought him to his mom. When i turned around Emma was trying to carry the tub of dirty water all by herself to dump outside.

She kept working hard the entire time we were washing kids, scrubbing hair, washing faces. At one point she kicked off her flip flops because her feet were getting to wet. By the end, it looked like she needed a bath. Her hair was stuck to her face, the front of her shirt was all wet and her feet were slimy. And Emma ran off to play with the kids she had just washed, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a seven year old not to be timid to wash the grimy feet of someone her own age. Maybe that should be the norm.

update

Sorry its taken so long to write another post. We've been really busy with new visitors and the baby. i wanted Braeden to write something on his trip last month to the jungle but he has been so busy with videos and things that i will just tell you a little bit about it. The boat that they were planning on taking up the river turned out to be a small fishing boat. So for four days they were crammed into this boat with ten guys, eighteen liters of water and all of their backpacks and supplies. They tried fishing for their meals but when they caught their first meal it was all rotted by the time they stopped for the night to cook it. The rest of the days they couldn't even catch anything because a family of dolphins was following their boat and kept scaring the fish away. Half way through the trip they realized that they wouldn't have enough water to get through the trip so they had to ration. Only one small glass of water each every few hours. On the third day they ran out of gas before they reached the first village so they had to hike through the jungle to the village. Once they got there they got as much water as they wanted from a well and bought some gas. Braeden said that it was one of the hardest things he ever did but all in all he had a great time and was glad he did it.

Braeden's mom, aunt and brother visited last week and it was so great to see them again. We got to show them around the city and take them to all of the ministries we do. They got to spend time with Miles and bring down an enormous supply of diapers and toys and clothes. The only downside about their visit is that they had to leave and now we are very homesick. As it gets hotter and hotter here everyday we are really missing the leaves changing color and the upcoming snow. All i want to do is take Miles for a walk in downtown Holland and stop in at JP's. For some reason i am especially missing our church Beechwood these past few weeks. When we sing hymns at our church down here it reminds me of Beechwood and its hard not to cry, thinking of all our friends back home sitting in church at the same time as us. But it also reminds me to be thankful that we have a church that we love so much that it makes us homesick when we sing familiar songs. Thanks Beechwood!

On the ministry side of things we are starting to get busy and will continue to do so. A couple of weeks ago we added another family to the mission here. The Vanderwerfs have three young daughters and they plan on staying long term, my parents will finally have permanent help down here once Braeden and i leave. We are getting another permanent family in December and a couple planning on staying a year that are coming this summer. This coming Thursday we get another intern, a guy named Jed who came down on the first short term mission trip that Braeden and i helped on. We are going to be really busy up until Christmas helping these new families get settled but thats a great thing because it means that the ministry is finally growing in help.

Prayer Request

i've got a big prayer request for everyone. Braeden is gone for a week traveling in the rainforest and i need a lot of prayer to get me through it. Besides the fact that i absolutely hate it when he's gone, he is traveling by boat on a river, eating fish and sleeping in tents in villages along the way. He won't be able to call until Tuesday or Wednesday. Please pray that he is safe and i don't worry too much. On top of not knowing how he is doing Miles is throwing up a lot and has decided that he has to be held all the time and only by me, that includes while he is sleeping. We had a very difficult night last night with me trying to lay him down when he fell asleep and he getting very angry that i would even try to put him down. He ended up in his dad's side of the bed. Please pray that Miles isn't sick and i don't have to take him to the doctor while Braeden is gone. Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

From Chocolate ice cream to Contractions

After nine months of family and friends praying for a fast delivery, their prayers were definitely answered. At nine o’clock pm on September 21^st we were eating ice cream. At 11 o’clock we called the doctor. At 11:30 I was 3cm dilated. At 12:30 we were heading to the delivery room and at 1:35 am on September 22^nd, after two pushes, Miles Michael Ellis was born.

A fast delivery is just one of the many blessings we have received in the past week since Miles has arrived. From a hospital bill a third of the cost of the U.S. to our doctor who generously delivered Miles for free, to being able to skype with my sisters in the hospital to Miles sleeping through most of the night, we feel like God has showered us with gift after gift on top of this new little person in our family.

We have also noticed that it is truly a blessing to have delivered in Bolivia, in a country filled with poverty and tragedy. Too often it is easy for us to become numb to the countless stories and statistics we hear about children and hunger and homelessness because we are surrounded by it everyday. Being parents has now given us a new look at things and, while it reminds us to be truly grateful that we have everything we could possibly need to take care of our own son, it also reaffirms the importance of being here and working with children.

Its heartbreaking to me that one child every five seconds dies from hunger while I have both the capability to breastfeed and can afford to buy formula. Here in Bolivia we have been asked to take children who were being neglected by their mother and were literally eating grass because they were so hungry.

We currently have three pediatricians who are offering their services and there are nine million children who die every year from preventable illnesses. We heard of a baby named George who lived in the neighborhood that our first orphanage is in who had a condition where he couldn’t suck to breastfeed. It is a curable condition, however, the mother couldn’t afford the doctor’s bill and before we could find this family, the baby died.

40% of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day and we see the affects of this every week at Baby Washing. It is very difficult to know that these mothers cannot even afford to buy milk for their children let alone clothes and back at home Miles has a closet full of them.

The hardest reality to deal with though is the fact that Braeden and I can love our new son so much and want to do absolutely everything for him while our orphanages are being filled with children who have no parents to love them.

So thank you to everyone for your prayers for our new little addition. We are so grateful for all of the gifts, cards and how happy everyone is for us. Now we ask you to pray for all of the children who are born and do not have all of this. Pray for the children who have no parents but also pray for the parents who do love their children and, because of poverty, can’t give them what they desperately want to give them. Many of us worry about getting the new Littlest Pet Shop that our child wants for Christmas or being able to afford Ballet lessons. Imagine worrying about where your child’s next meal will come from.

The Water Witch

Here's a story i thought you all might enjoy.

My dad has an electrician friend who called the other day to tell my dad about a friend of his who claims to have the ability to feel the presence of water below ground with his hands. He says that it is a gift from God and he will walk through any piece of property for free to help people find water sources underground for wells. My Dad, being the humorous man that he is, decided it would be interesting to take this guy out to our orphanage in Villa israel to see if he could "feel" any water underground for a well out there.

When he met the guy at the plaza he found a large man, about 6'2"(very tall for Bolivians) with his shirt tucked into superman underwear so my dad already had a hard time taking him seriously. When they got to the property the man took out a wire hanger that had been bent into a V and began slowly walking around the property spinning it in his hands. At certain spots he would stop and the hanger would spin really fast. Sometimes he would say "oh thats just the powerline" and sometimes he would say "okay, there's water about 40 meters down, there's this much of it and you will get this many liters of water."

On their way back my dad decided he would offer to pay this man for his time since my dad was really only curious about what he would do and wasn't very serious about using the information. He was figuring he would pay him about 30 bolivianos( 4 dollars) and the guy would be happy. But the guy asked for 150.(20 dollars) My dad ran to a bank to take 150 bolivianos out and handed it to the guy. The guy looked at it, confused, and said, "No, i meant 150 dollars." My dad couldn't help laughing and said that he didn't have 150 dollars to spend on finding out where water was located underground. The guy said that normally he charged 250 dollars for his talent but he would take 100 since it was for an orphanage. My dad explained that he didn't even have 50 dollars to spend but he promised that if he ever got the 10,000 dollars to put in a well for that orphanage and there was in fact water where he claimed there was then he would make sure he paid him 150 dollars. We are all very curious to know whether this guy was right about the location of water so if anyone has 10,000 dollars ( plus 150) lying around let us know.

inspiration

A little while ago i wrote about the Summerfields, a missionary family that has been taking care of a one year old little boy named Angelito for almost a year now. The Summerfields want to adopt him but they are over the age limit to adopt in Bolivia. We have all been a little on edge this summer because a family was found for Angelito and all they need is a court hearing and they will be able to take him. The court day has been pushed back several times for different reasons, which gives us all hope that he might actually be able to stay with the Summerfields. This last time the court date got postponed it was due to the fact that all the adoption judges in Bolivia quit and there is no one to replace them quickly.

This past Sunday was a difficult Sunday. The family that wants to adopt Angelito has been getting anxious to meet him and spend time with him and they were given permission by the director of the orphanage that Angelito came from to come to our church and meet him for the first time (even though they technically were not allowed to have contact until the judge reviewed them and gave permission to go forward). it was a very hard situation because i am sure that this new family has really been struggling with not being able to get the son that they have been hoping for, yet the Summerfields are still praying that they will be able to keep him and had to watch a new family hold him and play with him.

Through all of this though i have been very inspired by the faith and parenting of Lori Summerfield, the mother. They can't have children biologically so they have two adopted children from Peru. The story of their other two children is just as difficult to hear with them spending months in Peru, having the children taken away from them at one point and finally getting them back underfed and weak. And now they caring for this new little boy who has nobody. its hard to grasp the fact that there are women in this world who can have children so easily, yet don't want them and then there are women like Lori who desperately want to be mothers and have to go through hoops and regulations to be a mother to children who don't have anyone. Through all of this Lori is always hopeful and always thankful to God for allowing her to care for Angelito. She is never bitter about the circumstances and it is inspiring to watch her enjoy every moment with him. To me she is the perfect role model of what a mother should be, being there for a child no matter what, whether she has two more weeks with him or eighteen years.