Wednesday, March 12, 2008

First Steps

03/04/08

Lawrence, the household baby, has been Mary’s major concern ever since we arrived in Iva. She thought there might be a problem with him since he didn’t seem to be putting things in his mouth, crawling about, or pulling himself up on furniture. At fourteen months, he just stood up and started walking all over the place. He seems alert and in all ways a very normal child.

Lawrence is also the child who has been suffering from a severe skin disease since before we came to the village over six months ago. After repeated trips to the hospital his skin problem, earlier diagnosed as scabies, is now diagnosed as a staphylococcus skin infection. He is back on heavy doses of antibiotics, which seem to help, albeit new sores keep appearing.

The permanent status of Lawrence, previously KJ, is still uncertain. The most recent information we have is that his birth mother, who is scheduled to deliver another child this May, wants to keep Lawrence and her new baby. We believe she previously signed him over to her married aunt who lives in Hawaii and is childless. It appears the aunt has been told that Lawrence is becoming attached to both this birth parents and our host family. “I’ll take the new baby”, says the aunt. Stay tuned for further developments.

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