Kenya 2009 - Part 2

Positive to Negative

Our friends Mike and Kris Stawski and their 2.5 year old daughter, Kathleen are visiting with us here in Kenya for 3.5 weeks. The day after their arrival, we arranged a day in the Nairobi National Park. The first stop in the Park was…the Elephant Orphanage.

The elephant orphanage is this amazing place that rescues and rehabilitates orphaned or abandoned baby elephants. These baby elephants go through therapy (as it’s been found that they suffer similar emotional issues as us humans do based on deaths in the family, abandonment, stress, etc.). They are slowly integrated back in to the wild where they will be able to live the rest of their lives like all other elephants.

We were told by the keepers of the orphanage that one of the oldest elephants in the nearby park was originally from the orphanage. When a new orphan or abandon elephant, goes to their new home in the wild, the oldest elephant in the park, literally comes and greets the newcomer and welcomes him/her in to their herd. This oldest elephant, knowing (as elephants have a fantastic memory) the pains of “being the new kid on the block”, makes the new addition to the family….feel just like a part of the family. It’s quite amazing to hear the stories of the elephants.

The elephants at the orphanage range from 3 months to 18 months. We got to watch them being fed milk from bottles (very large bottles that were empty in a matter of moments), play with each other and of course, roll around in the mud water. We even got to rub the top of the head of one of the elephants.

Kathleen was in her glory. It’s been a week and she still keeps saying, “Can we see the elephants today?” Perhaps, with each day that passes, her heart will be a little less broken when she’s told that we aren’t going back to see the elephants. :-)

Visiting the rest of the park was great. We got to see zebras (hundreds of them), giraffes, cape buffalo, ostriches, gazelle and baboons. Just to name a few. It was nice to sit back and enjoy the hot African sun and the beautiful scenery and wildlife all around us.

We arrived back in Kitale last Thursday evening and spent Friday, relaxing and allowing the Stawski’s some time to get settled.

On Saturday, we took the Stawski’s out to HBF to introduce them to our kids. It was such a fun day. The children sang and welcomed the Stawski family. Of course, the kids were all enthralled by a white child. They kept staring at Kathleen, wanting to play with her or laughing when they heard her talking in English.

Most of the day, I had either Lucy (the new addition to the home) or Linda (whom you all know about) on my lap. Both were a bit in need of some physical touch, cuddling time…and I love to provide that. At one point, I had Linda curled up in my lap when Zipporah, the manager came in and sat down beside me to talk about Linda.

Zipporah began to tell me that about a week before Linda was taken to the hospital, for a routine check-up and her medication for her HIV. The hospital did some updated tests and when they got the results back, Linda’s HIV test came back NEGATIVE!!!! The hospital was stumped…how could an HIV positive girl suddenly come up HIV negative???? They ran some more tests and have sent them to a specialized hospital to look at the situation a bit further, a bit deeper.

When Zipporah told me this, it took everything I had to not burst in to tears. I clung a little bit tighter to Linda and said a prayer, “Please God; please let her be healed.”

I had to share the news with Sean and his response was the same as mine. I could see the tears well up in his eyes but he managed to fight them from falling down his face too.

Linda has another doctor’s appointment on either April 12th or 13th and we’re hoping she’ll have the results back the specialized hospital. We don’t know what the results will hold…perhaps it was a misreading or further testing to confirm that she still is positive…or perhaps, which is what would be so amazing and a miracle far more than I could imagine….our little girl being healed.

God can do amazing things….and whatever the outcome is…positive or negative…I will continue to pray that Linda doesn’t spend her life fighting a deadly disease but instead spends her life laughing and dancing and making her dreams come true.