April 2008 Judy's Journal

Hi everybody! Greetings from 13,000 Ft. up and wintertime. I still haven't gotten all my potatoes , habas, and peas harvested but the new potatoes are delicious and not too many worms. Two of my dogs had pups in March. Cricket, the Golden, had seven lovely pups but they all died of lung problems. (I have a friend who lives a few thousand feet lower who has offered to let Cricket have pups at her place next time). My other dog Chispa is a tiny dog who looks just like a Tibetan Spaniel. She only had two pups but they are the healthiest chubbiest pups you ever hope to see. Why can't Goldens survive the altitude??? I had hoped to sell her pups and have a few badly-needed $'s to buy cement and gravel. Oh well, the good Lord must have other plans. We prayed so hard for those seven little pups. "When you can't see His hand - trust His Heart".

Let me tell you about an OB patient I had this past month. Of course this all happened on a weekend when our Dr. wasn't there! Eva, not her real name, had come to us when she was 17 weeks pregnant with her 11th child - after all the local witch doctors etc. had been unable to cause an abortion. Despite the odds, the baby seemed to be growing well. One day, (in her 30th week), around 1 PM one of her boys came to my door, "please come to my house - my Mom is really bad." Because he could give us few details, Cinthia and I quickly gathered everything from Pit and IVs to a water bottle and blankets to warm a premature baby. Without a 4WD Jeep we couldn't have made it thru all the mud to Eva's house. Eva had her head hanging off the foot of her bed; pale, sweating, barely breathing, unable to speak and baby still attached. The baby had been born at 5 AM and died shortly after. The problem was her placenta which they had been unable to deliver and she had been bleeding for about 7 hours. (Why can't they call us earlier?) Sometimes one really senses God's presence and assistance. This was one of those times! With Pit IM (didn't figure I could get an IV started), and massage and pressure to a worn-out uterus that no longer wanted to contract - the placenta slowly came, the IV catheter went right into the least-impossible vein, and a wire was laying on the dirt floor which was just the right length to drape the IV from the rafters. Two hours later, the bleeding was stopped, she was cleaned up, and best of all was smiling, talking to us and her children and sipping warm broth. We had no blood to give her, but good food, antibiotics, and Vits with Iron have slowly gotten her back on her feet.

That first night when I drove back out to Eva's house to check on her IV, I had the seven little ones living at home gather around her. I explained that their Mom had nearly died and that we must thank God who loved them all enough to give their Mom back. So we did, and I ask you dear reader to do the same!

I don't have access to a computer right now to send pictures and I have to buy roofing steel peices (in spanish Cerchas and correas) and 200 bricks on my way home. So, I'd better go. I'll get some pics to you soon. So much is going on, but the progress is exciting. Pray for funds, experienced workers, and for whoever stole my best saw and the glue for wooden flooring and the wood shaver to fess-up and bring them back.

Trying to "lay hold of that for which Christ once laid hold of me" , Judy