Ekisa Samuel

Ekisa Sam.

This is the name on his hospital bracelet I saw when I took my shift at the hospital.

As Emily and I walked in we see our precious Sam lying in the hospital.

Trucks on one side of him, Ipad on the other with the movie “UP” playing for the 500^th time, and his little foot al wrapped up from surgery propped up on a pillow.

Sam is pretty new to Ekisa.

He and his brother both came in May of this year.

They were coming to a house filled with crazy kids.

They were getting to know new faces.

New mammas.

New aunties.

New everything.

He made friends quickly, especially with Walter because they are close to the same age.

Sam does not have a any other special need except he has sickle cell anemia.

When a person has sickle cell they can go through a crisis where they are in extreme pain.

The pain is equivalent to a kidney stone pain, but these pains can be anywhere in the body.

The second week I was here Sam went through a crisis where we had movies days on the sofa for four days straight.

He had IV’s in to keep him hydrated.

We ate sweeties and drank lots of water, and by the end of the week he was up playing again with all his friends.

A few weeks later Sam was in another crisis.

We put on movies to help distract the pain.

We gave him sweeties and cake because that’s what he asked for.

We kept him hydrated and had more medicine we were giving him, but nothing was helping.

So one early morning the nurse decided it was time to get him to the hospital.

Our nurse is brilliant and made a great move on getting him to the hospital where we found out more about what was going on.

With sickle cell infection can happen, and Sam had a good infection in his foot.

This needed surgery to drain his foot and the nasty out of there.

After two surgeries he was still standing strong and would laugh and smile at how ridiculous I was when he was not in pain.

Each day the pain was different, sometimes worse than others.

The days were long and hard because seeing this boy in pain was heart breaking.

Every two days we would come in shifts and relieve the others.

One would sleep on the futon in the room, while the other snuggled at the end of Sam’s hospital bed.

After almost two weeks this kid, this beautiful precious kid, finally is getting discharged and getting to come home to see his friends.

He won’t be able to run around and play for a while, but to be at a place filled with comfort will be good for him.

We are all excited to have him home and rejoice in the Lord’s goodness!

God is so good.

He is so faithful.

He allowed healing in this child.

He brought comfort to all of us when we thought things we never going to go right.

The past few post have not been the most exciting, happy, joyful post, but this is what has been going on.

I will post about the happy and joyful times, because there are many of those, but everything here is not as beautiful as it seems sometimes.

Things are a lot harder than anyone ever wanted them to be.

The dream of helping kids is beautiful, but we forget things like this happen sometimes and the dream is no longer a dream but reality.

If I only posted about the good it wouldn’t allow you to see how faithful God really is.

It wouldn’t allow us to see his grace so fully.

But when we look deeper in the situation and see how good God really is He becomes more beautiful and that becomes extremely comforting to all.

I know a lot of people are asking how to help us here at Ekisa.

What can you send for the kids, for the aunties, etc.

I usually would never ask or say to give, but we really need your help.

The hospital bill is pretty big.

We need help paying that, along with other expenses.

If you would like to donate you can go to www.ekisa.org/donate or you can email me at margracie08@gmail.com

No matter what you give every bit helps.

If you cannot give that is ok, because it is not about the money.

It is about trusting the Lord to provide.

So prayer is always appreciated.

With love and a trusting heart,

Mary Grace