Door of Hope

These past 3 weeks have just flown by! I cannot believe February is almost over! We did move again! We are now staying at baby house 1, where we work. It is really much nicer to just wake up and go up stairs to my babies! At this house we have a pool to enjoy on our days off or just lunch time.

The babies have just taken my heart! In just 6 days, 7 new babies have came to the Door of Hope, 4 of which came to the baby house where I work. However, one ended up going to another house but we have the others, 3 boys. When the babies first come to Door of Hope they go to the isolation room just to make sure they are well and to give them extra love. So for a couple days I got to take care of a one month old and twin three month old boys. They were all picked up from the hospital. Sadly the twins had been there for 3 months and the hospital never got around to calling us to pick them up. The Door of Hope was just calling the hospital to check if they had any babies, and they did! One of the twins is healthy and got to move to the small babies room but baby U isn’t doing quite as well. He isn't sucking well and it seems he hasn't been held for three months, his whole life. So I have been able to take care of him and just show him love. It’s so sad to see him feel so uncomfortable in someone’s arms. We have seen improvements over the week but he has a long way to go. I got to kangaroo hold him (skin to skin) so that was really great to be able to give him that love that can hopefully help him become a normal little boy. When he is able to hold his food down, he and his brother will move to the Star Fish room for extra love!

The days can get really crazy at feeding time with taking care of 12+ babies (depending how many is in isolation) but it’s so worth it! We are hoping to see a few of my big babies go to their "forever family" in the next month! It’s such an exciting time right now and I'm loving every minute of it! I would have to say my favorite time of the day is when the younger babies are asleep, and we have the four older ones that are 8 and 9 months old up and we just get to cuddle with them and give them extra attention. They just have so much personality and energy! During our playtime, they normally get tired, and so do I. So we just relax on the couch together!

Thank you so much for all your prayers for the babies and me!

OM Graduation ~ Vacation in Cape Town ~ Door of Hope

Graduation was a lot of fun but saying good-bye to everyone was probably one of the hardest things! I miss my OM family so much, but its never good-bye forever and I can’t wait to see them again!

Cape Town was so much fun! There was a group of 6 of us that went and met up with other friends in Cape Town. We were staying in the heart of the city and oh my goodness, Cape Town is amazing! The whole atmosphere is different ~ it’s still "Africa" but different for sure. I really fell in love with it! The city was safe enough to take the taxis. It was really fun to be able to do that and go to the beautiful beaches! They were way too cold to really swim in, but we tried our hardest. One day we took a tour bus, we felt very touristy, but it was a great way to see the city and it was really enjoyable! We got together with everyone from the training team that was down there and climbed Table Mountain. It was an intense hike but it was so worth it! It was just beautiful up there over looking the whole city and ocean! There is nothing better than mountains and beaches. I just love it there. On Sunday night we went to Hillsong church and they were promoting a college age camp. It was the last night to sign up and we thought there would be no way we could go. We already had a beach house we were going to stay at, but the more they were telling us about it we realized, it was a better deal! A lot cheaper and they were so helpful getting us sleeping bags, free rides to the church and a weekend with God on the beach! What can be better?. So Thursday we headed out with Hillsong to summer camp! It was up higher in the mountains and on the beach, so it was just beautiful. It was only 3 days but we met some amazing friends, and it was so amazing to be just filled up with Gods love, all before we went off to our different ministries.

On the 31st, Lisa, Marianne, Rebecca (a new OM’er from Switzerland) and I arrived at Doors of Hope! We walked in and there were about 12 babies playing in the living room, and I just knew, this is where God wants me! Marianne and I are with the big babies that are about 3-10 months old. Lisa and Rebecca are with the Star Fish group - they are the babies that some said weren't adoptable for various reasons. Doors of Hope says they are adoptable children and are helping them get them to that point! Since I just started, I don't have any great stories to share yet, but I will soon. A normal day starts at 7am, getting all the babies up bathing, changing and feeding. Its the craziest part of the day for sure! After that is finished we play with them for a while and then get the younger babies down for their naps. We then play with the older ones (while taking turns for a 15 min break at this point) then get them their bottles and put them down around the same time the younger ones are waking up. Then more diaper changes and feedings and a lot of spit up. We learned to not wear nice clothes! About an hour later the babies go to bed, and we get lunch! Depending on how long they sleep we get like an hour or so break for lunch. So that’s nice! Then they wake up. There are more diapers and more feedings, then we just play with them until bed time! Its a crazy day but they are amazing kids and extremely happy! And we get a lot of days off to rest, so that’s nice!

We moved into the toddler house, that they are slowing making into a volunteer house but we still have some sweet, crazy kids around. By the end of the month it will be just us with 5 other girls. It’s so exciting to settle in a new place, and they have washing machines and a DRYER! We are excited that we get to do our own grocery shopping and cooking! I don't know how much I will get out of yogurt, granola, toast and peanut butter ~ but it will be fun challenge!