Welcome to the Family

Yesterday, one more child was added to the GSF family. Meet Betty.

Betty is six years old and is an adorable, joyful little girl. We almost made her middle name Tomorrow. For about a month and a half she has been coming 'tomorrow'. Finally, tomorrow came.

This is a song that we sing at GSF:

Welcome to the Family

Welcome to the family

We are glad that you have come

To share your love with us,

As we grow in love.

May we always be to you

What God will have us be,

A family always standing,

To be strong and to belong.

May we learn to love each other

More and more each day

May words of love be on our lips

In everything we say,

May the Spirit mend our hearts

And teach us how to pray

That we might be a true family.

Welcome to the family, Betty, may you grow in joy, love, and happiness at GSF.

Mercy Ministry - twins

About a month ago a Jaja (grandmother) brought her twin grandchildren to GSF. The twins are 18 months old and were very malnourished. They have a sister who is 5 and a brother who is 3. The twins and their Jaja were taken to a hospital to see what was wrong besides malnutrition. They did not find anything wrong and the twins were sent home. The probation officer along with GSF’s social worker went to their house to investigate. It was decided that the GSF youth age 12 and up would go to the village to help the Jaja cleanup around her house. In all there were 25 people (19 youth and 6 adults) who went to help that day. It seems like a lot of people just to cleanup a house but, there was no shortage of work. Everyone jumped in and did things such as, wash a lot of clothes and the few dishes they had; bathe, dress, and play with the kids; dig around the house; patch holes in the walls; take everything out of the house to sweep mop and re-organize; and sorting rice. The pictures above are from the day their Jaja brought them to the clinic. The ones below are from when we went to their village.

Rebecca with one of the twinsJoel patching holes
Esther and Junior
Aidah sweeping

The four kids after they were bathed and put in new, clean clothes :)

In Uganda all twins are named: Babirye - oldest girl; Nakato - youngest girl; Waiswa -oldest boy; and Kato - youngest boy. These twins are Babirye and Kato ... the girl above is an oldest twin so also a Babirye. I love this picture of the two 'Babiryes'.

Alana with Kato

Little Kato was sick yesterday so they came back to the clinic - he has Malaria. These two pictures were taken yesterday.

Happy girl! :)

Other posts about the twins:
http://gwartney.blogspot.com/2011/09/wordless-wednesday-twins-in-village-and.html
http://gwartney.blogspot.com/2011/09/kids-give-back-story-behind-pictures-on.html - these are from my mom's blog
http://katieinuganda-blog.blogspot.com/2011/09/proverbs-3v5.html - from Nurse Katie's blog
HerrH

Just Pictures

Zai and Annet

Nicholas helping his little brother, Frank put his shoes on.

Love these two boys!
Micah

Favour

Joan, Solomon, and JessicaSome school girls

Special :)

So, Auntie Claudia asked me to make a video for her to show Churches while she was in America. I put pictures of the Special Needs Kids in it but she wanted one of all of them together. Well, I knew that was going to be a challenge so I put it off for a while. Then, I finally just did it. And ... it wasn't too bad. Tom wanted to walk around and wouldn't stay still but everyone else did pretty well. Here are two of my favorites (The little boy screaming in the second one is Tom; he is not in the first one).

Here are some other pictures of them that I really like. :)

Moses

Kathy & Lily

Tiny Rose

Matthew & Tom

Caleb

Elijah & Sam

Another update on Sebastian

I wasn't going to update about sweet little Sebas (that's what the Ugandans call Sebastian) until later on. But, plans changed (isn't that surprising?!) and I wanted to tell you about the change of plans. When Nurse Katie went to pick him up she found out that the surgery had been done ... well, half of it. She was told that he bled and it was bigger then they had expected so they only did half. He will have to go back to get the other half done on October 25. Well, that is all for now I just wanted to do a short blog so you would know what is up with Seb.

Mercy and her Maker

Mercy when she first came to GSF

Mercy is two years old. She has only lived at GSF for around two months. Since she came, she never really smiled. Over the last week she has been giving 'almost smiles'. On Sunday, as I was standing on the stage singing 'He knows my name' with the choir I was watching the people in the audience as usual. I saw Catherine whispering in Mercy's ear and it became obvious that she was whispering the words to the song. I continued to watch them and then, I saw Mercy smile. And it was very obvious. It was beautiful. I don't know if she was smiling about the words of the song or if something else made her smile. But, I like to think that the words to the song comforted her.

I have a Maker

He formed my heart
Before even time began
My life was in his handsMercy with her Auntie now.
Eseza, one of the girls in her Mercy's house, helping her sit up.

Mercy now has so many people who love her and care for her. We hope that some day she will be a happy little girl who can talk, and walk. With all the love and help she has, she surely could. It is so obvious that Mercy's life was in God's hands even though we have just found out that she cannot see. The other day she got hurt and about 10 little girls were crowded around her, so concerned for her.