This week...

Melinda and Minnie left for the states for about 3 weeks.

I went to the hospital to pick up a baby, and ended up watching a c-section!

There was a mouse in our room...very eventful time trying to get it out!

Janae(c-section baby) joined our ever-growing family. Her mom had come to us before she was born and for a number of reasons wanted/needed to give her baby up.

Just two hours or so after our nurse(Melinda) left to catch her plane, I went to the hopital to pick up another baby. This one was a premature (28 weeks) baby, so very tiny and so very cold. This little boy was the tiniest baby to ever come to HCH. The wonderful pediatrician here, Dr. Touissaint, needed the use of our warming table and incubators for this little one.

For the first time in my life I performed CPR... on that same tiny little baby! I never would have thought that those CPR classes would be put to use on someone so tiny. Pat and I brought him back twice, but then the third time God decided to take him home. That was really hard. It gave me an even deeper appreciation for Pat and Melinda, who do this all the time, putting their all into a child and sometimes losing them. It's way harder when you've been hands on. However, seeing how that little baby struggled so much in his short life, there was also some comfort knowing that he is with the best Healer of all.

Levi stood up without holding on to anything!

Lineda 2nd front tooth came in the rest of the way! Finally!

I started teaching school while Minnie is gone. I don't know how she does it! I've learned that I can teach just fine, but how she keeps all those kids going in their books with all of them being at such different stages I DO NOT KNOW!! As well, there was a lot of "testing the waters" going on. I am not regularly in the classroom, and so many of the kids were trying to find out if I was the same Lori in the classroom as I am downstairs! Some of them didn't like it too much when they realized that I could(and did) put them on time-out even in school! However they did quite well, and they are all still alive (jokes) and I was very thankful for Hannah(one of our great volunteers) and all her help!!

I've acquired a nasty cough/sore throat/plugged ears..very annoying!

There has been much laughter over how the toddlers have all started to say "brush your teeth". Not "brush my teeth" but a perfect copy of how we say "brush your teeth" when we call them to do so.

In my preschool class I've been working on the kids' English vocabulary. One day I held up a picture of a bed and asked them what it was. Gerald responded "go to bed"!!!!! Then they all looked at me in sheer beweilderment as I collapsed into laughter!

I continue to be so blessed by being here. There are times when it's hard(especially cuz I am a wimp when I'm sick cuz I rarely get sick...except for this time it seems!) and I wonder what I am doing here. I never thought potty-training would be such a learning curve...and not just for the kids! I've finally re-adjusted to the weather, and thankfully November is slowly but surely bringing its gift of cooler weather! There was one day when one of the kids said "you bath again?" because my hair was soaking wet with sweat! Sick, I know!
Yet, despite the sweat and feeling like I look like crud almost everyday, and the very difficult days, and all the everday issues, there is so, so, so much joy in being here and knowing I am doing what God has called me to do.

I have called you and you are mine
-The Lord