And the adventure continues...

Hi sweet friends and family!

We are officially in FALL here in Josie! I think fall is my favorite season. I love the leaves turning, the chill in the evening air and crisp mornings that begin to warm as soon as the sun is up. I’m sure I am in for a cold winter here seeing as none of our homes have central heating. I’ve purchased my first official hot water bottle and now spend my nights cuddling my new “hottie” (that’s what my roommate Jess calls hers and I think it is just so cute and hysterical).

I’ve been driving around for the last few weeks with an expired license tag in my car due to some crazy, complicated “this is Africa” stuff that was outside of my control. The sweet family that I purchased Stanley from were able to step in and help me arrange the purchase of a new tag and took care of some things on Stanley that were malfunctioning (which was a huge blessing). On Wednesday of last week we were going to arrange to pick up Stanley but due to life I ended up just working from home, which was fine, but I was frustrated that I wasn’t going to be able to get in and see my babies and Aunties. I spent the day working on work all the while working on convincing myself to trust the Lord, to have a happy attitude and be flexible. By the afternoon I began to feel a little “something” in my throat and by that night I was sporting a high fever and full out Strep Throat. Thankfully I had antibiotics on hand and long story short after a few days of fever, chills and an incredibly nasty looking throat I am now feeling almost 100%. It was a great reminder for me that sometimes what I take as interference from what I have planned is actually God’s provision and protection. I believe He had me home all by lonesome on Wednesday so I didn’t expose those I loved to such an icky bug. It was just another practical lesson on this adventure of trusting and obeying.

Speaking of which, this week has brought about some new news about my ever-evolving role here at Door of Hope. Firstly, Lindsay (the Baby Home Manager for Baby House 1 in Glenvista) is back in the States for the next 6 weeks or so and while she is away our Director has asked me to oversee Baby House 1 which currently houses 3 Small Babies, 11 Big Babies and 8 Starfish kiddos. Francinah who had been acting as my Assistant at Baby House 2 has moved into the role of Baby Home Manager of Baby House 2 and will now be overseeing those precious babies and Aunties. I am excited about the new challenge of getting to renew relationship with BH1 Aunties, and volunteers and learning about these babies that were once my smallest ones when I was acting as Small Baby Supervisor at the end of last year. Total pluses: no crazy commute, working with international volunteers and preemies again. Total minuses: Not getting to kiss my Jackson every day, missing “my” BH2 Aunties and the thrill of watching the sunrise on my ride into work. I think I’m going to actually miss regular 5am mornings, sipping coffee in a still sleeping house, driving to work with the sunrise as a backdrop but most of all I’m going to miss waking Jackson up in the mornings. I love being the first thing that he sees after a night’s sleep. I know it sounds silly, but getting to collect his day’s first smiles is one of the things that make me feel like he is really mine. I am hoping to still get there once or twice a week but I know it’s going to be different. In all honesty, I’ve been really sad about it all the while knowing that it’s best for DOH as a whole.

There are babies that I love at BH1, including the 3 new babies we got this week! Baby boy came on Monday after a referral from the hospital. On Tuesday Beth and I went and fetched a 4 month old little baby girl referred from a home up North and on our way back we got word about a newborn baby girl found by the police who was so new she was still covered in afterbirth with her cord unclamped. She came home today and they are all doing well and adjusting to being our new wave of Small Babies. I also get to spend time reconnecting with some of favorite “small babies” that are no longer small but so very cute and grown up. It’s wild how much a baby can change in just a few short months!

Secondly, Beth, our Children’s Manager is going to be leaving Door of Hope to return home to the States to get her nursing degree this July. Our Director has asked me to step into Beth’s position as Children’s Manager when she departs, and I've said I would! The Children’s Manager is responsible for overseeing the care of each child that enters our care, from admission to adoption. I’m not even really sure what all of that really entails but some of the fun stuff that I will be doing is fetching babies from all of Jo-berg to be ours, handing over babies to meet their forever families, organizing and delegating all of our medical appointments with our pediatrician and with the hospitals we work with, working with our Social Worker to get all of our babies “adoption ready” and assessing each of our children’s overall health and well-being. Suddenly I feel like the old woman in the shoe! In complete honesty, right now I feel overwhelmed and unsure as to how I’ll ever be ready by the time Beth leaves. I guess the truth of the matter is that I won’t be ready come July 1st but our Father will be! I know that I’m going to have gads of moments where His strength is made shiningly perfect in my utter weakness and THAT I’m ready for!

I’m sure that the next few weeks are going to just fly by! Please join me in praying that our Father will give me the divine wisdom I need to love on BH1 in these next few weeks all the while training with Beth as much as possible. Please pray that the Lord will guard my heart, mind and health and I enter a time of top speed training and shepherding. Thank you for being invested in what our Savior is doing in this little part of the world…and in my life! I miss CA very much but I feel more confident than ever that “for such a time as this” I’ve been called here to Door of Hope and to loving on the least of these in Josie. I love you! Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Here are some fun recent pics….

One of our little guys celebrated his first birthday this week!

A picture of Auntie Lucy and the little girl she named, almost 4 months ago!

Me and one of our newbies at BH2!

A random friend I met picking up meds at the HIV clinic, she came over and sat on my lap!

Jackson is a friendly guy, he even makes friends with the difficult kind of animals...haha!

Me and my Jack-Jack! I just can't get enough of his sweet smiles and "conversation"

Jess got to name one of the baby girls that came to BH2 a few weeks ago and here they are!