Oliver and I sitting in the hospital last week.

Oliver

         One of our younger children, Oliver (6 years old), started having convulsions brought on by malaria last Thursday night.  They first treated her in a Budaka clinic, and then we rushed her to a hospital in Mbale as she wasn’t responding to the medication quickly enough.  As she continued to convulse, kicking me, ripping at the clothes of Aunt Betty (who was holding her in her lap), all of us in the car were scared, wondering if she would even make it to the hospital.  We just kept trying to hold her head away from the door, where she could bang it, and continued praying.

         Thankfully, the doctor got Oliver into the hospital immediately on arrival and was able to get her the needed treatment.  Her convulsions stopped by about midnight of the same night we brought her to the hospital.  Our nurse at Cornerstone, Mary, was able to stay the night with Oliver and make sure she was okay. 

         I then had the opportunity to spend all of Friday in the hospital with Oliver, while the nurses continued to give her medicine through her IV.  I taught her Tic Tac Toe, we went on I Spy walks around the hospital grounds, I let her play games on my phone, and we watched movies on my laptop.  (This was my first time to spend an entire day in the hospital- they really are boring, but vitally important, places!).  

         Oliver ended up staying two nights total in the hospital and came back ready to play with her friends last Saturday. Many of the other Cornerstone children had expressed concern that Oliver wasn’t ever coming back, so seeing her allayed their fears.  The other kids showered her with attention and there wasn’t any shortage of smiles or laughter that afternoon.  It was great to see our Cornerstone family reunited after such a scary illness took Oliver away for a few days.  I am happy to be able to write that Oliver is fine now. :)

Moses' newest breakthrough

Moses has learned another great skill this week!  Since he is the “baby” in the Cornerstone family, and because of his age, he likes to throw temper tantrums.  Often his tantrums are a result of his inability to adequately communicate what he needs or wants, and in the end, everyone wants to stop him from crying, so they figure out what he wants and give it to him. 

         Knowing all of this, I have been working with him on expressing himself using words and sign language, not screams and tears, to communicate.  Maybe I’m spoiling him further, but there is one thing that I’ve discovered motivates him well in this endeavor: sugar.  Each time he’s in our kitchen and sees our container of sugar, he points to it excitedly.  I decided he should learn to say and sign the word “sugar.”  I helped this vocabulary term along by giving him some sugar granules in his hand each time he asked for sugar with his words.  For the last few weeks, I have said, “What do you want?  Use your words,” but I have always had to first give the response, “Sugar please” for him to say it back to me.

         But yesterday, after he pointed at the sugar, I again said, “Moses, what do you want?  Use your words.”  And he said, “Sugar please,” while using the sign language I taught him, all without me first prodding him with the answer.  I was so excited!  And of course, I gave him some sugar in his hand as a reward.  So he’s learned to communicate what he wants (which is almost always sugar now) but now my dilemma is: When do I stop giving him sugar as a reward for communicating? Whose really training who here?

         Thought I would share this great next step in Moses’ development.  And by the way, he is walking everywhere these days.  There’s no leaving him behind anymore, whether it’s a game, meal time, or whatever- he follows the children and gets involved.  Every day, his gait is strengthening and he can walk farther without stopping to rest.  Yeah, Moses!

Love you all,

Abby