Hello again my friends

Hello Friends

As I'm sure most of you have realised, things have been ...
Actually I'm not sure there is a good word for how things have been!
basically ... the universe continues to spin, faster than we would like most of the time.

In the time since I last wrote here are some of the things that have happened:

After many years of searching we have found a Forever Family for our two little sibling boys (Age 2 and 5) who have been with us for most of their lives! We are so delighted, it is such a blessing and a gift. We have implemented a specially designed plan to help them bond and attach with their new daddy and all systems are a go to have them placed by mid-September :-)

Oh Happy Day!

Most of our time though has been spent helping keep the Nursery running smoothly. Our current volunteers are doing an extraordinary job keeping things together. They are amazing and I am so grateful to them! 
I am supposed to cover 2 hours between 7 and 9pm but most nights I find my own little brood full of needs and demands and I feel so bad when I can't do both things, but the volunteers have risen up and everyone who can, works an extra 2 hours to help cover that time so I can be with my family. I have no words to properly thank them for such extraordinary perserverence!

Our new policy of not filling all the beds is really taking an emotional toll though. Going into the nest where half the cots are empty is so miserable, it feels like death has come.
We continue to hope and pray for some answer to our struggles but everyday we are faced with more devastating news. We just found out that a long established, excellent, well supported and pretty famous children's home near us is closing down in December. They have already closed their baby section and that room is now storing their office furniture and odds and ends.
God save us from such a day!

It wouldn't be so bad if there was no need for them, BUT THERE IS A NEED! A terrible, overwhelming, urgent need for safe places for these babies to go, but more and more places are closing down and where does that leave the babies? AAARRGGHHHH! I feel so stressed with the desire to do more but the resources to do less and less!

As always I have to tell myself ... just do what you can with what you have!!!

And so let me change focus onto the good things :-)

Here are a few pictures of my Beloveds! 

Mighty, Jerome and Christian had to have their regular blood tests yesterday to make sure all is well and we don't need to change their treatment or anything. They were so brave and so I took a picture of them and promised I would tell everyone how amazing they were ... so here you go ...

My Brave Boys!

Here are 3 of my darlings cuddling on my bed :-) I am so blessed that for the most part they all get along really well!

Cushy cuddles

And finally, here are 3 of my boys creating a battle between the animals and the cars! Not too much space in the trailer house but they make it work :-)

Between the laundry, couch and mom's bed we WILL find a place to play!

Finally, I would like to reitterate my very grateful thanks to the young Event Students at Damelin for organising, coordinating and managing the excellent fundraising event at the Barnyard theatre for TLC.

They managed to raise R10 500 from the evening and we are so grateful!

Here is a photo of the 3 volunteers who won the lucky draw to attend it!

Hannah, Birgit and Doris having a chance to do something different :-)

I will do my level best to write again soon and update you on the other things going on here :-) We are working frenetically to fulfill the new government requirements for the new registration so that hopefully we can access some funding through them, but it involves a great deal of work and the development of many new policies, procedures and registers that take a whole lot of hours to devise.

We love you all

Pippa