Outside Eating Fruit

Opening your email can be quite the experience. For some people there are endless emails from work with deadlines and files and a never ending list of things to get back to. For others it might be communication from friends.  For me, it is mostly emails from online retailers enticing me with coupons and % off sales. However, everyday I scan through the list looking for only one word "Uganda".

Today that word was preceded with "Urgent." You know that feeling when your stomach sinks and you're not sure if you want to know the rest of that sentence? Yeah.

I clicked to open the email and immediately felt my knees bending bringing me before the Lord as I read what was next. There has been a case of bacterial meningitis at the orphanage. A sweet baby girl named Esther is sick and receiving treatment. For many of us this is all to familiar. A little over a year ago a little girl named Vivian had the same illness, however back then they didn't have the additional funds available to get her the immediate medical care she needed and Vivian passed. Since then our agency has started a fund called Vivian's Hope for emergency medical care. We are now all praying that the access to these funds will make the difference for Esther and that she will recover. Once again we wait.

Knowing that Simon has just recently recovered from Malaria brought me extra anxiety. Would his immune system still be weak and susceptible to this disease? Has he already been exposed? Tears ran down my face as I prayed for my son. Once again I can't be there to check on him and feel his cheeks for fever. I have to trust God that the hands and feet that he has working in Uganda will be diligent in looking after him. This is never easy.

After I prayed I remembered that there is an American family in Uganda this week for their court date. I jumped on facebook to look up their information. I found Amanda Rausch's profile and saw that their court date is tomorrow. I took the risk and left her a message wondering if she even had access to such things in Uganda. Much to my surprise she responded relatively quickly.

I filled her in on our situation (there is a little weight lifted every time I get to tell someone Simon might still be ours!) and asked her if she could take pictures and video of Simon for us. It's a selfish thing to ask during such a pivotal time for her family but I knew she would understand, having waiting so long for her own opportunity to be with her child.

Amanda agreed to ask for Simon tomorrow when they go back to Tenderheart. Then she said the sentence that brought me so much hope "I heard them call his name today when they were outside eating fruit but I didn't see which one he was."

HE WAS OUTSIDE EATING FRUIT TODAY! What a wonderful trinket of knowledge. What a gift to get to know what he was doing today! What incredible comfort it brings because I can read between the lines...if he was outside eating fruit that means he was not inside with a fever. He isn't sick!!!

It takes 3-7 days for symptoms to show up but God has provided me with another mother who will look in on him as she visits her own child. Amanda will be able to message me to tell me if he is okay or if they have taken him to the hospital. She may not know it but Amanda Rausch is my new favorite person! LOL.

God is so good.