Introducing Our New Boys

It's been pretty busy around here recently.  Talia, Luke and Hannah have left to join their forever families, and we've had some new arrivals (with more on the way)...

It's a time of mixed emotions; lots of happiness as we watch precious children leave to become orphans no longer, and some sadness as we meet precious little ones that have recently became orphans.  It's our privilege to get to know them, and so sweet to hold them and see their smiles for the first time, but hearing their stories...?  Heartbreaking does not begin to describe it.

At the end of June, Micah and Elliot arrived.  

Micah was brought to the 'safe room' of his local orphanage this January, when he was a month old. He is now seven months old and was diagnosed with heart disease.

Elliot was found in the street, aged just one week old, back in February.  He is five months old; he also has heart disease, and will need ENT surgeries.

This week, five-month old Steven arrived.  He also has heart disease, and was found by a trash pile. Those words are hard to type, hard to read, hard to comprehend.  As if it wasn't tragedy enough, Steven's heart disease is relatively mild.  Perhaps his birth parents were given a diagnosis that sounded more scary, but we're hopeful that his surgery will be straightforward (or that he won't even need surgery).

What are these little guys like?  As you can see, rather adorable!

Micah has been settling in to life in the foster home.  He spent the first week or so just looking around with his big, beautiful eyes, taking it all in.  It didn't take too long before he started to get to know everyone though...

...holding hands with Eli, and getting friendly with Ava!

Aren't they cute together?

Ava is happy to have a new buddy, and Micah is starting to look much more cheerful.  Look out for pictures of his smiles!

We haven't had much chance to get to know Elliot yet, because he has been able to move out to live with a local foster family already.  He's in really good hands; he is now Caleb's foster brother, and his foster family have already taken care of a number of our kids with ENT defects.

Steven is still very new, and we haven't had much time to get to know him yet, but we hear that he is strong and noisy, and everyone who meets him is utterly smitten!

As of yesterday (Thursday), we actually have another new arrival; sweet baby Janessa, who is nearly 8 months old and also has a heart condition.  We're expecting two more new arrivals soon, so we will introduce them all as soon as we can.