It really felt like Thanksgiving!

Since Thanksgiving always is on Thursday, we always hold our regular clinic anyway. It was a good thing as we had over 35 patients seen today. Our poor patients began arriving at 4:00 am and waited outside in the cold (it was 40 degrees last night) until we opened the gate at 7 am. The sad thing was that we could not see all of them. Dr. Heidi saw about 15 prenatal care patients as well as other return visits and the sick children from the milk program. We had 9 babies show up for the newborn assessment program. All the babies whose mothers had received prenatal care were born with a great birth weight and were doing well. Shawn stayed home to prepare the turkey dinner so I did her job and I also did Richard's job in the pharmacy as he is on vacation. It all ran amazingly smooth despite 3 of our regular staff not being with us. Virginia, an RN from Canada who has been helping on Thursday with the sick MP children, left today to work with a visiting team she knows. We are not doing just routine care but almost every patient has a special need. Some of the OB patients have problems - one fetus is not growing, another mother has not gained any weight for 3 months even though we put her in the milk program in July, others will need C-sections, another came from an hour away just to be checked. We saw Osni today as well. He is 2 months old and has a severe cleft lip and palate. He comes weekly to be weighed but has not gone above 7 pounds for 3 weeks. His mother is afraid to put the bottle nipple in far enough in his mouth and he barely receives any milk. We once again showed her how to properly feed him. Please pray that he gains weight soon or he may need to be admitted to the hospital.

After clinic 5 missionary families met at Bob and Shawn's and we had a wonderful dinner with all the fixings. The kids played and the adults talked and watched football. It felt just like we were in the States! The weather has been unsually cold and so the fireplace was enjoyed greatly as well. We have much to be thankful for both here and in the States. John and I remember many lonely Thanksgivings where just he and I shared our dinner. We are thankful for our new friends who have been called to work here in the Quiche area as well. We also wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!