The Emily Song and so forth

So the past week has been... full? Always busy at work, of course - especially with a new baby, Joyce, who made me realize how BIG our last "new baby" has gotten. Ebenezer seems to have doubled in size, comparatively, overnight - and thinking about how little he used to be of course makes me think of Reziki, who came in at the same time. Still, I'm able to mostly be thrilled with Ebenezer thriving and not be dragged down too much by the comparison. And Joyce is ridiculously gorgeous, just a beautiful, beautiful kid.

This is a PG-13 blog, I'm assuming you can handle the lack of a modesty patch

Bethan has fully moved in, and we've been tackling lots of little projects - got the chalkboards done for the mamas and for the school, etc. Her focus is going to be on trying to get a filtration system in for the water, I think - a really important but manageable sized project that will save a ton of money and time spent boiling water every day, or worse, not boiling it and having the kids either end up dehydrated or be given untreated water by mamas who don't feel like doing their jobs (pet peeve much?)

Bethan looks like a model in the front, the others are various other wonderful volunteers

The other girls from Bethan's group have started working almost every day, which is really nice - and the kids adore them and have started really bonding. My particular favorite manifestation of this is in the "Emily" song, as recited below by Simoni.

I'm a little offended there's no Bekka song, but I'll take him coming out of his shell. Totally worth it. Today in addition to the extra volunteers, a man came by who is looking into adopting from one of the local orphanages with his wife - both work at the Rwanda tribunal, I believe. They had the very disheartening experience of falling in love with twins at another orphanage, only to have the father refuse to give permission for adoption, despite his complete lack of contact for the last three years - oh wait, no, he visited TWICE, clearly a very involved parent. Anyway, their loss will be the gain for one (or more) lucky kids. It made me realize that as much as I want Z to be mine, I'd be happy as long as she was with a loving family - anyway, they're probably looking for a baby, so we'll see what happens. As you can probably tell, I'm a little attached. Thanks so much for the comment on the last post, Marie, it helped a lot to hear from someone else who has been in a similar position.

As for medical supplies, things are slowly but steadily trickling in. So far we have a microscope and a few computers, as well as a source for vitamins. It looks like we're going to have to make retail purchases for thermometers, and we may not be able to help at all with blood pressure cuffs, etc, unless someone steps forward. Financial donations, as always, would be a huge help and make a big difference for the kids. On a related note, the kids have an unhealthy obsession, I don't know why, with Bob the Builder - apparently he transcends all physical and political barriers. All they have is one DVD and it's stuck in French. Don't ask me. Anyway, if anyone has additional BTB DVDs or hard plastic toys, it would be greatly appreciated - and I'll send you video of the kids singing the BTB song, BONUS! It's truly adorable.

That's all for now - family, friends, are you still out there? I haven't heard from most of you in a while, pretend you care what's going on and send me a darn comment or an email.