African Mother's Day and Vacation

This has been an exciting month getting to share our life here with family.  Christopher's mother visited us for just over two weeks.

 A part of her time here was over Mother's Day and what a special Mother's Day it was for Dontie.

After church, the women's group came to our house singing and dancing.  They surrounded Leena and Dontie in a time of prayer and blessing as a welcome to Leena.  There was a spiritual challenge given to Dontie as a parent and the pastor's wife blessed our sweet girl.  This meant so very much to Dontie to have the women share this special time with her and for Christopher's mother to experience it as well.  We then were invited to a traditional Shona meal at the home of one of the church ladies.  What a treat!

After giving Christopher's mom a good rural exposure to Zimbabwe, we headed off for Victoria Falls on a 12 hour busride!  Victoria Falls is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.  We stayed in a lodge that's walls opened up onto the gamepark like a tent and wild animals just wandered around in our "yard".

warthogs everywhere around the lodge

We were able to relax and also fill our time with fun explorations of the area around us.  Here are some of the animals seen on a safari that Christopher and his mom took for a day.

 A kingfisher bird

Giraffe with oxpeckers on his neck

Wonderful views of hippos

This is an area of Africa where there are many elephants.

A male kudu

We enjoyed learning about the Ndebele culture (the tribe of this part of Zimbabwe),

 and then Christopher bungee jumped off the third tallest jump in Africa.

After all that excitment, we walked the trail around the falls and were thoroughly soaked as the mist (which at points was like a rainshower) billowed up from the powerful falls.

We are so thankful to have the chance to get away and enjoy another area of Zimbabwe, making memories, and sharing them with family.

Under Construction

The past two weeks have been exciting around Karanda.  Our hospital has been dealing with water issues and shortages for quite some time now, and we were finally able to get enough funds to have a new borehole drilled.  The boreholes we already have not only provide water for the hospital and the staff living on the compound, but also for the community around us who come in to collect water.  So we have struggled to have enough even to make it through half a day each day.  We are hoping that with a new borehole, we will be able to meet the growing needs and have enough water to make it through the dry season (which has now started and lasts through mid-November).  There was much excitement as a truck with an air compressor on it and the drilling "rig" came onto our compound!

Setting up to drill. Check out the HUGE air compressor in the truck by the tree! It was very loud!

A few of the spectators.  This was before the great cloud of rock dust erupted and everyone ran screaming!

This is just a little bit of the rock dust that was all over the compound.

The other exciting construction event was one of completion.  The new Male Ward had its opening day on Tuesday, April 30th.

 This has been a project in the making since 1980.  It was a need that never had sufficient funds to see it to fruition, until now.  Back in 1980, the then used male ward started meeting its limits in occupancy.  This has been a continuing problem over the past 30 years.  There were many who were praising God as the ribbon was cut signifying the opening of a beautiful new building.

The nurses' station.

Spacious and bright rooms

Of course we had to have an opening ceremony for the boys' room so that they too could cut a ribbon!

In our house there is always something under construction, whether that is legos, train tracks, or some sort of boat made out of beds and toy boxes.  On this day, we were superheros saving the people of Karanda from bugs and imaginary bad guys!

Leena Grace is now 2 1/2 months old.  She keeps growing and fills our house with coohs and great smiles.  She is a joy to us!

We are looking forward to the numbers of volunteers and work teams scheduled to come out over the next 2 months.  This will keep our compound very active and exciting!  Keep praying that our lives will show the construction God is doing in each of us and that we will remain a work in progress.  

Easter Meetings

A month has flown by, and we are looking towards a season that is going to fly even faster.  As we move into the month of April and May we begin to see a good number of volunteers and short-term teams coming out to help at Karanda.  We love the activity and new faces (and some ones we got to know last year) around on the campus.  It also means a lot more help with the busy load of patients who come to our doors. Rains have ended and we can now cross the river!  That means a lot quicker trip to Harare (with a lot less bumps) and the patients who have needed to come can now cross.  We continue to pray with the rest of the community for a bridge to be built.

Leena Grace has been working hard at growing and enjoys here brothers' attention.  She is now over one month old!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter.  Easter here is quite a bit different from the United States.  The church here has what is called Easter Meetings.  They meet, along with other churches, to have a weekend of services, meetings, lessons and fellowship.  Christopher was able to go along this year and spend one night.  Here are some pictures of the time he was there.  

The Easter Meeting Christopher attended was with our local pastor at Rusambo, a former mission station, one hour north from Karanda Mission Hospital.

Uniforms are important in Zimbabwe.  The women dress in a certain outfit for their church denomination.  This is one of the services inside the church.

At night he enjoyed worship with dancing and singing!

The second night of Easter Meetings, they showed the Jesus film on the outside of the church building.  The film is in Shona, the language of the area we work.  

With how busy the hospital gets, Christopher has not been able to get away and participate in outreaches and rural activities of the hospital such as this.  He was happy to be a part of this experience and hopes with this season of help coming to Karanda, he can do more things like this before we leave.  

We also want to share that our TEP (our work permit) has been extended through the end of this year!  We are thankful that this was not a big ordeal like last year, and we can focus on ending strong here at Karanda.  Thank you for your continued prayers in many different areas.  You lift us up!

And Now We are 5!

Introducing the newest member of the Kidwell Family:

Leena Grace Kidwell

born Friday, February 22, 2013

at 5:58 PM

on the Karanda Hospital Mission Station 

Zimbabwe

Dear Leena (light),

Its been a long journey this past month, but we finally did it!  Your birth was the light at the end of the tunnel for me to get through the number of nights of contractions and no sleep.  How appropriate is your name now to this birth story.  You were so very worth every minute of it though, and I praise God for the blessing of your life and having you in my arms.  We have loved you from the moment we knew of your existence.  God has had His hand on your life in so many ways already.  

Here is our story of your birthday:

Thursday night mommy started early labor (once again) and it was much harder this time around so we hoped this was for real.  But once more, at 5:00 AM, the contractions petered out, leaving mommy very tired and in a heap of tears.  Throughout the morning, mommy continued with contractions every 10 minutes, and finally at 2:00 PM they began to become more regular and strong again.  

God ordained a wonderful couple (who just happened to come out for the weekend) to take care of your brothers for the afternoon not knowing if this was it, or if it was more false labor.  You were 2 days past your due date, so we were really hoping this was near the end.  They took Saint and Luke down to play at the guesthouse at 4:30 PM, and by the time they were out the door, mommy was already feeling very strong contractions.  But upon checking mommy, she was only still 3 cm dilated, which is what she had been for 3 weeks.  Within the hour, mommy knew she couldn't possibly be 3 cm still, and asked daddy (he's a doctor) to check once again.  Sure enough, mommy was now at least 7 cm dilated!  Daddy rushed around to go get a car to take us down to the hospital.  While he was gone, our friend, Miss Rejoice (a midwife here) came to help.  She has helped mommy through a number of tiring nights and took such good care of the both of us.

Before daddy got back with the car, mommy was already fully dilated and her water broke walking to the door.  Daddy and Miss Rejoice helped mommy lie down on the living room floor and in a few minutes you graced us with your beautiful cry of life!  We did it little girl!  

You were born 2 minutes before 6 in the evening at our house, which was not at all in OUR plan!  But God had it all worked out.  He had and has HIS hand on your life.  There was a flurry of nurses and midwives in and out helping make sure everything was alright, and by the time your brothers came back from their play date, you were snuggled up with mommy on the bed.  What a blessing!

You weighed 3 kg. exactly (6.6 lbs), and were 48.5 cm (19 inches).  What a little lady.  Welcome to our family!

Always loving you,

Mommy

  

Support

I am feeling overwhelmed.  Not overwhelmed in a bad way, but in a "God speaking directly to me" kind of way.  These last few weeks of my pregnancy have been a time of waiting in expectation and have provided some challenges in that wait.  But in this last week particularly, God has used so many people to show me His hand on my life and His care for me and baby Leena.  Tonight, I received a "baby shower in a box" from a group of moms from the church we attended back in Indiana.  God put on one person's heart to minister to me through gift, and through her, a number of others joined and blessed me in more than words can say.  These boxes were packed full of clothes for my baby and to share with others around (and believe me, there are plenty of babies around to share this gift)!  Just looking at the boxes, said to me, "Dontie, we may not know you personally, but we believe in what you are doing and we want to support and love on you."  That meant so much!

We have received several other care packages, from friends in different stages of my life, who just felt they needed to send some encouragement.  Again, God using His people to say, "I love you.  Hang in there."

But it doesn't take sending a package half way around the world to support.  We have received countless e-mails of prayer, facebook messages, phone calls checking in on me from town, and even neighbors and hospital staff members just stopping by to make sure all was well.  A meal was brought over after a full night of contractions and I was too weary to do much of anything.  That made my day.

A midwife stopped by to take the boys for two hours so I could rest.  Then she returned that night to help me through another episode of contractions, rubbing my back, and continually checking on baby Leena.

God has said to me through all of these precious acts, "Dontie, I am with you.  I love you.  I will take care of you and this one I created in you.  Look at how I am telling you that through all these ones who love me and listen to my urging.  I have done this for YOU."

So, I am overwhelmed.  Thank you God and thank you church - believers responding to a whisper to reach out and support and minister.  You humble me.

Coming soon!

We are excited for the newest member of our family to join us!  Dontie is now 35.5 weeks and so we are praying that after the next few weeks, we have a healthy and safe delivery here at Karanda Mission Hospital.    Big brothers, Little Christopher and Luke, have been talking about all the things they can teach her and share with her.  Please pray for us as we go through this process/miracle and as we adjust to a little blessing in our house.  It will be an adjustment for all, but we are looking forward to it.

Also please pray for our computer.  Over the past few weeks, we've been having more and more problems with it and now it won't work at all.  We are trying to get it looked at by a professional soon.  We have realized how very cut off from everyone we feel, and our need to communicate is being hindered greatly.  We hope to be up and running again soon, especially before our little girl arrives.

So hopefully, coming soon will be pictures of our little daughter...keep us in your prayers!

Love in a Shoebox

A number of years our family has participated in Operation Christmas Child by preparing one or several shoeboxes and praying for those kids who would be receiving them somewhere in the world.  It was such a fun thing to go to the store and pick out gifts that we thought a boy or girl would like within a certain age range.  Watching the promotional presentations of what kinds of kids receive them always brought joy to our hearts and a tear or two to at least one person’s eyes.  There’s nothing like giving to someone who receives so very little, all in the name of Jesus. 

 Then we were accepted to be a part of the Post-Residency Program, through Samaritan’s Purse, and at orientation, got to walk through the HUGE storehouse/packing center for over a million shoeboxes.  That was a thrill to say the least.  We were so proud to be serving under the organization which runs this powerful ministry.  It became a dream to get to see OCC at work wherever we ended up serving.

 Finally, this year, we were able to get 100 shoeboxes (after a year of working with the OCC team here in Zimbabwe, and hitting wall after wall with shoeboxes being held at the port, and customs, etc.) out to Karanda!  Today we were so fortunate to be on the other side of the shoebox, handing them out to the kids in the PEDS Ward at the hospital! 

 

Our whole family trooped down to the hospital to gather the shoeboxes and stuffed animals for the babies.  Christopher called all the patients together to share the true reason for Christmas.  He talked of Christ coming as a baby.  He continued that Jesus ultimately gave us the greatest gift of his life so we can be forgiven of our sins and be with Him in Heaven one day if we accept this gift and ask Him to be our Savior.  We prayed and then shared that people in the United States had prepared and given these shoeboxes because they wanted to share God’s love with each one of these kids in the hospital.  It is a way to say, "Happy Birthday," to Jesus.  Then we handed out the boxes.  Most kids had no idea what this shoebox was all about, but as they opened them with their mothers or caregivers, huge smiles broke out and a wave of excitment went through the ward. 

 

 

 Thank you to all those who participate in OCC.  We wish that you could be the ones to hand out your boxes and see the joy your love brings.  We feel very honored to be your hands.  May you receive some blessing by looking at the faces of these kids who’s hearts were touched this day in Jesus name.