Whit in South Africa: January 2015

Hello to My Family all over the world! Whew.. i actually got this posted before February! The internet has been so weird, and has stopped my attempts to post this for a couple days... For South Africa being one of the most developed, if not the most developed country in the Continent of Africa they could really use some better internet.. lol But, what is important, is I can still can attempt to have a blog posted every month this year : )

There is so much to tell you were do i begin!

I Surprised my Family for Christmas! It was such a strange experience flying across the world and only having a handful of people knowing I was the air. It was also weird to have been planning this trip since March 2014, when i bought my ticket, and not being able to talk to anyone about it (secret control). I would like to say thank you to my Aunt Jerri for the endless Skype chats, planning and keeping this really hard secret for so long! Also a Huge thank you to my Bestie, Rachel Smith and Mrs. Howden, for picking me up at the airport in the biggest storm to hit in 5 years. I am so thankful for you and that my flight came in without delay!

I could tell you all about my lovely surprise or I could just show you! Here is A video I made of surprising my family. I had so much fun!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=tUrw_dzUB5Y

Being Home was so special is lots of different ways. I had amazing conversations about Refilwe, Why I have decided to stay in South Africa and How much God has moved in my heart but also in the work being done here. I came back to South Africa very encouraged in what I feel so strongly God is telling me to do.

God is so Faithful and Kind. Remember In my last Blog i mentioned that i hate traveling alone. Well God is good. All the way back to California I traveled with my friend Ari and then on the way back Home I was in Frankfurt Germany for 10 Hours by myself and I didn't panic! I would actually categorize it as enjoyable lol. It was a pretty empty airport, I got to sleep some and I even made a friend with a sweet gal who works at Tiffany’s! ( no I didn't buy anything lol)

Prayer Requests:

My Mom (Lynn) just spent 12 days in the hospital. Ill recap really quickly for those who don’t know my families story. My mom has medical issue all of her life but none that had really affected me. In 2000 she went into full kidney failure and the journey began. 10 years of of surgeries, hospital stays, 2 different types of dialysis, a failed kidney transplant in 2001. That really scratches the surface of time, experiences, and emotions in the past 15 years. In 2011 God finally allowed my mom to get a kidney despite a lot of things going against her to ever get another transplant. We finally could go back to “normal life”, whatever that looked like. In Nov ’13 i was told that her “kidney numbers” were starting to climb (bad) and they wanted to try some preventative treatments. Preventative treatments for rejection of the kidney. They did two sets of treatments in ’14 and were wanting to do another one in the beginning of ’15 because her numbers still were not great. Well she didn't get that far. On my last couple days of being home she was very unusually tired and looking poor. We all wrote it off as she was stressed with me going back to SA and not knowing when I would be home again. Then the texts started rolling in 5 days after being back in SA. My mom’s “kidney numbers” were off the charts and needed to be admitted immediately. Again Long story cut really short, my mom has Acute cellular rejection and antibody mediated rejection. (Feel free to Google that if you wish lol) She is rejection and they now are in saving mode. She was finally able to go home on 19/1. She has a long road a head of her but but she's heading in the right direction. Lots of Medicines, Dialysis, trial and error and prayers.

Another thing you can pray for is adoptions. We have 11 children who are ready for adoption and so far no adoptions in place for the year. Its difficult to watch these kids reach huge milestones like walking and crawling knowing their parents are missing it! These kids are doing some very cute things and besides pictures and videos that's all these parents will ever have in these moments. Starting in July, South Africa has passed some new laws that will make international adoptions very complicated. They were passed to help stop child trafficking, which is great, but it only makes legal adoptions that much harder. Lots of prayers for social workers, child services and everyone who is involved in the processes. I would love to see 11 adoptions happen this year!

Did you see my slip in? Yep, I am staying in South Africa! Ive already started my next blog to talk about my plans in 2015, so get ready!

I hope you are able to see evidence of Gods grace this week,

Whit