I'll start off with my GREAT NEWS! Baby Mia (who is now known as Molly) has finally been placed with her foster family......and is now officially MY little girl!

Yesterday morning we got the permission letter to take Molly into our home as our foster daughter! In three months time - we will begin the process to formally adopt her.

We are all thrilled with this news and so relieved.....we applied to foster her almost a year ago now and were starting to get a little anxious.

Anyhow - she now brings the Hathaway clan to 5 and we are all over the moon. I fell in love with this little girl when my best friend Lisa and I went to bring her home from hospital last October......I don't know what it was about her - but I fell in love instantly. She is the funniest, cutest, happiest and most adorable baby in the world....not that I am biased at all!

Cole is now 'Jack' and he is home with us at Forever Angels. He is SO cute and has the most georgus mop of hair I have ever seen! Everyone has fallen in love with him!

Katy is doing well - she loves music and singing and really enjoys her food. She had a small seizure today which I was sort of expecting. We are taking her and Sammy for a brain scan tomorrow to see if we can find out more about her condition.

The rest of the babies - all 24 of them now! - are fine. Davey is still in hospital but I have just been to visit him and we will be bringing him home tomorrow afternoon.

Just a quick one tonight as I am still in 'celebratory mood' because of Molly and want to go and give her a bottle......

Well - today was a very busy day and this is the first time I have sat down since 5am!
I can't really remember the order of some events.....but I will try!

First, some new DHL packages arrived this morning. We had just run out of wet wipes and nappy liners and nappy sacks this week - so it was GREAT to get more in the boxes. THANK YOU to everyone who donated these goods and also for all the beautiful clothes.... we are so greatful for these donations.

Then Chloe and I went to visit Davey in hospital. He has pneumonia and was not well at all on Sunday - but today he is doing much better. We have to visit at least twice a day to ensure that he has enough hot water in flasks to make bottles. There is no clean water in the hospital and no method of boiling it! I have staff from the Baby Home with him 24 hours a day....but that means we are also a little short staffed at the Baby Home!

Neema and Mwanaidi have gone back to Bethany for a few days to visit their friends - and we DO miss them when they are not here!

Anyhow - I can't remember now if I mentioned baby Cole? Whilst I was visiting Davey at Bugando yesterday - I was told about an abandoned new-born baby girl in the Premature Unit. I went down to see her to find out more.
Her name tag said - "Female Baby - Josephine Joseph born on 15 / 9 / 07 - Weight 3.8kg"

She was apparently abandoned at another hospital and cried excessively so was transferred to Bugando at the weekend for observation. The nurse told me she had not cried since she arrived and was probably just hungry!
Anyhow - I went out to buy some milk for her (the hospital has no budget to care for abandoned babies) and brought back some nice pink baby grows for her.

She is so beautiful with a mop of black curls! I sat and cuddled her for a while and then decided to change her nappy before I left her...... and discovered that Josephine is in fact a boy! Apparently the baby's mother was called Josephine, although I am not sure how they know this information?

Anyhow - Tamara and Amri (our volunteers) were with me and named him Jack Cole.

Today - I went back to visit him and they STILL thought the baby was a female and were calling him 'Jackie'! So - just to stop the confusion, he is now known as 'Cole' and I have written it on his card....and changed the 'female' to 'male'!!

He is drinking well and should be discharged later this week so I hope he will be coming home with us very soon.

Anyhow - back to today!.....we visited Davey who is doing SO much better and then Cole who is also looking good.
On the way home, I got a call from the Baby Home to say to rush back as Sammy was very sick. We dashed home and he did have a fever of 39.2 and wouldn't stop crying. Chloe sponged him down and I gave Calpol and during this, I got a call from Social Welfare to ask me to go to their office to collect a baby!! It never rains....

So - Chloe and I grabbed Sammy and went back to town. Chloe took Sammy to hospital for tests and I went to Social Welfare to get the new child.

As soon as I saw her - a whole new story came back to me.....

On Saturday - a lady came to my gate with a young baby girl who looked to me like she had cerebal palsy. The woman said she was unable to care for her, had no milk left and didn't know why her baby would not walk or sit up. I explained (as I have to) that I am not able to just take her baby - but if she goes to Social Welfare and asks them for help - then they should be able to assist. I told her to come back to me if they couldn't help her.
I thought about her and her little girl a lot this weekend - as there is no support or information available to Tanzanian's about children with Special Needs and it is often seen as an act of the 'Devil'.

Anyhow - when I walked into Social Welfare - the very same little girl was lying on the floor. She had been found abandoned on the road side - so obviously the Mother had become desperate?

Social Welfare said she is about 1 year old - which I think I agree with but it is hard to tell. They called her Fatuma - but I added Katy - so she is now Katy Fatuma. She is unable to support her neck very well, can't sit up or stand - and doesn't seem able to see very well.....but she loves food and has settled in well so far.

It looks to me like she has microcephalus and cerebal palsy - but since there are no specialists here - we may never get a real diagnosis?

Anyhow - she is a real cutie and likes singing and music so she should fit in really well. We actually had no big cots left for her - so she is in a travel cot until the extension is done and we can all 'spread out' a bit!!

I will get Ben to update the website with some photos of her in a few minutes....I should sit down and say 'Hi' to him first!

I also got some very good personal news from Social Welfare today - I think.....but the conversation was all in Swahili and I had Katy in my arms and was having about 3 conversations at once.....anyhow - I will hold off saying anymore about this until I am sure tomorrow!

This evening, Eleanorer (my cook) had to leave work early today as her daughter is sick....so Chloe ended up cooking whilst I returned to the hospital this evening to visit Davey and Cole and make sure Davey had water for maming bottles and to check that Cole had been fed.

Whilst I was gone, Chloe started to feel ill so went home to bed - and bath and bed time was all a little chaotic!!
Ah well - with 24 babies - life is never going to run too smoothly!!

This morning, myself and my family took Chloe and our 4 Canadian Volunteers (Linda, Amri, Tamara and Malissa) to visit Starehe Orphanage and Tumaini Orphanage. Whilst we were visiting Tumaini - they happened to be opening their newly built Church - so we stayed for the service. The singing was lovely and there were a whole load of very happy people. It was lovely to see.

We also went to visit Yohana at his Grandmothers house - but he wasn't there. The Grandmother was sick in bed with malaria and told us that Yohana's Mum had turned up and taken him home? It also appears that Sarah's Mum (who is very young and supposedly mentally ill) gave birth to a new baby last week!
This family have many issues.

I told the Granmother that I would return next week and we will go together to find Yohana. If he is back with his Mum - I'd like to think it is a positive thing....but would like to see for myself first that he is OK.

When we got home - Davey had a temperature. Chloe, Linda and Malissa took him to Bugando where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He has been admitted and is on antibiotics. He is such a tiny little thing - please keep him in your thoughts.

The extension is growing bigger every day and is looking great! The roof walls are now complete and I guess the wooden structure will be next to go up!?

All is well at the Baby Home.....well, almost!

Haji has a raging temperature (of 40!) but everytime we get concerned - he perks up again and starts running all over the Baby Home! Anyhow - we finally caught him and took him to hospital but it seems, apart from being aneamic, he is fine. I think he must just have the cold/flu that is going around - but it has hit him harder than the others.

Davey - our new little baby is coming along really well. He is drinking lots and putting on weight. We will take him to clinic on Thursday and see if he can start on ARV treatment.....but I am happy with him so far and think he will do ok.

It is rainy season so the children are inside more than usual - so more rowdy and less tired than we would like! Chloe has the toddlers running up and down the corridor as often as possible to tire them all out!

We have received promises of the money needed for our extension and roof! YEY! More about this later in the weej when it is all finalised - but we hope building will start in the next few days.
THANKYOU to our wonderful sponsors......

Well - it was a relatively quiet week this week - until Thursday when our house got broken into again!
Thankfully no one was hurt and very little was stolen - but it is annoying anyhow.

About 4am - there was a commotion at the top of the property near the Volunteer House. Apparently some men were trying to cut some trees and the fence to gain access to our property.
The dogs and night watchmen were dealing with that.....while at the same time - some more men cut the fence at the back of my house, cut the security lights, cut the window mesh and jacked open the window bars! Diversion techniques....
I was ill that night and so was up quite a few times. Just after 4am I heard a noise so went to the kitchen and turned on the light - this, and the Askari's coming down scared them off - and they ran off with only a handful of Baby Home Clothes (I had been storing them in our Utility room until the extension is complete and we have more room to store things.)

They are just petty thieves - but this time I think it was planned rather than opportunistic . No one can see into our property now so nothing was tempting them.
Actually - they broke in the exact same way as before - so I think it is the same people?...but of course - we will never know.

VERY annoying.

Ben is all geared up to increase security again - and sure, we have to have secure premises - but at the end of the day - if someone wants to get in - they can and will? Sometimes having too much security alerts people to the fact there is something worth protecting. There is of course - the children - but outsiders may not know that and could well see huge security measures as a reason to see whats inside?

Apart from that - all is well. We have had many of the children's families visit again this week which is lovely.

One of our future volunteers has offered to pay for our extension - so we are going to go ahead with that in the next week or so. THANK YOU! It is very exciting - but also quite a logistical nghtmare thinking about where we will put the children whilst the building is happening!

Lesley, our latest volunteer left this week and we are very sad to see her go. She was loved by all and will be missed.....

And last but not least - lake fly! We are all being bombarded with trilions of lake fly each evening....maybe it is something to do with the weather? They come in their swarns and can fit through the window mosquito netting so take over the house! Ben and I have gone to bed early each night this week to get away from them.....but they even manage to get into the mosquito netting on our beds! Gross!

Another week has passed at Forever Angels and thankfully the bugs have now gone and the children are well again.

The three new children (Zawadi, Michael and Sophia) all tested positive for malaria and stomach infections but they are on treatment now and hopefully will be feeling fine in a couple of days. Sophia is adorable! She is tiny, but very smiley and happy.
Zawadi is mischevious and I am sure will become naughty once she is more steady on her feet! She has got some sores on her body and face but we are treating them and hope they will soon clear up. Micheal is finally starting to show us some smiles and laughter. Initially he was very wary of everyone (especially white people!) and sat and whimpered a lot. Today though, Chloe and Lesley have had him smiling and laughing and having fun with the others which is great to see.

We have had lots of visitors to the Baby Home recently:

* Pascal's father came a few days ago and brought his new wife! I am so happy that he has remarried and hope that this means Pascal will soon return home to live with them.

* Sarah's Grandmother has been to visit and it seems her situation has improved since we helped her to move house. Yohana is doing well and is happy in school.

* Yunisi's aunt - Sophia - who we got a place for at Bethany Orphanage came this week. She is really happy and settled at Bethany and is coming top of her class at school. Yunisi was over the moon to see her and clung like a limpet to her all day.

* Maggie's family continue to visit every single week and spend a whole day with Maggie. They are a wonderful family and we have just employed her Father as a part time gardener at the Baby Home to try to help him care for his 6 daughters.

* Haji's father still works for us as a gardener and loves to spend time with Haji.

* ChaCha still works for us and spends some time every day with Dotto and Bahati. We hope that in a few months she will be able to take them home to live with her.

* Salum has a visitor 2 or 3 times a week. It is the man who supposedly 'found' him but I believe it is actually his father. Salum loves to spend time with him and he is great with the other children.

* Seba and Omari's father and siblings continue to visit every few weeks and are so happy with the twins progress.

We are very pleased that EVERY SINGLE child with known family are keeping to their promise and regularly visiting their children. I see this as a HUGE sucess and know that it is a very different story in most other orphanages. More often than not - families leave their children and never return - but I have every hope that ALL of these children will return home to loving families who have kept close attachments to them.

We have also had a lot of other visitors to the Baby Home - some people just coming to look around, others coming to play with the children and some who are interested in adopting.
The word about Forever Angels is certainly spreading and we have a very good reputation in town and throughout Social Welfare and the Hospitals which is great to know.

Thanks to Chloe and Lesley who have kept the Baby Home working smoothly this past week.