Welcoming Babies and Challenges

What a year this has been for new kids at HH!  It’s funny how one thing seems to lead to another.

In March 2024, we were asked by the children’s department officer if we could take in a 15-month old girl from a teenage pregnancy rescue center.  This child would be the youngest by far that we ever brought in.  Judy told me about this call when we were sitting on our balcony (as we sometimes do in the evening to catch our breath, reflect and plan).  Our previous youngest arrival was Beyonce, in late 2017.   Back then, we did not have the resources we have today.  We had to wait several agonizing months from the time we met Beyonce until we could take care of her, praying all the while that she would survive long enough. As we were discussing bringing in the new baby, an exuberant, robust, nine-year-old Beyonce was running around in the yard in front of us.  We knew what we had to do.  We hired a nanny to help with the baby and welcomed her to Humanity Home.  She is cute as can be and is doing great.

As with Humanity Home itself, sometimes circumstances cause us to stretch even further, emotionally and otherwise.  In May, while I was in the U.S., Judy received a call from a public health worker (referred to us by a county health department worker who had inspected HH), asking if we could take in a 19-month-old girl who was severely malnourished. Judy promptly went to see the child.  This baby had been taken to a public hospital a month or so earlier, when she was 17 months old and weighed 4.1 kg.  That’s NINE POUNDS!  After a month in the hospital, she weighed eleven pounds.  She was too weak to even crawl. The hospital personnel feared that, if returned to where she came from, she would relapse and die.  We have experienced a lot, but this was the worst case we had ever seen.  It is also the first time that we were faced with the stark choice:  bring the child in, or she will die.  Bringing her in was a no-brainer.  Doing what we do takes an emotional toll that we typically manage by getting to work on the situation, having a sense of humor, and supporting each other, and reminding ourselves why we are here.  But this child’s plight shook us to our core.  How could anyone let this happen to a child?  How could a child even survive with such starvation?  Judy cried for days contemplating what this child had gone through. (This little girl comes from the slums of Kisumu, but there is food around, help is available, and an older child in the household appeared adequately fed).

We did what we do.  With the help of a nutritionist, we implemented an intensive dietary plan.  The baby gained a full kg in her first week with us.  An occupational therapist helped the baby try to catch up as she gains strength.  She is an alert, sweet little girl with a ready smile.  By mid-October, her weight had more than doubled and she was taking her first steps.  We only hope that with continued good nutrition, care, security and love we can undo most of the damage.  She has a chance.  Let’s go.

In early August, we met a little girl who was begging for food.  We learned that she has sickle sell disease.  Sickle cell can be extremely painful and potentially fatal, but is manageable with proper nutrition and medication.  This child was receiving neither.  Within a week, we brought her in.  We had to take her for gallbladder surgery (a complication of sickle cell).  She is doing great.

In mid-August, the children’s department asked us to take in six new children within a 24-hour period.  One was an infant and another is a toddler.  Galvanized by our experience with the previous two babies, we brought these children in.  Two of them, sisters aged about 7 and 5, were abandoned by their mother and found wandering 5 kilometers from where they started.  They arrived in the evening with a children’s department officer, a police officer, and two other adults.  I called two of our awesome eleven-year-olds, LJ and Emelda, and simply told them, “We have two new sisters.  Can you guys take care of them?”  They took the newcomers by the hand and disappeared upstairs to bring them into the family.  The adults looked at me, stunned, like “You can do that?”  Little do they know.

The very next morning, we agreed to take in four more siblings who were found abandoned, living in a vacant rundown building.  An eight-year-old little girl was trying to take care of three younger siblings.  One of the babies looked like she was maybe 14 months old, but she was actually two years and three months.  She was extremely ill with malnutrition and severe malaria and we had to have her hospitalized immediately.  She is now doing well and just began walking in early October.  The littlest baby was ten months old.  She is also doing great and is annoyed that the other two little girls are walking, but she is not far behind.  A four-year-old brother is undersized but healthy and adapting well to his new life.  The eight-year-old sister is bright and energetic and sweet and full of life.  We will get her going in the right direction and we see her being a good leader in the future.

To support the new arrivals, we hired another nanny and bought cribs, high chairs, and lots of clothes and diapers.  We set up a carpeted play room for the crawlers and toddlers.  HH is more alive than ever.  Here we go indeed!