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| February 7, 2006 Tuesday night Alas, the journey of the forgotten, lost and weary pallet of long ago has arrived. This journey started long ago, in fact more than five months ago. Some of you may recall that Bo Taylor one of the original supporters of Our Journey and board member started a campaign for Our Journey and the children in his local community in Oklahoma City. After many months of dedicated fund raising, support building and donation calls, he had gathered a complete pallet of supplies and much of the support to transport and ship it to South Africa. You cannot imagine what he sent in that pallet, CD player, children CDs, toys, party favors, school supplies a box of beanie babies. Baby wipes, medicines and even a cabinet to store them in. It was truly amazing! This however, is not the all of the story. Actually this is barely half of the story. After the six months of transportation for the pallet to arrive I was notified that it had arrived and was in storage awaiting customs and inspection. And while it was waiting it was accumulating huge storage charges. I felt as though I was handcuffed and thrown in the water and was told to swim. I could do nothing to push the receiving and inspection thru and everyday the financial burden was mounting. At one point I felt I was really being scammed and had given up so I wrote a letter to them telling them I was refusing the pallet unless they would re- negotiate the charges and lo and behold they did. Many thanks to Bo and Friends of Our Journey in Oklahoma City!!!! Our newest crechie turned one last week; we celebrated with a birthday party, as you will see in the attached pictures, a good time was had by all. Thanks to the pallet arriving last week we had great birthday favors for all the babies, check out the tiara's on their heads. Again, I am so thankful and appreciative of what Friends of Our Journey have sent this past year. I get to be Father Christmas all year long. Not sure I can ever do justice with words to express to you all how truly blessed I feel. A volunteer I work with in Creche came running into my house tonight yelling you have to come right away.."Amanda is walking on her own". Last journal I sent I was telling you all she walked with Phila holding her hand, today it was the real thing she walked all by herself. Everyone was there cheering her on, all the volunteers, Gogos and Aunties. This child has captured hearts all over the world. I could not get on the Internet tonight because everyone wanted time to tell everyone they knew about Amanda walking. She is our international miracle child. Life cannot get much better than this! Love, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 18, 2006 Since the last journal entry I have traveled to the Kingdom of Swaziland for a long weekend away (a small country that is landlocked in South Africa) with the Director and the six young volunteers that organized The Young Zulu Warriors Tour to Germany and the Netherlands March 16 thru April 8, 2006. I continue to stand in awe at what these young volunteers have accomplished, can you imagine at 18 and 19 organizing from start to finish a Tour with 15 shows starting in Munich traveling to Hamburg then on to the Netherlands. They actually raised money for all of our plane tickets. It really is amazing! I am looking forward to chaperoning our children that are performing on this trip. They are practicing every night, and I fall asleep to the sounds of drums beating and traditional Zulu songs being sung. It is pretty cool to say the least. I will send pictures of the kids in their traditional Zulu costumes the next time they have a dress rehearsal. I will also try to keep you posted via the Internet (if available) of the trip and how successful the shows are at raising money for the home here. I am attaching pictures of the Back Packers we stayed at. Can you imagine we only paid 55 Rand a night, that is equivalent to about $8.00 USD! a great deal, it was situated in the middle of a Game Reserve. We visited the local craft market where I met the most adorable local children, I saved my money and did not shop but played with the children, well I did shop a little, I bought all the kids lollipops as you will see them enjoying them in the pictures. On Sunday I attended church being held in a tent in a pasture in the middle of nowhere. It was an amazing experience, we were treated like royalty, there were four of us and we were escorted to seats of honor right beside the Kings wife, Her Royal Highness. We were asked to come forward and introduce ourselves and tell what we were doing in their country. The sermon was in Zulu and translated for us in English. Love, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 27, 2006 Plans were being made for a home study to be done with his family and see if it was a safe place for him to return to. This did not happen and we were notified by the courts this past Friday that they wanted him back immediately, arrangements have been made for me to take him back this Thursday, my heart aches, I have no idea what kind of family he is going back to or why they had left him for two years? and we have no legal recourse. This is a time when I have to trust with all my heart but let me tell you it is not easy and I need your prayers. I have been advised to take many presents such as food, chickens, and clothes for the whole family. Hopefully these presents and the promise of more to come they will allow me to visit him before I go back home and visit him when I return next year. I need to know he will be all right. Love, |