Video Action of the Newbie!

And here is the cutie in action!

Warning! There is baby talk in this video that will induce high levels of pain in your ear. Please ignore at all costs!

I love all of her faces and noises!! My heart is officially stolen.

The Newbie

This little girl is one of our newest additions to the Home! She arrived when I did! Well, I think she came a day after me, but the first day of my training! She must have known that we were both newbies - both a little scared, but both sure that this is a wonderful, safe place to be - because she decided that we were going to be best friends! 

Right after she arrived at the MBH

Heather went to pick The Newbie up and was looking at different babies and guessing who it was. This girl was her last guess; we couldn't believe it was a white baby! It is the first in the home and was quite a surprise! It was lots of fun teaching our very competent caregivers the few differences in caring for a white baby! Heather told me how when MBH started she had no idea that if you didn't put Vaseline all over our little black babies after a bath their skin will turn ashy. Thankfully the precious caregivers know just what they are doing! They did have to learn that that wasn't necessary for The Newbie though... after her first bath, she was slathered in Vaseline from head to toe! Back into the tub she went!

When the newbie arrived she was very scared. She cried a lot and wouldn't eat. She hated to be left to play, but always wanted to be held. Her cheeks were really red and her little body needed lots of tender care.

Look! She's eating!!

Now, she has charmed us all with her smiles and laugh! She loves to play and gives the other kids kisses (and me! yay!). She has just started to eat her food - an answer to prayer! We are very thankful for that! Thanks to Donovan who thought of using udder cream (yes.. for a cow! Apparently other people know this is good for you but I didn't.. a strange idea!) her cheeks have started to clear up too! Now we can see her beautiful face! She has shining brown eyes and cute curly hair.

Doesn't she just steal your heart?

The Newbie loves to be held. We think she's in need of lots of love.. but then aren't all babies? That's something the Muphamuzi Baby Home strives to be excellent at: giving great, one-on-one care full of love to each baby! Just today, The Newbie was crying and when I picked her up she melted into my arms. She laid her head on my shoulder and put her arms and legs around me. She was still for so long I thought she had fallen asleep but she hadn't, she was just enjoying being held. I laid down on the couch and held her for a long time and she was very happy. It is sweet moments like this that I cherish the most here! Knowing that you are giving a little one love makes changing 6+ stinky nappies a day, mopping, ironing, hanging clothes on the line, and cleaning up throw up all worth it!

She climbed on top of this all by herself and was very proud.. so were we! She has come such a long way in the  2.5 weeks we have been here together!

She likes playing outside, eating pretzels, and reading books!

She has the best smiles...

...And funny faces :)

Our girl's 1st Birthday!

So ya'll about ready to hear about these cutie pies I get to spend my days with?? Good because I'm ready to tell you alllllll about them! I had to wait until I had enough pictures :)

Now, unfortunately, I can't give you names :( But that's okay because I can just give them assigned names! So girl #1 is called "Sweetie Pie." She is going first because we just celebrated her first birthday at the home!!!

Sweetie pie has earned her name! She's as sweet as a pie and as cute as a button! She has a really swell smile. She's just now learning to walk and will hold my hands and walk around the room. Sweetie pie loves to play "Patty Cake" and claps her hands along with me whenever I sing it! She also has the cutest little chubby legs!

Sweetie pie just turned 1 on Tuesday and we had lots of fun throwing her a Lady Bug birthday party!!!

Despite not feeling well and having sick kids of her own, Heather worked so hard to make this first birthday party special!  She made a lady bug cake and lots of lady bug themed snacks :)

Blowing out her candles :)

The man holding Sweetie Pie is her daddy. He loves her very much and comes to visit her every single week. He thanked us that so many people from our church would celebrate her life. What a cool testimony! When we do what God says and care for the little ones others take note!

Some of the guests :))))

Missionaries and missionaries' kids holding the Babies from the home.

Lerato and Me!

Lerato is a sweet friendship I've made here! She and her husband had dinner with us for one of my first nights here, she volunteers at the home twice a week, and when I'm not working I attend her and her husband's cell group (like care groups at home)!

It took some work....

But we got it! Love this little cutie!

The birthday party was lots of fun. It was really cool to see the church come together and celebrate the life of this little girl! God cares for her so much and I'm honored to witness God's family showing His love.  Pray for Sweetie Pie! Pray that she'd become clearly adoptable and be adopted into the perfect forever family!

This is Africa!

Monday is shopping day. We always SAY we will leave at 8:00am.. but of course that never happens. This week's Monday morning was even more eventful than normal though!

At 8:30 Sarah and I met Heather at the car. We all hopped in the car first. Donovan came out and suggested that we take the van instead. Now, the van is recently known for not starting properly. And by "properly" I mean at all! So feeling a little nervous that we might be stuck at the grocery store we agreed. After we loaded into the van, it wouldn't start! So we loaded back into the car. Heather put some bags in the back and, oh no!, it wouldn't shut! It had recently suffered in a wreck and we didn't know until that moment, but whatever causes it to latch shut wasn't working.

We spent 45 minutes trying to shut this thing people! I wish you could have seen each of us taking turns trying it out. All you can do is laugh... it's a Monday.. in Africa! 

We called someone who knew how to shut it and he would tell Donovan, "Push hard! Push Gently! Don't slam it! Push harder!" Sarah and I were rolling with laughter by the end of it all! "You're getting blogged about, Donovan!" Heather said. And she was right!

At 9:15, when we were finally headed to the grocery store, Heather shrugged,"Hey! TIA! This is Africa!" And it's true :)

We did eventually get the door to shut, just fyi :) We had to put down the back seats though and slide the groceries in from there! I'm sure anyone who saw us in the parking lot had a good laugh.. but that's okay because we did too!! :)

An African Garden

The backyard of the baby home is full of beautiful, exotic plants! I love looking at them! Beautiful birds that are considered common here are continually praising God. It is fun to take the kids outside to play and get to listen and see parts of God's creation that look so different from Arkansas and equally as beautiful. I haven't figured out the names of anything yet, but here is a quick tour of the beauty in my South African backyard! I have a strict no touching policy; please keep all hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

I love this big flower!It is on a bush and each flower has several vibrant orange petals and one blue petal. They look a little like birds to me :)

Edit (6/20/13): This is called a "Bird of Paradise" Pretty crazy since I thought it looked like a bird! What a good name :)

A poinsettia tree in June! It really is winter here! ;)

These little guys are fuzzy!

This is an avocado tree! I love its twisty trunk. Makes me think of the backroads of Arkansas and my favorite country song.. "Makes me wanna take a backroad. Unwind, unravel.." Sorry just reminiscing here. Don't mind me.

This prickly thing is pretty cool looking!

Edit (6/20/13): Part of the Aloevera family

I love this purple flower!! Look at the cool colors on it!!!

Edit (6/20/13): This is a dying flower.. the live ones are even cooler!

There are many more flowers I haven't taken pictures of yet but these are a few of the pretty things I get to look at everyday! Feel free to comment if you know any of their names! Hope you've enjoyed the tour. Please exit out the back door.

"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"

This verse from Nehemiah was on one of the letters that people sent with me to read during my time in Africa. It was extremely encouraging to me. Tonight though, I saw it lived out. Tonight I saw contentment. Tonight, I saw grace.

• Donovan, Heather, Sarah (my intern buddy), the Drew’s kids, and I all went to Salvakop tonight to hand out blankets and join in on the bible study that Randy Clark does there. On the way, Donovan explained the situation to us. We were going to an area that used to be a suburb but now is more of a shantytown. It is mostly full of refugees from Zimbabwe. There are houses just like the one the baby home is in, but these are rented out to LOTS of people. Then, in each yard, there are tin huts. They are made of scrap metal and about at the size of one of those tool sheds that we would buy at Home Depot. Whole families live in these, sometimes more than one family. They are not warm, they have no running water, and they all share another hut that has a hole for the restroom. While I was bundled up in my North Face coat, children were running around in shorts and Tshirts.
  
  I’m not sharing this to tell how bad the conditions are of someone’s lives, I’m telling this because I have been so very humbled tonight. At home, we don’t want to invite anyone into our house unless it is perfect. We might choose not to be hospitable or host something at our house because someone else has a bigger, nicer one and we would be embarrassed. Tonight one of the ladies from the church invited us into her home with a genuine smile on her face. She took pride in what God has given her and had decorated the 10 by 6 foot home of her’s. One of her decorations was a framed picture of her recent baptism! She did not complain or apologize ever, even when we had to wait to go inside for the electricity to start working. She showed me contentment, and she showed me what the grace of God does to a person. She was so thankful for the home that God provided and she would not compare it to what he had given other’s or hang her head because He saw fit to give her less. She may have lacked in earthly possessions, but she was rich in heavenly ones.
  
  

  

  Me, Sarah (The swiss intern whom I love!) and three little girls from Salvakop!

  
  After this, we walked down the street to a school auditorium for bible study. Praise God that the gospel went out tonight! Randy shared the gospel despite the language barrier and did fabulously at a very hard job. Nickson is an African seminary student who helped Randy to lead. Many of the people who came to the bible study did not speak English as well as they did their first language (Shona) and Nickson was invaluable as an interpreter. He boldly shared the gospel tonight as well. Everyone was quiet at first but after a while, they started asking questions that revealed what they had understood about what was taught. One woman asked “what is sin?” and then we sat for about 5 minutes while a bunch of people talked extremely fast in their first language. There were some new converts in the group as well and it was so fun to see them speaking up and telling their friends what they now know – even if I could not understand a word of it! You could see the faces as sin was explained to them – from, “That doesn’t apply to me” changing to “oh… maybe that is me.” I love seeing God at work!

  New Prayer Requests:
  Pray that the Salvakop bible study would grow, that the attendees would come to understand that they have sinned and need a savior, and that they would repent
  .

Adoption and the Family of God

You would think, wouldn't you, that you might feel lonely if you traveled 8,888 miles away from home all by yourself? This doesn't have to be true for the believer though. I was reminder by Donovan Drew (Missionary here over part of the baby home and interns) of the beauty of adoption into the family of God. We call someone our sister or brother, we call God our Father, because it really is true. I felt that not just in name but as a reality tonight more vividly and tangibly than I ever have in my life.

This afternoon I went to church for the first time here at Living Hope - and I couldn't think of an more appropriate name for this church. It is a church that is on fire and alive; full of hope and sharing hope with the community.

At 1 o'clock, we loaded up the babies and drove to a rented property where the church was gathering. We were greeted as we walked in, people introduced themselves to me with genuine smiles and tried to get to know me - consistent with the hospitality I have felt from the moment I entered this country. The music  was familiar - although a little more upbeat :) During the service I had to take my little charge outside since he was getting a little too fired up over Josh Mack's sermon. I went to the "cry room," which is really just taking them outside, and listened to the sermon through the open door. Josh taught an encouraging and convicting sermon on prayer today.

After the service, everyone (Maybe 100 people but I'm really bad at estimating) drove about 30 minutes to the Mack's home for a meal and communion (we couldn't stay in the church longer because the land owners recently upped the rent times three). The Mack's had filled their home with tables. All the kids played in the living room while everyone else sat around the tables and answered questions like, "Where is the most beautiful place you have ever been?" and "What is your life story in 4 sentences?"  Instead of cheesy I'm-too-cool-for-this answers people were genuine and conversation was interesting and God-glorifying. A girl my age invited me to sit by her and I felt at home immediately. At my table, was an Afrikaans couple, a colored couple (not an offensive term here.. it just means that they are a line of mixed races), a girl from Zimbabwe, and a man from the Congo, an English South African (Donovan Drew), and an American who lived for 10 years in Spain (Heather Drew). The rest of the room was filled with even more diversity.

It was amazing to sit in that room with people from every nations who were truly worshiping as we sung to the Lord. I was with people with languages, traditions, histories, and lives so different from mine but we are all in the same family, with the same Father, worshipping the same God. Later we took communion together. THIS is the body of Christ, I thought. As Heather said on the way home, "It's a taste of heaven." What will it be like when there is someone from every tribe and every tongue worshiping him? I think tonight showed me just a little bit. I'm so thankful to be meeting all these sister and brothers of mine. Most of all I'm thankful that God adopted me into his family.