Welcome to 2010!

Welcome to 2010! Its been a great year so far, and we look forward to seeing what God has in store for us!

Our truck has been getting ALOT of use- this week it got to deliver Orphan Food- something it will be doing a lot of.  A new vehicle is allways something exciting.. and aparently the neighborhood kids cant help but touch it- as evidenced by the lovely handprint! (mango juice makes hands very sticky!)

Carey helped out by driving on Orphan Food day, here he is helping one of our Mercy Ministry Recipients carry the maize back to his home. I dont think it was actually THAT heavy, but i needed a good picture. LOL.

One of our Grannies has moved out of her house temporarily (she was told it was cursed) so we need to do a bit of talking and  a lot of praying! Belief in ancestral curses, luck, spirits and witchcraft are very prevalent here- even amongst those who profess Christianity. This little boy literally RAN down the highway in front of our truck to show us where she is staying now.  I couldnt believe how fast he was running!

Welcome to our new project- our house! This year our main project will be to build our home! (and probably most of next year as well!) The cottage we are currently in is intended for short term use, and only has one bedroom. With us having Tendai now, and hoping to be able to adopt more children in the future, we definetly need to build a bigger house! In the picture above, Rick and Tendai are walking where the workers have already cleared some of the land, where the garage/storage building will be.

Here is what the whole area looked like to begin with.

Here is what it looked like once the workers had begun clearing! Amazing things were discovered- like we have a whole section of flat rocks right on the edge of what will be our verandah.. a very nice natural extension!

We also discovered the septic tank that had been dug and built by a former mission staffer who had started to build on this site many years ago, and then decided not to continue.

....and the french drain he dug as well. (rick understands how this all works.. its all greek to me)

Tendai is beggining to walk every once and a while.. a few steps here or there, she also discovered how to throw herself this way and that and crash into hard things.. like rocks. Here she is sucking on some ice to nurse that swollen lip!

On New Years Day, Lynn, Keren and I (and Tendai) had a ladies "spa" day. We soaked our feet, applied nice smelling lotions and painted our nails.. it was lots of fun. Tendai even got to have her nails painted! Rick even made us healthy spa style frozen fruit only smoothies.. sooo nice.

More ice licking.. she sure loved that ice!

Below she is playing in our driveway's dirt- we dont have a sandbox, so this is as close as it gets.

After a hard day of playing... falling asleep in her play area with her stuffed puppy!

Sooooo. Yesterday morning Lovemore (while washing the dishes, after him being here for almost half an hour) turns to me and says... Senhora, what would you like me to do with that dead animal in magnums water bucket? I was like.. uhhh what???!!!!!!  So he shows me...

A rat had fallen in and drowned.. i had to wonder.. what did he think I wanted him to do with it???!!! keep it as a souvenir??? Anyhew.. he threw it in the bush, washed out the water bowl and gave magnum new water. Welcome to life in Africa! :)

This past week has been very busy for us- Dwight and Lynn headed down to south africa to get some important errands done, and Francois and Alta are still down there with family members- so its just us. Then we heard that the government has decided to open all the school two weeks earlier than normal- meaning we had to rush to organize all our registrations, school fees, housing for sponsored students.. and the list goes on and on!  

Please continue to pray for us- lately there has been a nasty flu going around the farm, as well as several cases of malaria, some quite severe. We are also still waiting for Tendais paperwork to be approved by the judge, allowing us to travel to South Africa with her at the end of this month. We need it to be approved soon so we still have time to get her passport before our trip. This trip down south will be very exciting for us- Rick's parents are coming to visit for three weeks and we will be picking them up from the airport in Nelspruit! We are sooo excited!

God Bless, Rick, Heather & Tendai