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December 2007
MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU AND PROTECT YOU, MAY THE LORD SMILE ON YOU AND BE GRACIOUS TO YOU, MAY THE LORD SHOW HIS FAVOUR AND GIVE YOU PEACE. Numbers 6:24 - 26
We have once again come to the end of another very fruitful and successful year, managing to place many abandoned babies into wonderfully secure and happy "forever families", folk who have been successfully screened to become adoptive parents.
These special people have hailed from many diferent areas and countries, always making sure that the babes first "temporary parents" at Shepherd's Keep, are kept updated on the babies progress, not as a stipulation, but an act of kindness, that the trained nurses and caregivers who almost breathed life and motivated traumatised babies to live, praying over them, becoming their "surrogate mothers", feeding them every couple of hours, round the clock, are rewarded for their efforts, in being updated.
Most parents are kind enough to do this willingly and "comfort reports" are sent to Cheryl on a regular basis, who are read out to the staff in the nurseries, ( only for our information) and all the oohs and aahs are sighs of relief and satisfaction, that their little loved ones are happy and well and fine!! Thankyou to the new parents for their on going up -dates--we have parents hailing from England, Holland, Germany, Italy, America,Canada,Netherlands,Australia, New Zealand, and many in South Africa.
We had a Parents "Get together" In Decemeber, for past babies, and oh, did we have fun, seeing all the little faces again, growing into delightful little children--our eldest being 15 this year! What a big boy you are!
We had a miraculous "Christmas Gift" baby, given newly born for one blessed Mum and Dad, by a lovely birth Mum, and we are still all celebrating God's goodness for this wonderful time of thanksgiving!
We also have a slide show of our babies on a computer in the playroom , for staff and visitors to enjoy.
Donors and sponsors, all who are personaly thanked by our Administrative dept. are highly praised at SHEPHERD'S KEEP for their continuing and faithful support. We could not carry on without any of your goodselves, and as a non-profit org., we rely only on the goodness of folk such as yourselves, in that also having requested on proposals, have indeed mirrored your care throughout! Sincere thankyou's from Managment and Staff.
Having had such a busy and operative area for so long, our building is in dire need of a face lift, so we are taking the opportunity in the early new year, to do just this!
We are painting and scraping and tiling, and re-furbishing, with changes to change rooms and facilities, with a new kitchen and laundry too!
We will keep you all informed of our new exciting plans in the new year, on our website, which will be stripped of all old news, and the new year, 2008's plans put up for all to see!!
We have new links with new countries and lots of adoptive moms and dads and birth moms too!! So all in all, 2008 sounds like a challenging year for us all!!
We are grateful to so many "hands on" folk who come in on a regular and voluntary basis, to give the babies, "baby massage" and volunteer just by holding the babes close to them,and giving them love, which is of utmost importance, to those who supply gallons and gallons of screened breastmilk, which is the best start for any newborn babe! What a gift! Thankyou to this marvelous breast milk bank!
To those who deliver diapers, milk formula, foodstuffs and toiletries, on a regular basis--new baby clothes, and toys, the biggest thankyou of all! Our babies are kept healthy, happy and beautiful all year round!
We have those marvelous folk who have donated washing machines, dryers, a new state of the art suction machine, water coolers, microwaves, fridges,urns,fans and heaters, cleaning materials, new Chapel furniture and refurbishings, garden plants, all we ever needed to maintain SHEPHERD'S KEEP on the excellence note it was started on and we thankyou all so very much!
Our staff of many ,all highly trained and efficient, have been absolutely wonderful and so faithful this past year, they have been trained in many ways to further their abilities in nursing and caring, and we salute each one in their efforts.
They have received wonderful Christmas gifts and hampers from supporters and they all say a grand thankyou aswell!
A huge party was held, hosted by management of Shepherd's Keep for the staff's children, and all had a wonderful day with gifts and lovely things to eat!
To see more photos taken during 2007 click here.
Over 1000 children were fed and clothed and received gifts over the Christmas period of surplus and arranged clothes collected by management of Shepherd's keep, and distributed through 2 church ministries to the children in squatter camps who had nothing exciting happening for them--this was done in such order and will become a yearly event for Shepherd's keep, all being so blessed to be included in the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the gift He was to us, receiving a gift themselves, helped them to understand why we celebrate this day.
We pray God's richest blessings over you all you amazingly incredible folk in this next year 2008, and hope all your dreams and visions become reality.
May you all live in safety and be blessed with peace.
With sincerest and heart felt thanks for a wonderful year.
Colin and Cheryl Pratley and Michelle Potgieter
HOMES FOR ABANDONED HIV/AIDS BABIES
P.O.Box 21054
Bluff
4036
Kwa-Zulu Natal
South Africa
Phones:
270314666106
Colin Mobile: 0761238252
Cheryl Mobile 0835066570
Michelle Mobile 0845812453
MATTHEW 19 v 4
"suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me for such is the kingdom of heaven"
July 2007
June 2007
To all our friends and supporters
It is with Joy that we are able to come and share once again, how good God is to us, as we continue to strive to do our utmost for the babes He has placed in our care.
We started off the year with many babies, tiny babies, who grew and soon were all adopted and as more babes came in, we are saddened when the bigger ones go, and we think we will never do without them, but as the newborns grow and we see that first smile and then the first tooth, we again, are caught up in "bonding" with our little ones all over again! and so the circle keeps going round and round, us falling in love all over again!
We are happy to say, our social worker has managed to place many, many babies this year with wonderful adoptive parents, both locally and abroad
The come-back on these adoptions are always phenomenal, in that the baby designated for a specific couple, is always the right one! I always wonder over this and just know that God has His hand on us as we place a baby with a specific set of parents, with much prayer and hope, and God has already guided us into pairing them off divinely! How wonderfully amazing it is to see a childless couple arrive at the doors of Shepherd's keep, go away a week later with a bundle of sheer joy-what a dynamic addition to a family formerly barren! God is to be praised in all this!
We still have our cerebral palsied babies—Gugu and Joshua both celebrated 2nd birthdays this year, and much fun was had by all--we cant believe they are two whole years old!
They are still very "different" to handle, and they have become babies that need constant care, so we assign certain caregivers to this task, daily, and nightly—they are very loved and are thriving and very well cared for and SPOILT! They should be!
We have one baby who has been diagnosed as epileptic, he is huge and has the most humorous disposition ever! he laughs at his own hands, and giggles at absolutely anything—we all love him to bits!
In December, on Christmas day—we admitted a newborn baby with definite abnormalities, I called her "REJOICE" as we all rejoiced when she was brought to us!
She has since been diagnosed with Craniosynastosis, and will be admitted to a huge specialist hospital in July, to have complete cranial and facial reconstructive surgery, by a very special surgeon who has agreed to do it.
We all wait in anticipation for next month, knowing that if she hadn't have come to Shepherd's keep, and hadn't have had a full medical assessment, she would certainly develop brain damage as her closing skull crushes her brain, so again, all thanks and praise to God in guiding the police to us on the dark Christmas night of 2006.
We have been blessed with a new floor in our chapel and floor cornices throughout our building, what an immense difference to the building, we were also donated a very much needed floor polisher, which is making life a lot easier for the cleaning staff, as our building is cleaned from top to toe in the morning and evening of each day, right through the week! We are grateful beyond words for the company that did all this for us, a huge big thank you!
We have had a washing machine and tumble drier donated by Durban Christian Centre, and what a blessing they are as our old machines were churning on their last—thank you so very much!!
All monetary donations have helped to keep Shepherd's Keep running at the standard we maintain, and for this we thank you all, as this is directly responsible for the babies health and well-being—so bless you all!
Our gardens will soon be overcome with beauty, as a retired horticulturist has joined our staff and he is really going to beautify the gardens—at the moment there are hundreds of different birds that we feed everyday with ordinary birdseed, and what a glorious sound they make, the babies are enthralled at them and enjoy them just as much as we do.
To everyone else who dedicates time and effort to Shepherd's Keep, not forgetting our very much needed and appreciated volunteers, especially the school girls who come so regularly—a huge big grateful thank you to you all—it is your input, no matter what it is, that keeps us going !!
God bless you all, all over the globe, our friends forever!
Colin, Cheryl and Michelle
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