Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2015!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year From all the Aunties and Babies at El Roi!

I pray that everyone had a wonderful time with their families in remembering the birth of our savior.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his Kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

My House Decorated for Christmas!

I spent Christmas with my twelve children. We have seven toddlers over 20 months so the day was full of excitement. Cindy, Bongiwe and myself were all trying to keep the day full of fun with a bit of structure (if we could manage lol) . I kept praying all day that we would be able to do the fun things I wanted to do, while trying not to have too many meltdowns from the 7 little people. And it was great! The small babies did great with the day  however, they were very much less aware of the day and had fewer interruption to their routine.  At the end of the day we all were like walking dead on our feet from exhaustion but the toddlers did great and we didn't have one time-out all day! Parenting Win!

Was excited for the kids to wake up and see the tree and "group" presents!

They all loved the tree!

Each toddler tried to take the ornaments off

Cute Photo Moment!

Little bit if mas chaos for the day!

We had Special Eggs and Toast for Breakfast! What a treat!

Cindy and I tried to go out that evening so we were not sitting home alone on Christmas evening. Didn't last very long.. we were falling asleep trying to eat dinner and giggling uncontrollably from exhaustion. We were all dressed up for about an hour dinner. I laugh about  how ambitious we were..  

Since my church has a Christmas day service instead of Christmas Eve services I wasn't able to go to church. A dear family from church invited me to have Christmas Eve dinner with their family. It was very nice to be included and be apart of a family during the holidays.

Cindy and I at dinner

S Loves his Truck!

It was hard to keep opening the rest of N's presents after he got his car

Baby A looked so cute in her Christmas outfit!

I have been thinking about all the babies who were able to spend their first Christmas with their families.

Rockstar (Sweden)- I Miss you calling my name all around the house. I miss your Cleverness and your hugs 

Edi (Sweden) - I miss your scrunchy nose Smiles and your screams when you get excited.

S (South Africa)- I miss your silly laugh and your look of naughtiness when your doing something wrong.

K (Finland)- I miss your grunts and your happy birthday song

My Princess C (Sweden)- I miss your smile and your cuddles. I miss your stubbornness and how you greeted me when i walk into the house.

Tiny T (South Africa)- I miss your chubby everything : )  I miss seeing your special relationship with toddler H. Never have I seen two small people take to each other as quickly has you both did.

Even though I miss all of you , It is nothing, compared to the joy I feel knowing that you’re so loved and will be so spoiled this Christmas. I wish we were getting updates and I could see how well your family has come together and  how perfectly you fit into your forever home. I trust that the Lord continues to hold you tightly in his hands and loves you more infinitely than I ever could.

Little Bird Loved her Toys!

AB was so funny opening her gift! definitely most entertaining

This is how H sat down on the Present mat. back to the camera lol

Prayers for 2016:
-10 Adoptions in 2016: I am excited for this next year and all the new forever families it will bring for our house of 12. Looking at all of our childrens’ cases, it looks like a lot of our babies have a good chance to be with their families next year.

L  didnt want me to take the toy away... i just wanted to take it out of the box

 -A Car: I would love to have freedom to get more involved at my church, get groceries on my own, help the other volunteers to get around, and lend my car to the baby house when they need an extra car. South African’s Economy is struggling these last couple months (Shame!) but it has made the Dollar very strong.  This cuts my expenses down quite a bit to only $6,500 for the car and my expenses (insurance, petrol, tags etc)  If you feel led to help me with this need would you email me whitinafrica@gmail.com. I know that God Provides for our needs in his perfect timing!

-Wisdom for the year: As I pray about this new year and ask God what 2016 will look like I hear: Whit its going to be hard. What does that even mean? No idea! I thought this year was difficult on many different aspects (My mom being sick, Mission Discovery, C’s adoption, being in america for 6 weeks, depression). To hear God tell me that 2016 is going to be hard, I feel like I really need to dig my heals in and make sure I have strong armor ( Truth, faith, Righteousness, sword of the spirit Ephesians 6:10-20) I covet prayers from you his next year!

-Baby House: We are going to have a lot of changes in the house in 2016.. between babies coming and going. Aunties leaving and new Aunties being training up. Possible Expanding to more children at the end of the year. New registration as a CYCC. Their are Changes coming to the house and sometimes they are easy and fun and others can be tough and straining on our patience.

M looking at his book!

Should have known better than to give him his ball first.. thats all he wanted

Thank you so much for your support in 2015. I pray that this coming year is full of moments where we all learn to trust God more and great moments to give glory to Him. I pray that we continue to grow into the Men and Women that look a little bit more like Jesus every year.


Cheers to a great 2016!

The kids decorated Christmas cookies!

They got to watch their favourite movie while eating lunch: CARS!

November Changes

Hey Family all over the world,

I want to do a quick run down of the events that have happened in the last 2 months.

In the 6 weeks while I was away, a lot of construction was done on the baby house. We got a new roof  and our play room was expanded. It looks so wonderful and now having worked in our new playroom with the kids it had been such a blessing. There is a year between our youngest oldest, and our oldest youngest (i hope you can follow that). It is great to have two separate areas for the movers and non-movers. We even have tile in the rooms now too which is much easier to clean than the old carpet we had before.

Multitasking with EJ and A

We have two new Babies! Baby EJ and Baby A came through Impact Africa. They both arrived at just a few days old. They are now 6 weeks and 9 Weeks old.

EJ

Baby A is all done with pictures

Since we have two new babies, it means we had two adoptions!

On October 19th my Little Minnie Mouse was united with her forever family From Sweden.   Well, Im not sure what else to say about it.....
    As Nicole sent me pictures and told me stories of the day it seems like they are so in love with their little girl. I sat in bed at 4 in the morning waiting for some sort of news or pictures. All the Aunties constantly kept me updated and told me how settled she looked and how close she was to walking when they came back to visit. Warms my heart to hear all good stories. To be honest, with her being so stubborn and a little difficult, I expected it to be a rougher transition but it seemed like the Lord kindness and sovereignty was in the midst of the transition. Maybe my absence did help?
 
Im sad that I wasn't able to be there. I feel like I missed out on something special getting to meet her new parents and experience her transition. I definitely think there was a reason why I wasn't there. God coordinated the timing so perfectly that I missed the adoption and the visit after to the baby house being in America. Im not angry about it  more sad but, I wish I knew why I couldn't be there. Maybe ill know 5 years or 20 years from now or maybe its a question ill have to ask God when I stand before Him in heaven. God always knows best right?!
I hope they can see how much I love her and what a special bond we shared over the 14 months together. I loved her as if she were my own daughter and I hope it shows.

*I really enjoyed our shopping trip before I left to buy her adoption outfit ; ) 

Laying in her Mommy's Arms

Baby T (tiny t even though she is far from tiny : ) Went to her family Two weeks ago! She is our second youngest adoption going at 7 1/2 months.
Her birth mom signed her adoption consent the week that T was born and so her adoption went very fast. I wish I could give her birth mom a big hug! What a selfless sacrifice to put her own emotions aside and do what she knew was best for her daughter. She is so courageous.
T’s new family is super cute. They live locally here in Joburg and the best news of all is that they love Jesus!!!!!! (Just to clarify, just because they live 90 min from us we wont ever see her again. JHB is still huge. There might be a greater chance of running into them than lets say than one of our kids in Europe but thats all )  T is super smiley when she is happy and very unhappy when she is bored or frustrated. Her best friend in the house was Toddler H. I don't think i have seen H love one of the small babies has much as he loved T. So cute.  All the best to T and her cute parents!

The Lord bless you and keep you;  the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. 
Numbers 6:24-26

America October 2015!

Hi Family all over the World!

Im back home in South Africa and adjusting back to everyday life. America seems like a dream these days. Seems a bit crazy to think a couple weeks ago I was sitting in my parents house.

Since I am not much of a writer, get ready for lots of pictures!

This is Samson. He is huge!

 Being home is good. It is great time to see my family, catch up with my friends. But being home isn't perfect and struggles of being in America are real. In attempts to keep being very honest, Ill start with the hard parts and end on all the wonderful things I got to do and people I was able to see.

Remember that book “Kisses from Katie” that I talked about? Well I don't really know how to put into words the tough part of being home. so here is an except from her book. She puts her visit home to America in words that I cannot…




 Confessions of a missionary:

“As I approached  the Nashville airport to spend several weeks fund-raising there, I wasn't one of those people who exhaled. I realized that I didn't really feel I was going home; I was simply returning to the plan I’d been raised, going to visit my family and friends.

My Sister and I (Im the little one)

Eating dinner at my parents’ table, sleeping in my old bed, and gabbing with my friends seemed almost surreal. I wanted to fit back into that place that I still loved and would forever call home, but it seemed impossible. Part of me was angry that the people around me seemed to take for granted even the simplest things, like having a meal or running water. Part of me expected at least some of my closest friends to understand what i had seen, but I found putting my experiences into words so difficult. Because sharing the realities of my new life was so hard to do, people around me found it hard to understand.
To my surprise, I discovered that I no longer fit in where i used to be so comfortable. I didn't live in this world anymore; I wasn't relieved or overjoyed to be in it again; and i wasn't comfortable there. A tiny part of me was SO happy to collapse into the hugs of my mom, dad and brother, but a bigger part felt so out of place. ….Most of the people around me expected me to feel relieved to be back. Understandably, many people I saw in my own hometown asked the same question: “Isn’t life hard in Uganda?” Of course it was hard, in certain ways, but they didn't seem to understand that what was even harder was being back in the States, away from my children. I felt my soul had been ripped away from my body, that my purpose had been stripped from my being. I hadn't realized what a transformation has taken place while I had been in Uganda, the spiritual richness I had experienced in material poverty and the spiritual poverty I felt now in the land of material wealth. Anyone could see that my life has been changed drastically with the addition of six children, but less perceptible and more powerful was the renovation that had taken place in the core of my being. Having been changed so much in my new home and then returning to my old one came with many tears, lots of stress, the loneliness of being misunderstood, and considerable disagreement and strain on my relationship with my parents, who were still hoping I would change my mind  and come back to the States to attend college as I had promised them” (Kisses from Katie, By Katie Davis. Excerpt from pages 83, 84, 85.)


Such a real and honest portrayal of the internal struggle that happens living in two worlds. I relate so much to this, but one part in particular is the story of people seeing the practical change in my life but also the need of seeing the change in the core of who I am. Now that I could share some of the harder things about being home, here are the wonderful and great things about being in America!

I Left South Africa on September 28th and decided to take a small detour on my way to California.  My Aunt Jerri lives in New York and so we arranged that we could explore New York City and then  I could see where she lives and work in upstate, like an hour past Albany. I have never been to New York so i was super excited to see everything.

** If i ever gave you a hard time about a movie reference and America (example: Do people really talk like that, like in the movies?) I apologize. About the whole time i was in NY all i could say was "It's Like in the Movies!!"

The little Red Cottage is where my aunt lives!

Central Park! All I could think about was the movies Elf and Enchanted..

Getting my New York Bagel

Trevor Noah Representing SA!

Times Square. Just waaay too many people for my liking.. 

My Beautiful Aunt Jerri and I

When I finally arrived in California my Cousin Michael got married! It was fun to have my Mothers side of the family all together, even just for one night!

I was invited to speak at my high school! I got to speak to 5 different classes, in total about 200 students. Even though my high school experience was as close to miserable as you can imagine, it has been cool to watch God use me in a place I use to dread to be. I spoke about South Africa and my journey to being a full time volunteer and missionary, poverty, baby abandonment and adoption. I love getting to getting to share about something I am so passionate about and inspire other people.

Since taking a selfie in the middle of a presentation is considered unprofessional, this is all I have... haha

My High School

A very Sweet family, The McDaniel’s, have been so supportive over the last year and wanted to put together a dinner in my honor. It was a great night getting to share my life and all the babies.  A lot of people came and managed to raise a good portion of my funds for this next year!
 A huge Shout-out to the McDaniel's and everyone who came to support me, THANK YOU!

Sharing about what I love

My Dad praying for me

Saying good-bye to Clay and Anne-Marie McDaniel

 I got spent time with my dad, I was able to hang out with my mom at dialysis, have a weekend with my sister watching cheesey Christmas movies and had a fun date night with my brother. Visiting my (maternal) Grandmother is always so much fun, watching old movies and making dinner. My Best Friends are all married and starting families of their own now. It was great to catch up with them and talk about their new families. I saw people who didnt even know I was in South Africa and had great chats with many dear friends who have been so supportive since the beginning.
I think I was pleasantly surprised about all the support I received being home. The most shocking, was how many people actually read this blog. So many said to me "I just love following your blog". To be honest a lot of times I write this thinking my parents are the only ones actually reading these entries. So thank you to everyone who follows my journey and continues to remember me even though you only see my face once a year or maybe even never. And Thank you for praying for me as I am on this incredible journey.

Its Never too late, if would like to Financially Support me here in South Africa! I am still working Towards my Goal of being fully funded for 2016! If you would like to support me you can send checks to:

Valley Bible Church 

7106 Johnson Drive 

Pleasanton, Ca 94588

( Please do NOT write my name on the Memo Line but attach a note with my name on it. This way they know it is for me!) 

Spend some great time with my (paternal) Grandparents!

Date night with my Handsome Brother!

We went to the Arcade!

My mom would kill me if i posted a picture of her here, so here is her Dialysis Machine. So basically her life support 3 days a week lol

My brothers dog follows the sun around the living room for his naps

My fabulous, wonderful and Gorgeous Aunt Robin took me to a Sharks game!

Ice Hockey is kinda the best sport.. just say'in

Making German food and making my Grandmother proud!

Hiking in my old neighborhood

If anyone was wondering, This is the house I grew up in! Been a few years since our family has lived here but many good memories

California beach!

My best friend is having a baby! So excited to see this new little girl!

Golden Gate Bridge!

I told you lots of Pictures... haha 

A  rare family shot... L-->R Noah, Myself, Megan, Mom (Lynn) and Dad (Jeff)

Keeping it Classy with my Sis

Last California Sunset with my Dad

Good-bye Dinner with my Family... Until Next time!

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:18