At Last ... It is LIVE

Hello Friends!!!

Great news so a very short post for now ...
The ALL NEW, beautiful and long awaited TLC website is now up!

CLICK HERE TO GO THERE

Please take some time to help us by proof reading and looking for bits that aren't quite up to scratch :-) We appreciate your feedback and hope you are as impressed as we are with the fabulous work, Lauren Lopes has done for us ~ thank you to RICOH for all the support with this project too!

Feel free to email us your thoughts and comments and then ...
SPREAD THE WORD and let's get new people clicking into it ... just another way we are trying to keep heads in beds over here :-)

Oh, and if you are an adoptive family or a volunteer and would like to have your profile reflected feel free to send us a good picture and a write up that we can use, we'd be happy to add more profiles :-)

We Love You All
Pippa

Birthday, Blessings, Blimey and Bliss

Hello Friends,

Well it seems God is on a mission to remind me just how much He cares for us here at TLC and how much He approves of the direction we are doing with the farm.

But first things first!!! A BIG HUG AND THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to mom's birthday!

She was away for 5 days with Joanna to the Kruger National Park and so we took advantage of the time to do a mini-makeover on her bedroom and bathroom.

We were able to get rid of that disgusting mattress and replace it with a fabulous, new, firm one.







We had enough contributions to get new linen and a few spoily goodies for her too. I also managed to get a narrow shelf for her bathroom which means the things in buckets next to the bath could be packed neatly :-)

Then the Blessings!

We had a lovely visit by some friends on Saturday, they brought with them new linen for each of the mainhouse kids and a set for mom's new bed! They also were able to take a walk with me around the new farm and were very interested in the plans we are putting in place to bring the farm to a place where TLC doesn't have to worry about food everyday. We discussed the bits and pieces and I was able to show how essential it is to have Securing the premises be our first big project becuase without good security any further investment is likely to be plundered.

These wonderful and generous friends have agreed to finance the building of the perimeter wall!
The comfort this has brought me is indescribable.
The devil knows my weak points and the idea of moving into a place where my children may be in danger has had me sleepless for weeks.

 I have been struggling with anxiety for such a long time now and every week we here of a family, neighbour or local resident who has been attacked and murdered on near by properties. Just last Monday a family we know from church and who lives next door to the kids school was tortured and murdered out if spite. The young son of that family was in the same chatechism class as our boys, Carlton, Brett and Erin and it is a heck of a job to explain to the kids why these things happen!

SO it is truly a HUGE blessing to know that our perimeter will be secured and my little family will be safe! Thank you my friends.

There are other blessings too :-) We have 2 babies being adopted this week, we have had a big donation of dry goods, mielie meal and other bits and pieces which have kept the hunger at bay - thank you to St John's Preparatory, Rialto, Libstar and all our friends!

Now the "Blimey" part!!
SO for all my non-english speaking freinds :-) "Blimey" is from the British part of my heritage and it means "Yikes" or "Oh my!"
This part is because last Thursday I managed to get the foster care for Similo and Nadia finalised. And at the same time the Child Commissioner has asked me to transport the biological mother (who became disabled after a stroke) back to her rural village in Kwa-Zulu Natal. I am delighted to do this for her ofcourse as I know the life she leads now is a very, very hard one, it just surprised me that the comissioner sincerely cared enough for this mother to try and make a plan for her. So now I need to hire a 4x4 because otherwise we would have to park at the police station in the nearest town and cross the mountains on foot for 10 to 20km! Doing that with a lady who has compromised balance may take a great deal longer than would be safe.

I would like to make an appeal to those of you who can assist, I would like to buy some food, a plastic washing bowl and some blankets etc to help settle her in there best. She will be living with her grandmother and I do not want to make the burden bigger than it already will be.

Finally, the "Bliss" part :-)

For the most part we always feel that we are failing in someway, that we are not succeeding in achieving all our goals. And then ... we get a little boost that transports us to a place of bliss.

This week our Blissful moment came when Joshua was elected to be a school leader in 2012. It is a tremendous achievement and he has worked so hard to be recognised in this way. We are so proud and thrilled for him and with him!

Here are 2 pictures, one of him helping feed the animals with Amy and one of him at the beach where he went on holiday recently with some amazing friends :-)

 

I'm afraid that is all I have time for at the moment.

We Love you all

Pippa

Let's play catch up ... and read the important bit at the end!

Hello Friends!

Firstly, my sincere and grateful thanks for all the uplifting and heartfelt messages you all sent while I was feeling down. It is humbling and touching to know how many people have a genuine affection for all of us here at TLC!

I thought it may be useful to make a little photo blog this time around. The pictures will help you get a clear picture of what I am talking about I think :-)

First ... the people I love ... or some of them anyway!
This is what makes life worthwhile. No matter how hard a day is or what chaos, crisis or catastrophe looms, these people bouy my spirits, lighten the burden and thrill me to my toes :-)

A Mighty Funny Boy found this wig and pair of glasses and made everybody laugh :-)

Fun with face paints!

Proudly South African

Gogo and her grand daughter ~ makes my heart sing!

My Ruthie~licious!

My Super Strongman Jerome had a sports day at school where he insists he left everyone in the dust!

A Gang of Girls, Joy, Joy, Joy!

The other thing making me happy ...

A Few more visits to the New Farm

The neighbour is willing to sell all his implements to us at a very reasonable price. This means we can make excellent use of all the farm has to offer right from the start. We begin tomorrow buy ploughing the land to plant the grass seed for the animal fodder we will need come next winter ~ he is teaching us how.

There is so much to learn and every visit is a thrill. This area is like a compound within the compound where the livestock are housed at night for safe keeping. At present he has meat rabbits, chickens and cattle.

The reservoir is deep ... like 10 feet deep! and full of fish that come to the surface to nibble :-) Some of my boys think that is very "fishy" indeed, whilst Similo tells me he saw on TV that "you can get young if you let them eat your skin!"  EEEWWW!

This is one of my favourite parts ... the place my imagination goes wild with visions of my children playing under mist sprayers and my sipping iced tea on the porch watching them :-) The front garden has 2 water features, beautiful landscaping and plenty of relaxing atmosphere ... I am in the market for a porch swing if anyone has one lying around ... hee hee!

The refurbished Massey Furguson will cost R38 000 but we believe it to be an excellent investment as it costs about 4 times as much for a new one and other used versions are not to be found in such condition. We learn to drive it tomorrow!

This herd of cattle has been resident in various generations for 16 years on the farm. There are 4 cows in milk which should give 20Litres a day, just perfect to start with :-)

 The Track between TLC's Southern boundary and the New Farm. Isn't it beautiful!

And then two final things before I say good night:

The TLC Pool has a new fence! Those that have visited even recently will hardly recognise the pool area anymore. The previously uneven and ugly cement "patio" has been replaced by a single level tiled patio and a pool fence. Our children are doubly safe and we now comply with the health and safety needed for this area! Hooray and Thank you to the Kirsty Watts Foundation for this tremendous help to TLC!

AND LAST BUT MOST IMPORTANT!

  
It's Mom's birthday on Saturday!
We have put money together to buy her a new matress for her bed (the pictures here shows her nearly 10 year old squished and pee'd on current one that every Jarvis and many others have slept on!) and would like to offer those who are interested the chance to join in so that hopefully we can get some new linen and odds and ends that I know she would like. If you do make a donation please put it in TLC's account and remember to MARK IT as THEA'S BIRTHDAY! Thanks!

We Love You All!

Pippa