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!