|
In May of this year (1998), we met a little boy who had a very sad past. Born in Guyana in January 1997, Isaiah’s mother and father were not married. In fact, the father was married to someone else, and Isaiah’s mother was the father’s "mistress." |
 |
In August 1997, Isaiah’s mother became ill, and she died in September 1997. At that point, the father couldn’t take him....so Isaiah stayed with his Grandmother and Aunt. However, they did not have the means to take care of him.
In November 1997, 10-month-old Isaiah was checked into the Georgetown Hospital, suffering from severe malnutrition. He only weighed 7 pounds.
Isaiah stayed in the hospital until April 1998. During his hospital stay, none of his family came to visit him. For all practical purposes, he was all alone in the world.
When he left the hospital, he was placed in the Guyana Red Cross Children's Convalescent Home. At the time of his check-in, he was 15 months old and weighed about 12 pounds. He could not walk or talk, and could only crawl a couple of feet. He had chronic respiratory problems, was still suffering the effects of malnutrition, and no one seemed to care for him at all.
It was at this time that we met Isaiah, and our entire family fell in love with him. We began to try to work something out to adopt him. Of course, we didn’t have a clue of how to go about this.
 |
The process was long, and time consuming. We met many roadblocks and obstacles, but finally....on September 8th, 1998....we got custody of Isaiah and were able to take him home with us! Shortly after that, on September 12th, we journeyed back to the States with our little boy in tow. It was a time of incredible happiness and joy for everyone. Since arriving home, Isaiah has steadily gained weight, has learned to walk, has begun to thrive, and is generally doing very well. |
However, one month after arriving back in the states, we found out that Isaiah is infected with the HIV virus. Needless to say, we were shaken by this news. It did, however, explain his mother's sudden death, and Isaiah’s failure to thrive.
Since his diagnosis, we have been in touch with Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and have made several trips there to get Isaiah into treatment. He is not covered on our insurance, but thus far, the Hospital is treating him and we are looking at social programs that he may qualify for. Please pray for this.
When he was diagnosed, his Viral Load (the amount of virus in his system) was VERY high. In fact, it was 750,000! His immune system was working at about 50% (which we were surprised to find out...we expected it to be much lower). After ONE month of treatments on the HIV triple drug therapy, his viral load dropped to 675! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! Even the Hospital was shocked at such a dramatic decrease.
Please keep Isaiah and our family in your daily prayers. We are convinced that is why we have seen such dramatic improvement! Pray that God will heal him, that the drugs will continue to work, and that God will use Isaiah for His service.
Remember!!! Prayer Changes Things!!!
Learn about Isaiah losing a tooth on May 14.
Too much progress has been made to sit idly by and not try to reverse the Arkansas Medicaid decision.
Otherwise, an alternate source of medicine must be sought.
It has been a while since we have given an update on our son. That doesn't mean there is nothing to report, just that we have been lax in our responsibility.
Isaiah continues to do real well, as far as his HIV level. His last blood
test was again HIV negative. So we know the meds are doing what they are
supposed to. We have been so blessed that he hasn't had lots of trouble with
side effects of these meds. One side effect, though, is that his cholesterol
level is elevated. This is something that will have to be monitored and
probably at some point change his medication. So we ask that you pray for
wisdom in changing when the time comes.
Isaiah is having a great summer! He's enjoying the fresh pineapple almost daily. He's spent some time in the pool. He loves mingling with the teams each week ... especially with the teen boys. He's found him some buddies.
He had a little accident a few weeks ago and hurt his foot. He slipped on something in the house and must have hit his foot on a chair or something. We think he broke a toe or couple of bones on the top of his foot. He was pretty immobilized for about 3 days ... then he started finding ways to get around. Now he's pretty much back to normal. It's amazing what goes on in children's minds. He was just sure he had "lost some bones."
Isaiah had a fun birthday. We had family at a party at Chuck E. Cheese. He is really into football, so he had a real cute football cake and got a new football. He'd been playing with one that was real tiny. So, now he has one for his age. He also got some other fun things that are keeping him busy.
