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