First the good news… So about six weeks ago we got a very troubling test back from the lab, one of the kids in the orphanage tested positive for HIV. It was bound to happen sooner or later, we are in Africa after all. In the following weeks we did our homework, called everyone we possibly could and found out all about the different treatment options available to us. All the while Lale kept telling us that he was praying that the child would be healed, we prayed with him but still kept working on the treatment plan. Two weeks ago we moved him to the capitol city and got everything ready for what was going to be daily visits to the hospital for three different kinds of medicine. Then something happened. One of his tests came back negative… We thought that it had to be a mistake and so we took the child to a completely different laboratory and got the test again the next day…. Same thing! No HIV! We have no idea if the first test was a mistake or if God really did a miracle, but either way it feels like a miracle to us!

And the quiet… We are heading out into an area with no internet access for a week and will not be able to post on here. So its going to be quiet for a while, more stories to follow when we return.

Levi

I am so sorry for the terribly long silence, its not that nothing has been going on, far from it actually. Its just that there is so much going on that we never have a moment to sit down and write about it all.  I am going to try and fill in the blanks a bit in this post.

We just rented a bigger house for the third house that the kids are in, we at first had a small one for our third and thought that we could just have them sleep in there but are realizing that we need more space.  So we just signed a lease on number three… We are getting desperate for that new orphanage to be built.

On that front! Micah and Emily have tickets!!  We are counting down the days until April 7th. Yipee!

The government here is always fun..  It seems that every time we need to get something done we have to travel to three cities for letters and signatures with official stamps, this past few weeks its been particularly mad as we have needed letters for adoptions, the new car and its coming time to renew our NGO status. Not to mention that we have been in negotiations with the city administrator for them to give us some land to build a new orphanage on for the past month… Never a dull moment in Africa!

Kids are doing good, everyone is amazingly healthy and adjusting to the new bigger numbers well. The first of the kids who are to be adopted are getting really close to having court appointments and so its looking like some families will be able to travel in about 2 months.  I can not tell you how wonderful it will be to see these kids meet their forever families for the first time, a wonderful moment for sure!

Sorry for all the random-tidbits-of-information posts, its all that I can seem to get my brain to do when we are this busy.

Levi

We just got word that there are 4 more women who are pregnant with mingi children, and in the past we have found that these cases of mingi are the hardest to convince the families not to kill the children.   Lale has arranged a meeting with the elders to see if they are willing to make an official ruling on these children’s lives but he is not sure if they will go with it.  We are praying that the families fall in love with the unborn children and that God speaks to them about their lives, we are doing everything we can to be ready to get out to the different villages in a hurry once the children are born.  Lale says that all of them are more than 7 months pregnant.

We will let you know when we know more but for now please pray that things work out.

Levi

Finally got the password figured out and uploaded all the new pictures onto Flickr.  Click here for your fill of cute kid pictures!

Just got a bunch of pictures from Lale’s camera today and am trying to get them uploaded on Flickr, having a bit of trouble logging in and have to wait until my guy Rich who has all the passwords saved on his computer wakes up.  Oh the joys of living on the other side of the earth…!  Until I get the password you are going to have to just enjoy this one picture above.  Aren’t they cute?

There are another 5 that did not make it in the photo. So many kids!

Levi