Category: Other Page 120 of 181

God is Gracious

Stella got her stitches out today, and was discharged to go home.  So we went over to pay the final bill and take William and Stella home. 

Their baby’s name is Janet, and she is one week old today.  Baby and Mama are both doing great, and exceedingly beautiful.  Enjoy!

About a dozen different people/families gave money to make sure Stella got good medical care, and I’m sure hundreds of people prayed.  William and Stella have told me repeatedly to thank everyone who stood beside them through this.  But don’t stop praying!  1 in 9 children in Tanzania don’t make it to their 5th birthday. 

Janet M. is a very good friend of William and Stella’s whom William has known for over 10 (15?) years.  She and her husband were deeply involved in William’s life and ministry.  If she had been in Tanzania this year, I know she would have been the one making sure Stella got good medical care.  It’s a perfect name for their baby. 

Then I looked up the meaning of ‘Janet’:  God is Gracious.

Definitely perfect.

Weeping May Remain for a Night, But Rejoicing Comes in the Morning

There she is.  Beautiful, beautiful sight.  Born around 11:30 this morning, 2.6 kg.  I took this picture about two hours after she was born.  No epidurals at this hospital, so Stella was put completely under.  When I saw her, she was still too groggy to really stay awake or even hold her baby.  Only awoke enough to say “Asante” when Dr. Carolyn and I gave her our congratulations, both of us in tears. 

 5:30 pm update:

(by the way, no name yet.  In Tanzanian culture that can come days or even weeks later.)

Almost

C-Section Scheduled for Tomorrow (Saturday)

Ultrasound revealed baby is 2.9 kg/6.4 pounds, 35 gestational weeks.

Pray!  More news to come soon!

Eternal Investments

Remember Maggie?  She is a part of our family this year.  Grace still insists on calling Maggie her big sister, though today she said worriedly, “Mommy, is Maggie going to leave us soon?” 

Now why would she say a thing like that?

Maybe because I just happened to hyperventilate today when I saw the package Maggie got.  FedExed.  From Stanford University.  Yeah.  I’m from California, and grew up 40 minutes away from Stanford, yet they never FedExed me anything

We knew a couple of weeks ago that Maggie got accepted to Stanford and MIT, but she didn’t receive her financial aid package until today.  (FedExed–did I mention that?)  It says:  Parent contribution:  $0.  Student contribution:  $0.  They even gave her money for books.  And airfare

Oh my word.  Do you think they want her to come?

My best friend in high school was valedictorian.  I wasn’t too far behind.  Where did we go to college?  San Jose State University.  Not sayin’ there’s really that much difference, of course, between Stanford and SJSU.  Oh–you haven’t heard of it?  Well, your loss.

When I went to high school, everyone pretty much talked about their three college choices:  SJSU, West Valley Community College or De Anza Community College.  Here, at HOPAC, so far this year students have been accepted to Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale.  And MIT and Stanford, of course.  Among others.  And there’s only 25 students in the class.  Um, yeah.  Did anyone from my graduating class go to any of those schools? 

I just kept staring at that piece of paper.  Never seen anything like it. 

And you know what else?  She’s probably going to turn it down.  She hasn’t received her MIT package yet, but that’s her first choice, and we’re all guessing it will be just as good. 

We’ve always known, teaching at HOPAC, that we would be impacting students who have the capability of changing the world.  Since this is only HOPAC’s third graduating class, we haven’t been able to really see the fruit of that investment yet. 

But now we are.  Maggie wants to return to Tanzania and help change her country.  After she majors in aerospace engineering at MIT, of course.  To God be the glory.

Waiting to Meet That New Little Life

Last week I ran into William and he told me the doctor says he will do a C-section on Stella this Thursday.  I was a little shocked to hear that, and decided not to post it until I had it confirmed. 

So Dr. Carolyn did some investigating on Saturday.  The OB doctor was too busy to talk, so she asked around with the various nurses.  You have to understand that even though this is a “good” hospital, the methods of running this hospital are very different from what you would be used to.  Nothing is computerized; everything is hand-written. 

She said that what she discovered is that there is certainly an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday to determine the size of the baby.  She is guessing that based on the ultrasound, they will decide when to do the C-section.  So it’s possible that if the baby is big enough, they will take it on Thursday.  But it hasn’t exactly been scheduled as William said, so he probably misunderstood.  

I wondered why they would do a C-section when she is already staying at the hospital and it seems logical to let her go as long as she can.  But Carolyn thinks that because she lost so much blood during her last delivery, that this doctor doesn’t want to take any chances.  That seems to make sense. 

Carolyn says that all her other reports are good.  Stella and baby both seem to be doing great.  I’ll keep you updated as much as I can! 

Page 120 of 181

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

Verified by MonsterInsights