I Can Do All Things

New group picture with Josy!

Music is one of the things that allows me to relax at Familia Feliz. Whether it's listening to country music as I scrub laundry, trying to play violin on Friday nights, or singing for church. Last week, Carlo and I got to sing for church! It was a nice break in the evenings to pause running from house to house and practice singing for a little while.

On Sabbath morning before church, I got a call that one of the little Leones, Valentin, was feeling feverish in Sabbath school. I picked him up and took him outside to take his temperature. My eyebrows raised as I read 104.1. He really was sick! I gave him medicine and sat him down in the shade with some water. All of a sudden as I was fanning him and talking, he threw up all down his church clothes. He looked up at me with such a traumatized expression. "Ok, let's go get you changed." We got to the house and I helped him shower and change. Soon he was feeling a bit better. Carlo got there at the end of Sabbath school and we practiced our song for Valentin once. He was so pleased with all the attention he was getting! As we walked to church he happily trotted along in between us, gripping our hands in his. It's so nice for the boys when we're able to have one-on-one time with them, even if it is because they're sick!

I enjoyed sitting with my aunt and uncle at church, and afterward we all went to the Guerreros to cook Sabbath lunch. Treson's family was visiting too, so many hands made light work! Carlo, Uncle Rick, and the boys picked lots of grapefruits to make juice. Aunt Marta and Treson’s sister, Livvy, prepared the grapefruits to be blended. Maddy, Josy, Lisiane, and I made baked ziti, which was so yummy! After everyone was bursting at the seams, we went our separate ways to take naps.

By evening, Valentin was doing worse and I took him to the clinic to spend the night. I was up over and over washing him with cold cloths and giving medicine as he deliriously cried and tossed and turned. 104.3…. 105.1… 104.1… 102… Finally, in the early hours of the morning, he cooled down. That’s usually how fevers work. It’s a fight to keep them from getting out of control from around 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., and then all of a sudden, the fever lowers on its own and morning breaks with a lower fever.

Sunday was a little different than usual. Carlo and I still walked up to the Leones at 8 a.m., but my aunt and uncle came too! They played with the boys a lot, which made it so much easier for us to get work done. Valentin rested a lot, and I kept an eye on him as I worked. We decided to make Bolivian food for lunch since my aunt and uncle were there, so we cooked Papa Rellena, a dish that includes boiled potatoes, lettuce, tomato slices, onion slices, a boiled egg, a thick slice of cheese, and peanut sauce. It was lots of fun and the boys were so excited!

When Hermano Juan and Hermana Emi returned in the evening, I rushed off to start decorating the church. There was going to be a government visit on Monday morning. Treson’s mom was so sweet and took Valentin for a few hours so that I could finish the church. As I struggled with the balloon arch, Bairon, one of the boys in the Guerreros house, and Hermana Emi, came over to help me with it. Uncle Rick, Treson, and Livvy stayed up until 1 a.m. with me, cutting out foam letters, drawing silhouettes for the walls, and taping everything up. They were so helpful and I couldn’t have done it without them!

Uncle Rick cutting out decor

The morning once again dawned with me fighting Valentin’s fever. I took him over to his house when he was awake and ran around getting ready for the officials to arrive. The program went smoothly with the children behaving and our guests very pleased. Maddy and I were the waitresses and served many courses of food for them during their meetings. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we heard the words, “It went well” come out of Zoe’s mouth!

Uncle Rick came over every afternoon bringing different supplies that he saw a need for. He fixed so many things that have made life so much easier. He got us knobs so that we can turn on our stove, replaced the seals on the sink plumbing, got me a medicine table for the clinic, put fans in the top bunk beds, bought a clinic fan, put up a new mosquito net in the clinic, and many more things! Such a blessing!

The new mosquito net! So much better than our old one that was too small!

When he finished work on Monday, I divided up my work between Josy, Maddy, Lisiane, and Treson’s mom and left to stay with Uncle Rick and Aunt Marta for a couple days. I was so exhausted having been up during the night for the last little while, and I slept nearly 20 hours in the two days I was with them. We had so much fun swimming, going out to eat, and hanging out! I also got some much-needed tasks done, like taxes. I climbed on the back of the motorcycle with a backpack on and giant fan in hand on the way back to Familia Feliz on Wednesday morning feeling quite a bit more rested.

We met up with Treson's family and other sm's on their day off for supper!

Treson and his family flew out to La Paz on Wednesday morning, which meant it was just Zoro and Carlo at the Guerreros for the rest of the week. Zoro’s day off is Thursday so I spent most of day there. For breakfast I made biscuits and gravy, which Carlo and I loved, but the boys were not a fan of. So I tried again at supper by making white lasagna soup, and it was a hit! Each house seems to have a very different set of taste buds!

Morning at the Guerreros

Lasagna soup without lasagna noodles

Friday morning I was also at the Guerreros. It was a nice throwback to last semester, getting up before everyone else and making breakfast. The boys’ little sleepy faces came down the stairs one by one and stumbled to the table with “Buen dia teacher” being mumbled on the way. I made cream of wheat, which was received much better than biscuits and gravy!

I painted half of the clinic on Friday and Uncle Rick painted much of the other half in the afternoon while I organized groceries. The clinic looks so so good! I actually want to work in there now!

Friday was also Father's Day, so we had a special program for the dads after breakfast

A look at the former paint job in the clinic

The new paint!!

Friday evening, Bairon and Moises, the two biggest boys on campus, were wrestling and Bairon fell. As soon as I saw his arm, I was pretty sure it was broken. I assessed it, gave him Tylenol, and braced and wrapped it to wait until morning.

First thing Sabbath morning, Alex and I took Bairon to the radiology office. By then the swelling had decreased a little and I could feel exactly where his radius was broken. When we arrived, I explained the x-ray he needed and pretty soon the nurse came out with the film for me to see. He had broken both his radius and ulna! We drove across town to a clinic that we usually go to and the doctor put his arm in a cast.

Definitely broken!

It is so different going to the doctor here. Ordering one’s own x-rays is a change for starters. But second, when we got there, the doctor gave me a shopping list of supplies for a cast and sent me to the pharmacy to pick them up! Thankfully Uncle Rick and Aunt Marta had joined us at the clinic so they could stay with Bairon while Alex and I went in search of supplies.

The afternoon was calm and peaceful, with a lunch of lentils, rice, cabbage salad, and chocolate cake at the Guerreros and naps before supper. After sunset however, chaos ensued once again. It was baby Jose’s 1st birthday and another girl, Emily’s 12th! I frantically cut out giant foam letters for decorating while everyone else cooked and set up the Harding house. Around 8:30, all of campus was packed into the big room. Jose was so cute and the party was a huge success!

Jose's one year photo

Sunday was the last day of Uncle Rick and Aunt Marta being here. Uncle Rick finished painting the clinic while we took care of the kids at the Leones. I was exhausted and Carlo was sick so we spent much of the day supervising from the table where we could sit and rest.

Valentin checking on Carlo

Otto, along with several of the other little boys, fell asleep after breakfast, exhausted from the birthday party the night before

When Hermano Juan and Hermana Emi came home, I walked back to the Harding house where I found a very sick baby Jose. He was vomiting, having diarrhea, feverish, and not keeping any liquids down. I took him up to the clinic for the night and gave him little tiny bits of milk, little by little, trying to help him keep it down. Thankfully, he did. Around 1 a.m. he woke up with some energy since he had a little food in him and sat up, poking me and smiling happily. I was so glad he was feeling better but he needed to sleep! I got him to drink more milk and then rocked and sang to him until he fell asleep again an hour later. The vomiting stopped, but unfortunately, I had to change clothes twice since the diarrhea didn’t and his diaper could only hold so much!

Jose finally fall asleep!

Monday came early when I passed Jose off to Maddy and went to take Uncle Rick, Aunt Marta, and Carlo to the airport. Carlo was going to visit his family in Mexico and my aunt and uncle were off to Chile, so they happened to be on the same flight to La Paz. It was so sad to say goodbye! So nice having family here for a little while. They were so so helpful and it was so fun getting to go on adventures with them. Thankfully in the afternoon I slept a lot, got some cleaning done, and made my rounds.

What a week! There was certainly no lack of things to do! One thing that I was reminded of is how I couldn’t get everything done without the help of the generous people around me. The sm’s, my aunt and uncle, Treson’s family, other volunteers, and even some of the kids did so much to help me accomplish everything this week! God does that for us too. Sometimes it’s through sending people our way, and other times it’s by giving us strength to face another day and another challenge. Someone asked me how I kept getting up and doing another day this week. There are so many mornings where I wake up and say, “Ok, God, I don’t know how I’m going to have the energy to get anything done today. Please help me,”. And He always does! With his energy-giving and bringing amazingly helpful people into my life, He proves Philippians 4:13 to be true: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”