Baptism Sunday

My Baptism, in reverse order, as always. Photos are me and Pastor William and then Me, Victoria and Vange at the Braai afterwards.

The Cavern

Photos mostly for Mom and Dad so they can see what they got me for Christmas :-)
Victoria and I had a lovely holiday for 3 days to the Drakensberg mountain range. We stayed at the Cavern, which came highly recommended by lots of church friends. It was awesome! We were treated to fine cuisine, guided hikes and Victoria even went to the spa!

Scrapbook Pages

One Month On...

Look who's 1!
Helping Vange pack granny bags for Harvest Aid - it's nice to look outside the "CHILDREN,CHILDREN, CHILDREN" focus sometimes!
A visit with 2 of our kids who have left



I honestly can't tell you where October went. I can remember some things - going to scrapbooking with Sharon and Victoria, movie nights, lots of doctor's appointments - but not nearly enough to make up a whole month! Now it is nearly Christmas and I don't know what happened...

Well, I guess I do know what happened. I've been trying to keep my head above water with this whole "in charge of the baby house" thing, (not really in charge, obviously, but just on a day to day level) and with trying to go from a 'second-in-command' position to being a proper leader. It's been more difficult than I would have guessed. However, just the last week or so I really feel like I'm getting a handle on it.

We had a DVD at evening church 2 weeks ago for the "Experiencing God Together" series that we are doing and one of the things that was said was that God rarely equips you for your job before it is time for you to do it. That was very encouraging for me and when I'm feeling inadequate I just remind myself that if this is where I'm supposed to be, then God will give me the resources to deal with it.

The kids are all doing fantastically now. Thabo is nearly walking and his speech therapist ("but he can't talk yet", I hear you say. So I thought too, but apparently speech therapy deals with baby sounds, or lack-thereof, too!) and OT say that he is now fully reaching his milestones. He just needs to grow some teeth and eat real food now...

Vela is much better behaved now that she is one of 7 instead of one of 13 - happy and laughing most of the time, although we do have our occasional screaming fits still! Tshepo is still the most popular, going out every weekend and he is a big hit with our 2 new volunteers that come during the week. He is also doing OT now and slowly is improving. His attitude has also improved with the reduction in numbers and he is MUCH less difficult now. Still hates eating though....

The babies are all getting big. Angie has doubled in weight since we got her and is getting stronger now. You'd never think she was so tiny when she came in. Itumeleng is considering sitting, although being a potato on the floor is so much more fun. Athandile is getting better and we've finally found something to make his skin stop cracking so he's not in pain anymore. Vusi is still a cutie and is working on learning to roll over.

I'm going to see my God-Daughter tomorrow, with Sharon. She had a scare last week where she stopped breathing while she was sleeping and was found just in time (already blue!) and is ok now. But mummy isn't sleeping too well! Please pray for them.

Swine Flu

Swine flu hit the baby house last week with this little girl. She had a near 40 temp for 3 days but now we are feeling better, if going a little stir-crazy with being stuck in her cot all the time. She is in quarantine in Auntie Kate's room. I'm also feeling under the weather today, so we'll see what it turns into. The other kids think I look kind of freaky when I go out in my mask and the aunties all wear their masks when they come into my room. However, we are getting lots of rest and taking our medicine so hopefully the illness won't spread and we'll all be better by next week!

The latest developments at the house

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy here at the house. Aggie is no longer here and she, along with 5 of her foster kids, are now living at her house in Pretoria. That means that I'm now the Senior (or only!) House Mother. I'm not quite sure what all this will entail, but at the moment it means that I'm doing all of the driving and appointments for the kids. We've got 7 kids now, ranging from 3yrs to 27days old.
Look who's sitting now!
The newest addition to the house - 8 days and 2.2kgs in this photo!

My boy is 3!

I can't believe he's been with his new family for over a year now! What a big boy and he is turning out so nicely. He went to the best family I could have imagined.
Trying on his new Spiderman sunglasses
The other birthday girl - she turned 4 the day before. I'd taken her with when we went to buy the Spiderman sunglasses and she decided she needed some Barbie ones for her birthday present. Then she refused to take them off!

Staff Night out with Jessie and Michael

All the Aunties and Uncle Michael went out to Carnivores - meat, meat and more meat...
Aggie and Ursula
Sophie and Sue
Michael and Jessie... got to love pics of these two!
Me and Jester
Not sure what this was about, but it makes me laugh :-)

Jessie contemplating becoming African royalty

Boykie's 4th Birthday Party

He LOVED his awesome Spider Cake made by our volunteer Candace
Messing around and eating cake
Cutie :-)
After cake we had a dance party. This is my big girl showing off her moves. Check out the "breakdancers" in the background.
At 4 it's time to be serious apparently.
Mr. Photogenic

Parents' visit and Holly

On our horseback safari the last day my parents were here. The pics, as usual are in reverse chronological order because I never pay enough attention when I'm uploading!
Me and Mom post hair-dyeing. Mom is a very brave lady!
Mom goes African
Me and Mom at Sun City
Mom and Dad having high tea at the Lost Palace, Sun City. It was awesome! I loved pretending not to be a broke missionary and we relived some of our St. Andrews memories.
Dad at the Lost Palace in Sun City
Me being "eaten" by a crocodile at Kwena Gardens in Sun City
Mom and Dad on the night drive - with an elephant. When the driver turned the car off you could hear the elephant ripping roots out of the ground and munching on them.
Mom and impala before our night drive - at the campsite where Anna and I stayed.
This was the trip of the Rhino - we must have had about 30 sightings! I don't know why there's such a boom at the moment but we basically saw rhino around every corner, and not so much else!
My fav Zebra pic ever. From Pilanesburg
My 24th birthday - with my birthday shoes from the aunties :-)
Rhino and Lion park - Dad and a Marabou Stork
Lion and Rhino park - Mom and a baby lion.
Me and Hols at the Boma restaurant - best food in Jo'burg! It's a giant buffet with basically everything, including make your own stir-fry. Awesomeness...