Picnic

I decided to break up the monotony of a hot afternoon by taking the girls out for a picnic at the fish farm.

We brought plenty of snacks and water; a must for any outing.

We found some banana bunches getting ripe and some baby pineapples.

Molly enjoyed feeding the fish little bits or bread.

Days from Death

I suppose we all live our lives just moments away from death. Any of us could go at any time, it seems. It happens to so many.

Every time my kids get sick, particularly if it’s malaria, I know that my girls have only a few days to live. Literally. Except for prompt medical treatment, they will be dead before the week is out. This is our reality.

Every time they get sick I am reminded that these could be my last days with them. But really, whether they are sick or healthy, any day could be our last with our precious children. Remember this. I tell myself that. I hold them longer, read more stories, remember to stay patient. I enjoy their smiles more, hug them tight. Do we really believe they could be gone tomorrow? I need to remember this and live thankfully today.

I am thankful for medicine, and thankful that my husband is an experienced African nurse, and especially thankful that our lives are in God’s hands.

Until having malaria myself, and then watching my children suffer through it, I had never been so thankful for modern medicine. It is not something to be taken for granted. I’m a white girl who was raised far from deadly mosquitos. Since I have not built resistance over a lifetime, I face a similar problem as young children here do. If I get malaria and don’t get treated quickly, I probably won’t last a week.

I’m no different than the white man I watched die in a tiny hospital because one too many days had passed. Each time I come down sick I think about that man, I am haunted by the memories, and I think about the frailty of the human body. God gave the body a strong ability to fight but some diseases prove too strong. All of us are just days away from death. Or moments. We groan with creation waiting for our bodies to be made perfect. Waiting for malaria to disappear forever. Waiting for the final cure.