Well, my family and I are now home after a wonderful week's holiday in Zanzibar with my family and friends. We are well rested and had some quality time together.

Chloe and the Volunteers have done an amazing job at the Baby Home whilst I have been away - dealing with sick babies, staff shortages, emergency hospital visits and general Christmas Chaos.....thank you all, especially Chloe who must have worked 24 hours a day to get everything done!

Mary is now home from hospital and gaining weight well. She looks so much bigger than when I left!

Unfortunately Adella is now back in hospital as she was not feeding well and losing weight. She now has a Nasal Gastric tube in and so I will have to do some training with my staff on how to feed her once she is discharged.

Apart from the usual fevers / diaoreah - the other babies are very healthy and all doing well.

We have had quite a lot of interest about families adopting recently so I am ever hopeful that our babies will all one day have their Forever Families they deserve.

Sammy is 1 year old today! He is coming on very well - but to see him, you would still think he was a 4 month old! He has got some teeth now and his smiles are very cute!

Dotto is now walking properly despite being tiny!! She is very cute walking around the place and getting into mischief!

I'd like to thank the Lions Club of Mwanza for their generosity and kindness - they came today bearing gifts and sweets for the children. We are very greatful for this local support. In fact - we have had quite a few local peeople donating clothes and toys to the Baby Home recently and are very greatful for this.

Finally - the Christmas shoe boxes have arrived and are now waiting to be unpacked! Thank you SO much to our Tanzanian Trustee - Stephen Fortez - for helping to get them out of customs while we were on holiday - we truly appreciate your support.
We will sort through them this week and then take them out to other orphanages next week.

Well - I have been busy since I got back from holiday but will post some more news and photos in a day or so.
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas.....

I did promise to post some Christmas Party pics.....but it will have to wait until afetr the holiday now I am afraid. With Mary in hospital and an unexpected new baby today - I didn't have as much time as I had planned!
Happy Christmas....

We have received 2 new babies in the last few days.

Adella is a premature baby weighing just 1.5kg. Her mother died two weeks after childbirth and her father is unable to care for her. He visits regularly though and clearly loves her and hopefully she will return to live with him when she is older.

And then today we received 6 week old Oeifa. She was left with a neighbour for a few minutes but the Mother never returned to collect her. She is well looked after and a healthy weight.

Mary is still in Intensive Care but she is recovering well and we hope she will be discharged on Saturday.

Tomorrow I am going to Zanzibar for a week with my family...... I do not actually want to go right now with Mary sick and new children, but my kids deserve a holiday and some quality time with me and Ben.
I will try to update the website while I am away - but if not - HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR to you all.

Best wishes,
Amy and All at Forever Angels

Today we had the Baby Home Christmas Party. It was a wonderful day - no rain, great food (thank you Eleanorer, Kay, Val and Dave Lithgow and the Volunteers) and wonderful singing from my staff.
About 150 people came and ate dinner (fish and salad, sausage and pilau rice and vegetable stew, jelly and fruit salad and then biscuits!) and every one had a great time.

All but one of our babies families came to share the day with us (including Lucia and Sophia who came on a bus from the Bethany Orphange to spend the day with Adamu and Yunisi). All of my staff also came and brought their families and children. Mark and Jo Topley also came to spend the day with us and brought Beth back to show everyone. Theyalso helped so much with the food (Thank you)

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the day so special. I will post some photographs tomorrow.

Unfortunately the day was cut short for me as Mary is sick again and I had to take her back to Intensive Care. She has malaria and pneumonia and is not well at all. It is just NOT fair what this little girl has to put up with.
Please, again, have her in your thoughts.

Today, Danny left to go and live with his new Foster Family. His new Mum arrived with a member of Social Welfare and they had lunch with us but unfortunately had to leave quite quickly after that as they live far away on the Kenya border. Danny was a little overwhelmed and could have done with some more time to get to know his new Mum - but I am sure he will soon settle down.

We are all pleased that Danny is now with his Forever Family....we wish you all the love and luck in the world Danny and will miss you so much.

Forever Angels Staff Saying Goodbye to Danny

Danny's New Foster Mum

Two of our Volunteers - Gemma and Alex are leaving this week. Gemma has been with us for 2 months and has been a wonderful volunteer. She is a wonderful artist and has transformed our new bedrooms. She has taken on many 'Assistant Manager' duties and has been indispensible at the Baby Home - thankyou Gemma - we will all miss you. Alex has been with us for a month and the kids all adore her. She has boundless energy and was forever finding art projects and fun things to do with the children - thank you both for your hard work.

In their place comes Emma and Taransay. They will be with us for 5 months which is so wonderful. They have already settled in briliantly and learnt all the children's names with in a few hours! Welcome to you both.

Mary is still doing really well and is slowly gaining weight. She has even grown out of a few of her tiny premature babygrows!

The other children are all well. We are all busy planning a Christmas party for Sunday. All the staff and their families are invited, plus the families of the Baby Home children - so we are expecting in excess of 100 people! I am lucky to have my Mum and Dad (Val and Dave Lithgow our UK Trustees) over here to help!

Mary

Thank you for all your messages of love for Mary. She is living in my house at the moment and is doing really well. She is drinking milk brilliantly, sleeping well (unfortunately mainly during the day!) and I think (hope) she is going to be just fine.

Neema and Mwanaidi

Neema and Mwanaidi came to live and work at Forever Angels a year ago from the Bethany Children's Home. Mwanaidi was 18 and Neema was just 15. They were both shy, reserved and quiet girls. They have lived in our volunteer house for 13 months now and have been working at the Baby Home each day. They have received training in cooking, gardening, child care, first aid, dental hygiene, HIV awareness and Hygiene. They are now both vibrant, lively, polite and hardworking girls.....who act well beyond their years and who are a credit to Bethany and a huge part of our Forever Angels family.

Last week, we decided between ourselves that they were ready to 'move into the big wide world'....and some of our staff helped to find them 2 small rooms close to the Baby Home. Today I took them both shopping at a large market and with the money they have been saving, they bought - : a bed and mattress, mosquito net, sheets, a charcoal stove, 4 cooking pots, 2 frying pans, 4 glasses, 6 mugs, 6 plates, cutlery, 2 wooden spoons, a flask, 2 hot pots to keep food warm, 2 washing up bowls and various other bits and bobs to start their new life.

This afternoon they went to their new house to clean and tomorrow afternoon we will help them to move in.
Up until now - they have spent most days at the Baby Home - but from tomorrow they will have regular shifts to work like everyone else.

I am very proud of Neema and Mwanaidi and hope that they enjoy the start of their 'adult life'. We hope to take 2 more girls from Bethany early in 2008 as this 'experiment' went so well for all concerned. Good Luck Girls.....

The Extension

The extension is now finished and our unpacking and moving is almost complete. Thank you to the volunteers who have worked tirelessly to get the Baby Home back to 'normal'. The extra space is AMAZING - thank you again Malissa, Amri, Tamara, Linda, Orla and TBL Breweries for enabling Forever Angels to expand like this.
I will post some photos tomorrow.

(Oh - and thanks to Rosemary and Josephine who rescued me from the mouse in one of the boxes I was unpacking!!)

Kids

There now seem to be kids everywhere and it is hard to talk about each of them! Dotto turned 1 yesterday and is now able to walk! Her and Omari are such michief makers and get itno everything they shouldn't! All the 'babies' seem to have grown up so fast - Maggie, Sophia, Seba, Omari, Mathias, Dotto....they are all getting teeth, crawling around the place and will soon be on their feet!
The tiny babies are all doing well - Adamu is gaining weight which is wonderful. Liwida and Juma have both settled in well - though Juma is a little demanding and likes to be carried everywhere!

The toddlers are all doing great. They love their new bedrooms and are generally very good at going to bed. They all seem to be growing so fast and now have wonderful vocabularies and know heaps of songs.
A family came a few months ago to choose a child to adopt and they chose Danny. They were approved last week so any day now he will be going to live with his new Mum and Dad. Danny has been with us for a year this week and we will all miss him - but are thrilled that he will have a family at last.