Our rain season has started and we have had a lot of rain, thank the Lord, as we need the rain. Getting the daily laundry dry is a big problem when we have so much rain. With so many babies in the house there is always a lot of laundry. We run a dryer on one of our generators but it is a small machine and it takes a long time to get all the laundry dry during the day. Our laundry is always sun dried when it doesn’t rain.
On the 5th, we were coming home from church, Sam was driving us, when a lady just pulled out from a side junction and hit our car on the passenger side, back door. Sam saw what was about to happen and realised that there were no cars coming in the opposite direction and he drove over onto the wrong side of the road to try to avoid the accident. It was good thinking on his part and because he did this, the damage to Robyn’s car was minimal and no one was hurt. The lady immediately admitted guilt and offered to pay for any damages done to the car. We took the car into the panel beaters on Wednesday, 8th, and it was repaired and paid for in full by Friday 10th. We are so grateful that it all worked out so well and that nobody was injured.
On the 10th, while Sam went to town to fetch the car back from the panel beaters, our lawn mower was stolen from out of our back yard. We were really upset by this as the fence on one side of the property is broken and we realised that the mower was taken out through the hole in the fence. As it was on the far side of our house, no one saw what happened. Now we had an added expense for this month, as a lawn mower is essential so as to keep the fast growing grass short and to keep the snakes out of our yard. On the 22nd, BUILT IT, our local hardware store, gave us a 25% discount on the new lawn mower which ended up costing us only E5,000. What a blessing for the baby home.
On the 14th, Sam and Cade moved down to Manzini to work with Dominique, as her groom and gardener had left and she was struggling to do it all by herself. We are missing Sam and Cade but Cade is loving being with the horses, working with his daddy and being spoilt by his Aunty Dom.
We celebrated 3 birthdays this month with Jasmin turning 2 on the 7th and Jason also turning 2 on the 12th and Eric celebrated his third birthday the 16th. We now have 5 babies over 2 years old in the home, which proves to be quite a handful as they all want to be more independent and do their own thing. The 2 year olds are all potty trained during the day, which makes it easy for us on the nappy side of things. They are enjoying learning and we run a toddler school for them every morning for 2 hours, teaching them the basics. They learn in both English and siSwati and just love the singing and dancing.
Then on the 17th we received a desperate, emergency placement call. A new born baby needed placement immediately. We agree to bring him in and Owen arrived the same day, straight from maternity. He was very small at just 2.0kg. We noticed that he didn’t cry much but he was taking his feeds and seemed to be doing ok. On the 21st, he was struggling to keep his feeds down and he wasn’t doing well so Robyn rushed him to Baylor Clinic where he was seen by the doctors and put onto O2. His body was very cold. Robyn with baby Owen, were rushed to the Mbabane Government Hospital in the Baylor Clinic ambulance and he was admitted into the NICU. The doctors worked on him for over 4 hours to stabilize him but unfortunately they said that his heart was was failing and there wasn’t much else that they could. They said that as he was a premmie, he should never have been discharged to us. Sadly, little Owen passed away at 2am on the 22nd. It was a hard thing for us all to watch this little baby struggle so, but we know that we did our best for him and now he is safe in the arms Jesus.
Then on the 31st, Montessori arrived with car loads of donations that the school had collected for the baby home. We were in awe at the generosity of these students and their parents. Our lounge was filled up with every kind of necessity for the baby home. We are so appreciative and thankful for this amazing donation from Montessori.
The court cases for this rented house and for our land are still pending. The rented house case is due into court on the 7th November and the land court case for the new ABC home will take place on the 24th of November.
Prayer Requests:
- Give thanks for the Lord’s provision for the amazing donations we have received this month and for enough finances for the continual running of the baby home.
- Please pray for ABC’s favour in the court cases coming up and that our land situation can be resolved as we need to continue building the new baby home, which is so desperately needed for us to move into.
- Please pray with us about our babies who are growing up and need a place to call their home
- Please give thanks to God for all that He is doing in ABC!
We are extremely grateful to everyone who assists us with finances which allows us to continue to pay the staff, the rent for this house and all other necessities needed to run the baby home. Our words cannot express our gratitude to everyone who supports us, who prays for us and encourages us to keep on going. We are extremely grateful to everyone and appreciate all that everyone does to assist us with the running of the ABC baby home. Without you, we cannot survive. THANK YOU!
OUR BIRTHDAY BABIES
God bless you
Robyn & Gerry
