October 11, 2022
“Seated on the plane and asked to get off”
Kim says it was the worst day ever at Neema Village baby home. Ashley had brought baby girl Neema home from the hospital in Arusha, for the fifth time but her nose was still bleeding and she was vomiting blood.
“That is enough,” Kim said, “let’s get this baby to the big Aga Kahn hospital in Nairobi.” So, airline tickets were bought for Mama Musa and Betty to fly baby Neema to Kenya. Ashley would have gone but it takes three days to get a visa into Kenya and we couldn’t wait.
When Neema was home with us we had her in complete isolation and was feeding her with a syringe because her adenoids are so large she could not suck a bottle and breath at the same time. We have all been desperate and knew this baby needed help. After five admissions to the hospital, she has almost spent more time in the hospital than at Neema Village!
It’s always a mad scramble to get ready to take a baby to the hospital; formula and clean water has to be packed and clothes and diapers for who knows how long and finding a nanny who can go and stay and…. Finally, with the baby, they were seated on the plane ready to take off when unbelievably they were asked to get off the plane! Mama Musa and Betty were begging and pleading to be allowed back on.
Kim doesn’t give up easy so she hired an ambulance to drive them to Kenya.
None of this is easy since you have to cross the Tanzanian border into Kenya and permits and documents and visas and car titles and driver have to be gathered and everything signed and stamped and paid, and a nanny hired to leave her family and go to Nairobi and stay with the baby. Thank you sweet Nanny Betty!
But they made it and baby Neema is in a bed in Kenya where finally we hope to get some answers. I am pretty sure after all this, little Neema feels like sticking her tongue out at most everyone!
We need big time prayers for her, if you have prayer chains, please ask them to pray. We are asking that God will intervene and save the life of baby Neema and please everyone, this is going to be expensive, help if you can, go to www.neemavillage.org or send a check to Neema Village P.O Box 21553, Waco, Texas 76702
Another really sick one at Neema Village this month, Koromo (Namgurululu) is about 3 months old and from a remote Maasai village. His mom was nineteen years old when she died in childbirth and the baby was brought in by his Maasai grandfather and a village leader.
At three months in September, Koromo still only weighed 2.24kg (4.9lbs) and we knew this baby was not thriving!
He has been at Arusha Lutheran Hospital and then KCMC hospital in Moshi, about two hours away, and was having tests run to see what was going on in that little body. He has a mass in his tummy, enlarged liver and probably Hepatitis.
The doctors now say they can do no more for this baby and have recommended that we send him to Nairobi. So the ambulance was hired again and they left for Kenya this morning.
We love these little guys and came to Africa ten years ago to save them, not to lose them, so we try to give them every chance to make it. Please pray for little Koromo too. Many of our little newborns come in already pretty compromised, like baby Lightness, below, who was 8 months old and weighed only 7 pounds. These babies need a lot of prayer. I know these photos are hard to look at but hang in there, it gets better!
With all this bad news you may need a little Good News.
It was the best day this month for little boy Ivan, below, at Neema Village.
A year ago, Ivan’s mother had been walking the street during the night when she knocked on a door and asked if she and her baby could spend the night. The kind strangers took them in and put them in a bedroom to sleep. Sometime during the night, they went in to check and found the mother had left and abandoned the baby.
For over a year we have loved this sad little guy who was old enough to remember and miss his mother and we were praying he would be adopted soon. And last month that happened!
Good News, Ivan now has a new forever family and will never be abandoned again! I wish you could have seen his happy new mom and dad but if they wish we agree to not post photos of new moms and dads. They had great smiles and Ivan will too soon. It’s what Neema Village does best, making happy new families!
Most of what we deal with at Neema Village is hard. We only take babies up to age two and many of them are so very compromised when they come in. They have all been either abandoned, orphaned (lost their mother) or are at risk babies (with physical problems).
At times like these we could all use a little reminder that God is still Good and God is still with us. So, here’s Maria with some Good News!
Dorris and Michael
