Friday, March 29, 2013

Dennis and Maria!

Meet the 2 newest members of the GSF family, Dennis {age 3} and Maria {age 1 and 4 months}.

Please keep both of these little ones in your prayers as they adjust to life at GSF.  Please be especially praying for Maria as she only weighs 13 pounds and is very congested and is always sad.  She was taken to the clinic today to try to get her more comfortable and find out what is going on.  Please keep her in your prayers!
Update: Maria has severe TB.  Please keep her in your prayers!

Friday, March 8, 2013

God's timing

Today, 'blogging' for me means copying my mom's post and adding pictures.  She told me I could use it and I couldn't have written it much better.  Although, if you know me - you know how much I love pictures so I had to add pictures.
I wrote last Thursday in this blog regarding two new little boys, Charles and Inno. 
"Our hope and aim for these two boys are to nurse them back to health, help the family and return the boys to those in the village who love them."
Charles and his mom the other day.
Little did I know that the boys' mother would show up the very next day! She had left the family for a couple of months for personal reasons. We were skeptical at first but began counseling with her and her husband, invited her to come and spend time with the boys and invited the family to come to the local church. By Tuesday, it was obvious to all of us that it was better for all involved that the boys return home. The whole family came to church on Sunday, the mother spent a lot of time with the boys at GSF most days, and the boys and mom were distraught every time they had to leave one another. 
The boys' mom with Inno {right} and two of the other babies, Teddy and Godfrey.
So today, after the parents signed several agreements regarding the care of their boys, the family left GSF together. We believe this may be a record of the shortest time a child has been at GSF before returning to their home. We are helping with the education of the 5 older children, helping their father restart his garden (as he had lost much during a recent hospital stay), putting the two boys on our feeding program and facilitating counseling. 
Inno with his mom at the feeding program yesterday.
Please pray with us for this family that they will grow in their understanding of God, and that their lives will bring glory to Him.

Monday, March 4, 2013

The newest kids

{Sometimes I am so un-creative with titles.  Today is one of those days.}
Little Ivan came to GSF about 2 weeks ago.  He has spinal TB and has to take medicine for a few months to make sure the TB does not spread.
You can sort of see the bump in this one
He is 2 years old, but when he came he could not walk and was barely talking.  He has only been at GSF for 2 weeks and he is already taking some steps and beginning to talk more.  He is going to flourish living at GSF even if he is only here for a few months.
Trying to walk! :)
His first day at GSF
He's trying so hard to walk by himself!
Our newest additions to the family are Charles and his little brother Innocent {Inno}.  Charlie is 3 and Inno is 1.  They had a very rough first few days and are still adjusting to life away from the rest of their family.  Another struggle for them is that Charlie is in the toddler house, but Inno is in the baby house.  There have been a lot of tears shed as they leave each others houses or just as they are missing each other. Please pray for them as they continue adjusting to life at GSF!
While I was gone in America 9 new kids came to GSF.  They are not really new anymore, but they are too cure to not put their pictures here. :)
Richard
Sadie
Joshua
Brothers {more pictures of them below}.

Abraham 
Elijah
Big brother Festo
Little brother Joseph
Baby brother Godfrey
Isma
I know this post is about the new kids, but I have a prayer request to add here.  Our pastor's {more commonly known as 'Uncle Sam'} mother-in-law is very sick right now.  Some of you may know her as 'Judith's mom'.  This is not the first time she has gotten so sick.  We have watched God do BIG miracles for this lady before.  We would love to see them happen again, but we know that God's will isn't always for big miracles to happen.  Please join us in prayer for this lady {I don't know her name}.  Thank you so much!