New Pictures! And Day 10

Savannah-Hope's Village


Savannah's birth father is on the far left and then her uncle. The uncle is holding Tamandani. I am holding Sidala and Thandie is holding Savannah. Standing in front of Thandie is the brother Jameson. The maternal grandmother is standing next to Thandie.

Here is the same picture but zoomed in so you can see the three girls better. The twins will be three years old the first week of April. They are so tiny. Sidala is much heavier than Tamandani, but its mostly because she is so swollen from worms.


These are children from Savannah-Hope's village.


Miriam, Margret and Peace. Miriam is an orphan from Good Samaritan. She is from the same village as Savannah-Hope and is a distant cousin. Margret is not an orphan but has come to live with Thandie so she can receive some schooling and training. Peace is Thandie's 7 year old daughter. This picture was taken in town at the ShopRite. This is the only shopping center in Malawi. It is pretty nice. You mostly see foreign visitors shopping here as most Malawians can't afford to buy anything from these stores.


Heather is a staff kid. She is one of the only girls. She is adorable!


Here are the staff babies. This picture was taken on Easter. Savannah-Hope is the only girl. Next to her is James Douglas (Heather's brother), Samuel (Henry's son) and Heath. Heath wears mostly girl clothes because Good Samaritan doesn't have any boy clothes in his size. He is only 7 months old but a big chunky guy.

Day 10:

• I am feeling so much better today! Thank you so much for your encouraging words and especially for your prayers. I felt them. I have complete peace in God's plan. I just have moments of heartache for my family that sneaks in here and there. I understand this is a process and am so grateful for the opportunity to experience my daughter's culture. God has been so good to me!
• There are 5 very ill children at Good Samaritan. There are three children at Good Samaritan with AIDS, and all three of them are suffering extremely high fevers. Please pray for Ida, Rufina, Simion, John and Josofina.
• Today we went to the town and found a wifi connection so that I could send some more pictures for the blog. And I was able to send a few....woohoo!
• We will be traveling to Lilongwe for the Visa process on Monday morning.
• PRAYER REQUEST: We must get Savannah-Hope's birth certificate tomorrow, or we will not be able to come home as scheduled. Please, please pray that we can get her birth certificate tomorrow.

Thoughts about my husband:

I am madly in love with my husband. My heart and body ache for this man. I thank God for him everyday. But I have never gotten on my knees before God thanking him for Shane the way I have done the last few days. In Malawi the men and women don't interact in public. Even the married couples. They don't walk together, sit together, talk to each other, touch each other....no contact. In church the women sit on one side and the men sit on the other side. I was feeling guilty keeping Lloyd, my driver so busy and away from his family. Then I noticed that even when he was home at Good Samaritan and could spend time with his wife and family, he didn't. None of the men do. The men fellowship together and the women do the household chores. Because of the lack of water and electricity these women work not stop from sun up to sun down preparing meals and washing clothes. They literally beat their clothes on a rock using water that they carried on their head in a bucket that they pumped from a well. You never see the father's helping the wives. You don't see the father's holding their children. You won't see a father carrying heavy objects for the wife.

I asked a few questions about the culture and found out that affection between the husband and a wife only happens inside the home and only if it is initiated by the husband. My heart aches for these women. I can't imagine not holding Shane's hand. I can't imagine longing for his affection and desiring it but just being silent. I thank God for showing me this. I have always known that I was extremely blessed in the husband department, but seeing it even more clearly now. Shane is such an active part of our family and hands on father. Even when I am not in Africa, Shane participates in the daily care of our kids and running of our household. He cooks many of the meals, does most of the shopping, helps with the laundry, cleaning, homeschooling, the list just goes on an on from there. Shane would never stand by and watch me struggle to carry something without jumping up to help. And most of the time he has already carried it in before I tried to do it myself. I am so blessed! Shane took three weeks off from work to care for our children, so that I come to Malawi to bring our baby home. He is doing a tremendous job. I have such peace with his ability to run the home while I am gone because he runs the home with me when I am there. We are a team. Neither one of us have gotten much sleep since I have been gone. We aren't used to sleeping apart. Even the kids have noticed. Izabella told a lady in the shopping center that her daddy can't sleep at night because he is all alone. I love this man more than I can say. I love how he sees....really sees our children. He told me yesterday that the kids haven't expressed verbally that they miss me, but he can see it in them. The boys have been approaching him for hugs and kisses more than usual. Amelia continually counts the days on the calendar and crosses them off one by one. Izabella insists on being in my spot where I normally sit at home. I love how he recognizes these things in them. Shane is such a tremendous gift from God. I can't wait to place our new daughter in his arms.