Another beautiful child!

 Yes, that's right....I said "another beautiful child".  Can you believe that we now have THIRTY-FOUR children living with us?!  Dorothy went to the hospital in the morning to pick up Christian, and she brought five year old Leila home with her.  Leila has HIV and was in the hospital for quite some time.  Her mother has little interest in her and was not compliant in giving her HIV meds.  So, she is ours now!  I'm in love already!

I held Leila for a while tonight just loving on her and telling her that we are all so happy she is here to live with us.  She seemed so content and happy.  She wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my chest.  I have a feeling that her life with her mother was not very pleasant.  She certainly will not be lacking love while living in this house!  I have the best job in the world...I get to love kids that were once unloved.  How cool is that?!

Besides the fact that we got another child today, it seems like things might actually be slowing down here.  Thank the Lord!  We sure have been hammered with stress and problems lately that it is about time for life to calm down a little bit.  I spent the day just loving and playing with the kids and helping the nannies out as needed (feeding, changing diapers, etc).  We seem to be quite short staffed right now.  So, I spent a long time washing dishes today.  34 children, 2 Americans, 1 nurse, and half a dozen nannies literally make a mountain of dishes each day, and we do not have a dish washing machine.  See, you don't have to be anything special to be a missionary...even washing dishes makes a difference!

Exciting news of the day (I know some of this may not seem exciting to you, but if you knew the children and could see how much progress they are making it would be more exciting, ha):

-I got Youvendjii to hold himself up in the crawling position this afternoon.  He is our little 2.5 year old boy who cannot walk or crawl yet.  However, he has been pulling himself up to stand in his crib now!
-Francesca (the 4 pound twin girl) started drinking 3 ounces of milk per feeding today!  That is SO EXCITING FOR US!  Less than a week ago we had to use a feeding tube!
-Frances, the other twin baby girl, smiled at me several times today while I was rocking her.
-Tamara rolled over from her belly to her back today!  Also, she has been smiling and "talking".  I hope and pray that we can get her a medical visa for surgery!
-Rose Mitchel's scabies seemed to look a little bit better today.
-Josue, Marvins, and Marcus all moved from their cribs in the dining room to downstairs with the "big kids".  Rather than being fed inside by a nanny, now they eat meals outside with the big children.  They are growing up so fast!

I apologize that I can't get any pictures uploaded tonight because the internet is very slow.  Hopefully there will be more to come tomorrow!