Most of the time I pretty positive on this blog. There are many amazing things our family is able to experience while serving with Mercy Ship in Freetown Sierra Leone and we are truly thankful to be here. But as I say almost daily to myself or to others "This place has the highest highs and the lowest lows".
Friday was one of those lowest lows kinda days. Not that anything specific was truly terrible, but just a lot. I'll explain....
Friday started as a normal day... wake up, eat breakfast, kids off to school, etc. I get to rehab at 8am for our daily devotions. I know this will be a little different as 2 of our therapist are leaving this weekend... one at noon on Friday and the other 1pm Sunday. In a team of 7 people, losing 2 is a lot and I'm sure we will be talking about that at devotions. The therapist in charge of devotions that day (the one leaving Sunday) had asked a patient to come and give his life story during our devotions time. As you can imagine, all of our patients have a story of resiliency in hard circumstances. While it was a good story to hear, I was already feeling the heaviness of what my patients live through on a daily basis.
Next up was my 8:30am patient. It was a 5 year old girl who was having her last appointment with us in rehab! She came to us in January to fix her bowed legs and we got to celebrate her discharge home!! I was fortunate enough to do her assessments before surgery, see her every appointment between and now do her discharge assessment. The hours I have spent with this girlie and her mama can't be counted. She is one who was very shy/scared/quiet when I first met her and now walks into the rehab gym like she owns the place. A fabulous tradition here is each kid picking their favorite song and we all dance to it at their last appointment. We danced, prayed for her and gave parting hugs. Both the patient and mom hugged me with tears in the eyes and she waved to me as she walked around the corner to leave. Gah! My heart breaks once again.
Next patient was at 10am. This is a 12 year old boy who is living at home and coming to see me every 2-3 days or so for rehab. His mom is a single mom with 3 kids and she has to take off of work every time he comes to see me, but she is happy to do it to help her son longterm. Friday she brought me 2 big loaves of bread as a thank you for helping her son. I found out that is her job... she stands on a street corner selling bread that she bought from a bakery. She gave of the little she had to say thank you to me. Humbling to say the least. She would not accept money for the bread stating "It brings me joy to bless you as you have done so much for my son". Gah! Heart broken again for the third time in one morning.
Next was lunch time. Thankful for a dining room to feed me and see all 3 kids in the middle of the day. After that kind of morning it was easy to squeeze them all, say how much I love them, and love seeing them. Down to the dock now to say goodbye to a PT I have known for 12 weeks. She was the only other PT from the USA so we had a special bond. I gave her a hug and we will definitely stay in touch, but once again, not a dry eye to be found.
I don't write down these stories to be pitted or for you to say "Oh you are so amazing!". I write this is 1) Remind myself when I read this years from now what my morning looked like 2) Show you all the good and the bad. Like I said, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We ride a roller coaster of emotions here, but I am thankful for each twist and turn.
We love it here. Truly.
