Thoughts
We made our target! The first respite care cottage is completed (see photo above) and filled. Praise God.
One of my goals for 2005 was to have the first cottage operational. At the end of January 2005, I had a call from Mae Chan hospital about a mother who did not want her brand-new baby daughter; she had no support and no family. Her story was full of tragedy, with little hope. This was her third child; the first had been aborted, the second abandoned. I urged her to reconsider her choice with this new little one, explaining we wanted to help. Her eyes swam with hopelessness. As I left the hospital that day I asked God to change her heart. I knew it would be a miracle if she changed her mind about keeping her child.
The next day when I returned to the hospital, I expected to take the baby home alone but the mother had changed her mind. What wonderfully good news it was that day.
Quan (our head nanny) and I are going to Entebbe, Uganda for a YWAM International HIV/AIDS conference March 26th – April 4th. We anticipate it being a great opportunity, not only to glean from other projects but also to network with other groups who have similar interests.
Reports & Goals
The little ones are all growing fast, Jonathan is not 15 months old; he runs around and keeps us from having a dull moment, though we long for one. All of the kids are generally in good health and stable most of the time. We find that keeping them on a good diet, combined with medicine and prayer helps them to stay quite well. They are all little treasures and bring so much joy to us. Hope, who came to us when she was just one year old, turned for just this past week.
Our plan to buy the Mountainview property fell through because the vendor reneged; but as we found ourselves in a position to look elsewhere, we did find a great block to buy right next to/connecting with, our respite care property. We had been given a gift to purchase Mountainview, so used the donated funds towards the purchase of the land. We are excited that this door has opened and plan to move there by end of May, so we’ll no longer need to pay rent. There is just one house on the property and we will initially all squeeze into that house, yes with all nine babies. There are many advantages in having the work altogether. However, we still need a further $AUD27,000 or $USD20,000 to complete the purchase within the next 2 years.
Our goal is the next year is to raise funds to complete the purchase of the land and build another house for the children on it. We will then use the existing baby house for an office, kindergarten, and meeting room.
We are currently busy making preparations to build a bathroom onto the existing house plus a store room, and renovate before we move in May. Anyone wanting to come help with that would be hugely welcome. Please email, we need a plumber, an electrician, a painter, a cabinet maker, a couple of brick layers, and 2 laborers, all who do no mind the heat of Thailand’s hot season in April. (very hot and muggy!!) Please contact me by email at openheart@lannalife.org if you are available to come for 3-4 weeks in April.
Construction
It is exciting to have seen the project expand to include our mother/child respite care facility in operation now. This has been a dream for so long and is a reality now. I am excited that we can see it multiply in the future on the land that we now own. If you would like to help us build another cottage to accommodate and assist more HIV+ women and babies, please contact me by email at openheart@lannalife.org. We build the current cottage with the assistance of MMM International (Australia) Ltd. for just under $USD4,000 and want to duplicate this several more times. A big thanks to our MMM (Mobile Mission Maintenance) friends.