The Nursery

The nursery here is divided into three main areas. There's the ICU, which is for all the really malnourished babies when they first come in; the big nursery, which is for the all the normal healthy babies; and the in-between nursery, which is for the babies that are healthy enough to leave the ICU, but maybe not yet big enough to be in the main nursery.

These are some pictures of the big nursery. There's about a hundred babies all together, between the three nurseries. I spend a lot of time in the big nursery. I've gotten to know the nannies pretty well and the kids always run up to me with their arms up, whenever I walk in the room. I'm learning that I could use with a few more hands! Haha!

As you can see, there are a lot of clothes needed for all these little bodies, and we recently just got a bunch of new clothes from one of the adopting families. This is also the change room and bathroom in the main nursery. At night time, the babies are all bathed, and the nannies form an assembly line. One nanny takes off all the clothes and diapers, the next nanny bathes the babies, then the next nanny dries the babies off, and then the last nanny puts pyjamas on them. It's a precious sight to see!

As a sidenote update on baby Peterson, he is doing really well. He is gaining weight and growing into a healthy little baby! Thank you for your prayers and I ask that you would pray for little Jessica, a three month old baby that just came in today. She was brought to another orphanage, but referred here because of her severe malnourishment. Although she is three months old, she only weighs 4 1/2 lbs. She has a difficult time drinking her milk because she was born without a pallate in her mouth. Her mouth opens right up to her nose, there is nothing seperating it. Please pray that she would begin to gain weight soon! We are using a special bottle for her that only releases milk when she moves her mouth on the nipple, because otherwise she chokes on the milk. If that doesn't work, we'll have to tube-feed her. Thank you for your prayers for me and I trust that you will remember Jessica in your prayers as well.