Chisomo!

This is Chisomo. He is 26 months old and weighs 8.7 kgs. He has been at the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery here in Lilongwe since he was 1 month old. His mother is mentally unstable and has not been able to care for him since he was born. After a brief 3 week stay back in his village with his grandmother this summer he was rescued back to the Crisis Nursery at the request of the family. At this time our family began the process of identifying Chisomo for fostering to adopt however when the family was asked to sign the fostering papework a great uncle popped up and said he would take care of him. That was in August of this year. Even though SS here was reluctant to leave Chisomo in his village they really had no choice but to let them try again to care for him. When he left the Crisis Nursery in August he was able to walk and talk. He was very healthy and active.

On Saturday God worked it out so that I could go with Mwawi (the clinical officer who runs the Crisis Nursery) and Carson (the other nurse here at ABC) to Chisomo's village to do an assessment. What we found was shocking. Chisomo was no longer able to walk or talk. He had been having fevers for about 3 weeks and had lost a tremendous amount of weight. Thankfully the family and the village headman were responsive to Mwawi's requests and allowed us to bring him back to the Crisis Nursery. There is not really anyone well enough equipped to care for Chisomo in his village. His father's location is unknown and his mom has been admitted to the local mental hospital again.

After running lab work and fully assessing his condition we found that he had Malaria, pnuemonia, severe malnutrition, diarrhea and sepsis. We were able to treat him here at ABC and care for him during the nights at our home since he is requiring feeding every 2 to 3 hours.

After 48 hours Chisomo is finally perking up and looking a bit better. Getting him to eat enough formula has been challenging and time consuming but we are so happy to be able to help take care of him. Carson and I tagged teamed alot of his care over the weekend, but the nighttime feedings are reminiscent of having a newborn in the house. And the bouts of diarrhea have been a bit challenging to manage especially since no diaper cloth or disposable has yet to contain it!

We are so glad that God has given us the opportunity to help out this little guy! He must have something very special planned for his future!

Please pray that he will get stronger everyday and that if it is God's will that we will now be able to proceed with fostering to adopt Chisomo. I will try to post new pictures every few days to show you his progress.