praying for our children

just chilling in the kitchen before dinner,
her favorite time of the day

on tuesday morning maz took our little two and a half year old girl into tygerberg hospital where she will stay for a few days whilst the team get her started on her ARV (anti retro viral) medication for her HIV. normally there's no need for our children to go to hospital to start this treatment but due to the fact that she is also on TB medication and has had TB meningitis then the staff want to observe her before sending her back to stay with us at the village of hope.

she is such a dear little (well not so little) thing, she copies everything anyone says and has really developed since she has been with us. please pray for her as she stays on her own and that there wont be any complications with the different types of medication.
we are longing to see her happy smile back with us again soon.

an update on our 11 year old boy is that he has now been discharged from the red cross children's hospital into our sister project, thembacare athlone, mommy maz visited him yesterday and he is doing a little better but he is still a poorly boy!

11 year old returns again....

the wonder boy returns.

if you have ever visited the village of hope, or if you have been following our blog for any amount of time, you will have heard stories about our wonderful 11 year old boy who captures every-bodies heart. without going into too much detail he has some very complex medical conditions which are really playing havoc with his little body and he has spent a lot of time in the red cross children's hospital as they battle to understand and contain the illness which is overwhelming him.

he loves the village of hope, the house moms who love him as their own and especially mommy maz, who he continually asks for when he is away from 'his home'.......

yesterday we had the great news that he was stable enough to be placed back with us, following his hospitalization and care at our sister project, thembacare athlone. it is good to have his back with us, but because of his medical situation we have to continually monitor him and he is still on oxygen full time, however his smile and lightness of spirit lifts the atmosphere and he brings joy to the lives of all he meets.......thanks for all the thoughts and prayers that were raised up for him and we continue to pray for his full healing.......welcome home!

precious 11 year old boy returns to village of hope

arron carries in the oxygen machine as our
11 year old boy returns to the village of hope

for those of you who have been following the story of the village of hope since the beginning or if you have ever visited our project you will know of our wonderful 11 year old boy who seems to capture every ones heart. his story is one that could be made into a movie, he has complex medical condition (which has been documented in an up and coming book about paediatric palliative care) and since arriving at the village of hope in may 2009 from our thembacare unit in athlone he has been in and out of the red cross children's hospital in cape town with various problems.

yesterday myself (tim) and maz had a 2 hour meeting with the various paediatric, infectious diseases and pulmonary doctors at the red cross hospital who are still very concerned about his condition but were happy to allow us to take him 'home' for his ongoing palliative care. he still needs to be given oxygen 24/7 but we feel that we can maintain his medical needs and are so happy that he is back with us.

he said his sad goodbye's to the wonderful team at athlone and jumped into the car to make the hour long journey up the mountain to grabouw. he never stopped talking and can even say 'grabouw', as we arrived we could hear the other children singing his name and he was greeted by all the house moms and the 9 other children who stay with us. it was an emotional return, the other children were waving from the unit window and as soon as he entered the door they came up to him and gave him big hugs and kisses.

we are so glad to have him home and would ask you all to join us in our prayers as we seek to provide a loving home for him and the rest of the children we look after.