Pippa's Passions: 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 :-)