Restoring Hope Village Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed our Christmas celebration with the children. The children were given generous presents from many sponsors and others who deeply care about them. The Village also gave each child and housemother a present. Before the unwrapping of the gifts started, we took time to read the Christmas story & to discuss why we give gifts to each other. For many of the children and even for some of our housemothers this was their first Christmas to celebrate with presents and to reflect on the REAL meaning of CHRISTmas.

(Pastor Uncle Louie reading the Christmas story. -notice the nice book rest he used)

(Housemother Selina helping Siya & Granny Susie helping Tumi open their presents)

(Dieketseng very pleased with her gifts)

(Motshidisi wish came true for a watch)

(Siya can't decide what to play with first and

ran out of hands so he could eat his candy)

(Komehelgo is very pleased with his car that makes car noises)

(Paulina got her wish for a doll & tea set)

Thank You to everyone who generously gave to the children at Restoring Hope Village to make Christmas so special for them. The children had a super exciting day & were very blessed by all the gifts they received. I do believe each child is truly grateful.

Our Family Christmas!

Our family it still trying to figure out what our 'Christmas traditions' are going to be. Since moving to South Africa each Christmas has been unique. When we moved to South Africa it was just the two of us and forming our own traditions didn't seem to be important to us & the day was filled with many others to celebrate with. Now with our own three children we feel the need to set some family traditions. This year we celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve evening & it was wonderful. I believe this will be our tradition to carry on.

We had a Skype Christmas with my parents & they were able to watch the kids open their presents from them. Skype is such a wonderful gift to us, it bridges the gap of not being able to be together in such a wonderful way.

{Skyping with Papa and Nana in Iowa}

After our Skype Christmas, we enjoyed a Christmas supper & opening of presents with Brian's parents that are here with us. We read the Christmas story with the kids and talked about the importance of Christmas. And of course, we enjoyed watching Liam and Lindie open their presents. Charlie is a bit small to enjoy Christmas yet :)

{Daddy reading the Christmas story. Liam & Lindie enjoying the pictures

and answering questions.}

{Grandma and Grandpa gave Lindie a doll baby crib

& it happens to be a perfect fit for Charlie}

Christmas Eve was a busy day. Prior to our family Christmas celebration we celebrated with The Village Kids, but that is going to be another post.

We Have 3 Children!

Yesterday as we were getting ready to leave for church we had one of those moments that made us realize we really do have 3 children. Life has been pretty easy up to this point with 3 kids. We were about 1 minute away from walking out the door for church when Lindie took the cap off a black sharpie marker that had a leak. She was wearing her ivory Christmas dress that is still soaking in hopes that the black ink will come out. Needless to say, I had black ink on me and daddy and grandma quickly cleaned Lindie up and changed her dress. Now we are out the door and onto the bus to take everyone at The Village to Church when Charlie decides to spit-up big time. He even managed to get the bus floor. I took Charlie back inside to do a complenoutfit change. Brian left with the bus and kids for church and Charlie and I drove separately. Yes, today is the first time it felt like we had 3 kids that are ages 3 years, 2 years and 3 weeks old.

Before spitting up on his outfit-3 weeks old

I managed to get to church in time to see the children's Christmas program. They did a great job. This is Drake, Komahelgo and Liam dressed as shepherds. You can also see Meredith dressed as an angel.

Charlie is growing!

A few new pictures of Charlie. He's getting so cute and changing quickly.

We've been without internet for a while & still don't have it back...the joys of South Africa.

Enjoying Charlie

Everyone at The Village is enjoying baby Charlie & he is getting extra spoiled. Even the kids line up to take turns to hold him.

Dieketseng comes everyday after school to see if he is awake so she can hold him.

Charlie has had a big welcome to The Village Family!

Baby Charlie

On Saturday morning, we welcomed our newest addition to our family. Charlie Levi was born at 9:24AM. His arrival was a bit of a surprise since he was almost 3 weeks early but he was ready to join the family on his schedule.

Charlie has already captured his big brother's love. Liam loves trying to give him toys to play with. Liam is already asking when will Charlie be big so they can play together. Lindie is also fascinated with her little brother and is even willing to share her blanket with him (this is a big deal). We are enjoying being a family of five and Charlie is a perfect addition. We love you so much little guy!

Daddy made Charlie his own website, check it out. http://web.me.com/bniehoff/Charlie_Levi_Niehoff

{Last prego picture before Charlie was born}

{Charlie's first picture right after being delivered}

{Charlie and Daddy}

{All sleepy after his first bath & looking very cute.

We love his fuzzy hair. Thanks Nanna Cain for my cute outfit}

{Daddy and his two boys}

{Mommy & her 3 little bundles of joy}

Thabang

Louie O'Tool shared this on their blog and I wanted to share it with all of you also. Life isn't always fun and games over here and reality hurts at times.

Usually we're pretty upbeat about ministry. Sometimes it's still hard to believe that we get to do this job. But there are hard times. And last week we had one of those experiences.

On November 1st we had a new boy join The Village. Thabang is 11 years old. He is orphaned and had been living with an elderly great-aunt who could no longer care for him. His school was over 3km away and without any encouragement from home he just quit going. Apparently his behavior was becoming difficult for her to handle as well.

We usually don't take children this age, as by this point they are typically too streetwise and independent to be molded. In this case, knowing the background, we hoped there were extenuating circumstances (such as hunger) leading to some of the problems. We told the social workers we would work with Thabang and try to help him.

The first night he was here we found that he had gotten up in the middle of the night and taken food into the bathroom and eaten it. He wasn't very good at covering his tracks. This type of behavior is very normal when new children arrive, as so many of them have been fending for themselves. We are usually able to break that behavior simply by feeding the child and showing them they will be cared for. With Thabang this wasn't the case. He continued to steal food, and then if he was given something he didn't like he would try to secretly throw it away and then take something he liked more.

We learned quickly that he hadn't had much authority in his young life. Having quit school there wasn't really anyone telling him what to do at all. Twice he left The Village just to go wandering around just because he wanted to, even though he had been told by 3 different people not to leave the property without supervision. When given instruction by his housemother he would completely ignore it, or even blatantly challenge it.

While Thabang was clearly very intimidated by Brian and me, he displayed no concept of respect for his housemother. He even told one of the other boys that he didn't care what she said or if she tried to punish him because he was big enough to take it.

In the short time he was with us several of us tried to reason with him. Brian spoke with him a couple times, as did I. We even had Zachariah speak with him in hopes that the communication barrier would be removed. Once I tried to explain to him how good his life could be at The Village, that this could be the best thing that ever happened to him. But his behavior continued as he rejected our counsel.

Eventually, knowing that this kind of behavior could hinder the growth of the other children, we had to tell the social worker that they needed to find a new place for Thabang.

That hurts. When an 11 year old kid has already been set on this path in life, knowing the window has passed where he can be helped, it is hard to accept. You would love to invest everything trying to reach him, but you can't put the other children at risk in the meantime.

I hesitate to share this story, but you need to know the reality of life here. "A child left to himself will bring his mother to shame." We are seeing the fruits of scores of children left to themselves.

The most poignant truth I see in situations like these is God's relationship with mankind. He is there, offering His love, offering adoption into His family, giving us freely the best life we could imagine. But in our stubbornness so many of us turn Him away. We continue to treasure the petty pleasures we find in life, rejecting the awesomeness that He wants to give us. God doesn't reject us, we reject Him. As Thabang refused to soften, refused to listen, so also do we, not willing to see the riches He will provide in Christ. If that is you, please, I beg you, stop living your miserable life and accept the love and forgiveness God offers through His Son.