The Tidwells: From A (merica) to Z (ambia)...and Back: In other news.....

Saturday, June 3, 2017

In other news.....

So...it was a crazy week. Due to very interesting circumstances, it was brought to our attention on Monday that the information regarding our newest child, Machu, was not true. The uncle that brought him was in fact his father, and there was no grandmother that recently died. Instead, Machu was staying with his father during the school holiday (he has been raised since birth by his aunt), and the father brought him here to try to give him a good education. When the father never returned the child to his aunt, she came looking for him, and found he had been brought to an orphanage! It was the strangest situation we have had yet, and we learned to investigate MUCH more closely. Machu, however, was thrilled to go with his aunt and waved goodbye to all of us, smiling out the truck window!

One day later....baby Joy was brought to us. Joy was born Sunday, May 28th, at 4am. Sadly, her 16 year old mother died just one hour after giving birth. Her father is unknown, as the young girl returned from a trip to the capitol city pregnant. We did a few days of investigating and meeting with Social Welfare and on Friday we received full custody of Joy until she is 19 years old! Teacher Diana has been a huge blessing in caring for Joy in the afternoons and at night, and we have hired someone (and are using our summer volunteer teams!) to care for her during the day until we have a more permanent caregiver! (Our goal is to keep Maggie and Joy away from the orphanage side of New Day for at least 2 months as they build their immune systems.)

She is SO tiny, especially when compared with 7 week old Maggie!