Wednesday morning I awoke to sounds of babies crying, which of course was impossible since we are home in Temple, Texas now. After four months of living in the center of our home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Africa, maybe the cries of our thirty plus babies are permanently imprinted in my mind, I know their faces are certainly imprinted in my heart.

We miss them terribly when we are gone from our home in Arusha where we live with these incredibly beautiful babies. I miss the full body hugs of Frankie who when asked if he had fun at school answers with a lispth “Yeth,” and the cute head ducking of Carolyn Sue which means “You can pick me up now” and tiny abandoned baby, Neema Joy, with both sides of her head shaved from a bout of pneumonia in the hospital with an IV stuck in her scalp, and the chubby cheeks of Bahati and the wrinkle nose smile of Doris and the big eyes of Julius and Ebenezer and … Okay I miss them all!   I even miss putting calamine on the 21 Neema babies who had Chicken Pox this trip!

 The building site (below) for Neema’s new home is progressing, not as fast as we would have hoped but dirt is moving.

The sites for the baby home, the unadoptable baby home and the widow’s cottage have all been cleared and the road through the property has been levelled. The fence is up and the concrete pad with the one ton generator bolted onto the slab is finished.  (Matt and Michael at the delivery of the generator, a gift from the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation.)

Now the village council just has to decide that we have jumped through enough hoops to warrant giving us the building permits! They had at first asked us for 54 million shillings in capital gains tax, a figure they pulled out of a hat somewhere and which translates into a whopping $30,000 US dollars. Since we had not gained any capital in our six months of owning the property we were not inclined to agree to the astronomical price. Our Tanzanian lawyer got the figure down to $5,000 which we have paid and which can now hopefully be passed on to the sellers who actually gained the capital.

 Matt, Kelly, Michael and I had a dedication of the land before we left Tanzania last week. (right)  It was very sweet and brought tears as we walked around the fence, read bible verses, prayed and put down tent pegs with scripture verses. We asked God to build a hedge of protection around us and give safety, health, joy and vision to all who will live and work on this beautiful land God has provided.  Job 1:10

Our daughter, Rebekah (below), has now moved in at Neema and has taken over the medical issues with the babies and nannies. With twenty one babies and two employees covered in Chicken Pox this trip she has had her hands full.  Carolyn Sue, (below) one of Neema’s abandoned babies, with Chicken Pox.

 As an EMT on her last trip to Neema, Bekah saved the lives of a number of Neema babies and we are blessed to have her living in the baby home now. Kelly, along with homeschooling her two daughters and managing the 32 full time employees at Neema, has taken over the huge task of managing the volunteer program at Neema.  Michael over the last three years has spent many hours emailing, sending applications, answering questions, helping with visas, scheduling bed space, calming fears, etc for hundreds of potential volunteer applicants and is overjoyed at handing this over to Kelly so we can concentrate on fund raising and getting sponsors for the babies.

We had over a hundred volunteers last year from twenty one different countries. So if you are interested in volunteering at Neema contact Kelly Erdman at [email protected].

“Volunteering at Neema is hard work but someone has to do it, like Rhiannan from the UK.”.

Hope you enjoyed these cute pictures of Neema House Arusha babies.  If you are not already sponsoring one of these babies jump on board!  We need you!  As a registered non profit your gift is tax deductible and no administrative salaries are paid from Neema donations.

Blessings of Neema (Grace)

Michael and Dorris Fortson