Baby Kulah kicks again...

HELLO It’s me again.  I’ve been bugging my mom at least 5-6 times a day to write again but she said I had to wait til I was over 30 weeks old in my water home.  Last Friday I had my 30-week-old birthday so here I am, Hoorayy!! 

For my 28-week-old birthday my Mom and Dad brought me flying.  I thought it was going to be really hard and scary but instead I just sat in a seat for a REALLY long time.  It was pretty boring so I decided to work on my kickboxing moves to pass the time.  I especially loved to try my moves on my Mom’s punching bag (bladder).  My Mom seemed to like it because she kept waking up my Dad so he could feel my new moves.  I can’t wait to come outside so I can really show off my new moves.

FINALLY by the time I had hair on my head we made it from my Dads country to my Moms country.  Our first stop was to meet my Mom’s family.  My Mom and Dad haven’t stopped talking about them since I was a small zygote.  I met my Nana, Grandpa, Auntie, and Uncle and it made me sooo happy.  They were all really nice and I could tell my Mom and Dad were really happy too.

For the past 2 weeks my parents and I have been staying with my grandparents in some place called Chelmsford.  Once we got here my parents and Nana brought me to see a new photographer to take pictures of me inside my water home.  This photographer wanted to take pictures of EVERYTHING.  She took pictures of my heart, my hands, my legs, my head, my tummy, my face, and my feet.  Then the photographer asked my parents if they wanted to know if I was a boy or girl.  I was SOOO embarrassed but I told them it was okay to find out.  SURPRISE, I’m a girl!!  I haven’t told them yet what I want my name to be but I like to leave my parents in suspense.

Over my 30 weeks of growing in my water home I have continued to leave my parents in suspense.  Since I grew eardrums, I have heard my Mom and Dad praying to God about me and all the unknowns ahead, (Ugh they worry about me so much), but like usual God continues to show them that everything is going to be okay if they will just continue to put their faith in Him.  I keep trying to tell them that but you know how parents can be. 

Anyway I should probably get back to working on my kickboxing cause my Mom is starting to get ready for bed but I am excited to meet you all when I come out of my water home in 10 weeks. 

Love you Mom and Dad.

Hi!

One of my sweet moves, Hiya!

God is full of adventure and surprises!

Good bye Mercy Ships! (see you in a few months)

Hello Ghana!

or... Change of plans!!

Hello USA!!

Love you Jacobsen's!

Surprise!!! 

God decided 3 weeks before we were suppose to leave for Ghana to bless the Kulah family with a visa to the US.  God is a god of adventure and surprises!!

Guess who's coming home?

Thanks Rob and Denise.  Now time to surprise the Annie and Greg.  

Surprise again! 

Actually my parents knew we were coming home (especially since we'll be living in their basement for the next 5 months) but my mom still looks exceptionally surprised. 

Now for the real surprise. 

YAY!!! 

She had a small inkling that we were coming 5 minutes before we rang their doorbell but that may have been due to the fact that my parents rented a car and that no one ever rings their doorbell. heheh!

First stop: Virginia for Annie's graduation.  Great job Annie we are so proud to have a doctor (JD) in the family!! 

Not even one month prior to this picture being taken was the thought of being together with all these lovely people even a possibility.  Thank you God!

Next stop: Home!

Baby Kulah is still getting ready to enter this big world but because of God's love and faithfulness I am so excited to announce that he or she will be born in the US surrounded by our amazing friends and family.  

"I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; 

with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through 

all generations."  Psalm 89:1

Grace at work

             As of April 21^st Mercy Ships has done about 600 surgeries here in Togo plus many other procedures and programs.  These are the specifics: 161 maxillofacial surgeries, 19 cleft lip and palate surgeries, 66 plastic/reconstructive surgeries, 151 general surgeries (hernia, goiters, lipomas, etc), 19 VVF surgeries, 13 palliative care patients, 474 cataract surgeries. And there is still another 6 weeks left of surgeries.  In outpatients we have had over 1200 wound care visits in eleven weeks.  Some days are manic while other days are just ‘busy’ but all days are an adventure. 

The other day while working on a plastics patient and trying to deal with their complicated wound, one of my day workers said to me “It is all about God’s grace.” I then asked, “What do you mean? The surgeries, the healing, the wound care?”   He said, “All.”

This really got me thinking about grace in the context of Mercy Ships.  As I looked over the numbers stated above I know that God’s grace was upon each and every person touched.  Even the thousands that we had to turn away God's grace was still at work.  But as the day worker said this to me I started thinking about the many graces God gives us all as we work for Him here.  Whether it be the surgeons performing complicated operations, the deckies working with heavy machinery in the hot sun, the 50 children on board who have teachers and a curriculum to prepare them for the next step in life, and in outpatients where each day we view the intricacies of the human body and how it heals.  There are times when i leave work and get down or upset as certain patients wounds arent healing the way they should or in the time they should.  But the other side of grace is it is all about God's timing and his purposes and not our own.  There are some wounds that we look at and cringe knowing that it will take weeks before it heals and then by Gods grace they come back and by the next week their wounds are beautiful.  For some of you this may not mean to much but for any nurse out there (happy nurses week by the way... MGH girls, love ya) you can appreciate these things more.  To watch somebody who has had their body so badly burned that they are unrecognizable and hindered from doing basic activities, to see their skin come anew after a basic plastic surgery is truly Gods grace.  As we work with each patient trying to decide which product to put on their slow healing or infected wound, it is only by Gods grace that these troublesome wounds heal. 
So yes we have troublesome wounds but truth be told we also have troublesome patients and caregivers.  Mercy Ships looks for and works on physical deformities but as we care for these patients we come to see wounds that are seated deep inside.  Some of our patients aren’t healing the way they should because their parents choose not to obey the directions we give them.  Where as others are dealing with alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, trauma, and/or domestic abuse.  A lot of times these are the patients that stay with us day after day, week after week, and (to be honest) these are the ones that you are hoping will just heal so you can get a break.  But again, it's God's grace that knows when the person will heal but it is also God's grace working in my life as well to rely on his grace and strength and not my own.

In conclusion, after working in Africa for about three years, I have found that the western world and Africa can be SO different but also SO alike.  One of the ways that we are SO alike is in regards to our brokenness.  I have found that our brokenness is the same no matter where we come from.  Our struggles may not be exact but the feelings can be the same.  So no matter where you go in the world you will see broken people with not only physical problems but social, spiritual, and emotional ones as well.  Each one in need of a personal Savior that can make them whole again and heal whatever brokenness is in their life.  His name is Jesus Christ.

“Grace, grace, Gods grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within

Grace, grace, Gods grace

Grace that will save us from all our sins

Grace that is greater than all our sin”

            Written by Daniel Towner

Prayer: As Mercy Ships finishes up its last few weeks of surgeries, I pray that Gods grace would be upon the crew, day workers, and patients.  I also pray that as outpatients continues to work diligently on these patients, that Gods grace would flow around and through each one of us here. 

2 Corinthians 13:14~ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.