Starving

On Sunday when I was walking through the hospital I met this little guy named Walkins. He's 7 years old. He's the middle of five children. I've seen his other family members and they look normal and healthy. The doctor says his only problem is malnutrition (no other diseases). I'm still trying to figure out his whole story. Situations like this are extremely hard for me to understand. I know this is bad, but as soon as I met his mom I felt mad at her. I resented her and wanted to blame her for everything. How can you let your child get this bad? I know things are tough here and food can be difficult for people to find, but why would you wait until your child can no longer walk before you take him to the hospital? It's so hard to understand from an outsiders prospective.

I decided to start taking a little food and milk to him everyday... just to kind of add to whatever else he's getting from his mom. Walkins is a very picky eater; it's crazy to see him turn down food while his body is literally starving. When I take food and he doesn't eat it right then, I always wonder if his mom or siblings will take it from him. Yesterday I took him peanut butter and crackers and he told me he was full but that he'd eat them later. I came back to check on him that night while I was visiting another sick friend, and I noticed that some of the crackers had been eaten. I congratulated him on eating some of crackers and he replied that his mom had been the one to eat them...

I'll try to post updates of Walkins as he makes progress.

Sisterly Love

Recent pictures of Jesula... She's continuing to speak more everyday. Unfortunately, she's not making much progress as far as walking goes... but we're not giving up!

More School Pictures

The First Day of School

We had our first day of school yesterday. It was so great to see all the kids again. Like every first week of school, there were lots of tears shed by the little preschoolers!

Summer Pictures

I forgot to post some pictures from my summer vacation back in August. I went to Texas and then home to Indiana. It was a great vacation...did lots of catching up, shopping, and eating good food. My parents are building a new house, so my mom and I spent a lot of time picking out things for the new house. So fun!

My first stop was in Austin to visit Elaine. She just recently moved there, so we spent a lot of time exploring the city- which is pretty cool place...

Then catching up (and shopping!) with biz in Indy. As usual we did dinner at the Palomino ...

The Downham cousins at Mark and Julie's wedding...

And of course, a trip to the houseboat! My friend Rebecca was able to fly in from Kansas City for a long weekend at the lake. (She's not pictured; she was too scared to tube;) ...

Mimid & Baby