Rethinking your colors

So you can see Zeke holding a bag of limes (yes, limes), the lemons were orangish and Mandi already told you about the white sweet potatoes (we were told they also have yellow & orange). Addie is a white kid, but if you had seen here after she played in the dirt all day with her white sweater at the House of Martha (they call them transit homes - NOT orphanages; it's for the oldest kids)...she looked orange/brown. The crawlers in the nursery wear anything and everything - color has no influence on the caregivers when they change them. You cannot tell a girl from a boy until you hang out in there for a few days. It is very understandable & very funny. The nurse who oversees the babies was praying for us ("the white family") coming for "just one life, this black child."

The other picture shows us learning how to make "nshima" - the corn flour based meal the crawlers eat daily. They drink it as porridge (mixed with some sort of soaked/squished nuts)from a bottle in the AM, then eat it w/ some sort of gravy as a dumpling mash for lunch & dinner. We have also seen bananas & porridge passed out for snacks. With few exceptions they eat all of this themselves on the floor on a blanket or a plastic sheet (good move on their part) cuz it is a mess. I haven't seen poop (smelled it plenty though), but I am guessing it is the color white based on how often they eat from that big pot of white nshima.

We are moving forward with the fostering process. It is an interesting journey to be sure. We learned some of his background from the nurse, Irene today (she was there when he was admitted in October), and it was a beautiful and a hard time. We felt confirmed though because we were able to name him directly after that meeting - more on that when we can, but it is a mix of his past & his future. There is a chance we will be able to bring him to the guesthouse for the weekend. Each step is like taking a journey into a brand new-land, where there are no straight lines - everything has an unseen corner. It is both beautiful and scary to walk through. We are looking forward to sharing all of this with you all, for now this is what we can say.

We love getting comments. Thanks so much for telling us your thoughts and for reminding us that you are praying for ALL of the Lemmonds.