I want to adopt Dieudonne.
(Dieudonne means "God gives")
He is 11yrs old and weighs about 35lbs. He looks like he's 6.
I can't really adopt him because he has a family. Possibly a nice one. Dieudonne was very sick with malaria and they brought him to me for care. We treated his malaria with all of the right medications and a blood transfusion but he also had a worrisome incidental abdominal mass. He recovered fully from malaria but after failing conservative medical treatment for his mass we decided to operate.
I wonder what was going on in his parents' lives 11years ago when they joyously named their newborn son "God gives"? They were poor and living in a harsh country with virtually no personal possessions. I remember thinking those things in the operating room after little Dieudonne was safely anesthetized and the surgeons opened his abdomen. The news was very bad. Cancer. Invasive. Inoperable. My heart sank. We had to close up with no hope for long term survival. Would his family still love on him & feed him knowing that he would die? With very limited money and food, that may be considered bad resource management. Sometimes parents give up on kids who are going to die. It's not meant to be cruel, it just makes practical sense. But I'm not practical like that. I have the luxury and burden of being born in the United States where food, shelter, and healthcare are much more readily available. Shouldn't everyone be so blessed? That's why I would want to keep Dieudonne.
But Dieudonne will head home in a few days for an uncertain timeline toward death. There is no hospice, no pain medicine and no comfort in his time left. His comfort will come through God.
There are two points to this blog post.
1)
God gives. We can't always appreciate the ripple effect of how a loss contributes to a magnified gain elsewhere but that is often the case, isn't it?
2)
I want to get out of here. Not permanently. I mean I want to get out into the villages and the bush even further...with people and supplies and equipment. I want to check on people like Dieudonne at their home. Lots of people leave our hospital and we don't see them again. Lots of others never come to the hospital at all. It's too far, too expensive, too scary. We also want to do mobile clinics sometimes. So I want transportation and I hesitate to ask for help, but I really need help with this.
There is a good truck available here but it needs huge import fees and taxes paid. $7000! It's a one time expense.
It's Christmas season. Instead of signing us up for fruitcake-of-the-month club, would you consider donating to a worthy cause that keeps on giving? Perhaps you or your church or your business would be willing to financially help us to better serve kids like Dieudonne?
For specific details about options for giving, please private message me on Facebook or you can email me:
-Mason Kim Grace & Emmie
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