Welcome to the World Baby Girl........

Well, let me tell you….the last 24 hours have seen quite the excitement around the Rainey house.

First off, Tim Lundy arrived Tuesday night for a week (we all fly back together to the states on Tuesday), and it’s been great having him here. He is preaching this week at a crusade here hosted by Bishop John, but there has been enough down time for him so that we have enjoyed being able to visit. Tim hauled over two more trunks for us, filled mostly with tool type things, but he brought some stuff for me that turned out to be perfect timing. He brought a walking cast/boot for my ankle, and a ton of stuff for Christine’s new baby….ya know…all the Johnson & Johnson baby bath/lotion products, plus paci’s and some blankets and clothes (thanks Brit and Lori). All kinds of things!! And none too soon!!

Last night at around 10, we got THE call from Christine that she was in labor. She had apparently started having contractions at 7, and by 10 was ready to head to the hospital. Now….we don’t have a car, and getting a taxi here at 10 at night is impossible, so we called trusty Anna Reed, who ran over with her car and picked us up, then we all went over to Christine’s and got her. Her next door neighbors agreed to watch the two older kids, so off we trek to the hospital. So, I was familiar….after the man-trap/bike incident… with the hospital drill….ok…just a TITCH different in the maternity ward. And this is how it all went down…..we walk in and about 20 women gathered around point in the general direction we should go…ok…Christine and her muzungu posse….we head around the corner, where there are two chairs…we find the woman who looked to be in charge, and she just had a titch of an attitude….I’m just sayin…At this point, Russell is standing around with the 20 woman outside the little room…and we decide fairly quickly, this ain’t no place for a man…he was the only one and a muzungu at that…so he and Anna left and left Christine and I to the task at hand.

The “attitude chick”, then points us in the general direction of a room with four beds (photo included), and there is one bed not taken (also photo included). Here’s where it starts to get interesting for me….the bed has NOTHING on it…just a mattress..no sheets, no pillows, no NOTHIN…fortunately, Christine had an extra piece of material which we laid over the mattress. All the other beds were taken with three other women in various stages of labor and they all had posse’s as well…I mean…poor Christine had only me… in one of the other beds, we had a woman that looked to be 55 if she looked a day….and of course not ONE other person beside Christine and I spoke English, so I couldn’t understand all the conversations, but let’s just say some things don’t need words…this poor woman was S.U.F.F.E.R.I.N.G…..and I guess so…I kept thinking what it would be like , at my age, to be in labor again….heebie jeebie’s is what came to mind just THINKING bout THAT. The other woman sat on a stool the whole time and would stand up every time she had a contraction…she was fairly quiet compared to memaw and then the other woman was just crying, and crying and CRYING…and I was thinking….man, she must be in six kinds of pain, but then Christine told me, based on conversations in the room, that her baby had actually died and they were just waiting for her to deliver….OK…kill me NOW!! It was horrible….watching that poor woman labor, knowing the situation. …and this is where we stayed for the next 4 hours….did even ONE person check on us….that would be a NADDA!!!  And people…if you don’t bring it, you don’t have it…they give you NOTHING, but a bed in which to have the baby and a “nurse” to deliver it.

But, my job was to be there to support Christine, and she did a GREAT job…she labored HARD for four hours, and when it was time, she knew, and we walked….barely….back over to the room with “attitude chick” and they took Christine back to another room where there were about 8 beds…and they made me stay outside that room….WHHHATTT!!! Yep…it was like the old days where the family waits outside the delivery room….I was a NERVOUS WRECK!! But it didn’t take but about 2 minutes and we heard baby Elizabeth crying….I must say at this point Nurse Cratchet came out and told me it was a “female” and actually warmed up a little, and because I was the crazy Muzungu running around with my camera, they actually let me back to see Christine and the baby (not the norm from what I could gather), so I was able to get photos. You can see how beautiful she is. She was officially born at 2:43 AM and weighed in at 6 lbs. 6 oz. We got Christine to her room (and by “room”, I mean a big room with 12 beds – similar in situation to the labor “room” – and all full) about 20 minutes after the delivery (Russell came back over when they took her back), and we came on home. I think I got into bed about 4, but didn’t get to sleep until close to 4:30…..of course, if there are no taxi’s at 10, there SURE aren’t any at 4 AM, so I had to WALK home in the walking cast – a good test run for our trips through the airports next week, but holy cow, was ankle hurting by the time I got home!! But…amazing what adrenaline does for pain…should try that more often :)

I am SOOOO very thankful that Elizabeth arrived before our departure next Tuesday. Christine’s aunt was coming today, and her husband will be here tomorrow, and her sister, Chantal on Saturday, so she is set for the next few days, although Russell popped up bright and early this morning and took her a whole smorgasbord of food and water, and Beatrice, our gardener was already there with milk for her, from her cow, so we are all trying to love on her until her “real” family gets here.  Since we are leaving next week, she will get a nice long break (VERY unusual here)…they usually go back to work within a few days because if they don’t work, they don’t get paid, but of course, she is on paid maternity leave from the Rainey household….and when she does come back to work, she will bring the baby with her every day….so, we will get to spoil that little girl silly with love!!

As we get ready to come back to the states for some time there, and I look back at my journey over the last three months here in Rwanda….how I went from despair, to resolution, to now, having family here too….to come back to, when we do…the way I see it, God has blessed me with grandbabies on this side of the big pond now…so that when OUR kids make us grandparents, I’ll never NOT have grandbabies now, whether we are here or there….God is good, and I am blessed!! Welcome to the world baby girl!!

Cast Off....Cast On....and We Ain't Talkin Bout Knitin.....

Ok…so TWO weeks from today, we leave Rwanda for our first trip back home!! SCORE!! Actually, as excited as I am to get back to see friends and family…..and let’s be real…sushi, cheese dip, WATERMELON,  Izzy’s and some good old BBQ, I really have gotten into quite a good place here. In fact, EVERYONE needs to be praying as HARD AS YOU CAN that Christine has that baby just a few days early. I honestly can’t hardly stand the thought that I won’t be with her when baby Elizabeth is born.  Because if I’m not here, she will be alone….THAT, breaks my heart!!  She and I have developed such a close, almost mother/daughter, relationship…actually, she is just a year older than Brit, so there you have it! I am going to miss her soooo much when we are gone….along with the rest of our staff, but especially her!! I am also happy to report that our night guard, Kiza, and his wife, Chantal, are expecting their second baby in January...man...babies galore :)

Now…when I had my cast put on, the doctor said to keep the cast on 2-3 weeks. Well, yesterday was two weeks exactly, so over to the hospital we haul to have this sucker cut on off. Ya know….it was feeling pretty good….and Lord knows I was ready to be done. So…they pull out the trusty cast cutteroffer  and go to it (see photo, to which I want to add a disclaimer  - REALLY dude REALLY…you have make me smile when some Rwandan dude has a saw on my leg) (Oh…and I also want you to note that my signature Strawberry Margarita nail polish is back on the toes I could get to…I’m mean really…a girl’s gotta do, what a girls gotta do). Oh, oh, but it gets better….”Rwandan dude with saw” actually got  through the fiberglass quite well, but there is this material they put under a fiberglass cast that needs to be cut through with scissors…ummmm…yeah…novel  idea…having a pair of scissors in a HOSPITAL…so, NOOOO, can't find any scissors…so he comes back with a razor blade…no joke…a razor blade and starts cutting…at which point I start TEARING at this stuff like there is no tomorrow…I think he got the point rather quickly to keep the razor blade away from MOI!! So, we get the cast off and gotta say, after two weeks, I was, frankly, expecting the swelling to be mostly gone…foot to look pretty good…not so much there either…it was still swelled pretty good and black and blue…and holy cow, did it ever hurt. At this point I also want to point out that the cutest boy in the world, having had a cast or two in his day, did try to warn me that the minute they took the thing off, I would say, “Put it back on”. Did I believe him…of course not…well, let me just say, I do now. We were also fairly strategic in that we had “Rwandan dude with saw” cut down both sides of the cast so that if my ankle wasn’t quite ready for freedom, we could simply put it back on and ace bandage it closed. I tried to gut it out a few hours, but clearly, it was a no go, cause as I type, I have that cast back on my leg…I think I’ll give it a few more days and see how we do. The nice thing about this though, is that I was able to take it off this morning to take my shower and not have to be some sort of contortionist just to get clean and keep my cast dry! So…we’ll see what the next week or so holds. After my shower I did try moving my ankle a little…cause really, the LAST thing I want is to be on crutches on the plane RIDES home!! OY VEY!!

I also posted some photos of our garden…the zucchini (the biggest), cantaloupe and watermelon are doing well, as are the tomaters and basil….my girls and I are having MORE fun with this garden. I can’t even tell you!!

We are a little worried about Pete…didn’t hear him all day today. Not that I’m complaining, but on that note, I did see the BIGGEST bird I have ever seen…like a Velociraptor….NO KIDDING…SOOO…either Pete was "what's for dinner" over there, or the biggest bird in the world got him!! I’ll keep you posted. Fifi is also still at it every single night as well, and well, we have added a new animal to our menagerie….just call us Dr. and Mrs. Doolittle….a cat, which has been hanging out and meowing ALL the time. He/She? sticks pretty close to the compost, so I have aptly named it Nom Nom….as in… this food is so good.…nomnomnomnom….we figure if it eats out of the compost…fine….even better…goes after the combo squirrel/rat (or squrats, as I like to call them) things we have here…then stay as long as you like Nom Nom!!

Lastly…please continue to keep the Wardlaw and Parkinson families in your prayers, also, for us, as we get through a BUSY next two weeks (and only three good legs between us), and try to get ready to leave.  Till next week…TTFN!!!

Wow Wow Wubbzy....

Well….I am a week past the dreaded bike wreck…and the cast on the ‘ol leg….gotta say…this is the first time I have ever had a cast – yep...first time…I’m not diggin it so much. There’s a shock!!!

The first few days, I only  had one elbow type crutch….so I did a lot of hopping around…but Russell had to go down to Kigali for a meeting, so he went over to King Faisal Hospital (the largest in Kigali) and got me a real live pair of crutches….woo hoo!! NOW….it’s still sketchy getting around…NO surface here is even, so even with crutches, venturing farther than my front porch isn’t cool….and you’re just gonna have to take my word for it…I’m stubborn…I usually find these things out the hard way…fortunately, it wasn’t too hard….and for the record, everyone here is taking really, really good care of me.

But…all and all, the ankle is coming along…I am being a super good girl so that, hopefully, next week, I can get this sucker off…it still swells when I have it down, so I keep it up as much as possible…and wow wow wubbzy , you can’t believe the other bruises that have shown up all over my body…I have one on my left leg (where the bike actually fell ON me) that is seriously the size of a softball….not to mention the plethora of smaller ones….I  (and my bike) did a number on myself…FOR SURE!!!

I would seriously like to be a fly on the wall listening to all the Rwandan kids that were witness to the “accident” and its aftermath….I mean, don’t you just KNOW they are talking about how that Muzungu lady just appeared to fall over OFF the bridge into the man-trap and proceed to cry and wail and writhe in pain….they were probably thinking…those Muzungu’s are such babies…get up…shake it off, lady…I mean really....you just FELL OVER while on that shiny new bike…you are not worthy….No really….I’m pretty sure that’s what they are saying!! I can’t wait to get this cast off and ride that road again…just to show THEM!!  Get back on the horse, as it were!!

So…leg in cast…not getting out at all….so no, out and about in Musanze stories?... ha, that’s the beauty of this place…you don’t really have to venture far to have “Life in Africa” stories….

We have decided that  there must be something wrong with Pete…I mean what rooster seriously crows ALL DAY, EVERY DAY….now I’ll grant you, I’m not a rooster expert…if any of you are…please, put in your 2 cents worth…I really do want to know if I’m just being hard on little Petey….now add to little Petey, the DOG…yes, you heard right, DOG, that has started barking, oh, bout midnight every night for hours on end. For the most part, Rwandans don’t really have dogs...you only see them in a “guard” dog situation and unless you are about to get eaten by one, you shouldn’t really hear them bark…so imagine our surprise when we started hearing a dog barking at all hours of the night…at first I thought maybe it was my pain meds…ya know…”working” …but no…the dog went on long after the pain meds quit “working”….we have yet to investigate, but no doubt, between Pete and the dog, which I have named Fifi  (I mean if you are going to ruin my sleep, you are getting a little French poodle name, big boy)…that Ambien is coming in handy….I’m just sayin….

Me and my cohorts in crime, Christine and Beatrice, did get the tomatoes (all three types) and basil (both types) in the ground this morning….actually, Beatrice did all the work, Christine, helped, and I sat, leg up in chair, directing…I’ve decided I’m a very good director. I also had to have Ronald to translate because they were giving me a list of seeds (in Kinyarwanda) I needed to bring back with me when we come back in Sept….let’s just say, it’s going to be a VERY good month for Burpee this month…but between the food and flowers…oh my…the taste and beauty that will come from our home!!!  We are still pampering the parsley and oregano in their cups, but hope those are ready to go in the ground later this week!!  What I can say, is that 99 days out of 100 here are “Cheryl Rainey days”, which is a phrase coined by my bestest friend, Kathleen, and it represents 70-75 degree days, and 50 degree nights, with NO humidity. I can’t argue with the cutest boy in the world on this point…lots of others, but not this one!!

Yesterday, being the 4th was bittersweet for us here…I think this is only the second time in my life, I have not been on US soil on the 4th of July….gotta say…it was weird…they did have a big shindig down in Kigali at the US Embassy on Saturday, but with leg, cannot travel, so we missed the festivities. We do hope though, that y'all had a safe and fun 4th with family and friends…and lots of ice cold watermelon….yummy!!

And I also want to take this opportunity to ask for a couple of prayer requests:

First, for my friend, David Wardlaw, and his family. They lost their oldest son, Win, who was 20, in an accident 10 days ago, and I can only imagine how hard a loss like that must be. They have been in our prayers every single day, and would appreciate you keeping them in yours, as they navigate to a new “normal” of life without Win.

Secondly, for Betsy Parkinson.  Her mom and dad, Bill and Ann Parkinson, are our dear friends, and Bill was one of the three greats that started Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock over 30 years ago. Betsy was in a car accident on Lookout Road in LR last week, and was quite severely injured. Bill and Ann happened to be in Mexico on vacation, so it took them a little while to get back to her. THAT, we can relate to. Betsy is doing much better, but does have a long road to recovery ahead. We know what the power of prayer can do, from our experience with Brittany and her accident, almost 4 years ago, and we are praying for the same, successful outcome for Betsy…full recovery, and strength!! So, prayers for her, and her family, would also be appreciated.

Lastly, today, being July 5th, would have been our Gauki’s 94th birthday. She was a woman of character and determination. She was so much more than an aunt…she was another mother and grandmother, too…to all four of us kids and the rest of her nieces and nephews!! She also served her country during WWII. She passed away just 4 months ago, and her loss is still hard to comprehend. Not a beautiful sight goes by that I don’t think to myself, “Gauki would LOVE this.” She would have loved the beauty of Rwanda, just as she loved Jackson Hole, the lake, the beach, my sister’s farm or simply sitting by the pool, surrounded by family, watching all us kids (and our kids) swim and have a good old time. She appreciated beauty in the simplest of things, and I hope I do the same! I have included, this week, a few pictures for Gauki… to show the beauty of Rwanda and its people.

Don’t miss the chance to tell those you love that you do…and enjoy the little things…for it is the little things that make up the big ones. Enjoy the beauty that surrounds you and thank God for such!! Till next week…we love you all!!