"Blessed Child"

Yesterday morning at church they had a children’s bible hour after the communion; so we all went to help and watch. The kids really seemed to enjoy this time which was lead by Jennifer, the Merrit’s daughter. She definitely kept the children in check! She would stop mid song to call a child out if they were not singing or participating; props to her! At the end of the hour Lacey, Jaime, Catherine, and I went up front and led a couple of songs. The children seemed to really like “I'm in the Lord's Army” (the southern style-version), it was quite humorous, apparently! ha

Jason reading his B-I-B-L-E

After church Catherine, Lacey, and I laid out on the back porch. My plan was to read but instead I fell asleep. It was glorious. Shortly after nap time it began to rain…hard. Later, a girl from the college told us that it’s rare for it to rain during the dry season. She said it means that we should expect a cold June.
Last night at church we were able to see not one but FOUR baptisms! YAAAY for more brothers and sisters in Christ!!

I was able to talk to my momma and daddy on the PHONE! For those of you who know me well, you should know I talk to my ‘rents (especially my momma) pretty much on a DAILY basis. So this was a big deal. A good ending to my day and a good beginning to my week!

Today at the Haven we (Catherine, Lacey, and I) began our feeding/swallowing therapy with Caroline. We learned some oral motor exercises to strengthen the facial muscles by massaging the infants cheeks, upper lip, and lower lip in order to simulate those muscles used for feeding. We see 7 infants at Haven 3 (the medically at risk fragile babies) and 6 infants at Haven 2. On a few of the infants we had to use a "z-vibe" which is a vibrating device used to basically relax the tongue and prevent it from protruding while feeding. Today was basically a tutorial where Caroline provided the case histories for each infant and also techniques to increase better feeding habits for the individual.

Catherine with Shelby and Bennett

Poor baby Bennett has eczema; he has to wear little mittens on his hands and a hat because he often scratches himself so much he bleeds :(

Sweet Sydney needed the "z-vibe" today

"Sweeeet" Caroline and baby Choolwe

Tomorrow we are going to do evaluations on the new babies, Alfred and Hunter, who have recently arrived at the Haven. I look forward to learning a TON more throughout the week!

Although we spent most of the day at the Haven we still managed to have a couple of "situations" at the house. First, this morning the power went out (luckily I had JUST blew my hair dry) then during lunch we managed to lock ourselves out of the house. Now, we didn't technically lock the keys inside the house, we just couldn't use the actual key to unlock the door because something was literally in the way of the lock. So, thanks to mini D.T. (aka: Ian) who climbed through the bars of a window we were able to get through the back. That wasn't the end of it...after dinner we came back to the house and the power was out for a good hour so we all sat in the living room reading with our head lamps. Gotta love it though!!!