Whit in South Africa: April 2016

Our Favourite game to play called "who's the donkey"

Hey Family all over the World,

Happy Easter!

Sorry for the late blog.. the only excuse I have is pure laziness. I have sat with 2 sentences on my page for 3 days now..

We have a dutch invasion! We have 4 girls from the Netherlands that are with us for 12 weeks. They are working on their final thesis for the bachelor degree in Social Work from Viaa Hogeschool. We have 2 new friends, Debby and Inge and 2 old friends, Maaike and Sarah who are apart of Refilwe Netherlands (refilwe.nl). Refilwe NL raises awareness and money in Holland for us, here in SA. The Website is all in Dutch but Google Translate is really helpful lol. Refilwe Sa website is also a great place to look up too refilwe.org

We have 2 more volunteers from the states coming for a shorter amount of time to volunteer their talents and gifts. Kaylin is from Colorado and she is using her admin skills in the main office. She is here till May 2. Vanessa, from California, was only here for 3 short weeks using her passion at the clinic learning about health care here in Lanseria.

Stephannie and I

Surprise!!!!

We has a local adoption! Our Smallest, Little Lady A went to her new Afrikaans Mommy and Adopted Brother. This is our youngest adoption in the house to date, at 4 months old. The placement was so easy since their was no “stranger danger” or too many questions since she is so little.

****To be honest, I didn't think any of our kids could be adopted younger than 6 months. I now know, that whether a birth mom consents the week her baby is born, or a baby is completely abandoned, legally, a placement can happen as young as 4 months. Hopefully we could have more quick local adoptions like this one in the future.

In the arms of her Forever mommy and borther

No word yet on Toddler L’s adoption. Please keep praying! There is still about a week left of hope that she could be with her family by her 2nd Birthday on 27th April.

My church here in SA, City Life Church, held their annual Easter Outreach in our Local Community. The Saturday before Easter, CLC puts together a large Easter Egg Hunt with bouncy houses, face
painting, cookie decorating and more in the local park. We invite everyone in the community to bring their kids and it is a great way to practically share Jesus and Invite people to church. It is a free event, but, Nicole and I have tables at both entrances to talk about the baby house, people can donate and ask questions too. Also, all proceeds from food and drinks sold, directly benefit El Roi. The Event Raised about R20,000 ($1,300) and more an 3,300 people came! We are so grateful for a church that loves our babies and is so supportive of us.

I cut my hair off! Decided I needed a change and I had been talking about it for at least 18 months and I took the jump! I think its okay.. I really miss my long hair but Im hoping to give it some more time and try to keep it till December for when I got back to California for Christmas. I guess I will have to see if I last that long.. lol. My hair irritation level is a little high at the moment.

My Mentor, Kate, and I have been reading and discussing the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan. We are about half way through and I have really enjoyed it. The book is about the Holy Sprit and ways in our Christian faith we can neglect or misunderstand the role of the Holy Spirit. Honestly, it has challenged me in more than one way about the Holy Spirit but in my Faith in General. I want to share of short portion from chapter 4 called “Why do you Want Him”

    “Recently, a man dying of cancer asked the church elders to anoint him with oil and pray for his healing. Before we prayed, however, I asked the man a question I don't normally ask: “Who do you want to be healed? Why do you want to stay on this earth?” The man, as well as everyone else around, seemed a bit surprised the I would ask such a blunt question.
    The reason I probed like this is because in the epistle of James we are reminded the we often don’t receive the answers to our prayers, because we ask for the wrong reasons: “You ask and do not receive. because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3) Our desire to live should be for the sake and glory of the God who put us on this earth in the first place." (pg 84)

Wow, I was so challenged by this. I had been doing my fair share of complaining before i read this. “God, why is this not happening? God, why wont you give me a direct answer about these situations before me? God, what will the next few years look like? I very quickly has to meditate on my motives behind my questions and desires. Were any of these to praise God? If God gave me any of these questions would I turn around and say “Its all about Jesus”?

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31