Two roads diverged

Do you remember our gorgeous little Joyce (now named Soana Joyce), the baby girl who was adopted from the orphanage in March? The wonderful mother and father, Peter and Maria, a Dutch businessman and Trinidadian lawyer at the ICC Rwanda genocide fires in  Arusha, were kind enough to send along a beautiful photograph of Joyce on her special day a few months later. They've been very sweet about keeping the volunteers who loved Joyce in the first few months at the orphanage up to date on her progress and took some photos and letters from us to show her when she's older that she was loved from day one.

ON day one! 

All growed up - ok, almost.

This brings back something fun I don't think I ever got a chance to post here. When my family went on our short safari, we went with a very nice man named Elias, who we had met through Peter and Maria. He has a number of orphaned children in his own house and was named legal guardian of Joyce as an infant, who had been born to a woman with mental health issues who was taken in, literally off the street naked and pregnant, by a neighbor of theirs. This is a video of some of the beautiful, healthy sixteen children that Elias and his wife have taken in giving us a performance before we left for safari. 

In other news, I talked to Mama Pendo this morning, along with Rehema and Jeremiah, and all seems to be going well - and a new baby boy named Daniel has come into the orphanage, who is around two months old. Also, the garden is now feeding the kids on a regular basis! I look forward to hearing and seeing from Megan and Emily pictures of the new baby as well as of the garden.