An Early Christmas Surprise

Things are always interesting in my 'city'. We rarely have a normal week. As an example, yesterday a new little baby joined our family.

Born to a mentally ill mother, this tiny baby boy had no one to look after him. No one is sure where his mother came from but she wandered into the clinic 4 days ago in an advanced stage of labor. Everyone is so grateful that something (or Someone) led her to make her way to help. We shudder to think what might have happened if she gave birth in the bush. She was quite violent and refused to have anything to do with her baby. Since she had no apparent family the clinic personnel asked if we would take in the baby.

Since he came without any name we had to choose one, and in honor of the season, his name is now Nicholas!

Born on December 14 at 5 PM weighing seven pounds he is now 4 days old. 

I couldn't resist this shot. Crying babies are adorable, don't you think? I was interrupting his feeding in order to take pictures.

Happily drinking his milk with Nanny Petronella. He appears to have a good appetite and drinks 2 ounces every 3 hours. I fed my babies on demand but that is nearly impossible with so many little ones here. Working with a good schedule is much better for us and gives the babies more security.

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Someone told me yesterday that they would like to pray for Nicholas' mom. Her name is Catherine. 

Life is really hard for those with mental illness in this country. There are very few institutions that can look after them. I have never seen so many people with mental illness in all my life. It seems that there is a really high per capita rate of insanity but I think that is just because things that could be easily taken care of with medicine are not treated and so we see it more. Also, a lack of education and understanding of mental illness means that families, rather than love and care for their relatives that are struggling, tend to feel that it might be caused by witchcraft or demons which means they don't look after them in the way they should.

It makes you count your blessings, doesn't it? And, now we have a bundle of love and joy to celebrate Christmas with us.

P.S Remember--there's still time to enter my giveaway.

Exactly One Year Ago: My TaTas Are Tired