One Year Since Kenya

So this blog update is dedicated to updating everyone on Isaac, the sweet boy Robin and I took to Kijabe, Kenya last year at this time for surgery.  Please look through the pictures, and at the end of the slide show you will see what his arm looks like as of June of this year.  And you will also see how much he has grown!  Even though I have been so very much in the moment with my new little one, I have not forgotten to look back on last year with a heart overwhelmed by the love all three of us received (Isaac, Robin, and myself) from the Lord while we were in Kenya.  God was so faithful to us and lead us every step of the way.  I don't know if dates are important to you all, but they seem to stick with me most of the time.  I remember my due date with Keene was the same day, a year later, than when we left Midland for Kenya, or that the day I had Keene was the day we arrived to Kijabe.  This last Saturday was August 30th, and that was the day last year we were discharged from the hospital and were able to spend the rest of our time in Kenya healing in the hotel.  All of this is so dear and precious to my heart.

Maybe all of you don't know the story of Isaac, so I will share a bit of it and try not to ramble.  For more details of our time in Kenya, you can go to www.sudanskids.blogspot.com.  It is an older post, so you might have to dig back a bit.  So on with the story....I met Isaac a little over 3 years ago now on one of my mission trips to Sudan.  He was burned at the age of 3 in his tukul (hut) after his father, who was a member of the army, brought home ammunition the caught fire.  He has since then until the surgery had severe impairments to his left arm and is was chronically bent in a flexed position to his shoulder (as you can see by the pictures).  There was much damage to his hand as well, which the scar tissue never allowed it to fully grow. I had always hoped to help Isaac, but it wasn't until after a later trip that it was on the hearts of others who loved Isaac, and of his church EPC, that they wanted help for him as well. So a friend of mine, Rachelle, and myself started looking and dreaming for ways to help get him surgery.  We hoped he would one day have two arms to help him work. He was getting to the age soon where he would have to start earning money to live.  God brought us a wonderful doctor and his wife, Louis and Anne Carter, who met Isaac, Robin, and myself in Kijabe, Kenya for surgery last August.  We were there a total of 5 weeks, and in this time Isaac had two very long, hard surgeries and many dressing changes.   We were able to go back with him to Sudan and Isaac got to go on his first plane ride ever!  God blessed us with an occupational therapist who was a missionary there to do therapy with him and do his dressing changes after we left to complete the healing process.  Today, Issac has wonderful shoulder, elbow, and wrist movement. He is still limited on his fingers and hand movements, but has so much more than he had before!!!! I praise God for showing His love to Isaac in the way he did.  I watched Isaac cling to the Lord during his surgery and recovery time, and I only hope there was much growth in his relationship with the Lord that he will never sway from the One who loved and cared for him so tenderly. 

Please, if you think of it today, or now while you are reading this, send up a prayer for Isaac.  He is a teenager now, 14 and soon to be 15, and is meeting many challenges in his family life and also in making right choices.  Thank you. Megan