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