Arrival

I wanted to get some blogs out while we were in Swaziland or the few days in South Africa, but lack of internet kept us from doing so. So we wrote the blogs and are posting them now.

We made it to Swaziland safe and sound. It was a long couple of flights – first 9 ½ hrs from Denver to London. After an 8 hour layover in London, we flew 11 hours to Johannesburg and hung out in the airport for 5 hours. Finally, we flew a small twin-propeller plane to Manzini. There we met the Vanderwal's, the people running the Luke Commission, after going through customs. They are such a nice family of six (8 year old triplets and a five year old) who have an incredible ministry here. We drove to their house and met some of their help, and one precious little girl named Susanna. She is a beautiful little Swazi girl that the Vanderwal's took in as she had been abandoned at the local hospital. They had heard from their local sources that her mother had left here there, but they didn't know much about the mom. They know that Susanna was on HIV meds after birth because they didn't know the HIV status of the mom. There is a social work program at the hospital for babies like Susanna, but it can take quite a while for an adoption to go through. There's evidently about 2 or 3 babies abandoned a week here, so there is certainly a strain on the system. The Vanderwal's took her in and will take care of her until she is adopted. That's on top of taking care of their own four kids, as well as their staff of 10 Swazis and a nurse staying with them. Fortunately, we will be able to care for her and even have her at nights. Pray for Susanna, that she would be HIV negative, that a good Christian home would adopt her, and that she would grow up to be a woman of God.