A Great Day!

I THOUGHT that my day was great when I got to double the number of patients on the ward and almost fill it (15 beds full!!)  It feels so good to see the ward functioning as it should, the nurses able to feel like nurses again, the beds no longer empty!

and then...

I THOUGHT my day was even better as I watched the sun set with friends, reading, chatting, and generally enjoying peace at the end of a busy day.  We've started a "sunset club", no membership, just a lot of the same people enjoying the beauty of the sky after supper each night.  Books in hand, sometimes cameras, occasionally families come to play while parents sit and enjoy the view.

And then ...

I THOUGHT that I had about reached the highlight of my day when I came down to my (shared) office and noticed the patients dancing down the hallways and singing their hearts out.  (We have the best ways to get patients moving!!)  They clap and they sing and they move with more rhythm after surgery than I will ever hope to have in my healthy state.  They pace the length of the hall as a group and... oh... I can't describe it... it's just so good to watch!

But I was wrong.  That wasn't the highlight of my day... That came next....

Because the moment that we've been anticipating for weeks has finally arrived...
THE EIGHT PLATE KIDS ARE HERE!!!!!!   They literally JUST arrived!

Now, I may have neglected to mention these kids before, but my friends and I who were in Sierra Leone have been eagerly anticipating their arrival.  These children had a small surgery in Spring 2011 to put an "eight plate" into their crooked bones to halt the growth on one side.  It allows the body to correct itself and avoids having to break bones.  But it takes time.  Sometimes lots of time.  Many of the children that got the plates put in were not ready to have them taken out in Fall 2011.  So plans were made, GPS coordinates of tiny, very difficult to find villages were taken, promises were made to collect them all this fall.  They were supposed to arrive yesterday.  But collecting them took time.  Instead they arrived today. 

About half an hour ago, a friend popped into the office to tell me that they were here.  I went straight to B Ward, where the children are staying as hotel patients while we sort them out and make sure they are healthy (and wait for them to be able to go to the Hope Center).  I walked in, and it was full to bursting.  Children on beds and in nurse's arms (half of us in street clothes, half in scrubs... it doesn't matter, they know us!), children coming up to say hi, to climb into our arms and love on us.  For every child, there is an adult accompanying them.  They have travelled all day and are tired and quick to take their turn to get washed up in the bathroom.  But their smiles... Oh the smiles!  So many straight legs!  So many familiar faces!  My friend Melinda is the Ortho team leader.  These are "her kids"  and she was over the moon excited to have them here.  It doesn't matter what hour they walked in.  It's pure joy!!!