Two in One Week

For the past three weeks now half the country has been on strike. People in South Africa strike so often that they actually have a "strike season" where anyone who can will strike. Usually I don't mind because when South Africans go on strike all the do is stand outside and sing and dance. Once in awhile it slows things down (like adoptions when the courts are on strike) but for the most part it is over quickly and life can carry on.



This time however, the strike is now on it's third week and so all nurses in government hospital haven't really been working. The first day of the strike every nurse literally got up and walked out of the hospitals. One hospital had 50 newborn babies just laying in beds not being cared for by anyone. The security guards were trying to just keep the babies fed. Private hospital opened up emergency wards to take in these babies and help easy the burden a bit.



The sad part was that over the last three weeks I have had three babies in hospital. The first little boy has been very sick from the day we got him and three weeks ago was not breathing well so we took him through to hospital. He was then transferred to another hospital and put on a ventilator. He did very well during the week but over the weekend when there was no nursing staff on, he became very ill. A week later our little chipmunk passed away.



The Monday that our little chipmunk passed away, we had to admit another baby to hospital. The fight just to have this child let in to the emergency room was insane. Nobody was willing to help but we finally got him into the hospital and seen to. This little boy has also had a lot of complications including two holes in his heart but when he was checked by the doctors they said that he was OK. Once again, all the nurses left for the weekend and so when our baby aspirated, there was no one there to resuscitate him and he also passed away. A week after the other one. Two deaths in one week. Two memorial services in one week. Too much for my heart to handle when I already have all the emotions of leaving Door of Hope in just a few days.



I agree that the nurses need more money but I find it very hard to support them when my children are dying over a disagreement. It's just not fair.



Thankfully, when the third baby stopped breathing, we took him to a private hospital (because the government hospitals were not seeing anyone and he wouldn't have made it all the way there anyway) he was admitted (after a lot of fighting and hassle) free of charge to be treated until the strike was over. He is doing well and improving every day. I am so thankful that he is getting the care that he needs. It just makes me so angry that the other two couldn't be as blessed.



There is however, things that happen to make all the bad days worth it.this week I found out that my special little girl with the liver problem has been approved by a country for adoption. When a child has special needs they first have to be approved by the country before we will know if there is a family. So now we know that this little girl is adoptable! Even though they say that they do not have any families available for her at the moment, it is such a relief to know that this little girl who doctors said would not live to be a year old, in now going to have a family of her own!

It will be so hard to leave here and to miss out on everything but I am thankful that God is in control and will continue to love and care for these kids when I cannot. My last few days will be spent celebrating a first birthing, doing one final adoption, and getting all the cuddles I can!