Goodbye David!

Today we say a bittersweet farewell to a delicious little boy, David Ndogo - who has returned home to his bibi (grandmother) and aunt. They had originally hoped to take him home in January, when I was over in Tanzania, but various legal hurdles had to be... hurdled... so it took until now. Better late than never! 

David with his bibi (left) and aunt

It's sad for us because we will miss his sweetness, his funny faces, and his cuddles - and yes, even his tantrums - but good because it is always nice for a family to be reunited. As I mentioned briefly in our last post, we are working this summer on a pilot project which will hopefully prevent these types of situations from occurring in the first place - where there is a loving family that simply cannot afford to adequately care for the child. We'll be running basic business classes and distributing small grants to help families in similar situations get on their feet and keep their children.

Mango mouth

When we first met

Christmas David

HOW do you fall asleep on a moving carousel??

Kissing the girls and making them cry

Showing off his teeth!

Happy dance!

And speaking of a happy dance, I have no IDEA what he was doing in this video, but it was closer to a breakdance than anything else.

We will miss you, little man! 

In other news, Zawadi, Neema, Ester, Miriam and Maureen are all in underwear now (Thanks Amy for the update!) - VERY exciting progress, since there's still another nine kids in diapers. Every bit helps! So proud of how grown up they're getting, but very, very sad not to be there to see it. 47 days and counting every second till I get to hold them again.