Week 16 and Pictures!

Some of the beds in the small babies room. We have 11 beds like this and 3 pack and play beds.

The walls are painted Winnie the Pooh theme.

I can't add many pictures of the small babies room since the babies are always in it!

Biggest to smallest with diapers and bottles! The smallest bottle holds 2oz!

Auntie Sarah and me. Auntie Sarah works in small babies but will be moving to baby house 2 beginning in March. We will miss her so much here at baby house 1!

Big difference in size there.

Week 16

Sick

I started off this week sick. Cassie was sick last week and it was my turn this week. It started off with an upset stomach but soon moved to a head and dizzy thing. I felt very similar to when I first got here. I am pretty sure that I experienced altitude sickness then so I am not sure what happened this time around. Thankfully it only lasted two days and then I made myself get up and go to work because otherwise I think that it could have lasted a long time. Hopefully I am healthy and feeling well for my last two months here.

The Hospital

The beginning of the week I had the opportunity to go with Nadene to the hospital for head scans for two of our prem (preemie) babies. The head scan was to make sure that everything is developing normally for these little babies and thankfully it is! It was very interesting to see the hospital. It was a government hospital that we went to. I learned that children birth through 7 years receive ‘free’ healthcare since it is government run. The main hallway in this hospital that connects everything together is a mile long! It is a big hospital to say the least. Also because it is a government hospital most things are not scheduled ahead of time and there are not appointments. You simply go in the morning and wait your turn. Usually Nadene will leave before 6am when she has to bring kids to the hospital but this day she went later because this is not usually a very busy part of the hospital and the scans are quick. She has waited in line for over 6 hours with some of the babies though for some things! We waited about an hour and the trip itself was about two hours. It was great to get out and see more of Joburg.

The OT

Well I was spoiled this week and got out of the house twice! I also went along with Nadene and a baby from our house and a few babies and an auntie from baby house 3 to see the occupational therapist. We ended up having the wrong date written down for two of the babies so only one of them saw the OT but the other two got a free outing. I am hoping to go along again sometime so that I can be part of the therapy also. On the way back to the house we had to stop by baby house 2 to drop some things off so I was at all three baby houses this day. It has been interesting to see more of Joburg and also to learn so much about the medical side of the baby house in the past week between the clinic, the hospital and the OT.

March Schedule

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

I am excited to spend the month with my toddler favorites and to be back in big babies for the first time since the end of December! It will be a busy month as I work lots.

Odds and Ends

-       Our toilet flusher handle is not connected the way that it is supposed to be any more. For the last two weeks we have had to take the back off the toilet and flush it manually. Only in Africa we say.

-       We have an ant problem. It is to the point that I am not grossed out to make my lunch on the counter next to the 8 ants that are just crawling their little hearts out. Again, only in Africa. TIA

-       We ordered KFC again this week and it was delicious. It is a highlight of the week when we decide to order out.

-       We watch movies here all the time and are so thankful for all of the movies that Candice has on her external hard drive. I did not bring any movies with me and it comes back to bit me almost daily. One of the girls will name a movie that they want to watch and we don’t have it here and I will just say I have it at home. We have probably gone through wanting almost my entire movie collection here. Live and learn.

Cute Baby/Kid Stories

Well I know that are waiting for a few cute stories again so I will share are few with you.

-       The toddlers love to be outside and can hear the airplanes from a mile away. My favorite girl, S, is very in tune with her airplanes. The way that they say airplane though is just so cute they say air-o-plane. And when they do they yell it and point with great excitement. It is just so precious.

-       This story is not for the weak stomachs but shows what happens around here a little more. I was working one day this week with Auntie Mary and Auntie Sylvie in toddlers. Auntie Sylvie started to dish up breakfast and I started to get the morning medications ready (18 medications!). Auntie Mary went to wake up the kids. This is always a fun part of the day but also a very smelly part of the day. 8 toddlers in one room for a whole night can be really smelly if you catch my drift. Next thing we know is that Auntie Mary is coming out of the room saying, oh my gosh you have to come and see this. Auntie Sylvie and I stop what we are doing and walk into the bedroom and just gasp. Big Girl N has taken her diaper off and ‘painted’ herself with her pooh. It was everywhere, all over her body, on the crib, the sheets, the stuffed animals, the walls, the carpet and even the beds next to hers. It was horrendous! We had to start the day with the other 10 kiddos so we gave them breakfast and N sat in her bed and cried for that 20 minutes. Then Auntie Sylvie and I started to bathe the other kids and Auntie Mary was going to tackle N. She took N outside and set her in one of the baby bathtubs. She then took out all of her bedding and the other kids bedding that was messy. N and the bedding sat outside, crying, while Auntie Mary cleaned up the room. The other kids thought this was a very fun show to watch N cry outside so early in the morning. Finally N got scrubbed down outside and was returned to the rest of the crew. Auntie Mary the washed the bedding by hand and then put it in the washing machine to wash again. Not a very pretty start to the day. You would have thought that so much humiliation would have made N learn her lesson but she did not. She is just turning into a little naughty girl. The next day at nap she got out of her crib and started to empty the boy’s closet of all their clothes. Auntie Mary caught her and she had her nap on the floor in the dark room. Day 3 she again took her diaper off at nap and since it was clean she decided to shred it to little pieces. She again slept in the dark room when Auntie Sylvie found her doing this. She is a handful and only 1½ years old. We just all pray she is adopted before she is 2 or 3 because we are not ready for that!

Stay tuned to the blog for next week’s post because it is going to be exciting. We have plans for 4 out of the 7 days next week! Plans that involve more than just work and a movie. We are really excited!

Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support and for the emails. They mean so much to me and really do help the time and distance struggle. Part of my heart will always be here in South Africa and I have not idea how I will say good to the beautiful faces that have changed my life here. I do know that they will be plastered all over at my house and I am sure that I will carry their pictures around in my purse like a proud mother does. The friendships that I have formed with the other volunteers here will also be hard to leave. They are friendships that will never be able to be created anywhere ever again and the chance that we will all be in the same place again together is not very likely as we are from all over the world. This being said I am going to treasure the last two months here and prepare my heart for the transition home.

During my time here I have challenged myself to a few things. I challenged myself to write in a journal at least once a day. It could be one word or it could go on for pages but I had to write at least once a day. So far I have kept it up and it is amazing to look back on. I also challenged myself to take a picture a day. This I have failed to do. I have hundreds and it will be thousands of pictures that I take home with me but I did not keep up with taking a picture a day. The last challenge was to read scripture once everyday with the final goal having been to have read through the entire Bible during my stay. This I have also kept up with and I am ahead of schedule to finish the whole Bible. It has been incredible to watch God work through this. So now I am going to give you all a challenge with me. I am almost to the New Testament and will spend my last weeks reading from Matthew to Revelation. I want so company while I read! Will you join me in this adventure and read with me? Take the next two months, 61 days and see what God does with it. Read just 4 or 5 chapters a day to stay on track and watch the transformations that happen. What do you say?!? Will you join me?!?

9 week countdown is on,

Emily

Week 15

Week 15

Sunday

I started the week with a day off! I was able to go to church with Jeanette and Katy. We went to Riverside and had a great morning together. Lisa, a previous volunteer of Door of Hope and now living in South Africa, and her fiancé Jason were going to pick us up. Lisa ended up getting sick so it was only Jason that was able to come pick us up. Much to our surprise Jason picked us up in a car that they are borrowing from a friend and it was an automatic! Have not been on one of those in some time. We enjoyed the church service and the sermon on serving Jesus as a disciple. I also enjoyed getting out as this was the first time in 10 days that I left the gates of the baby house! I have grown to love Sundays in South Africa when I am able to get to church but I have also found that this can be one of the worst times for homesickness. It is during these times that I long to be back with family and friends worshipping together. I know it will come soon enough so right now I have to enjoy my time in South Africa worshipping the Lord knowing that everyone at home is also praising the same Savior!

Big Girl L Leaves

We had another child leave us this past week. Toddler L left. She was not adopted but went to another home. She has special needs and this home will better be able to meet her needs. This is the place that she will live the rest of her life in though. This leaving has hit me the hardest. I believe because L was one of my favorites and brought so much joy and also because she was not adopted nor will ever be adopted. I was working the day she left so we got her ready in a cute outfit. We sang the ‘we are one family’ song with the rest of the toddlers like is always done with them when someone leaves and I was asked to pray for her. I had to hold back the tears as I held her close and gave her back to God, thanking Him for giving L to us for this past season of her life. She then just left and we had to go on with out day. Later when the auntie that took her came back the kids were all excited because they thought that L was back as well. We had to explain again that she went to live some place else, so hard for these little minds to understand. L was one that got in trouble a far share and had to be told no very often. Her name was heard all the time. S who will be one in a week and a half has just started to say his first word, which just happens to be L’s name! He still crawls around even though she is gone and just says her name. It is far too cute. We already miss you L but hope that you are enjoying your new home with so much more space. We think of you all the time and pray for you daily. You will always have a place in our hearts. Please continue to pray for L as she makes this transition. Please also pray for the rest of us here that she left behind. I miss this girl so much more than I thought possible but I trust that God has some great plans for her life. Can’t wait to hear what they were when we are reunited in heaven one day.

Valentine’s Day

I got to spend Valentine’s Day with 11 little Valentine’s. I worked in the toddler room and it was just like any other day. After work we decided that we needed to do something for the day and we would have loved to dress up a little more and go out for dinner but our transportation situation would not allow such a thing to happen. We decided on a movie instead. We watched Dear John and ate cookies to celebrate the day. A pretty uneventful Valentine’s Day, per usual in most of our lives.

The Clinic

On one of my days off this past week I went to the clinic with one of the aunties, one of the office staff and 11 babies. We had to take two trips and I had to sit on the floor of the van for us to all fit but we made it. The clinic is not far and so the trips were short. We were also very lucky that the clinic was not busy and we got everything done in about two hours. All of the babies that went needed immunizations. The clinic that we went to was a government run clinic. Between the 11 babies they received 25 immunizations, lots of tears to say the least. Most of the kids that got shots were the small babies but three of the toddlers had to come as well. I was the one that held them on my lap as they received two or three shots each. It was such a blessing to be able to comfort these cuties when they really need it. I really enjoyed being able to get out for a little while and seeing what the clinic was like. Now all of the babies at baby house 1 are up to date on their immunizations. I was just lucky that I did not have to work and deal with the crying the rest of the day from the adventure out!

Happy Birthday to the BEST little sister a girl could ask for! It is Andrea’s birthday on Monday. She will be the big 22. I am so bummed that I can’t be at home to celebrate any of my sibling’s birthdays this year. I told them that I would make it up to them by bringing them back something from Africa. I guess I better get on that soon! If you see Andrea on Monday give her an extra hug for me and wish her happy birthday. I miss you something terrible Andrea and we will celebrate when I get home. Thanks for all the love and encouragement that you keep sending my way. I could not do this without your support. Next time you are coming with though! Love you loads.

In ending I am going to leave you with this scripture verse. Romans 8:28- ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ I know that I have shared this verse before but it is one that just keeps coming back to me day after day. It has been the verse that I have been living by here in South Africa. It is a verse that I hope to continue to live by at home. God is working for my good as long as I continue to follow Him! That is such an incredible promise but I have learned that it does not come without work on my part. I have to keep following Him and turn to Him and He will work the good I don’t get to work the good but He does. One more verse that I have come across many times lately as well is from Ephesians 3:20-21- ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’ I just love this promise. He can do so much more than we can ask or imagine. This journey has been far more than I could have dreamed up or asked for. I can’t believe some days that is the power that is in me. We do serve a mighty God. I can’t wait to continue to see what God has up his sleeve for me.

Week 14

Week 14

Exciting news of the week is that I have an Internet stick so I am able to get Internet at the baby house! It is so nice to be able to get online for a little while whenever I would like. Praising the Lord for the small things.

A Night Out

A few nights ago we had a night out. It actually started with a day out for a few of us. Candice, Cassie, Jeanette and I all had the day off so we got dropped off at The Glen around 2pm. We did some errand running, went to Mugg and Bean (of course) and just enjoyed the company of each other. We got a new shower curtain for the flat since our old one had a bit too much mold, Cassie and I got Internet sim cards, Candice got a better deal on an Internet stick, and we got a few groceries as well. After work Katy came to meet us for dinner and a movie. We got dinner at Mimmos together and then went over to the Cinema for a movie. She saw Playing for Keeps. It was a pretty good movie and really cheap compared to at home, right around $5! We got a ride home after the movie. It was great to e able to get out of the house for such a long time with each other. Hopefully it can happen again soon!

Kiddie Pools and 12 Toddlers

This past week Cassie, Katy and I were working in the toddler room. We were excited to all be working together and wanted to have a great day with the kids. Candice had the day off and so she joined us for most of the day. We had fun with the kids in the morning and made it to nap time after lunch. We decided that since the weather was hot we would set up the kiddie pools for after naptime. Big boy K stays up a little later than everyone else so he helped us set up the pools and ended up getting a head start with swimming in his clothes. We got everything ready so that the sun could warm up the water during the 3-hour nap. After nap we got the kids up and changed diapers and put on swimsuits. All the kids just wore swimsuits with no diapers since we don’t have swim diapers or anything like them. The kids have done this before so we were hoping it would not be a problem. We changed the first ones and put them in the living room on the tile floor to wait the 10 minutes at the most for the rest of the kids to be ready. Well we had an accident and decided that after one puddle of pee on the floor that Cassie would take the kids outside once they were in their suits. Once everyone was dressed the rest of us made our way outside and divided the kids between the three pools. They all loved it! They splashed and splashed in the water for 30 minutes while the 4 of us watched them and took lots of pictures of their cute wet eyelashes and swimsuit-clad bodies. There were the inevitable few tip overs in the water and kids coming up gashing for breath wide eyed for the half a second that their face was under water but they still loved it. We hope that we are ale to do it again with the kids on the hot days since it was so much fun and a great new activity to break up the everyday same old routine.

Baby H came down to toddlers right as we were getting ready for the pool time so this was her first taste of being a big kid and she enjoyed it. She is not sure about snack time though. We gave the kids their snack outside. The older kids got part of a baby nutrigrain bar and the younger ones had some fruit melt drops. We popped a fruit melt drop in H’s mouth and she pulled a terrible face. She does not have the best track record with food so we were curious to see what would happen. She threw it up along with everything else she had for the day. We quickly got the kids out of the pool and got rid of the water while cleaning up H. She turned out to be fine and I believe that like most every other time is was because she tried to swallow the thing whole instead of chew it. Just goes to prove there is always something going on.

Adoptions

We had two babies leave this week to go to their forever families! It is very emotional for this to happen because we are excited and happy for these babies to leave to their families but it is hard also. We really do develop bonds with the kids and they have our hearts. Baby J and Baby D were the ones who left us this time. Both of them were local adoptions. We also just found out about another baby who will be leaving in March for international adoption. I had the privilege of praying for baby D before she left. The babies are not picked up by their families at the baby house but at the agency that Door of Hope works with. Before they left to go to the agency I was asked to pray for Baby D. I was able to thank God for our time with her and pray for her new family. I asked God to continue to direct her future and grow her up in Him. I then turned her over into His hands and give her a few last kisses before sending her off. It was very neat to be able to be involved in this.

Small Babies

I was able to work in small babies twice this last week and I will a few more times this month. We have 12 small babies. Like the big babies we have big small babies and small small babies. We even have the tiny and itsy bitsy babies. Two of our babies are under 5 pounds and that seemed small to me but then I saw baby D. She is 3 pounds 12 ounces. She is TINY. I was able to hold her and snuggle her many times this week and that was so much fun. This is the schedule that we follow in small babies.

7am- We start the day by bathing or just using a washcloth to wipe the babies down. They bath every 3 days. There are two people that work and we both start doing this.

7:30am- One person continues bathing the babies and the other person starts feeding. We use blankets to prop up the bottles for the babies to eat, since we don’t have enough hands to hold all the babies and all the bottles.

9am- All the babies go back to bed. If they are sleeping they go to bed earlier but they are all in bed by 9 for a nap. We then wash bottles, help hang laundry or help feed the big babies cereal.

10am- Devos and tea time

10:30am- The smaller babies eat again while the big babies keep sleeping or lay in their beds and talk. After they eat they get their diapers changed.

11:30- The big small babies eat while the smaller ones have a little tummy time. The bigger ones get their diapers changed.

12pm- The smaller ones go to bed and we exercise and stretch the bigger ones.

1pm- The bigger ones go to bed and we get the smaller ones up.

1:30pm- The smaller ones eat again and then go back to bed.

2pm- Lunch break

3:30- The bigger ones get up to eat and have diapers changed.

4:30pm- The smaller ones get up to eat and have diapers changed. We take all of their temperatures and complete the end of the day reports on the charts.

5pm- All the babies go to bed for the night and we are done with the day.

All of the smaller babies are on a schedule to eat every 3 hours and the bigger ones are on the 4-hour eating schedule. This means that we are feeding babies all day long!

Latest Happenings at the Baby House

-       We officially have 12 toddlers! Baby H moved downstairs this week and became Big Girl H. 12 is a lot of toddlers!

-       Since we have a few babies leaving there was more moving around again this week. One of the small babies moved to big babies and we got two new small babies. One of the new small babies came from baby house two and she was born on Christmas day. The other baby that we got was the first bin baby of 2013. Two very special babies to join the family here at baby house one!

-       We had visitors this past week at the baby house. It was a family that adopted from Door of Hope over ten years ago. They had their little girl whom they adopted with them and she was beyond beautiful. This was the first time that they saw where their little girl began her life. It was incredible to watch. We pray that this happens with the rest of the babies here today. That they also can one day visit with their families to see where life began for them.

-       If it is possible I continue to fall more in love with these kids everyday. I have loved working with the toddlers. There is one little girl in particular that hold my heart. S is 1 ½ years old and is a tiny little thing. She weighs about 15 pounds and the other day she wore shorts for a 0-3 month old and they fit her fine. Don’t let her size fool you though, she has a big personality. Everyone develops favorite babies while they are here. I do have a few favorites but S is at the top of the list. It is a good thing that I can’t adopt from Door of Hope because the agency they work with does not adopt to the States because I just might come home with her. Please continue to keep this little one in your prayers though as she is HIV positive. I love this little girl and would take her home in a heartbeat!

-       I killed a scorpion in the bathroom in the toddler room right before one of our little guys got to it. I felt pretty powerful after this but then realized that I now have no excuses not to kill spiders at home when asked. If I can kill a scorpion then killing a spider should be no big deal. We will just have to see.

-       All of the kids are suffering from a cold at the moment and some of the toddlers have even thrown up a few times this last week. So far all of the volunteers have escaped this and we hope that is able to continue. Prayers for continued health for everyone would be great.

Latest Happenings in the Flat

-       We continue to kill bugs everyday. Most of them are beetles or big weird fly things. We also sweep up our fair share of ants on a daily basis. I mean they are not scorpions or crazy big spiders, though we have seen both, but I am looking forward to leaving these guys behind in 3 months.

-       We are still watching our movies almost every night but we have also changed it up by watching some TV series that we recently received or that Candice has on her Terabyte hard drive. Our current favorites are Dawson’s Creek and Gilmore Girls.

-       The first one of us has gotten sick. Candice was not feeling well and on her day off Candy came and took her to see a doctor from her church. She came back with medication for tonsillitis, bronchitis, and another infection. She was given about 8 different medications for all of this! Some of them are ones that she should just take her whole time here and others are to make her better now. Thankfully the rest of us have not gotten sick even though the kids continue to pass a runny nose around also. 

-       Alyssa is here so we now have 6 volunteers! She is from Texas. It has been fun to add to the group and to continue to meet people from all over the world. This has only upped the number of places that I would like to travel to now.

-       We are praising God that more of the car situation has been figured out and talked through. It came to our attention that the car was never supposed to be a volunteer car. It was to be used by the volunteers that lived off site so that they could get to work. Since we are all living at the baby house it was not needed any more. There have been some conversations and more people continue to step up to help with rides. We are also being encouraged by many to continue to ask for rides as they feel it is important for us to continue to explore Joburg. We are making our list of places that we would like to get to and trying to find days that work for us to get out. Prayers about this whole situation are continuing to be answered and we praise God for that.

-       We had an exciting Friday night by ordering food out. We got KFC delivered to the baby house for dinner. It is a pretty big deal to do something like this for us. We talk about it all day long and just get so excited for something out of the ordinary, even if it is only KFC being delivered for dinner.

We are a third of the way through February already! This means that I am in South Africa for only about 11 more weeks or less than 80 days! The time is going to fly. As the number of days is getting smaller I have a few prayer requests. Many people are curious as to what I will do when I get back home, I am curious of this as well. I have started to search for jobs and such. Please pray that God continues to open doors for me, and that His plan is revealed. Please also start to pray for the transition back home. This is something that we talk about a lot here among the volunteers. I am so excited to be back home but I know that things will not be the same. I have changed in many ways here and most of the time I will not be able to see and explain these changes but I know they have taken place. Home has also changed. You may or may not know that but I am not going to be going back to the place I left. You all had 6 months that I was not there as well. I know that there will be culture shock and the sense of freedom, while nice will be overwhelming at times I am sure. I also know that I will long for the community that I have developed here. The girls here are the only ones who know what the past 6 months was like for me and sometimes that will be all I want. I am really starting to prayer for the transition back and I would love it if you could join me.

Sending my love and a kisses from the babies your way,

Emily

P.S. If you have not liked Door of Hope on facebook be sure to do so. They have posted pictures recently that I have been tagged in and there are many different photo albums that you can look at on the page.