Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends,

The last few months have been full of ups and downs.  On the positive side, Grace and Abby can now do somersaults, sing whole songs in English and Shona, and will be starting preschool in January!  It is hard to believe how fast they have grown.  They look so cute in their new uniforms.  The uniforms were even made by one of our Fairfield children, Lizzie, who is now studying Fashion and Fabrics in college!  The HOPE children finished their exams and are now on Christmas break for the month of December.  They were all given food for a special Christmas dinner with their families thanks to generous donors. There were also donations of clothes and even 9 refurbished laptops for our oldest children!

 

On a sad note, when I went to immigration to apply for a renewal of my visa, I was told that my file was marked “non-renewable”.  This means that I am not even allowed to apply for another visa.  I will have to leave the country on the 18^th of January.  At this time, there are no other visas I qualify for to stay in Zimbabwe.  I will therefore be looking for a full time ministry to work with in South Africa.  This will enable me to continue raising funds and monitoring the HOPE program by returning to Zimbabwe several times a year.  I will also be able to maintain contact with Abigail and Grace since the adoption process from the Zimbabwean side is not able to move forward at this time.

The HOPE program will continue running as normal under the supervision of the Fairfield Children’s Home administrators, Luke and Cecillia.  All ministries on the mission have a strong set of checks and balances and these two who will be in charge of the HOPE program when I am away are extremely trustworthy and reliable with the HOPE funds.  Please consider donating through CornerStone whenever you are able so that we will be able to keep all the children in school and continue giving those who are sick and malnourished vital, nutritious food each week. 

I will keep everyone informed as my plans unfold.  A friend told me recently that faith is a balance between believing God can and will perform miracles and knowing that even if He doesn’t, we will choose to praise Him anyway. God has good plans for all of us.  Sometimes we can’t see the bigger picture right away, but I have no doubt that something good will happen from this situation for me, Abby and Grace.  I would appreciate your prayers for guidance during this transition time.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Janine

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.  Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.  Let him bury his face in the dust-there may yet be hope…” Lamentations 3:25-29

St. James Children in their new school sweaters!

I want to start out with a big thank you to all of you who have contributed to the milk formula needed for our twenty babies.  It has made such a huge difference.  This is an ongoing need, so please remember us.   We continue to receive new babies each month, including a new baby born last month and brought to live at Fairfield as well as a 5 month old whose mother died last week and is living with relatives.  The milk program is providing these babies with milk formula and other nutritional foods until they reach 2 years of age.  Thank you to all who have helped!

All the older children are now back at school for their third and final term of the year.  Many of the students are getting ready to take their big end-of-school exams to complete either their elementary or high school training.  They have been studying hard, some waking up as early as 3AM to find quiet moments to study before all their brothers and sisters wake up to get ready for school each day.

Children receiving school supplies on the first day of school

We had a container arrive in August, thanks to Francie Markham from South Carolina and many who contributed items in the container.  Sweaters were sent for each of our school children as well as a special box of presents for each individual child at Fairfield, thanks to our friends at Mt. Pleasant Church in Mineral Wells, WV.  Thank you to everyone who participated.

It is hard to believe that Abigail and Grace will be three years old in a few weeks.  I have known them for 2 years!  They can now speak and sing in both Shona and English.  They continue to live at Fairfield Children’s Home and are well cared for and loved by the mother in their house, Nyasha, and all the other children in their home.  I am grateful that I get to spend time with them every day.

Eating dinner with Brother Wonder at House 8

Getting medicines from Mother Nyasha

My application for adoption was approved by the US in June.  It is now up to the Zimbabwe Social Welfare to continue the process, but there have been many issues arising.  I would very much appreciate prayers that God’s will be done in this situation and that He would ensure the best possible outcome for Abigail and Grace.  I will be sure to send further updates as they are available, but that is all I am able to share for now.  Prayers are greatly needed and appreciated. 

Thank you all for your continued support of the HOPE program.  Because of all of you, we are able to continue to care for 20 infants who would not have milk, 60 who would not have enough food to stay healthy, and 100 who would not be receiving an education.  Thanks to all!

Wenyu Munashe,

Janine

Grace playing at my house

Abby playing at my house

Twenty Babies

As HOPE has become better known in the community, we are having more and more infants referred to us by nearby clinics.  These babies no longer have a mother or their mother is not able to produce milk to feed her baby.  The babies are sometimes brought to us in desperate and immediate need of milk formula or cow milk in order to survive. 

Baby S (names omitted) entered our program a few months ago after her mother passed away unexpectedly.  Her sweet father brings her every week, carrying her on his back.  It is very rare for a Zimbabwean man to carry a baby in this way and just shows how much he truly loves his daughter. 

Our newest baby, Baby A, was brought early on a Monday morning when she was just three days old.  Her mother had died in childbirth and the relatives had been frantically searching for a way to feed the baby all weekend.

HOPE also has a set of triplets ready to graduate from the milk program in a few months.  Their mother was not able to produce enough milk to keep all three at a healthy weight.  With the supplemental milk they received from HOPE, all three boys are now running, playing and strong.  We will proudly and happily graduate three healthy boys in August when they reach two years of age.

Infants need 6 to 7 tins of milk formula each month until they reach one year of age, at which point we encourage relatives to find cow milk for the children.  We pay the cost of the cow milk, which is considerably cheaper than the milk formula.  Currently, HOPE is spending $600 per month on milk formula and cow milk. 

If you or a group you are a part of would be willing to raise funds to help offset the cost of milk for our babies, this assistance would be greatly appreciated.  We are constantly getting new babies at a higher rate than we are graduating them, so ongoing or one-time donations specifically for milk will always be a need high on our priority list. 

If you decide to assist with this need, please send donations to:

CornerStone International

PO Box 192

Wilmore, KY 40390

Memo: HOPE of Zim/milk

If you donate through Paypal by clicking the link to the right of this posting, just send me a quick email (hopeofzim@gmail.com) so that I know the funds are specifically for milk. 

Thank you in advance!

Wenyu Munashe,

Janine, Abigail and Grace

Grace practicing on the tightrope

Tino enjoying his holiday making his own car!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.  The children here at Fairfield enjoyed a weekend of church activities to celebrate here in Zimbabwe.  We have now started a holiday month from school, and the children have kept busy by helping in the fields, reading and playing.  We have two girls from Sweden, Ellinor and Guro, who will be staying for 4 months.  Along with Lina, a student nurse from Norway, they have taught the children to walk on a tightrope, held running races and taught the younger children lots of new songs including the Hokey Pokey!

The HOPE children have been bringing their report cards and so far everyone passed the first term of school with flying colors!  Guro, Ellinor and Lina helped me to take shoes, socks and uniforms to some of the schools during first term.  We also found a huge box of pencils hiding in our storeroom and passed them out to every student at St. James’ Primary School.  There were lots of smiles that day!  It is great to see so much happiness from such a small gesture.

Guro with the children at House 4

Abby and Grace continue to grow taller each month-I can hardly believe that they are now fitting into their 2T clothes!  They are both talking and singing more and more each day.  Grace especially loves to go around the house labeling everything to show off her knowledge.  “Window, door, table, chair, cup, boot.”  Boot is the word both girls use for spoon at the moment and for some reason they both LOVE playing with boots.  Grace uses her “boot” to mix imaginary meals to feed her baby, while Abby can turn any cup, dish or table into a drum using her “boots” as drumsticks…she has perfect rhythm!

I am very grateful to my Social Worker in West Virginia who worked hard over the last month to make sure all my paperwork and state clearances are in order.  She will be filing my first set of adoption paperwork within the next week or so and says it usually takes 8-12 weeks for a response.  Please pray that this first step is approved quickly and that the right people will help me know the next steps to follow in Zimbabwe.  It is my hope that once the US approval is complete, the foster care order can be reinstated and Abby and Grace can move back home! 

Thanks to everyone who has contributed toward the adoption fees through CornerStone.  So far, I have used the funds to pay for the home study and the I-600A filing fees to be approved as an adoptive parent.  Thank you for helping us to become a legal family!

Love, Janine, Abby and Grace

 

The Whole Story

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for my long absence in sending a HOPE update.  Those of you who have seen my Facebook updates over the last months will know part of why there was such a long silence.  I found out at the end of November that my work visa application had been denied.  I had 21 days to make an appeal, at which time I hired an immigration attorney in Zimbabwe to assist.  The appeal was also denied just days before Christmas and I was told I would have to leave the country by January 11.  I flew to South Africa on that day, not knowing what to do next.  In what can only be described as an intervention from God, I found out the very next day that my lawyer had put in a second appeal, which had been approved before immigration closed on my last legal day in the country.  I am now safely home in Zimbabwe for another year.

This ordeal was made much worse by the fact that the adoption process for Abigail and Grace was only in the beginning stages.  When Social Welfare filed the adoption paperwork in September after a mandatory foster care period, it was discovered that we had been following the guidelines to adopt as a Zimbabwean citizen.  I was supposed to apply to adopt as a foreigner and be cleared as an adoptive parent in the US before being allowed to foster or adopt Abby and Grace.  Until this paperwork can be obtained, Social Welfare informed me that the girls would need to be removed from my home.   They were removed on December 28, after living as a family for 1 year and 2 months.

Although this is the hardest thing I have ever been through, I am very grateful to the officers who realized that Abby and Grace are very attached to me as their mother.  They arranged for the girls to be placed at Fairfield Children’s Home where I live and work so that we could continue to see each other every day.  The girls adjusted very quickly and we see each other throughout every day, though they sleep at Fairfield.  It has made me realize what a wonderful home environment Fairfield really is.  The girls are well-cared for and well-loved when I am not able to be with them, which gives me great peace of mind.  The administrators, Luke and Cecillia, were so supportive through the whole situation and helped me to make good decisions about how to best arrange the transition.

I have now begun the adoption process on the US side, and it will take a few months for everything to be processed.  I was fortunate to find two US Social Workers, one living in Zimbabwe and one in West Virginia, who are working together to complete my home study.  Once I am cleared as an adoptive parent, we will be able to resubmit paperwork for guardianship in Zimbabwe.  A US immigration attorney, the US Embassy and my Senator’s office have all been contacted to assist in completing the adoption once the guardianship is granted, but for many reasons this may prove much more difficult than first expected.  There is a definite possibility that I will not be able to complete the adoption, but everything possible will be done to ensure that it proceeds.  Please be in prayer that everything will progress without problems and the girls and I will be reunited as soon as possible. 

If anyone would be willing to contribute to the costs of the adoption, a tax-deductible donation can be made to:

CornerStone International

PO Box 192

Wilmore, KY 40390

Memo: Zimbabwe adoption

I will keep everyone informed of the progress throughout this year.  Currently the home study information is being gathered and then the paperwork will be filed for approval. 

Thank you all for your support and love,

Janine, Abigail and Grace