Doris and The Razor Blade

Cute Child and Doris, playing in our car in Thika:

For those of you friends with me on facebook, you saw that this week was a rough one for beloved Doris.

Doris is 28 years old, and from a village 5 hours north of Nairobi. She came here because 2 of her older sisters (there are 5 of them) both live here with their husbands and children and are 'helpers' (i.e. housekeepers, cooks, nannies). She has 2 daughters, ages 5 and 8, and her husband had another wife (multiple wives is common here) with other children, and routinely beat Doris. He died last September of Meningitis. Her daughters have been living with Doris' mother, who seems to be one of those "Madea" type women. She raised her 5 daughters to be honest, God fearing women, who can cook and clean like crazy! I'm sooo blessed to have Doris in her house. But so saddened that her circumstances only allow her to see her two girls twice a year. :(

This past Saturday, Doris told me that she had just gotten a phone call saying that Jillian (the 5 year old) had swallowed a razor blade on a dare. On Monday Doris told me they took her to the doctor Sunday and the little girl recanted, saying she hadn't really swallowed it. The doctor did an exam and found nothing wrong.

But Doris kept waking in the night, thinking about it. So she called her Mom on Wednesday and asked her to take Jillian to get an xray. Sure enough, it showed the razor sitting in her large intestine. Doris was very upset, standing in my kitchen making chapatis faster then is normally possible... praying and trying to figure out what to do.

Meanwhile I made a comment on facebook about the situation. Immediately people from all over the world responded, and started praying, even offering to help pay (Becky, you and Mark rock!!!). The best was an old friend I grew up with in Montana, who has been living in Israel, married to an Israeli, who somehow knows some missionaries from Germay (?) who just started working in a hospital 3 hours south of Nairobi, and the husband is a surgeon. So she writes them, who write her back, who I send a text message to. And by the next morning I have the name of a good surgeon and doctor here in Nairobi at a missionary hospital (much cheaper, but very good care) just down the road, along with a whole list of information and help on what to do.. apparently he's operated on, and had this situation several times already here. (SERIOUSLY?! What is up with Kenyan kids swallowing razor blades?!?!!)

I was just so floored and humbled at how amazing God can connect us and work things together so that this little girl could get the help she needed!

Doris had Jillian and her mother take a bus down here to Nairobi, and they took her to the missionary hospital yesterday, where after exams and xrays, it was determined that- Praise God!- the razor blade has passed through her body with no damage. She is perfectly fine!!! Thank GOD!!!! YAY!!!

The big thing that I am praying for now: We gave Doris 10,000 shillings for the hospital visit, just in case she needed that much, or more in case they needed to do surgery. The visit cost just over 1,000. Will she bring back 8-9,000 shillings? According to all other expats, this is not something you ever do here. In the average experience here she will not even come back to work for us, and will just disappear with all that money. (It's equal to about 1 months salary). In many ways this is a test to see how much I can trust her. I am kind of nervous, but. . . hopeful.