Saturday, December 22, 2012

Week 7 and Pictures of the Baby Bedrooms

The girls room! Five girls share this room. This is the view from the door. The last crib is hiding behind the door.


It is a good thing they like each other because they live close to each other!

The closets. They hold clothes and many other baby supplies.

The mixed room. The biggest boys and girls sleep in this room.  There are 4 babies in here total.

More of the mixed room.

The boys room. There are five boys in this room.

I really like the walls of the girls room and the mixed room but I love the walls in the boys room. 

The closets used for clothes and baby supply storage.
Blog Week 7

Mugg and Bean

I cannot say enough how great Mugg and Bean is. It has become my home away from home away from home as my mom says. I am there at least once a week and usually it is more like two or three times a week. It has been fun to work my way through the menu and I also already have a few favorites. I have heard many raves about the Caribbean Mocha from many people. I had it for the first time the other day and wow is it delightful. It will defiantly be something that I order regularly and will crave once I go home. I am mentioned before how we have become regulars at M&B and realized today just how much of regulars we are. We sat down and were on our computers getting in our Internet time and waiting for our orders to come when manager John walked past and said how long how you all been here. How did I not see you walk in? He then grabbed a chair and sat down to talk for a few minutes. We are such regulars that the manager just pulls up a chair when we come it. It is so funny but I love it!

Schedule

January
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
30    Work
31         Off
1       Work
2               Off
3       Work
4       Work
5       Work
6           Off
7            Off
8            Off
9          Work
10     Work
11          Off
12    Work
13    Work
14    Work
15         Off
16 Cape Town!
17 Cape Town!
18 Cape Town!
19 Cape Town!
20 Cape Town!
21 Cape Town!
22    Work
23             Off
24    Work
25         Off
26    Work
27    Work
28     Work
29         Off
30            Off
31     Work


Starting the month of January I will be working with the toddlers in the Starfish program. I am excited to work with these kids but will miss my babies in big babies so much!

All in a day’s work!

This past Thursday was a quite the day at work. The morning was pretty normal and the kids were great. Then after our 10am tea time we had a farewell party for two of the volunteers that will be leaving beginning to mid January. These parties are a time for the volunteers, aunties who are working and some of the leadership staff to get together to thank those that are leaving and tell stories of the times we had together as well as eat some snacks. Those leaving also receive a gift from Door of Hope and we have a time of prayer. They are lots of fun but it is hard to start the good byes at these parties. Right before the party a man came to put in a water purifying system in the kitchen. We are so excited to have this but that meant that the water had to be turned off. Thursday was also a day full of donations again. December is a month that we gets lots of donations here and it is great. One of the things that we received along with the baby things was a big box of cupcakes. We enjoyed these throughout the day. We were also told to share with the kids who are 10 months and older. The babies up in big babies have never had solid food. They eat baby cereal and baby food. We decided to give the babies the cupcakes after their last bottle and before bed. We put them in their highchairs and cut the cupcakes into quarters so that they could try a small little bit. Nicole got the six babies ready and I ran to grab my camera. I took the pictures and Nicole gave each baby some cupcake. Their reactions were hilarious. Many of them did not know what to do with it and some would not even touch it. A few of the kids took a bite and two of them ended up throwing up. We believe because they just tried to swallow and not chew it. We ended the cupcake party pretty quick. Nicole tackled the cleaner babies and floor while I took the two that threw up and changed them. Remember how the water was turned off earlier, it was still not back on. Definitely a this is Africa moment. Once we got everyone cleaned up we went back to the living room where the aunties and other babies were and started playing again. There was some great music on the radio so we ended the night with a little baby dance party. We then put the babies to bed and cleaned up the living room. While we were cleaning up the radio reminded us that the following day would be the end of the world so before Nicole and I went down to the flat for the night, all the aunties hugged us and wished us well for the end of the world, if you can do such a thing. You really never know what is going to happen when you go to work every morning!

New Baby

We have another new baby here at baby house 1. This means that we have 11 small babies now. All of the beds in small babies and big babies are full. This little one does have some medical complications and has already had 2 surgeries in here short 20ish day life. She is beyond precious still and she has already captured the hearts of so many of us.

Attachment

It has been really neat to see the bonds develop between the babies and myself. They know my face and it is such a cool thing to be able to say. When you walk into their rooms in the morning and after a nap they smile up at you with a smile that says hey I know you and I think I like you. The other day while I was sitting on the floor where they were all playing and I was helping one of the boys finish his bottle and four babies started to move my way and try and climb unto my lap. I had to keep telling them to wait until I was finished and push them away but they are persistent and kept trying. This happened again later in the day. I love the feeling of them all trying to climb their way up. They have certainly stolen my heart. 

German Restaurant

This past Friday night three of the girls (Cassie, Nicole and Renita) and I went out to dinner at a German restaurant here that just opened. Renita is from Germany so she was able to help us with the menu and everything else. It was a lot of fun and a great meal. We ended up getting a complementary appetizer of bread and a spread to put on it. The spread no joke tasted like bacon! That was fun since there is not real bacon in South Africa. I then ordered chicken schnitzel and mash potatoes. The meal was really good and we said that we will have to keep this place in mind when we want to go out. We also decided to order two desserts to share between the four of us to finish off the meal. They were also really good and we were stuffed by the time we left. Cassie had her camera with so I have to get pictures from her sometime and we also took a few photos on Renita’s phone. A few of these are on facebook so you can also see them there. It was a great three-course meal with amazing company!

Prayer Requests

Two prayer requests-
One of the volunteer’s grandpas passes away this past week. He has not been doing well the past few weeks so this was not a complete surprise but it is still very difficult. She has decided to fly home for a few days to be with family and will fly back after Christmas. Pray for her travels and the quick time that she is at home. Pray for her family and peace in the loss of such a dear family member. Pray for her transition back here with being away from those that she loves during a difficult time.
Pray for transitions. I have really found my place here this past week and now a bunch of transitions are going to be made again. I have grown to really love and cherish the friendships that I have with the other volunteers here. We talk all the time about how we are the only ones who will ever understand this part of our lives. As excited as we are to go home and share the pictures and stories people at home will not have the same understanding as we do for each other. This being said two of these girls will be leaving soon and another one will be coming. Pray that these transitions are easy on everyone. Also pray for the work transition for me. I will be moving from big babies to the toddler/starfish program in January. I have ‘my’ babies in big babies, am comfortable with the schedule and have gained the trust of the aunties there. I am excited to continue to see and work with more of the people here but prayers that this is a smooth transition.

Thank you to all of you who have sent cards recently. I love being able to get handwritten letters here through the mail. It is such a blessing to be able to communicate with so many from home even being this far away. I am well aware that it has not and in some places is still not this easy.

I pray that you all have a blessed Christmas season with family and friends. I am excited to be able to celebrate here with my South African Family. I have heard a few things that we have to look forward to on Christmas and will be sure to write about it on the blog afterwards.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 Praise be to God for sending His son to earth for us that first Christmas night.

Merry Christmas!
Emily

Monday, December 17, 2012

End of Week 6 and a South African Birthday!


End of Week 6
Pictures just don't like to go where I put them on this thing. Birthday banana bread that Nicole and one of the toddlers made for me. We celebrated complete with a candle and singing. More is posted below about how I celebrated my birthday here in Africa. 


The meaning behind the blog name Beautiful Places Beautiful Faces

When I knew for sure that I was going to be going on this adventure I knew I was going to have to start a blog. I love reading blogs and dreamed of what mine would be. The title was going to be important to me. I sent many days thinking about what the perfect title would be and there were thoughts that crossed my mind but nothing was perfect. It was one night lying in bed and thinking about what I was going to be doing that Beautiful Places Beautiful Faces crossed my mind. I liked the ring that it had but was not completely sold. After a few days of thinking about it and my trip quickly approaching I had to start this blog thing. Beautiful Places Beautiful Faces was going to be the title. I started my first few posts and nothing sounds like I want it to sound but many people have said that it sounds like Emily. I guess that is a good thing so we will just keep going with that. It has just been the past few days that the title has really been something that I have thought about again. It is no secret that this was a hard transition for me to make. I really wanted nothing of being here the first few weeks. Things have changed and most of the time I am enjoying myself here and feel that this is were I need to be right now. I have finally been allowing myself to see the beauty. Beautiful Places the first part of the title. As I sit in the living room of the baby house with babies crawling all over me I look out and see the beauty of South Africa around me. The baby house is on a hill and you can see so much from the living room. The view really is breathtaking. This place holds true beauty and I have only been able to see a small part of it. I am excited to be able to explore more of South Africa in my remaining months. Beautiful Faces the second part of the title. There are beautiful faces here all right! I have never seen such beauty as the faces of these 14 babies that I have been blessed to care for these past few weeks. Each of them has beauty in their own way. There are little smiles, tight curls, big misshapen heads and little lips and tongues. And their eyes. Their eyes tell their story and pull you into their soul. You can’t say no to their eyes and just want to give them everything they long for when you look into them. So there is the story behind the title Beautiful Places Beautiful Faces. I am finally starting to see the beauty that the title speaks and am excited to continue to explore it as I go more places and see more of those baby faces.

4 Volunteers and 32 Kids under 3

This past week the aunties were taken out to breakfast by the management. Since they were going to be gone a few of the volunteers were asked to cover for them even though we had the day off. They were going to be gone for about 2 hours. One of the girls watched the 8 toddlers downstairs, 2 of us watched the 14 big babies upstairs and one watched the small babies upstairs. The small babies slept almost the whole time and the big babies did for an hour of it. The tricky part was that two of us were going to feed 14 babies cereal in 45 minutes. There are at least 3 people who do this but most of the time it is 4 or 5. We did manage and each fed 7 babies in 45 minutes. This averages about 6 minutes a baby! It was a crazy morning but was really a lot of fun to just be us in the house with the kids.

Not a Normal Friday

First off, I am not sure that we have a normal day around here but Friday was way crazier than usual. We started the day off at 7am with 4 of us working big babies (one more than usual) and 2 working small babies and Auntie G doing the cleaning. By 8 one of the aunties from big babies and one of the volunteers working small babies had gone home because they were not feeling well. We were down to 3 in big babies, 1 in small babies and Auntie G cleaning. Auntie G did some cleaning but also spent most of the day helping in small babies. One of our big babies left us and was reunited with his family. Baby A has been at the house for about 3 months and went to go back with his mom today. We are so excited for him but will miss him so much as he was such a joy to have around. Since he left big babies we had one spot available so a small baby became a big baby today. Baby J moved up to big babies and is adjusting to being one of the smallest babies of the big babies now instead of the biggest of the small babies! We also got a new baby today. She came at 4 days old and beyond adorable. I helped out in small babies a little bit this afternoon and happened to be the person to give the new baby, Baby L, her first bottle at Door of Hope! So much fun to have a brand new newborn snuggle into you! This also happened to be Auntie N’s last day at baby house 1 as she is moving to baby house 3 to be the manager there. We are excited for her as this will be a great opportunity but also so sad to see her leave baby house 1. So that sums up a crazy Friday here in South Africa.

A South African Birthday

Well I had a few firsts for my birthday this year. I was a great day. I worked during the day and went out with some of the girls for dinner and to Skype home. We went to Mugg and Bean for the Internet and so I could get my mac and cheese. I was also able to Skype with family and it was great to see their faces and be put on the dinner table to eat with them. I received a piece of cheesecake from Mugg and Bean that was so big it took help from the girls to eat. We then headed back to the flat and had some birthday banana bread that one of the girls made with the help of one of the toddlers in the house. (We had banana bread because the night before we made our ‘single’ serving homemade chocolate cake in the microwave. So good!) It was delicious. It turned out to be a great day. It was fun to celebrate a birthday in the summer months and in shorts. A big thank you to everyone here in South Africa that made the day so special and to those at home for your thoughts, prayers and facebook messages from the day. I am truly blessed and continue to be humbled each day from the support that I am receiving.



This and That

-       Bibs- Let me give a few thoughts on bibs. They are great as they save lots of laundry between bottles and food. Some bibs are much superior to others though. The person who made tie on bibs never had children because it takes way to long and way to much effort to tie a bib on a moving child. The person who made Velcro bibs never did laundry because after three washes these bibs don’t Velcro anymore. The person who made snap on bibs knew what was up. They are quick and easy to put on and the wash does not ruin them. There you have my take on bibs.
-       Many of the babies have one or two spots on their bodies that are really ticklish. I love to find these spots and sneak up on them to tickle them and hear them laugh. The other day I found the sweet spot on baby S. It is his right side just above where his diaper sits on his hip. I poked him there and he started to laugh. I did it again and he laughed harder. It was not long before I had him throwing his head back and belly laughing. It was so funny. There is just something about making a baby laugh that can bring you so much joy.
-       I wear a watch everyday and have for as long as I can remember. The babies are fascinated with it. It will be a miracle if it lasts my whole stay here because they are always pulling at it and trying to look at it.
-       We eat popcorn around here like it is our job. Someone donated a lot of popcorn before I got here. Babies can’t eat popcorn so all of the aunties got some to take home and the rest went to the volunteers. We had two cases of it in the flat when I got here. That means that we had 72 bags of popcorn. We are down to just 18 bags of popcorn left. That means we have had 54 bags of popcorn in about 40 days. We eat a lot of popcorn around here and are going to be so sad when it is gone. Lucky for us they do sell popcorn at The Glen so we can buy more.
-       They don’t have chocolate chips in South Africa! We have to grate our own chocolate if we want to make chocolate chip cookies.
-       December 18 will mark a quarter of the way through my time here. This is a big mark in time here.


Please continue to pray for the remainder of this month. December has been a hard month to be away because I know how much I am missing at home. This month holds my birthday and of course Christmas. I am excited to experience both of these days in South Africa but it is also hard to be away from loved ones on these days as well. All of the volunteers have Christmas Eve off together. Originally I was the only one working but someone has gone above and beyond and said they would work for me. It will be nice to spend the day together and celebrate the birth of our Savior. We are then all working on Christmas day so more of the aunties can spend the day with family. It will be fun to spend the day with the babies as it will be many of their first Christmas’. I am not sure if there are any special plans but I will be sure to write about the day on the blog soon. I am thinking that January will be a better month because we have our Cape Town trip in the middle of January. Then we hit February and the half way mark!


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Week 5/6


Week 5/6- The time is starting to run together here.

Church

This past Sunday I was able to go to church for really the first time since I have been here. I went once for a baby dedication but that is the only other time I have been to church. This Sunday I went to Riverside Community Church with another volunteer Katy. I really enjoyed the church. Riverside is very much like a church back in the States. The service started out with a call to worship and then we sang with the praise band for about half an hour. After that we listened to the sermon for about 45 minutes. Church lasted about 2ish hours. The sermon was on listening to the Holy Spirit. It was the final sermon in a series about the Holy Spirit. It was great to be worshiping with a big body of believers again.

Christmas Program

This past Sunday the 5 volunteers had plans for the evening! This does not happen often. We went to a kids Christmas program at a church plant near the baby house. We were invited to the program by Brady and Candy. They are missionaries that have been calling Johannesburg home for the last year. They have 4 kids who were in the program. Brady and Candy are a great help to the volunteers here and truly make us feel like part of the family when we are with them. It was fun to see the program and hear the Christmas story told by kids in their South African accent.

New Baby!

We have a new baby at baby house 1 as of Monday. She is a little girl and she arrived at Door of Hope through the baby bin. This is a big deal because not many babies arrive through the bin. The other big thing about this baby is that she is white. Hardly any babies are white. In the baby house there is the wall with all of the pictures of kids who have come through the home and have been adopted. There are over a hundred kids pictured and not one is white. The aunties like to point out that the baby is white like the volunteers. We have to be careful when people stop by the house to visit with her because many people will spread the word that there is a white baby at the house. Many families will then try to contact the adoption agency to adopt her just because she is white. Here we will love her just the same as the other babies. She is believed to be about 2 days old and we are all excited to see what the Lord has in store for her life.

Vocabulary

I am always learning new vocabulary around here. It is fun to talk about the different words that we have for the same things.
-       Onesies are called vests
-       Everyone here likes to use the word shame. When things are not going well
-       you say shame or if you are upset for someone you say shame and so on. The best equivalent that I think we would have in the states would be the expression oh man.
-       Every auntie greets you every morning and you are to greet every auntie every morning. The greeting is always the same. ‘Auntie how are you? Fine thank you auntie and you auntie? Fine thank you auntie.’ I have had to learn the fine instead of good.
-       Ketchup is tomato sauce
-       Going to the ATM to get money is just called drawing money
-       A napkin is called a serevet. A napkin would be a feminine product. This is not a mistake that you want to make.
-       Diet Coke is Coke Light
-       Sharp or sharp sharp is a positive greeting that is used around here. Thumbs up means sharp or sharp sharp.
-       We don’t text in South Africa we sms.
-       When the babies are teething the aunties say that the babies are coming in, meaning the baby teeth are starting to come in.

Modern Conveniences 

I miss the modern conveniences that we have in the States, things like the dishwasher, a clothes dryer, hot showers and unlimited Internet. I have lived without a dishwasher before but I have never liked it. Dishes here pile up so fast and it would be so nice to just put them in the dishwasher instead of wash and dry them by hand at the end of a long day. Oh how I miss the clothes dryer. I enjoy hanging my laundry out to dry in the sun but I don’t like that it dries crunchy and stiff. I also always have to shake ants off of my clothes and pray that it does not rain on the day that I decide to do laundry. I also took for granted that a dryer shrinks your clothes a little bit. This would be really great to have after you have babies climbing all over you and stretching out the necks of your shirts. I am looking forward to knowing that I am going to have hot shower again. There is not always a guarantee that the shower is going to be hot or even warm here. And Internet. I miss Internet so much. It is good to have the break from it but the expense of Internet and not knowing when I am going to have it here can be really difficult.

This and That

-       It is illegal to have electrical outlets in your bathroom in South Africa.
-       We only have 6 electrical outlets in the flat. Only one of which is in the living room. This is not very convenient.
-       My grandpa has the temperature for Holland and for Joburg on the desktop of his computer. He notified me that one day at the beginning of December it was warmer in Holland than it was in Joburg. Who ever would have thought that Holland in the winter months could be warmer than Africa in the summer months! Crazy! And this better not continue!
-       Speaking of weather, the other day someone said that Johannesburg can experience 4 seasons in one day. I had to laugh at this because we say the same thing about Michigan.
-       I love being able to put the babies to bed at night. It is incredible to give them kisses and put them to bed. I love being the last one to tell them I love you before they go to sleep. I love the way they look up at you when you start their music toys for them. I love getting the last snuggles of the day from them. I love the same thing in the morning. I love getting them out of bed and giving them the first kiss of the morning and the first I love you for the day.


That is all that I have for now. The babies and I send you our love. Missing you all very much.

Emily

Sunday, December 9, 2012

More Pictures!

A few pictures of my new home because...

I Moved!

I moved just to the other side of the house not somewhere completely new. I have moved from the 4-sleeper room that I started in to the flat. I am excited to be in the flat. Right now it is just Cassie and me in the flat. Nicole is in the 4-sleeper alone. It is only the three of us living at the baby house right now. Renita and Katy are living off site and those are the only other two girls here right now. Katy will be moving to the baby house in January when Renita goes home and there is one more girl that will move in to the baby house as well when she comes at the end of December. It will be nice to have a few more people around again. Three people are able to live in the flat. I will post some pictures of it soon so that you all can see it. It is very small. There is a living room, a kitchen, one 3-person bedroom and a bathroom. I will be in this room until I leave so it is nice to finally be able to put things away where they can stay for a little bit. 




Bedroom. My bed is the bottom bunk of the bunk beds. 

I have a 'real' closet again! The white doors in the corner are all mine right now.

The bathroom

The tiny kitchen!

The crazy stove/oven that I am still learning.

Storage/catch all shelves. 

The living room.


Hallway. Straight ahead is the kitchen, at the end of the hall to the left are the storage shelves and to the right is the bedroom and bathroom door. 

VIew from the outside of the flat.

Here is the outside tour of the baby house. One the bottom left is where the toddlers stay. The bottom right is the volunteer flat. The first top left window is the boys room for the big babies, the second window is the girls room for big babies and the third window is small babies. Lots of people live in a small area.

Hopefully that this gives you all a better picture of where I am living and working. 

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Baby House in a few pictures

Here are some pictures of the baby house from the inside. Hopefully this gives you a better picture of where I work. Another blog post is in the works so be on the look out for that in the next week.

Our Christmas tree at the baby house. So far the kids have not been too interested in it!

This is the living room in the baby house where the babies spend most of their waking hours.

This is the dining room in the baby house. You can see all of the charts on the ledge.

The doorway. You can see the green gate that goes around the whole property and then the white gate and then the door. When someone wants to get in they ring the door bell and there is a button we push to open the green gate and then unlock the white gate. Lots of gates and doors everywhere. 

The hallway that leads to the baby bedrooms. (I will get pictures of those soon!) This is also what I like to refer to as the hall of fame. All of the frames are filled with pictures of babies that have lived at the house and were adopted. 

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

One Month!

A few of us at montecasino Back row: Me, Renita, Katy Front row: Nicole, Talitha, Erika


Giraffe Kisses

One more!

Petting the lion cubs
Week 4- 1 Month!

There are pictures included again! I have put up a few of the giraffe pictures from the Lion Park because some of you have been wanting to see those as well as a group photo of a few of us at Montecasino on Thanksgiving day.

Well we have hit December now and I have been gone for almost a whole month. Sometimes it feels as though I have been longer and other days it feels like I just got here. We have had to say goodbye to a few of the volunteers in the last week so we are adjusting to a smaller group and new normal.

A Little Exciting News

It is official… I am going to Cape Town! January 16-21 I will be in Cape Town. I will be going with 3 of the other girls here. We are flying down early in the morning on the 16th and returning in the late afternoon on the 21st. A group of girls went just before I came so we have some great ideas of things to do from them. A few of the things on the list include cage diving with the great white sharks, horseback riding on the beach, visiting a prison that was used during the partied, finding the point that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet and going to Boulder Beach (the beach where penguins run wild!). In one week I will be able to play with African babies and hang out with penguins on a beach. This is a dream come true for anyone who knows me well! If any of you have any other great ideas of things that we should do we are open to ideas. We are hoping to stay at the same place the other girls stayed at because it is cheap and they have free Internet! I am really excited for this trip. It will fall about the half way point of being here so that will be great timing to have a week off.

Pie Baking Lesson

One of the girls that just left is from the Netherlands. I did not get to claim the Dutch title as she won that contest. She loves to back and cook and is very good at it. One of the things that she is famous for among the volunteers is her apple pie. I can attest that it is very good. I have had it three times now in 4 weeks. Since she was leaving we wanted to learn how to make it and get the recipe from her. The recipe that she uses is in Dutch so we had a lesson on how to make the pie and a translating night this past Monday. It was me, Cassie (from Florida), Nicole (from Virginia), Kirsten (from Pennsylvania), Lisa (originally from Wisconsin but has lived here for about 2 years now) and Jason (Lisa’s boyfriend from South Africa) that got the lesson from Talitha (from the Netherlands). Our kitchen is very small but we all squeezed into it. It was a fun night of learning the Dutch way of making pies. Once the pie was in the oven we turned on a Christmas movie. We had warm pie half way through the movie. It was a great night of enjoying each other’s company. It was also one of the nights that I have had here that I most felt like I was at home.

More about Door of Hope

I have mentioned the IMB (International Missions Board) a few times now on the blog. They are the group that we had Thanksgiving with. They have a website called africastories.org that tells more about some of the things that they do. They have a section of the site on Door of Hope. If you want to watch a few videos about DOH or read a few articles you can find those by going to africastories.org. Then in the top right corner of the page you will see a tab that you can click called stories. Once you get to the stories page scroll down until you find the Door of Hope section. These pieces will give you a little bit more about what I am doing. DOH also has a facebook page that you can visit to learn more about them as well. I have visited the page a few times since being here and now know the babies that are pictured. Hopefully these few pictures of the babies can tide you all over until I get home!

Small Babies

I was able to work in small babies once this past week. One of the aunties asked me to switch with her. She is working big babies for me one day and I worked small babies for her. There are 9 small babies between the ages of 2 weeks and 5 months. There are two people on at a time to watch these babies. Small babies is really easy to work and can get boring at times. The babies really only eat and sleep and are awake for a little while in between. The small babies are split into two groups. One group is the bigger small babies and the other group is the smaller small babies. Many of the bigger small babies are ready to move to big babies but there is not enough room for them. I have to believe that I will see a lot of shifting and switching of babies from area to another really soon. The two groups drink bottles at different times so we were always feeding babies it seemed. There were a few times that I had to go and start feeding while auntie finished up other things. I can say that I successfully fed 5 babies between the ages of 2 weeks and 2 months by myself. Not something that you do on your average day. I did enjoy small babies and hope that I am able to spend some more time there eventually. I love the aunties who work in small babies as well. The one I worked with today kept saying that she hopes I can come back and work in small babies more. That was really encouraging to hear.

A little about the Babies

-       One of the small babies moved up to big babies this past week. She is 4 ½ months old.
-       One of the big babies was adopted the week before I got here. She was adopted by a couple in the Netherlands and had to stay in the country for a few weeks after. They to visit this past week before they left and I happened to be working. They were able to see for the first time the aunties who cared for their daughter, the crib she slept in, the friends that she played with and so on. I did not know the little girl before her adoption but this was still a very emotional visit for me to see. It is such a prayer that all of these kids can soon experience the arms of a forever family around them.
-       I am slowly starting to have favorites so to speak of the babies. This was going to happen and between everyone almost all of the babies are a favorite to someone. One of my favorites is a little girl ‘L’ who is 1 year old. She is not yet walking because of some delays. She is a diva through and through! You can be sitting by her and calling her name and she will just ignore you or look at you out of the very corner of her eye. The other day she was just getting frustrated and started to cry, which she does not do often. I picked her up, kissed her and started to talk to her. She did not respond much so I started to tickle her. She started to laugh and the laugh soon turned into a belly laugh. It was so funny. I then a little while later had to go and wash the bottles so I put her back on the blanket. She got really mad at me for putting her down but I told her I would be right back. When I got back she smiled as I came into the room. We played again for a little bit and then I was able to tuck her in bed for the night. There is so much to learn from these little babies. The love that she was willing to give because someone paid her attention. That was also all this little girl wanted was to be held and given some attention. Jealousy is a big problem with some of the babies. When one is being held they all want to be held. It is hard to tell them that they have to wait their turn when they just throw themselves down on the floor and cry. 
-       The other day when I was working one of the big babies who is able to move around and get in trouble was the sweetest little guy. I was wearing my blue Day Camp shirt with three suns. Baby ‘L’ crawled over to me and climbed into my lap. He then would touch each of the suns, get very excited with a big smile and then just fall into me for a hug. This continued for a good 10 minutes. It was so nice to receive the love from him without any kind of initiation or asking.
-       One of my favorite parts of the day is feeding time. We put all of the babies in their bumbo chairs or highchairs and turn the TV on so that they can watch their PraiseBaby DVD. They love the DVD. We have three different ones that we rotate through throughout the week. Each of them has been watched so many times that there are places that they skip and pause for a minute before starting up again. All of the babies love them though. It is so neat to be singing along with the music and feeding the babies one at a time.

This is Africa (TIA)

This is Africa or TIA has been a catch phrase here. There are times that things are crazy, don’t happen when they should or are not able to be explained so we all just look at each other and say TIA. Here are two examples of this for you. Margie has a pickup type truck that fits 5 people. The bed in the back is covered and is great to hold all of our belongings when we are able to get out. It is also great to hold more people if there are going to be more than 5 people going. She has been pulled over before because there were 6 people in the truck. She was told that only 5 people can be in the truck but as many as she wants to put in the back is fine. I have yet to ride in the back but I am sure that I will get to experience it a few times before I leave. TIA. In order to get Internet we have to go to The Glen about a mile away. We try and get rides as often as possible but sometimes this does not work so we walk. The walk there is fine because it is all downhill but the way back is all uphill. Not fun. (Beth and Aubs thank goodness I got that practice hiking hiking hiking hiking in Maine huh!!!!!) The other day during our hour lunch break a few of us made the trip on foot to The Glen. Walking a mile to get Internet for 30 minutes to walk a mile back. The following day I walked to and from The Glen again with some of the girls. TIA. I am excited to have more TIA moments while I am here.


Odds and Ends

-       Many kids don’t wear shoes when they are out at restaurants or shopping. It is weird to see.
-       We are regulars at Mugg and Bean for Internet and staff and manager know us. They know that we will be there for a while when we come and that we like to sit in the back where we can plug computers in to charge. It is fun to be a regular somewhere in South Africa.
-       I was able to lie out for the first time since being here this week. My African tan has started!
-       There is almost always music playing around here. I love it. It does not take long before you find yourself singing along and many of the babies watching as you do.
-       So far I have about 1000 pictures that I have taken or have received from people since being here. If this continues I will have well over 6000 pictures by the time that I get home!
-       I was able to go to the airport so see one of the girls that left this past week off.
-       This past Wednesday before Bible Study it was raining and we were just sitting around talking. I was sitting near one of the windows and I thought it looked like rainbow weather. I kept my eye out the window to see if one would appear. It did not take long before there was a big and vibrant rainbow stretching across the sky. Every color was visible. Soon it became a faint double rainbow. It was a great reminder of God’s promise to me that night.
-       I rode past a dynamite factory the other day. First time to see one of those.
-       There are rainstorms that happen at least three times a week here I would say. The other day we had a one and it started to hail. The hail was about ½ inch in diameter and covered the ground. It looked like it had snowed!
-       The baby house is decorated for Christmas. It is so much fun. I will take a few pictures and post them soon. There is a Christmas tree in the living room where the big babies are. It is tucked in a corner and half hidden by furniture. Should be an interesting month trying to keep them away from the tree.
-       We were recently given a big bag of candy for the flat. When we opened it we found Easter candy that we are thinking is from last Easter. We have about 50 old chocolate covered marshmallow treats to eat now. You never know what is going to show up around here.
-       The past three or so days have been really cold and rainy here. By cold I believe that it is in the 60s so yes at home you would consider this warm. It had been in the 80s and 90s until this point. We are really missing the sun and warm weather. This weather also makes it hard to do laundry because all of it has to dry outside. Usually at least 4 loads are done everyday so we were really behind.
-       A group with a huge donation came to the baby house the other day when I was working. They brought many useful things such as diapers and formula and wipes and laundry detergent. They also brought Christmas gifts for the babies and a big basket of goodies for us volunteers. So humbling to be on this end of the giving and receiving circle.

All of your prayers and emails have been great. I have loved receiving the emails and can feel the prayers. Thank you also for all of the financial support that you have given. I have almost reached the goal I had set back in the fall. God is good! This week I want to leave you with a scripture passage from Psalm 13. We read this passage the other day during our 10am devos times.

Psalm 13

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me
                        forever?
            How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
            and every day have sorrow in my heart?
            How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
            Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in
                        death:
my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
            and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love:
            my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
            for he has been good to me.

At first when we read this I thought why this Psalm. There are so many great Psalms to read and learn from but this one, really. As I continued to read it over and over again and we started to talk about it I really began to like it and understand why we had read it. There are still some days that being here and away from home is really hard. It can be easy at those times to just question God about his plan. When you look at how many kids in this baby house alone need a family it is easy to just see defeat. But we have to keep reading even if it is hard and God promised that it would be hard. His loves never fails and he has given us salvation. Excellent gifts and amazing promises he left with us. Hopefully this can provide some encouragement to you all today as well.

Love you and Miss you,
Emily