Are you living your heart song?

Hello Friends

It has been 2 weeks since my last post and a lot has been going on but I don't want to make this a V~E~R~Y long post so I'm going to condense the bits I think you won't mind too much about and then spend the rest of the time telling you about my trip to Kwazulu Natal with Similo and Nadia's parents!

So in brief:
The New Farm is coming along nicely. We are busy changing accounts from the old names to the new, putting in security fences, walls etc and trying to get to grips with all the "little bits" that will need doing when we move in. In this regard I am desperately on the hunt for beds and mattresses if anyone has a contact I need 8 minimum but 15 ideally!

TLC is being hassled by nightime visitors again - wanting to carry away anything not bolted down. The Christmas season is almost upon us and this is always the case around this time of year. It is such a pest! Luckily our guards have managed to foil them so far but the interrupted sleep for us is GRRR!!! We are still having to spend more money than comes in, despite every effort to reduce this we just cannot go without certain items, security, staff or petrol and so we walk by faith.

The Nursery roof has begun to leak very badly and we are ever so grateful for the donation from TLC UK towards getting it fixed! Our 31 babies are all doing well as are our volunteers.

Mainhouse kids are all in the midst of exams - the preparation time seems to be paying off so thank you all for your prayers!

The new website continues to get a lot of visitors and we ask you all URGENTLY to sign up if you want to recieve our newsletters! The new mailing software requires each recipient to OPT-IN and I cannot send you the Newsletter unless you have signed up!

NOW TO THE GOOD STUFF!

This little bit goes to the title of this weeks post...
Every now and then God gives us an extra little gift ~ a special opportunity to do something amazing, something extraordinary and something so startlingly beautiful that you remember that your heart can sing!

Most of you will have read and maybe sensed that I had some anxiety and not a few reservations about being asked to drive Similo and Nadia's mother to her family home in Kwazulu Natal.
Most of my worry was that I had no idea where exactly I was going, what I would find when I got there or how we would be received.

So I set about making a plan :-)

First I got Alfred (our driver) to visit the parents in the hostel where they were living and enquire, very friendly like, whether or not they would be able to direct me properly if I drove them. When he came back to tell me we thought it best to get Bernard (our Groundsman) to go along when I went so that he could interpret and offer some "respectability" to the whole advernture :-)

Then I hired a car! Wohoo! I got to drive a brand new Toyota Fortuna 4x4! Heehee, THAT was an definate perk!

Then I went shopping! AND HERE GOD WAS SOOOOO GOOD! We have this rewards card at the PicknPay where we shop and it turns out I had not claimed the rewards for several months and I was able to use these to buy a PILE of groceries and toiletries for them and it didn't cost me anything! The rest of the story has pictures!!!

SO the stage was set. I roped Anne in to come along and share the experience, we fetched the folks, packed the car and set off to the general area of "Van Reenen".

Through the Natal Drakensburg

We got to Van Reenen in just a few hours and I was driving merrily along when Veronica (the mom) started gesturing wildly for us to take a little service road just of the  well known Van Reenen Pass, 1690m above sea level!

So I took a breath, thinking this was where the 4x4 was going to come in handy, only to find that in the 6 years since she was last home the road had been beautifully graded and maintained and it was a smooth trip along an incredible view to the place she calls H~O~M~E!.

The view from Van Reenen's pass service road!

The whole world seemed at peace up here and Veronica could not keep her face from smiling the broadest smile ever! We drove a little way listening to her breathing catch ever so slightly and then she pointed right and indicated for us to stop.

This is what we found


Her Aunty Kethiwe, looking confusedly up the hill at this huge white car with it's multi coloured occupants. It only took a few seconds and then she started waving fiercely and weeping as she was overcome with the realisation of who had just arrived!

A sweet sweet rejoicing as aunty and niece were reunited.

We were welcomed in and seated as guests of honour. A mystery was solved for us in a few minutes as one thing we at TLC had always wondered about was Veronica's ability to use certain commonly accepted aspects of Sign Language. We thought perhaps after her stroke someone had taught her a little but then we met her Cousin Nathi ~ he is the same age as Veronica and they grew up together and he is mute. He attended the Catholic School for the Deaf in Ladismith and learned Sign Language there. Growing up he had communicated with Veronica in Sign and so it was natural for her to try communicate this way when she lost her speech.

I will not lie it was a bizarre experience for me to be surrounded by excitedly spoken Zulu and not understand a word and yet be able to communicate fluently to this young Zulu man who could barely make himself understood to the family around him. It was a strange strange experience and he was SO unbelievebly thrilled, he chatted and chatted about his life in the hills with the animals and his fear of snakes and ... and... and ... ~ I had to laugh at God's sense of humour really.

After the initial shock and excitement settled into general contentment we unloaded the car of it's gifts and this unleashed a whole new buzz of excitement and we were instructed to wait while Kethiwe called the neighbours to come and see this "miracle".

Turns out calling the neighbours only takes about 40min!

They live across the valley!

After a time, they joined us and we were invited to share tea with the headman ~ a great honour. They filled plates with the gifts I had meant for them and Bernard acted as our interpreter as we shared their joy and some sorrow as they filled Veronica in on all the news of the village and of the death of her Grandmother, Mother and another Aunt. All of strokes similar to the one she suffered during her last labour.

After a few hours we really had to leave and so we took a final photograph, neighbours and all and then we left them behind, waving us off with Blessings in the air.

On our journey home, we just knew that God was happy.

Look at the silver lining he presented us with as a parting gift!



I have had a lot of blessings in my life but I can tell you that THIS ONE left me feeling the same way I imagine I would feel had I got to hold God's hand for a day.

It truly made my heart sing!

God Bless You All
Pippa