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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
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 and Cheryl
Pratley — custodians of Shepherd's Keep
Going back... 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002
|
