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Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Few Snippets of Things

Only 8 of 11 little busy people...6pm-7pm I feel quite smothered...but I love it!!
Squeaky Clean!
Happy Birthday to me!

So apparently the orphange got struck by lightening today...and other news!

So, it's been a while since I've written and as I just discovered some crazy news, I thought I might as well take the time to say hello and bring you up to date.
This evening I was downstairs feeding babies supper when all of a sudden there was this HUGE HUGE BANG, which surprised and scared everyone! All of us in the dining room thought it was just a big crack of thunder, but about 10 minutes ago I was informed that lightening came in through the window in Pat's room and hit the floor!! NO JOKE!!! Melinda was in the room and saw it all! CRAZY!!! We can only guess that the warming table, incubator(with might I add, a 3lb preemie in it), and the anti-jaundice lights(very techinical name!!) in front of that window attracted the lightening!! Nothing was wrecked and no-one was hurt...guess all this concrete is good for something!!! Praise the Lord that the sound was all that we knew of the incident!!

Things have been very busy here. About two weeks ago we had another preemie join us. I was able to help dub him "Evan...he's been doing quite well after a few not-so-sure-if-he-was-gonna-make-it days, and now he's eating from a teeny tiny little bottle and has normal coloured stools...I know some of you are like "ewwwhhh", but hey, we are thankful for small things here!!

We've been having some difficulites with the older children downstairs as things are changing as about 15 adoptions are coming to a close. The kids are starting to feel the changes and have reacted with some not so wonderful behaviors. We have spent some time discussing things that we can do to make things easier with the many changes coming, and I would appreciate if you would pray that these things work.

I was really happy the other day when Melinda, who speaks Creole like a Haitian, said to me that I speak really good Creole!! Hurray!!! Such an answer to prayer!! Only once in a while do I say something that sends people into peals of laughter...and that makes me wonder what terrible thing I must have said!! My friend Jojo has really been cracking down on me when I say things incorrectly grammatically...and I in turn have been helping him with refining his English. Please pray for him as he goes to hopefully pick up his Canadian visa(hopefully for real this time) and prepares to attend Bible College in Alberta.

Haven't spent much time in the schoolroom the last week or so...we've had a really wonderful adoptive family here the last week, as well as two volunteers, and things have been quite hectic at times. The schoolroom was in a state of disaster as we had cleaned out the storage room in it, and there were random, nasty, ratty, catty things all over! However, now things are clean and ready to go again. We had a meeting last week and decided to wait until October to start formal school as that's in just over a week and our other long-term people will be here by then. This also allows the children of Pat and Melinda to get settled into school before things get busy up there!
I've been doing great...finally seem to have rid myself of this little ringworm on my arm....so annoying!! Have a few too many bugbites in places I have to scratch behind closed doors...oh, I know, terrible Lori, terrible!! Nope, just honest!
Please pray that I will have patience with the kids with these behavoiur issues we are seeing, that I will be more disciplined at self-discipline, and that God would calm and reassure the kids who are leaving and the kids who are staying behind. Please pray for Melinda and as she is so busy with so many things, and for Pat as she deals with the in's and out's of life here at HCH, and pray that I can continue to be a good support to them.

Thanks for all the birthday hello's and encouragements!!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

First Days in the New Classroom/Developmental Play Area



Thanks to everyone who donated supplies and decorations...there have been a lot of wide eyes!!!

Splish Splash!




We've really been enjoying the new wading pool!!

Please pray for this little girl. Her name is Rose-Lisa and she is the daughter of one of my friends I met last year. She was born on August 9th and she has some serious deformities of her legs, likely the result of a botched home abortion. I am in the process of finding out what kind of aid we can get for her, so please pray that God would open some doors and that we could show the families of her parents the God is bigger than this situation. I'll keep you posted as I find out more.

Simulation:Putting 40 children to bed

I feel a lot more involved this year in the every day runnings of things, and am currently working on implementing a consistent bedtime routine...and it's tough getting 40 kids into bed, let me tell you! If you ever wanna try a simulation of bedtime here try this....get 15 kids under 3, 14 between 3and 5, and 7 between 5 and 12...then put all the ones under 2 in bed(after you change them of course!), all the while ensuring that everyone else has not overturned the water cooler and have not gone for an evening swim! Then, get all the little girls to the kitchen for a glass of water and attempt to have them drink the water with their mouths not their shirts, if you know what I mean! Send them all to the bathroom with one toilet and 10 potties, and pray that there is toilet paper so you don't have to leave and run for the key to get toilet paper! Once eveyone has done their duty and, get them to wash up and brush their teeth. One you have saved the toothpaste from being eaten at least 5 times, send all the little girls to bed.
Next, gather all the little boys who are by this time driving one nanny or another crazy, and get them watered, all the while keeping your eyes open for any wandering little girls!
Line the boys up and "march" to the bathroom, where once again they share 1 (Yes one) toilet...keep in mind that most of the boys are older and are not cool with using a potty! Oh, and many of them have not yet mastered the whole "aiming" thing...don't think you need more details than that! In the midst of all this there are 10 babies crying as they settle in for the night! Once everyone has used the toilet, get them all to wash up and brush their teeth(if they can find the toothbrush that someone else likely scrubbed something with earlier in the day) and shoo them down the hallways to bed. Double check to make sure you got everyone out of the playroom, and begin tucking everyone in...oh, and have I mentioned that at least 5 of them don't have a sheet on their bed and you need to go and find one and fix up their bed and get them back into it...oh and that 4 of the two year olds have decided to take an evening stroll!! After you kiss 40 little cheeks and think that things are done for then evening, you hear someone calling you and telling you that their ear hurts and that one of the babies in their room is vomiting...there is always something!!!
And just think, it was crazier than this before!! and However, they are learning the routine, and learning that they need to obey me, so in time I know that it will be much easier!

Things are going well...I had an awesome nap yesterday despite a few little knocks on my door to tell me that so-and-so had done such-and-such, and others just checking to see if I was actually sleeping...so nice of them!! ;)

We've got some kinda sickness going through the babies right now...a fever and such...a few have some heat rash...we could use your prayers that it gets through everyone and gone sooner than later!