"The Lost Boys"

First I will fill you in on what happened on Wednesday. We started off at The Haven; Caroline (a feeding specialist from Nashville, TN) is working with several of the infants that are struggling with eating. This tends to be common among babies that are medically fragile and even more so among those in orphanages. Her work is tedious but it's rewarding to see these little guys eating well and looking alert. So she and the other students immediately head to that room in the Haven and I go across the hall to the boys’ room, I lovingly refer to them as, "The Lost Boys". There are four precious little ones in this room, Peter, Jack, Shawn, and Ross. Ross always wears a grin and he's the only one of the 4 that can walk although they are all old enough to at least be pulling up. Shawn wears a constant face of worry unless he is in his bed, where he seems the most content. Peter is a chunky little dude who has an easy smile and a full set of teeth. Jack is the one that concerns me most, he will barely even roll over, something a baby half his age is generally capable of (he can sit up unsupported which gives me hope). So my first chore of the morning was to get them all in dry diapers and out of their cribs and in the floor to play. Ross was out of the room like a shot, headed to the common area for toys. He's a scavenger and always comes back with a toy in one hand and something he's not supposed to have in the other, like...4 pieces of broom straw. He's wearing a grin like he's the greatest hunter around. The weather is beautiful here so I decided we should go out and swing on the back porch. After securing each in a swing we probably ended up swinging for close to an hour. Ross and Peter being the only two that truly seemed to enjoy our outside adventure.
Next I took the boys into another room, it's the home of Bester and Elias (twins), Jana, Courtney, Elaine and Miller. These guys are all just barely old enough to sit up so I put them in bouncy seats and arranged "The Lost Boys" on the floor so we could do some singing. Thank you Mrs. Donna for preparing me thru helping with cradle roll class. We sang, God Made the Big Round Sun, Jesus Loves Me, If You're Happy and You Know It and I asked each little one several times, Who made you? and then told them GOD DID!! Jana was sooo cute imitating all the hand motions and even attempting to say GOD DID!
Throughout the morning I had seen several unfamiliar ladies talking with the Aunties, and then Dr.Weaver said that she thought one of the babies mothers had died in the night and Dr.Tullos had taken one of the men at the mission in to town to make some arrangements and sign some papers. Well actually it wasn't one of the current Haven resident’s mothers that died. It was a mother that died in childbirth and her little one is the newest member of Haven 1. He's tiny and precious. I asked the Aunties what his name was, which they told me...in Tongan so I asked what it meant. Beatrice said, "It means, Problem". I looked at her in shock and said, "No Ma'am! We are not calling him Problem, I think he looks like... Joe. Yes, Joe!" Beatrice agreed that we could call him Joe. I hope the name sticks; no way can this sweet little one be a problem.
We didn't go back to the Haven Wednesday afternoon because we had a half day planned to drive down to Livingstone and see the moonbow at Victoria Falls. I'll write about that adventure in a separate post.