Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree

Last Monday we decorated the tree in the dining room. This is a new addition to our holiday decor. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. The kids weren't exactly holding still much during this activity. 

Queenie helping to straighten the branches

 We bought an artificial tree from Lusaka--only way to go out here--and a few simple decorations to get it started. We're sure to have plenty of kid-made treasures to fill it up as the years go by.

Elias stretching up to wrap the lights around

Timmy and Christina helped the kids set up the tree and then Timmy supervised the decorating.

Nathan helps tidy the tinsel

He did a really good job of corralling 16 preschoolers and making them all feel a part of the experience.

Beauty and Theresa working together

Janet adding the silver beads

After a child or two  had a turn at stringing a garland 'round the tree, or adding a bobble or bell, Timmy would call for a round of applause.

Even little bitty Lizzie got to add something to the tree.

Putting the star atop the tree was the grand finale. Queenie was chosen for the honor and loved being hoisted all the way up in the air.

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Less than one week 'till Christmas. If you are as behind as I am, take a moment from the hustle and bustle to look on the lighter side of life on my side of the world:

Exactly One Year Ago: A Couple Giggles to Brighten Your Weekend

Exactly Two Years Ago: My Tatas are Tired

Happy Birthday Times Five

After baking cupcakes in the morning, the kids were really excited about celebrating the birthdays of five of the children.

In order to give each child their 'moment in the sun' we called them up one at a time to the front of the room and let them hold their own cupcake with a candle. After we sang Happy Birthday and they blew out their candle, they got a special present. 

First up, Chola! He was one of our very first children that came to live here, and in October he turned six!

Beauty turned four years old in October. 

She just couldn't wait to taste the delicious cupcake.

Sandra also turned four in November. I love her lopsided grin.

Nathan turned 3 in November. This is probably one of my favorite photos of him.

Your eyes do not  deceive you.....I didn't get a photo of Moriah yet from our photographer. I'll post her birthday photo when I can. 

Everyone knows icing tastes so much better when licked off your hands.

After eating, the kids had playtime with balloons. You haven't really seen crazy until you've seen sixteen children all running around batting balloons at once. 

One really wonderful thing was when inevitably a balloon would pop, the child would cry and immediately 3-4 children would run to their rescue, offering either their own balloon or getting a grown up to blow up a new one. It was so sweet.

Once the balloon game had wound down a bit, Esther and Christina set up face painting. The kids went outside to run off the sugar and two by two they came in to get their faces painted. 

The girls did a great job doing everything from giraffes, lions & dogs, to super heroes, to flowers and butterflies. It was a wonderful afternoon! 

Once again, many thanks to Gray for taking such beautiful photos.

Exactly One Year Ago: My Heart Just Broke a Little More

Our Kids--Nathan

Nathan--5 months old

The first time I met Nathan, nearly two years ago, he was in a tiny, mud hut just off the main road leading into our village, Kazembe. I had been called to this home by his great-uncle, Kennedy. Nathan's mother was suffering from an enlarged heart from an infection. She had been in the hospital for a month and had been sent home by the hospital because "they had no medicine to help her". She was now on hospice care (alone) with no stronger medicine than Tylenol to relieve her symptoms.

Nathan was an adorable boy of five months old. Unlike some babies in the village who cry in terror of my white skin, he climbed right into my lap and began to play with my hair. I fell instantly in love. 

Eight months old

Looking over at Nathan's mother, who was lying on the floor on a thin mattress, my heart broke. Unable to bear the weight of clothing on her chest, her shirt lay open. Every few minutes a spasm would come over her and she would clutch her heart in pain. I felt completely helpless. Not for the first time I wished I had some type of medical training. Some way to relieve her suffering. She needed clean, soft bedding, strong pain relievers and comfort.

2 years old

 All she asked of me was that I take her baby. When he saw his mother, Nathan wanted to nurse and be held but that understandably caused her immense pain. Obviously it's not our normal practice to take in a baby that has a living mother but I could see she really couldn't care for him. After first promising that as soon as she got better we would bring Nathan back home to her, I took Nathan in my arms and carried him home. Two weeks later, his mother passed away. I firmly believe that her final hours were peaceful as she knew that her little baby boy was being cared for and loved. That much I could do.

2 1/2 and loving our new kitten

Want to know how you can become part of our team and help to bring life and peace to Zambia?

#1 Click on this link or the donate button at the top of the blog page. 

#2 Choose to give a one time gift or monthly support--let us know in the memo section or an email what you'd like to do.

#3 Know you've made a difference in a child's life.

Chai and More

We adopted a new little baby into our household. No, not Joshua. Although it looks like God might be working it out for him to join us soon. More about this later.

Our newest baby is from the feline family. She is so sweet and loves to crawl all over the teenagers while they do their schoolwork.

Poor little kitten has an eye infection and seems to be too young to have left her mom. We're putting drops in her eyes and also feeding her with a syringe. She has the tiniest, yet amazingly loud, meow.

Meet Chai. Her name reminds me of my time in India, and one of my favorite drinks. It also sounds Asian and I think Asian names are good for cats.

There are many, many versions of chai but I will share mine with you today. It is courtesy of Expanding the Table.--My all-time favorite cookbook.

Chai: Steep 3 tea bags in 5 cups of boiling water in a saucepan. Add 1 and a half cups of milk and spices (1 whole cinnamon stick, 5 cloves, 3 cardomoms--crushed a bit). Stir in 1/3-2/3 cups of sugar depending on the intensity of your sweet tooth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Serve through a tea strainer into your prettiest tea cups. 

We introduced Chai to Moriah (2), Nathan (2) and Peter (18 mos.) today. 

Nathan especially enjoyed her. He wanted to keep pulling her tiny tail.

I love having animals around for the kids. I think it teaches them compassion--occasional tail pulling notwithstanding.

Many of you have asked, after Monday's post, how you can help the orphanage. We have several ways that you can donate if you would like to do that. All donations made to our charity,  Global Contributions, are tax-deductible. The Sponsorship page at our Kazembe Orphanage website will give you all the details. 

Also, if you look up at the right-hand corner of this blog, you can see see a Donate button. That gives you the opportunity to send a tax-deductible donation using Paypal.

We've already had a few responses to Monday's post and for that we are incredibly grateful. We still have a ways to go to reach our goals. I will share more this week or next about how things are going on this front.

In the meantime, we'll keep loving the babies we have--every single one.

A Couple Giggles to Brighten Your Weekend

Recently, a German young lady, studying at Oxford, came out to volunteer for a few weeks. She was a huge help in beginning to catalog our library books by entering them into an online database.

After she got home she published her photos on Facebook. Two of them stood out to me and made me smile. I got her permission to share them with you.

First, this photo shows Nathan and Peter supposedly feeding the ducks. But, judging by their faces, I don't think the ducks got much to eat that day.

Second, I think this photo shows that we have way too many snakes around our property. If someone can enjoy a delightful, mango snack while holding onto a semi-venomous snake, something is seriously wrong...

 

I love my crazy life!

 P.S Don't forget to enter my contest/giveaway 

Exactly One Year Ago: Fab Friday Foto