Baby Gifts

In those boxes our church sent us, they included several baby quilts and layettes for us to give to new babies in our village.  These warm clothes and quilts seemed so appropriate at this cold time of year here.  With the nights getting anywhere from 15-20C, it is quite cool in their houses at night.  The gifts were very much appreciated.  Thank you to all who contributed to these gifts.

This is Baby Mina Rose.  She is almost 3 months old now.  She was actually born here in town as after 3 hours of pushing she would not come.  The men rushed her on a stretcher to town to have the baby.  She laughs about the baby having such a big head.  The mom is Freda and she is a school teacher in another village.  Her husband is Dennis.  They spend most of their time in the other village but both are from our village and come back often.  They were very happy to receive the gifts.

It is culture here that they won't open the gift in front of the person giving it, so that is why you don't see the baby with the blanket or anything. 

We had a nice visit with this family and their extended family.  We even enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with them.

This is baby Francis Mark.  He is about 6 weeks old.  His mom is a school teacher in our village but is on leave now with just having had the baby.  This is their 5th baby and first boy!!!  Apparently it is the opposite of the dad's family.  They have 4 boys and 1 girl last.

This is Josilyn. She is the baby of our neighbour.  She is baby #6.  She is being carried by her sister, Chona.  She is about 9 years old now.  She carries this baby around a lot.  The baby is almost 3 months old now.  Whenever I talk to the baby I get really nice smiles from her!!!  Her mom is Itang and she speaks no English and limited Tagalog.  She didn't say much when we gave her the bag with the gift in it. 

But about an hour later she came around Christina's house with the baby in her sling, all wrapped up in the new quilt.  She gave me that beautiful smile!!!  I think she was very happy to receive the gift.

You can continue to pray for all these babies but especially for this last family.  The oldest daughter of theirs is 15 years old and married and now pregnant too.  This time we saw even more of the shunning that this family gets in the village.  Pray we can be a blessing and example to the rest of the village and show Christ in how we treat them.  It is very hard sometimes as the kids in this family are not very nice much of the time.  They are mean and rude and don't listen, even though they understand what we tell them.