translation: Grace
Meet the newest member of our Bercario (nursery)....Graca
She will be 8 months old in just a few days. She only weighs 5 kg (11 lbs). Though you can't tell from the picture, she's a 2-3 month old in size and stature. She is quite malnourished and couldn't tolerate regular baby formula today (though dad said she was taking it and baby cereal just fine....perhaps it was quite watered down milk though)....she just kept vomitting it up....so we are back to square 1 like in the beginning days of Fernanda. She's on a special kind of milk for the next week, taking it every 3 hours around the clock in little bits. We are hoping she'll keep this down. She is very sick with malnutrition as well as tuberculosis and HIV. She has been on TB treatment for a month now and is still losing weight. This week she will start taking ARV's for HIV which are just as bad as the TB treatment. Pray for no side effects from either medicine, that she starts tolerating the food we give her, and that she'll begin gaining weight. We are praying for God's grace on little Graca! We want to see what happened to Fernanda....happen to Graca....
from THIS
to THIS.....
in just 7 days!
We will be praying daily for her and Fernanda at 3pm our time (8am/9am central/eastern time) when she wakes from her nap and we weigh her. We'll continue this for these first few weeks....well, until she doesn't need daily prayer over her life. That doesn't mean we've stopped praying for her, just laying hands on her and interceding/begging God to save her little sweet spirit! We invite you to join us praying for Graca and continuing to pray for Fernanda.Fernanda gained 330 grams in the last 2 days and has.......BEGUN TO CRAWL!!! Well, like 4 crawly steps when begged to come to us from just a foot away. But it means she's getting stronger, bonding, and becoming more interactive which is an amazingly rapid transformation for her! This normally takes a lot longer. She still isn't doing it of her own free will, but we know her sweet, beautiful personality will be shining brightly through her tiny diseased body someday soon! Continue to pray for her....she also has an infection and we started her on antibiotics today. She continues with high fevers everyday which makes her quite uncomfortable!
Meet Ernesto......
pronounce: "Err-nesh-two"
His registration papers tell us he's 15 months old....but i think you'll agree with me (and the number of his teeth, his weight/size, his vocabulary and language command, as well as developmental behavior) that he's at least 3 years old. He arrived the day after Fernanda, and I honestly just haven't had time to introduce you. He's living in our Baby House and has adjusting quite quickly despite the fact that he didn't know a word of Portuguese (only his tribal language) when he came to live with us! He has such a sweet nature and now tries to mimic everything you say and do to learn....and learning he is doing....quickly! Pray for his continued adjustment and quick language acquisition!
Thanks for praying for our beautiful children! And thanks for all the emails I've recieved in support and prayer and encouragement over these last few weeks re: Naftal and Fernanda. You are each wonderful and special to me. Thanks for blessing me and these children so wonderfully. Excuse me for not being able to get back in touch with each of you personally!
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