I'm here!!!!

Hello all!  Yes, I made it safely, and I've been here for over a week now.  My email account just got up and running, so I'm finally back in touch.  If you'd like to email me, my address is amanda@tlc.org. 

I'd like to give you a little picture of what I've been up to.  I jumped right into work when I arrived, so I really haven't seen much of South Africa yet, but here's what I've been doing;

Right now, TLC has 36 babies and toddlers.  There are 8 creepy crawlies, which are the kids between about 18 months and 4, 18 fledgies and grubs, which are babies (developmentally) between 2-4 months (fledgies) and 5-15 months (grubs), and the rest of them are in the nest, which is for newborns and premature babies. I've spent nearly all of my time with the fledgies and the grubs.  We're so short on volunteers that quite often there are two of us taking care of all 18 babies, which includes bathing them all once a day, feeding the little ones every four hours, and the big ones their meals and bottles, changing "nappies" (diapers) what feels like a million times a day, and all of the other miscelaneous things that go into taking care of babies...not to mention trying to keep the mobile ones from stepping on the little ones!  I usually work from about 6 am, when they start waking up, till 7 or 8 pm when they all go to bed.  Yeah, they're long days and I'm really tired!  It took me a couple of days to get adjusted to the time change (I would wake up in the middle of the night absolutely unable to fall asleep even though I was exhausted.), so I'm sure that's part of the reason I'm so tired.

The babies are adorable!  I know all of the creepies, grubs and fledgies by name now.  I havn't worked in the nest yet, but I'm in there for two hours later today.  They're all just so sweet and cute and wonderful, although I don't get to spend nearly as much time as I had thought cuddling with them-there is simply just too much to be done!  Hopefully I can get some pictures up sometime soon-then you can see for yourself how cute they are!

I've been doing pretty well.  I havn't gotten sick, which they say is pretty good for my first week here.  I am, on the other hand, pretty darned homesick, so if you are the praying type, I'd appreciate some prayers for that.  People keep telling me that it gets better after the first month, but right now, a year sounds like a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time! 

I miss you all, I miss home, and I think of you guys all the time.  I hope and pray that you are well. 

Please, feel free to email me!  I'd love to hear from home!

Amanda