Update Sampler!

Can you believe that picture?  Its Shaddy “reading” about the abandoned babies in Johannesburg, when he is one that contributes to those statistics.  Its a little cut off because it was too big, I'll try to fix it later, but you get the point.  I did not even expect to get this picture!  I was sitting beside him to take a picture of another baby in the swing, but I looked over his shoulder and got to take this one seconds before he ripped it in half...  Crazy picture.

For church yesterday morning I got to go to Berea Baptist Church!  That is the church that founded Door of Hope so it was really nice to see.  Its in a really dodgy part of town so we all had to keep together or guys on the street will “snatch us right up.”  It was a really great service though.  Also, it was baby dedication day!  There were two babies from the house that I work in and 12 from the other house.  I got to be there to dedicate Aphile, who happens to be the cutest little guy ever (confession: I say that about all of them...).  It was really moving to stand up there with this precious little 3 month old as they pray over him and his future.  The church service was amazing though- lots of dancing and amens involved.  Afterward we got to see the drop box where the babies can be placed if the mother would like it to be anonymous!  It is just a box in the wall that has a sensor underneath it so it goes off when a baby is placed in it.  It is not used as frequently anymore but it still gets used every now and then!  There was a boy that was placed in it 3 days ago.  This is him eating, he is now only 6 days old but he was a premie so he is super tiny.

And this is me with the drop box!

Melissa, Katlyn, and I have a friend Janine that has been taking us to church Sunday nights as well.  She so very sweet, she’s determined to bring us to do things to see Jo’burg instead of forever being in the house.  We now have a list of things we need to do before we leave and also a list of everything we need to eat before we leave.  Last night the church service last night was so good!  It was one of those times where God made so many parallels that it makes you just want to sit there forever and take it all in.  They started with reading part of Psalm 119, which I have been going through since I got here.  Then they moved on to a lesson in Romans 6-7 that I have been needing to hear for the past 8 months.  It was so good!  Not to mention the pastor was the cutest man ever, I wanted him to be my grandfather.  And I’ll let you in on a little secret: after church we went to McDonalds.  I’m sorry, I just had such a guilty conscious about it that I had to be honest with you all and admit it.

I got to see my first adoption take place!  On the home front its not very exciting.  The worker from Door of Hope just picks him up... but its exciting to know that he will be meeting his parents today!  His name is Luke but he is such a cutie.  I was bummed though because he is so very close to taking his first steps, I thought it would happen before he got adopted.  But they moved the adoption date up so I guess I won’t be able to witness him walking.  He got adopted locally which is really good that he gets to stay in South Africa.  Please be praying for Luke and his adjustment to his new family!  Also, pray for his family to be able to love him like their own child and point Luke towards Christ throughout his life.  Very exciting stuff :)  

Want to hear an amazing story?  Okay.  So this family has been looking to adopt because one of their children is terminally ill.  The parents decided to let their little girl choose the name of the child they would be adopting.  They didn’t know any names, but they got matched with this baby and saw a picture.  When the woman from Door of Hope called and asked the father if hey had made a decision on Luke, he got silent.  She said, “Are you still there?  Are you okay?” and he said quietly, “I’m still here...  Its just that we let our daughter name the child we would be adopting and she decided to name him Luka.”  Talk about a God moment...

I get chills every time I think about that story.  God’s presence here is very real and very obvious, it is so encouraging.

I have been having the absolute weirdest dreams since I have been here.  One night I dreamt I was 214 pounds!  My sister Amy was trying to convince my mom to make me go to “sweat camp,” the equivalent of fat camp.  They made me wear those horrible shoes that make you burn more calories while you walk (but don’t worry, they got them for me in hot pink so they looked good).  Another dream was that my sister Christy and I both had surgeries on our mouths but to clean our bodies out before the surgery we each had to drink a huge thing of dish soap.  The last dream I had was I was the hair dresser for all of the kids and I had to cut all their hair.  Let’s just say that hair cutting was not my forte...  Crazy crazy dreams though!  At home I usually never remember my dreams.  P.S. don’t go and try to interpret my dreams, thank you.

A lot of the kids went to the clinic the other day to get immunizations.  They go to a public, government run clinic so it is not very clean but they don’t have to pay anything so it’s nice.  They bundle them all up to go since it is “so very cold” here.  (The aunties think its cold if its anything under about 75 degrees.  Auntie Judith is forever running around and fetching me my shoes to put on because she doesn’t want me to catch a cold.)  To the right is a picture of me and the aunties getting the kids ready to go!  I'm holding Shep, with his cute little hat on!

Yesterday the kids got to go outside to play!  They were quite shell shocked because a lot of them hadn’t been outside in a very long time.  We try to bring the kids out every now and then though because its good for them to be out in the sun!  Especially in the winter when the sun is not frying hot.  Its crazy to think about how much they are inside those four walls.  Unless they are going to the clinic, its too hard to try to organize an outing so they usually just play in the family room.

Shep holding my ring :)

...

Side note: I got a new roommate this week!  Her name is Arena, she is awesomeee.  She is from Holland and will be staying for two weeks.  She is bunking right on top of me!  I wanted to show you guys a picture of her but unfortunately she is super sick so it wasn’t good timing for a photo shoot.  Poor thing got here and then 4 days later has a horrible flu.  Hopefully it does not get passed around...

Here are some other pictures I wanted to show you guys:

The official welcoming comittee :)

Have you gotten the picture yet?  I am obsessed with their onsies.

The funny donated t-shirts I talked about earlier...

Me and Nadene :)

The post this time is pretty random and all over the place (hence why the title is “update sampler”- its a little of everything).  But I didn’t want to leave anything out!

Thats all for now, folks.  Until next time :)

His,

Kelley

[Insert witty title name here]

Sorry, I just can't think of a title name... so make up your own!  Be creative!  The sky's the limit.

Welpppp, lets see.  What updates do I have for you guys?!

To start off- I am healthy and well!  Haven’t gotten sick!  Some of the kids have had fevers from teething gone bad.  But thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that being spread to me. 

Since it is winter here, the days are beautiful.  They are about mid 60s but really sunny, it feels so good!  Nights get super chilly but its okay because I have seven blankets on my bed to keep me warm :) There are incredible sunsets every night!  Gosh I love them so much.  Since there are never any clouds, the stars are super bright at night too.  Its weird that it gets dark so early since at home its the opposite, I am starting to get used to it though.  In the beginning I would just go to bed at 7pm every night but I am getting better!  I promise I am not some huge party pooper!  Well, at least not all the time...  Don’t go and ask my roommate about it.

Here is a picture of my room!  Well, my half of it.  And yes- those are my crocs under my bed 

that I wear ALL THE TIME!  What are you going to do about it?!  The kids love them.

I got to go downtown and see Johannesburg!  It was awesome.  It’s a pretty rough city though.  Auntie Maggie was telling me that you have to be super careful about parking because if you leave your car unattended for too long, it will be gone (even if you lock it).  I guess they are super quick about stealing cars.  And of course right after she tells me this, I forget to lock my door when we went in to get lunch somewhere.  She just about died when we came back and she found out my door was unlocked.  Nice job Kelley, good way to get on the auntie’s good side...  When we were downtown, I also got to see Baby House 2 (I’m in Baby House 1)!!  It was crazy to see 12 different little babies there.  It amazes me how many orphans there are in this area.  The house was super big and really nice though!  I’m glad I got to see it.  Maggie was saying how the house is really really old though and has so much work that needs to be done to it.  Right now they don’t have the money to fix it so they are trying to figure out what to do.  A lot of Christian organizations here go to the states to fundraise for their causes!  Because South Africans don’t give money to causes they personally don’t know since there are too many sketchy organizations around.  So they might try to do that, but they aren’t sure.

As I have mentioned before, the amount of donations they receive blow my mind!  A few days ago a company called Macro donated thousands of dollars worth of food, diapers, and even a washing machine!  I could not believe they just dropped all of that off for free.  They also get donations once a week from a top-quality food store, Woolworths, for the foods that are about to pass the sell by date.  The aunties absolutely love it.  It is really encouraging to see the support from the community that they have.  They would not be able to get by without each of the donations that the community and supporting companies give.

Last night was Rahel’s birthday (that is me and her on the right), one of the other volunteers!  She invited Melissa, Katlyn, and me to go to birthday dinner with everyone.  In the beginning we were not sure if we should go because of feeling unwelcome in the group earlier, but we talked to Rahel about it and she insisted that we come.  We went to Monte Casino, it was ballerrrrr!  Its basically this whole set up inside that makes it seem like its an outside street.  It looks like a little Italian town, it was so cute.  I will post pictures below of it.  We went to a delicious restaurant and then walked down the “street” to the gelato place.  It was super good!  We had so much fun.  I know there are probably places like that in the states, but I’ve never been to one!  I loved it.

Yeppp, this was inside.  You were tricked, weren't you?

This is a super cheesy one of Melissa, me and Katlyn!

I got a moped... mom and dad- you don't mind, right?

Melissa, me, and Jess (the volunteer coordinator) showing off our muscles :)

I have one amazing mom at home, but here all the aunties insist that they are all my mother figure here.  They are hilarious.  Auntie Veronica (or Auntie V) and Auntie Celestine (or Auntie Cele) both work with me in the big babies.  Auntie Margaret is super sweet as well, she works in with the small babies.  And Auntie Judith cleans the house, and she is completely crazy.  I love them all so much!  They always have good advice if you ask them anything!  Or even if you don’t ask them and you don’t really want it, they'll still give you their opinion...  They make sure we rest on our tea breaks (aka the babies’ nap time), stay out of the sun because they are certain thats why white people get pimples, eat enough cake when one gets donated but don’t eat enough to get fat, and that we are safe if we ever go out anywhere.  So mom- don’t worry, they got me covered.

Here are two cute pictures of some of the kids:

This is Lerato!  I went out of the room to get the other kids up from their naps and when I came back, he rolled himself up in the blanket!!  So cute.  He is the laziest baby, can't even crawl, barely ever rolls over, but yet he rolls himself right up in this blanket.  So funny!

This is Sanele and Adaliah.  We always joke around how they are a cute old couple because they always act like it.  Right before this picture, she was laying her head in his lap and he was playing with her hair while they were both laughing.  It was awesome.

Thats about all I have for today!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures :)

Thank you all so much for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!  I have seen so many prayers answered here, it is obvious that I have a lot of support from home.  Hopefully reading this blog has given you a taste of what I have been doing!  I have many more stories I’ll have to share in person as well.

Until next time, my bloggies :) Mucho love yo.

P.S. Happy Father’s Day Daddy :) I’m glad I got to talk to you yesterday!

P.S.S. Katlyn and I got dropped off at the mall to hang out here for a while.  We are not getting picked up for six more hours.  But HOUSTON we have a problem!  I have got to use the restroom, or “toilet”, except come to find out that there is a water shortage in the building and there are no bathrooms open in this whole place!  What?!  How does that happen?  So... yeah.  This is an issue.

Testing 1, 2, 3

We have a child here named Shadrack (who has starred in some of my pictures in previous posts) who has been really sick recently.  He has new molars coming in the back and they put him in complete pain.  We took him to the doctor yesterday to check everything out because he’s had a fever of 102 degrees.  Ends up that he also has tonsillitis on top of his teething discomfort.  The poor child cries and cries because of the overwhelming soreness.  He does not understand why it hurts, he just feels the pain.  He is focused on the here and now.  After he went to the doctor, he now has medicine to help him feel better- one to fight the infection in his tonsils and one for the pain.  Unfortunately, because of the agony when swallowing, he hates having his medicine.  He is too little to realize that this medicine is what will heal him and make him feel better!  It will be painful to swallow the medicine but it is worth the recovery.  So even though he screams and cries, we still give him the medicine because we know it is what he needs to heal.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how applicable this lesson is to my life.  Some trials in our life cause so much hurt and pain.  We do not understand why they are happening or why we are feeling the way that we are.  All we know is here and now, it hurts.  I didn’t expect to be learning this lesson here, but our God works in crazy ways!     When God teaches us lessons, they are usually not pain free.  But he sees the tooth coming in and knows that it will be worth the pain and discomfort.  He knows that we are going to be stronger coming out of the trial and we will be closer to Him than we were going into it.

“Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything... Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:2-4,12

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

SURPRISE!

I got another day at the internet this week!  I wasn’t expecting to come, but I was off and its a beautiful day out so I wanted to go for a walk.  So I decided to just walk up to the cafe, grocery shop, and do a post while I am here!

Side note- the cafe that I always go to has a chalkboard that they write different things on everyday.  Today it says “A man is not old until regrets start taking place of dreams.”  I like it.

Yesterday we got two new kids!  One was only two days old so he is in with the small babies but there is an older girl (about four-ish months?) who will be with us in the big babies!  Her name is Doosie, she is coming from the sick ward where she has been for three months so she will stay in the isolation room for a few days to make sure she isn’t bringing any germs to the other kids.  She is so stinkin sweet :)  Her mom is only 14 years old!  She would visit her every now and then in the hospital but then the social worker just picked Doosie up and dropper her off here.  We were warned that the mom might spend us a visit trying to get her baby back.  We aren’t allowed to let her in or let her see the baby.  Tricky bidness if you ask me...

Melissa, Katlyn, and I have been organizing all the donations they have been receiving.  The woman who usually does it has been gone for a few months so things have completely piled up.  Here is a before picture:

Craziness.  This will be a big project...

And here are a few treasures we have found:

Yes, beef rocks and cheese rocks t-shirts.  Thanks to whoever donated these!

Seriously though, we have found some really cute stuff.  My favorite being the onesie pajamas!  Of course we dressed all the kids in them last night after we found them.  Here is a picture of most of the kids with them on:

We got them all to sit in a circle!  Well- most of them..  Some were runaways.

Aren't these the cutest ever?  I can't get over it.  A teddy-bear-looking onesie and one with the frog on the back!

Yep.  You’re falling in love with them too, aren’t you?

I’ll have to show you an after picture when it is all done!  But we are organizing all of the donations by putting away what we will use and giving what we won’t use to the store.  Door of Hope owns a store in Johannesburg thats equivalent to our Goodwill.  They put the rest of the donations here and then use all the profit to buy things that we really need- like “nappies” (aka diapers).  It was really neat to see the store.  It also opened my eyes to how much help they need though!  The woman who works there is named Sibbie,  she is literally the sweetest woman!  She was begging me to come back on a day that I’m not working and help her organize and price everything that has been piling up.  Hopefully I will get to do that soon!

We (again- melissa, katlyn and me) have also made a bucket list of things we want to do here before we leave!  One thing being finish organizing that room... but the other things are much more fun.  Like going to the flea market, writing each other letters to read when we get home, going to the top of this tower thing, cook an actual good dinner instead of sandwiches and salads, go to the lion park, and a few things I can’t mention- part of our pact.  But as these get done, I hope to be able to show you the pictures as evidence!  So far we have gotten nothing crossed off our list... Haha but we will soon!

I am learning so much here.  Not just how to change nappies the quickest, how to dry clothes on a line effectively, what silly noises to make to stop the kids from crying, and different tactics to get the kids to open their mouths for the food train (which are all helpful things), but I’m also learning how deep our Father’s love goes.  I know you hear that a lot and its easy to not really dig into it, but when you get a glimpse of it, it is such a beautiful thing.  

God knit together each one of these children.  He made them so fearfully and so beautifully!  He longs for each one of them to get to know Him and fall in love with Him, no matter if they are placed in a Christian home or not.  He is the Father to the fatherless.  And when He says that, it’s not just biological fathers.  He is the ultimate Father, full of love and grace and comfort.  Each person He has created and He knows everything about!  Psalm 139 says, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I set and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know if completely, O Lord.”  Yes, this can be kinda scary that He knows you so well but it can also be super comforting.  He knows all about you, because He made you!  Even if you think you are so dirty and filthy, He still wants your heart and wants you to know Him!  “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 36:25-26.  He wants to cleanse you with His living water that will go deeps into the depths of your being, even in the driest of places.  That was so hard for me to grasp for so long.  It has taken pretty extreme measures for this to really sink in, but now I feel like a pure daughter of Christ.  The chains from my past are broken, and I do not need to look back and feel guilty for the dirt in my past.  I am cleansed my by creator and I am new.  How beautiful is that?!  PTL (praise the Lord...)

That is what I pray for these children.  That no matter what measures it takes for them to know Christ, that they will be able to feel the freeing feeling of being so loved and so cherished by their creator.  Freedom from this world.  They have such a place in His kingdom and they shouldn’t feel like an orphan because they do not have biological parents in their lives.  God wants each of these children to run to Him and get to know Him.

Geez.  How great is that?  I just had to share that with you guys!  The Lord is moving in this place.

But I should get to grocery shopping so I can walk back before it gets dark (don’t worry dad, I have been very cautious and I have my pepper spray with me).  Thanks for reading this whole post!  I will put some more pictures up next time.  The internet is especially slow today.

Love love love you all,

Kell

Ps- My sister Amy’s birthday was on the 14^th.  Even though I called her a million times, she never picked up AND her voicemail box was full (per usual).  So I never got to wish her a proper happy birthday.  Soooo... Amy- HAPPY 22^nd Birthday!!!!  Pretty please pick up your stinkin phone when it is that random number, I want to talk to you.  Expect a call this afternoon (aka I’ll call you tonight my time).  Love you a whole ton :) Hope your day was amazing and you got to use your pop maker!!  Also, do us all a favor and delete some messages on your phone so we can leave you some love.  Kthanks.

“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me.  To a nation that did not call my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’  All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations- a people who continually provoke me to my very face.”  Isaiah 65:1-3 

That is AUNTIE Kelley to you!

So here is the deal: I am only going to be able to use the internet about once a week.  BUT I have so much to say!  Don’t you dare roll your eyes and make some joke in your head that I always have a lot to say.  Each day I have been writing out a lot of what I want to share with you.  I was thinking about trying to post these all as different posts... but I decided was best was to write it all in one long journal post so it doesn’t get confusing.  It would get tricky with chronological order and all that jazz.  So feel free to read this in paragraph chunks or tackle it all at once.  But I did give you fair warning that it will be long.

So sit back, relax, put on your reading glasses (mom-that was a shout out to you), cancel your plans for the day, grab a venti coffee in needed (hopefully not...), and enjoy the insights of what has been going on in Kelley’s life the past week!

Since my last post, I am much more rested and have now gotten into the swing of things!  I have officially worked 3 ten hour shifts so far.  How the schedule works is three days on and then two days off and the shifts are from 7am to 6pm.  Except since I’m the low man on the totem pole, my schedule is a little more sporadic.  During those 10 hours we wake the kids up, clothe them, feed them, change them, play with them, and most of all we get to simply love on all of them.  They are so very precious!  I have gotten to hear a few of their stories, and ohmygosh it amazes me.  It is sad to see them in the orphanage and without parents, but its also really awesome to realize that for most of them their life here is so much better than the life their mom’s could have given them.  

I have absolutely loved getting to know each little tot.  Each child has such a distinct personality!  Some are jealous for attention, some are stubborn eaters, some are runaways and mischievous, some are always content just chillen, some love when you tickle their stomach, some love cuddles, and others just want you to help them walk.  It has been so much fun to get to know each kid so much more!  I feel like I know them all so well and I haven’t even been here a week.  Geez it is going to be super duper hard to leave these little kiddos.

Everyone calls each other aunties here!  It is too darn cute.  There are some local aunties who work here, and the rest are volunteers.  But the staff aunties are so great!  A lot of them were 100% intimidating in the beginning because they are very honest.  If you are doing something wrong, they will straight call you out.  When you get the routine and learn the ropes, they loosen up though.  I have really gotten to know most of these wonderful women and I seriously love them!  They sometimes call us mummies, which I think is just marvelous.  We all normally have a bible study during one of the nap times, which one of us will lead or sometimes a local volunteer will come in to lead.  It is a great time to hear about their relationship with the Lord.  We are all so similar even though we are so from the opposite sides of the world!  Most of the other volunteers are from the states but some are from Switzerland or New Zealand.  Its been really fun hanging out with all of them!  We all made dinner together one night and we had a movie night another night.  There are two girls that live across the hall, Melissa and Katlyn, who are the sweetest girls ever.  We have had such a fun time bonding over girl talk, dinners, and random adventures.  You will hear much more about them throughout my trip here.  But here is a picture of them!  And yes, that is my peace sign beside them. :)

So confession: I actually got homesick the first few days!  I have never been homesick before so it was very weird for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I miss my family at school and such but it has never been the same feeling I had a few nights ago.  It turned into a huge God-moment for me because I realized that now is the time that I need to cling to Jesus harder than ever.  I opened up my bible and saw a verse I had circled and starred earlier, “My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.” [Psalm 191:28].  That became my prayer.  I had to come back to the basics and remember He is the reason why I am here, He knows exactly how I am feeling, and He wants to be the one I run to for comfort.  It turned into a really cool experience because the next day He blessed me with an awesome day.  None of kids were not fussy (a miracle in itself), it stopped raining and the weather got nicer, and I had such a good day with Melissa and Katlyn.  We also had 20 volunteers come in to help clean, play and feed the kids, and hang out for a while!  The kids loved the one-on-one time and we loved having the help.  The day was just so fulfilling.

Door of Hope is such a blessing!  They truly love their kids and always put them first.  Just last month another orphanage (not affiliated with Door of Hope) had to shut down because they found out the house mother was taking all the donations and pocketing all the money.  The kids were found very malnourished and mistreated.  This just broke my heart!  The children at Door of Hope are so very spoiled, which I honestly like to see.  All the aunties love these children like their own.  Unfortunately, they used to have a toddler house too (not just the two baby houses) but the donations were not coming enough to support it!  The toddler house closed this past March.  We are praying all the children get adopted before they get to the toddler age because then they have to go to the state.  Door of Hope is hoping to be able to reopen the toddler house next year, depending on donation income.  The community here donates so much though!  Its just not enough to support each house.  Here is a picture of the donations we got Saturday!  And one of the aunties said that this was "nothing" compared to the amount they usually get on Saturdays.

It is sad because the US doesn’t let Americans adopt kids from South Africa!  Since the orphanages are mostly private and small, it would take too much effort to monitor everything.  Don’t worry though, Melissa, Katlyn, and I decided to lobby this so that we can all adopt our little tikes.  We found out today, though, that five families are looking at adopting different children!  And one child’s mother is trying to get her back (which is a long process with a social worker and such).  But I can not believe that I might have to say goodbye to five or six kids here!  We will also get more children though, so I will get to meet many more as well.

In the beginning, I came in with the mindset of “nope, I am not having a favorite child.”  But after reading about it and reporting to me, one of the volunteers was telling us that it is actually good to have one that you are most connected to.  She was saying that God puts a child on your heart before you even get here.  It is good for the child to have that special connection and get the extra attention, even if its only for a little while.  Its really neat to ask the other volunteers about the child they are most connected to and none of them overlap!  Each child has someone who is investing a little more in them than the others.  I will have to write all about my little guy next time I post because this post is getting ridiculously long.  So I will wrap it up.

They are very strict on rules about posting pictures because of the safety of the children, so their faces are not allowed to be fully seen.  But here are some pictures I wanted to show you guys!  The pictures each take about 20 minutes to upload, so I can’t put too many up for I’ll be sitting at this internet cafe all day!

This is me and Shadrack!  He is our only walker so far.  But Luke and Theo are close behind!

This is Theo.  He always wants someone to hold on to so he can walk around!  It is too cute when he starts slipping on the wood and next thing you know he turns into a gymnast with his splits! 

 This is Melissa, Auntie Celestine, me and Melissa.  Side note:  these pictures are all from the same day.  Its not that I always wear the same shirt, I promise.

This is Shad with his favorite book!  He is constantly reading about those colors :) 

This is our youngest!  Little Shepperd.  He is 5 months old but he is super small for his age because malnutrition before he came to us.  He has quite a story, this little guy!  Oh my gosh I love him so much.  I have already seen so much growth in him since I got here!

 They have the most beautiful sunsets!  This is the view outside of the window in the room that we always play with the kids.  It makes it look all warm, but no.  The nights get super cold!  And there is no heating, so the house get super chilly as well!

Okay, I just had to take this picture.  I thought it was so funny that the girl's bathroom was labeled as Eve!  This is at church yesterday. 

This is Rhema, the church that we went to!  It was HUGE!  And the service was so darn good.  I will comment more on what I learned later, because I am still taking it in.  But they were so hospitable here!  It was a "Southern Family Church" and it was pretty similar to our Southern Baptist churches with the kind of gospel music and everything.

This is one of the many ways we entertain the babies.  Bouncing the ball, shaking the tambourine, and playing with a huge hour glass are the "mesmerizing toys" that make the babies stop crying!

Me and little Shep's hand.  Totes presh.

That is all I have to say for now!  Thanks for sticking with me until the end :) I hope to post another time later this week or early next week.  Comment and let me know if you have any questions or want me to expand on anything that I have said!

I love you all and I hope you are getting to see a little glimpse of the amazing time I am having down here!

Peace and blessings <3