Emmanuel

This is Emmanuel.  He was born with a 0.9cm hole in his heart.  We are raising money to send Emmanuel to Ghana to see a pediatric cardiologist.  With a diagnosis from a pediatric cardiologist we are hopeful that Gift of Life International will accept him into their children's heart surgery program, so he can get the life saving surgery that he needs.  If you would like to contribute please mail a check to "Sterling Drive Church" to:

Jack Laird
1468 E. Smith Rd
Bellingham, WA 98226

We need about $1,500 for the airfare, lodging and testing that needs to be done.  Thank you.

October Update

A couple months have slipped by since our last update.  In fact it's been so long my parents have booked tickets out here just to make sure we're still alive.  December will be busy here with a total of 6 people coming out for visits.  

We are now officially out of rainy season.  Although somebody forgot to tell the rain that was falling most of the day yesterday and through the night.  The boys took a "if you can't beat it join it" approach and made a slip-n-slide out of a tarp.  A little water, soap and friends and they had a fun afternoon of sliding.

The twins continue to grow.  While they seem to be bulking up, they started out a bit behind and at 4 months of age they were still both in single digit percentile territory for length and weight.  Here they are at their latest photo op.

And with Christopher and Kobe helping Grace into her best George Costanza impression.

Jamie and Blessing have a bi-monthly wrestling match where Jamie tries to take out Blessing's old braids and re-braid her hair.  Today was gameday.  Below is Blessing after winning the first round.

The hospital continues to progress, but we had another side project in September.  A new SP staff member and family were heading out and there was no available housing, so we had to renovate a house that has not been renovated since the war, and has not been lived in for over a year.  In four weeks our contractor managed to install a new roof, ceiling, plumbing, windows, window bars, doors, electrical, flooring and paint.

The living room before.

and after.

The kitchen/laundry building will be finishing up in the next month.  The contractor has the walls up to ceiling level.  A few pictures from the past month or two...

We received 2 containers with the roofing for the building a couple weeks ago.  Each roof panel weighs about 275 lbs.  A crane would have cost over $1,500 to rent, so we just used man-power.  They had all 50+ sheets unloaded in about 2 hours.

Now the next challenge, getting them up on the roof!

We are among royalty

We received a call in the middle of July from a friend who manages an orphanage just outside Monrovia.  Someone had come to him looking for help with a set of twins. His daughter had passed away shortly after delivering the twins, leaving them and 6 other siblings orphaned.  This orphanage does not take infants, so he contacted us to see if we would be willing to help.

We went with him and his wife to a nearby hospital where the twins were being treated for "runny stomach" and undernourishment.  They were a month old but only weighed about 4 lbs each.  After discussions with the grandparents and the Ministry of Health we decided to provide foster care for them.

Here they are at about 6 weeks old, shortly after coming into our home. Their grandparents had given them "temporary" names, Prince and Princess. We have decided to call them Kasen and Grace.

The proud Big Sister. (and boy does she look big now)

And here they are today, about 3 weeks later, with Blessing. They are gaining slowly, Kasen is up to a little over 8 lbs. and Grace is about 6 1/2 lbs.

All six of the children together.  Not an easy picture...  And when Jamie said we need a picture of all SIX, I asked who was taking the picture if all of us were in it...wait there are SIX children in our house?

Pictures with the three boys were hard enough.

After a little coaching and bribing they all finally looked at the camera.

Liberia, an aerial view.

 Christopher and I were given an opportunity to take a flight in the SP helicopter today.  There were two pick-ups that needed to be made in the northwest portion of Liberia which left a couple empty seats.  Here is Christopher ready to go.

The roads in Liberia during rainy season range from difficult to impossible.

SP has three field offices in Liberia, Foya, Fish Town and Bopolu.  The drives to Foya and Fish Town can take over 10 hours, and sometimes they are unreachable.  The helicopter turns the trips into less than 2 hours.  The Bopolu flight that we took today is less than 30 minutes.

One of the many villages we passed over.  This one with road access.

Many are more isolated with no road access.

Closer to Monrovia there are many areas that have been cleared and planted with a variety of crops.  Fields typically have a small structure for storage and cover.

Then it is just forest...

 Many areas show the scars of Liberia's 14 year civil war.

The Mount Coffee hydroelectric facility turbine building that we visited in 2010

  Here a farmer is burning wood to make charcoal.

Arriving back in Monrovia you see the houses pushing out into the swampy area of the Montserrado River.  Not a good place to live in a country with malaria.

Downtown Monrovia from the east.

July 2012

 We are into July, the wettest month of the year.  A tough time to start a construction project, but here we are.  Monrovia averages more rain in July than Seattle gets in an entire year!  The contractor has managed some progress though.  We were blessed with 4 days of sun this week and work has begun on the security fence for the new hospital.  The Kitchen/Laundry building will start in the next week or two...if the weather cooperates.   

In an effort to raise the level of quality we have introduced a few construction methods and materials that are not typical in Liberia.  The contractor has done a good job of producing a new style of block and adjusting to the changes.

Work is also continuing on the orphanage project.  The work should wrap up by the end of July.  Here a worker is constructing some toilet partitions in the boys bathroom.  The original layout didn't provide for bathrooms...so we had to cut what was supposed to be a bedroom into two bathrooms.

We also made another trip out to one of our favorite orphanages.  We decided to add a little public speaking to the boys school curriculum, and have them each tell a bible story while we were there.

The children were good listeners, and afterwards they got freezer pops and candy necklaces.  Sara doesn't have either in her hand...but I had to get a picture of one of my favorite orphans.  She was in an accident shortly before we returned in February when the motorcycle she was on crashed (don't ask me why she was on a motorcycle).  She has recovered nicely though.

 More pictures of Christopher and Rusty's trip on the SP helicopter next!

Father's Day 2012

A second team is here this week from eMi to work on the design for phase II of the hospital.  A total of 7 architects and engineers made the trip.  They will be working to have floor plans completed for the out patient clinic, primary healthcare, admin., pharmacy, typical ward and chapel before the end of next week.

We went this morning to the Philadelphia Central Church where my project manager Gentry Taylor is a pastor.  Right before the end of the morning service a wave of men in suits started fanning out in the church and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia's President (and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner), came in and sat down in preparation for the second service.  Before we left I was able to briefly meet her and say hello.

Afterwards we got to witness an Operation Christmas Child discipleship class graduation. After receiving an OCC box the children are invited to come to a 12 week class and when they complete the class they are given a certificate and new Bible. Today 34 children graduated at Christ's Church in the Soul Clinic community.

Some of the children listening to Pastor Owen's message

Colton, Christopher, and Paul (who is an engineer from Nigeria here with the eMi team).

Love this little guy praying!

After receiving their new Bible and certificate

OCC is organized so that the shoe boxes that are filled in the US and other western countries are distributed by the local churches, establishing a connection between the children an the local pastors.  A number of the children that participated in the program at Christ's Church have been attending church and some have even brought their parents.  The program has been very effective at introducing God's love to the children of Liberia and the rest of the world.