Kae, doma’s US Project Coordinator has been caring for the Bloom! garden this spring.  The garden was created to support this new social enterprise this summer!  And wow, has it been fun for me, Kae, Lauren, and all of the survivors who have been working hard to see it through from seed to harvest.

Although Kae will be scaling down her time spent with our survivors while she is caring for her two twin boys early this fall, she has ‘given birth’ to an amazing garden and this fabulous social enterprise idea for our dear survivors!

In her words:

Everyday is Greenday at Bloom! Just a few weeks ago, our garden had its very first harvest: squash, basil, parsley and okra…

which turned into an amazing pesto dish–the ladies saw food go from the earth to our bellies in 30 minutes. But let me start at the beginning.

March:  Our garden has two jobs — to feed our lovely ladies and to support our social enterprise, Freedom a la Cart-  FALC. It was started by an awesome donation of indoor grow lights from Indoor Gardens.  (Thanks, Paul!)  We had one survivor in Bloom at the time, and neither she nor I had ever grown anything under artificial lights. Julie’s dad donated the seeds.  Pots were donated by Fishers Gardens on Truro Ave.
– all we had to buy was dirt, trays and a watering can. Caris Post, super doma volunteer, monkeyed up to the rafters of the basement and rigged up the lights. I planted the seeds with A.M., and she watered faithfully every day, toting that watering can up and down the stairs over and over. After just a few days it looked like this:

April:  And then this:

May:  And this!

June:  It was time to go outside. There was a big ol’ rectangle of earth outside, all cleared. The Heritage folk came and filled it with lots of compost. Then the Vandeveer Family from Abolition U. came and planted four nice fat rows of veggies and herbs — they even brought their dog and took the survivors grocery shopping. When they left, Kate Snow came and helped put down all the straw (holds in moisture, lessens the weeds, slugs hate it). We planted a ring of marigolds around the garden (turns the bunnies away).

We planted

• tomatoes (3 varieties)

• okra

• parsley

• basil

• eggplant

• snow peas

• squash

• zucchini

• broccoli

• brussels sprouts

• peppers (bell & hot)

 July:

Our beds multiply! As Freedom a la Cart comes into real fruition, we realized that cilantro was about to become very important to our lives (Freedom’s flavors are pretty Brazilian–who knew?). So Emily Dannemiller and ladies from her Bible study came and dug us a precious little bed. Then Bailee Frasier  brought her two daughters and they put new soil into the plot and sowed cilantro seeds right in. People say it’s hard to start from seed, but that plot now houses about 100 little cilantro plants.

Heritage came back toward the end of July to till a new plot for our remaining veggies–Trish Dehnbostel of Local Matters donated more parsley and peppers–we have more of our own tomatoes and eggplant and three watermelons to put in the ground.

Some of our Bloom! survivors are a little leery of dirt and bugs, but S.H. was my super waterer (she just moved from Bloom! to Amethyst last week), doma’s Lauren and Kayla have been helping, and more loving green thumbs are incoming.  And there’s even a great story about Lauren using the organic habanero insect deterrent to clean the Bloom! house.  It may involve a lot of coughing and gagging…

August:

We have been harvesting and will use the harvest for our food cart this month!

Several events for Freedom a la Cart are already on the calendar:

August 7th is “A Night of Hope” .  Join us around 4pm in the parking lot of 345 E. 2nd Ave. in Columbus for some yumm-o, locally grown food!  See below for a short promo video about the event, featuring our dear CATCH survivors and Judge Herbert.

August 11th is a luncheon with Judge Herbert for church and community leaders who want to hear more about how to get involved in doma’s Bloom! programs for the CATCH court ladies. Email daniel@domaconnection.org for details.

AND….

Follow Freedom a la Cart on twitter to see where we are located each day we are in operation at lunch time downtown C-bus.

I had the privilege of attending the Women’s Fund Goldie Hawn event with 4 amazing survivors.  And they LOVED the experience.  They were so thrilled to dress up and be among 2500 women (and a few men, including our dear Judge Herbert) whose mission is “Investing in the potential of women and girls”.   The grant we received from the women’s fund has been instrumental in helping doma organize and train all of our MANY generous volunteers for our CATCH court ladies.  Why did we decide to take 10 weeks to train people on Human Trafficking and victim interaction?  Because it’s HARD and emotionally draining and at times, counterintuitive. Because usually, when I teach Human Trafficking 101 to a group of people, they look like deer caught in the headlights when I’m done…(It’s a lot of information to process!)   So taking 10 weeks to FIGHT slavery together– including going flyering, visiting the freedom museum, reading and discussing important books, etc…  has been a critical part of doma training as we work with survivors of Human Trafficking.  And if our volunteers are trained, then they can respond appropriately to tough situations, tough questions, and surprising turn of events… We see, before our very eyes, every week— lives being restored and communities being renovated.

And as you will see, working with our ladies, there  always are these amazing stories of hope to give us strength as we press on.

Watch our video HERE!

The team was energized and well-fed from the pasta dinner the night before. We had 40 volunteers from Covenant Church to man a water table at mile 11. Several of our survivors came out to pitch in, as well. As Dan and I TOGETHER crossed the finish line after our 5K, (yes, we downgraded from the 1/2 last year!)– we thought we’d go say hi to the water table (a few miles away!) And it was THERE that I was amazed. Amazed that this group of volunteers,wearing our doma Team Up shirts still had smiles and energy and encouraging words. And among them, our survivors were jumping and cheering on the runners with such beauty. At one point, a brand new 21 year old resident of doma’s Bloom! home, just out of jail the day before, pulled me aside to share her thoughts:

“I can’t believe all these people came out to support doma– to support ME– And they don’t even know me. I’m standing here passing out water to teammates, and they don’t even know that they’re running for me. How can I fail when I have the whole city behind me?”

Later on, when she heard we were headed to go make empanadas for our new social enterprise, “Freedom a la cart”– she shared that she wanted to be a chef– that she had already started culinary school before her downward spiral. She asked if she could come pitch in– so of course we were glad to have the extra help! It was beautiful to be in the kitchen rolling empanada dough, dicing, chopping, and creating culinary masterpieces with the very Human Trafficking survivors we are supporting with the business!  And even a traveler from doma’s Ethiopia team was rolling dough, albeit completely jet-lagged.  (Read here about the trip and hear how the chief of the village says ‘doma was an answer to generations of prayers’).  Today the food will be served from 11am-5pm at the Spring Flea in the short north. Columbus Alive gave us a shout out here.   At one point, this courageous survivor pulled Dan aside and told him ‘You know, your wife– doma– is giving me my LIFE’.  (cue tears!)  And I say back to all of you — THANK YOU for helping doma give lives back.  We couldn’t do it without you.

We still need support for this business to be successful this summer, so contact daniel@domaconnection.org if you want to invest in this social enterprise.  And the Team Up team page is still accepting donations.   And of course, we now have our webpage for the tattoo removal– so spread the word here.  I’m sick of looking at those ugly tattoos that literally are the names of their traffickers– Yes, the name ‘Greedy’ remains on the neck of one of our ladies.  ugh.  Sickening.   But hey, at least she has her LIFE back!!

Now for my Mother’s Day lunch at the Spring Flea– this is the first year I haven’t gone out for Indian on Mother’s Day since my first baby was born 5 years ago.  Ahh– what amazing and flexible and lovely kids I have who so wonderfully put up with me bringing them around everywhere to fight slavery and the orphan cycle– from Africa & Russia to the Bloom! house, court, bowling-haha-  and sometimes even on drives downtown looking for survivors we have temporarily lost.   Many of you have heard that Jude once asked if I remember when he was a Russian orphan (?) haha.  And yesterday, the kids were make-believe playing ‘jail’.  Jude says “Lucy, we’re getting out of jail today”.   And then they gathered all their babies.

I guess that’s the hope, isn’t it?

Thank you to those of you who responded so quickly to these pleas. Your compassion and care have overwhelmed us!

In the last day or so, I’ve learned way more about tattoo removal than I could have ever thought imaginable! Looks like we need to bring our ladies in for estimates. Could be $300, could be $1000, depending on location and size. One lady who is living in the doma Bloom! house has a small one on her face. A few other ladies have them on their necks. At court on Thursday, I’ll set up a consultation date with those who need them removed– and then I’ll publish the entire estimated cost for any designated giving. These next two weeks, any giving at domaconnection.org will go toward the tattoo removal. And if there is extra, we’ll use it for our daily doma Bloom! program costs:

We support over 25 survivors with daily necessities, doctor visits, glasses, legal consultation for child reunification, transportation, life skills classes, and mentorship– plus another 3 or 4 ladies per month live at our doma Bloom! home and receive intensive, specialized care with chemical dependency counselors, social workers, and case managers–not to mention all the living costs for the survivors. (The resident status is fluid depending on relapse, detox, mental health status of ladies waiting for placement, and the mental health status of doma employees–haha-joke!…another blog on this another time– it’s been a crazy year!)

In the meantime, if you know of a Columbus dermatologist/laser specialist (?) who wants to donate the removal, then send them my way! THANK YOU FOR THE AMAZING, overwhelming facebook response to this need! You ROCK!

Ahh– I still have to tell you all about our trip to Russia/Ukraine. A taste of what’s to come: key faith-based leaders have approached doma to begin an anti-human trafficking program for incarcerated survivors in partnership with the government. They are SICK of their status as being a top recruitment country. We’re sick of it too! And I’m pretty certain that God is sick of it too! We’ll be looking for major church and business partners to help with this one!

G.G. is gearing up for culinary school, was jumping and blushing with excitement of her dream come true just as she’s turning 50. R.N.’s mom told R.N. that she loved her–this was the first time since childhood. M.Y. is getting her own apartment at the end of the week (the ladies done with in-house care live in a building together with separate apartments). G.G. attended the funeral of a biker friend. She said, “It was really nice, to be there, and to look around at all those people and think, ‘Oh God, I don’t miss this at all,’” and we all laughed with her.

And of course, Judge Herbert’s words are so full of love and kindness. He thanked the ladies for a book of poems and letters they had written and bound for him. He said, slowly and quietly, “That booklet is one of the most precious possessions in my life, and I know I will have it for the rest of my life.” He was going to take his dad out to dinner and show him the book. Judge introduced several people new to the courtroom–an intern, Judge Janet Jackson, the man who runs an Ohio rehabilitation program (“Oh, Talbott Hall!” Y.E. called out. “Hey, we frequent there, frequently!”). Chick Fil-A donated a yummy lunch.

Things do seem to slow down, settle in for the afternoon when the new women come, in shackles, to consider and be considered for CATCH. They shuffle in thin and sickly, in handcuffs and prison garb. Sometimes they’ll walk in with their heads bowed–that’s normal, then they’ll see the semicircle of strong survivors radiating out from the judge, they begin waving to see old friends from prison and the streets–have you ever seen a woman go to wave excitedly to an old friend, and suddenly remember she’s wearing handcuffs? They end up making little waves with both hands, like fast talking shadow puppets.

M.A. came in handcuffs last week, thin and tall and tomboyish, with a long silky cinnamon braid, amber freckles on an unturned nose. She held mouth mouth tight until she saw familiar faces, then she was all smiles, exclaiming “Oh!!” and “Hey!” and “I wondered what happened to you!” She then talked with the judge, that little woman standing under the big man with a robe and a hammer. The judge asked M.A. to “tell us why you think you’re ready.”

M.A. got serious, looked at him, around the courtroom, back to the ladies. She said, “Well, you’re in jail. You do dope, run and get more money, end up in jail–I just got out and I’m right back in. I’ve got 13 convictions and I’m 30 years old.”

The judge said, “Any special guys out there?” “Nothing I can’t get rid of,” she said.

The judge did his favorite thing–showing a girl a drawing of a man. When tilted on its side, the man’s face forms the word “Liar.” “If you’re in CATCH court,” he said, “We examine all your relationships, ok?” She nodded in that silent, just keep your head down and get it over with way. The judge invited the ladies of CATCH to speak.

B.E was bubbling over with excitement… “M.A., so good to see you! You are so intelligent, so talented and artistic.” M.A. was silent and G.G. added her encouragement, “I know you can get out and do such good things.”

M.A. just kept her head down until B.E. said, “M.A.? It’s me, B.–but you don’t know me as B., you know me as M.I..

Whoa did M.A.’s chin come up! Like staring happily at a ghost, “Oh my god,” M.A. said. “Oh—you look good! You look so good, I didn’t recognize you!” You could simply feel every CATCH woman resonate with those words and it’s true–they are the most luminescent women in Columbus, Ohio.

There are a million other little kind words from that day…B.Y. called CATCH court “a job with benefits,” there was a serious talk about how parenting out of guilt could result in relapsing. B.Y. was having a rough time one night, worrying she was going to relapse, and God whispered in her ear, “I didn’t get you this far for you to go do drugs again, you’ll be okay”. But her child, now 19, was born addicted to drugs, her mom feeling guilty and worried now in her sobriety. So she cried– but the hugs and encouragement came, rows of arms into a big group hug.

They leap and inch forward with such faith.

Doma, a faith-based nonprofit in Columbus, Ohio, exists to redefine home for vulnerable women who have been trapped in a life of Human Trafficking and street prostitution. Last week, doma was challenged with an opportunity to increase their efforts by $54,000 for the women they serve in Columbus who are participants in Judge Herbert’s CATCH program, a special docket prostitution court. By January 1, they must raise up to $27,000, and an anonymous donor will donate a gift that doubles those efforts, for a grand total of $54,000!

Read below to learn more about these amazing women, and prayerfully consider making a gift toward this opportunity to fight Human Trafficking and restore victims to lead full lives as survivors! Contact doma’s team at Julie@domaconnection.org or 614-648-3662 if you’d like to meet with one of us for more information. Read up about doma’s efforts worldwide and donate a tax deductible gift via check or online at domaconnection.org. Hear more about what happens at CATCH court on doma’s blog, julieannclark.com

doma exists…

to embrace and empower vulnerable women and children whose homes have been filled with anger, abuse, hostility, pain, and injustice– so that they may experience ‘home’ more complete and whole than what they have experienced in life so far. We seek to build bridges to the peace, comfort, and stability found in God’s definition of ‘home’, rebuilding and restoring broken communities.

The Challenge:

In America, the average age of entry into the sex trade is 12 to 14.
Prostitution is not a victimless crime. Women engaged in soliciting have typically been victims of years of violence, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, untreated mental health issues, unemployment, homelessness, and dangerous exposure to street life. They have been exploited, neglected, and abused — resulting in complex needs.

CATCH’s Response:

Judge Paul Herbert of Franklin County Municipal Court responded to this cry after years of meeting women in court who were caught up in Human Trafficking. CATCH (Changing Actions to Change Habits) is an innovative, voluntary, two-year program to help ladies trapped in the sex trade. It utilizes a restorative-justice approach to helping ladies through support, encouragement, and accountability. It truly meets the needs of ladies in recovery, and fosters a healthy environment for wholeness and restoration.

Doma’s Response:

Doma International is a 501(c)3 organization based in Columbus, Ohio committed to embracing children and empowering women and families. Doma works with vulnerable women and orphaned children in Eastern Europe, East Africa, and locally. Doma launched Project Green Light to equip local communities to combat underground red light districts and human trafficking in central Ohio through awareness, education, and support.

CATCH is Doma’s US ConnectionPoint. Offered alongside of recovery, accountability, and support through CATCH, the 30 ladies in the program may choose to participate in restorative events, times of nourishment and renewal, therapeutic hobbies, and spiritual mentorship, as well as receive daily necessities provided by Doma.

Additionally, Doma has acquired a retreat home east of Columbus. At this doma Bloom! home, the ladies attend AA meetings, trauma-based groups, and has become ‘home’ for them as it provides a safe and sober location for these restorative events. In Phase II, the Bloom! Home will add a residential element for ladies in transition from the streets or incarceration and into a new and free life. By embracing and empowering these vulnerable women, Doma is seeing lives and generations changed. Join us as we redefine home.

Your Response:

______We would like to provide for one or more CATCH ladies at
$184/month/lady (or $2208/year/lady).

______We would like to give toward operation of the Bloom! Home in the
amount of $______/month/year. The estimated annual budget for Phase I is $15,000, and $150,000 for Phase II.

______We would like to provide an initial gift in the amount of $______.

______We would like to provide gifts-in-kind or volunteers (including
hosting restorative events for the ladies).

______We would like to learn more about how our church/business/small group can become a Project Green
Light community, committed to Human Trafficking awareness, education, and support.

Many of you know that doma’s US ConnectionPoint is Judge Herbert’s CATCH court. This special docket prostitution court embodies the concept of restorative justice, and provides accountability and true justice to ladies who have been caught up in Human Trafficking and street prostitution. Doma picks up where the court system is unable to provide support to these ladies. We help to provide daily life needs, like haircuts or dental work. And we also offer them spiritual and emotional support, with consistent and positive times of social connectedness at Doma’s Bloom! home. This gorgeous 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath retreat home is just east of the city, and is a place of comfort and peace for the ladies retreat to during the week. The house is always buzzing with activity. From AA meetings, to cookie decorating, to trauma recovery groups, to bonfires in the backyard, to weekend retreats. There is never a week that goes by without the ladies experiencing peace and joy in tangible ways out at our Bloom! home. In the new doma van, we can now transport them much easier– and our bus should be done with the prep work by January. At Bloom!, the ladies experience ‘home’ like never before!

In the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing more about what goes on at CATCH court to get some insight into the support these amazing ladies need. An observer at CATCH court has been documenting her observations each week at court. Stay tuned for the first post!

In the next few months, you’ll hear about our new, practical, and fun volunteer mobilization program- Abolitionist U, supported with a generous grant from the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio!

And in the next few days, we ask that you think and pray through a financial gift to doma. Contact me or Tom English (doma’s COO) today if you’re interested in making a gift toward this $27,000! (tom@domaconnection.org, julie@domaconnection.org) or call us at 614-648-3662.

Peace and Joy to you this Christmas season!

The longer answer (besides that I’m publishing this at 3:58 am– what does that tell you?) is that I’ve seen too much… experienced too much… and feel a sense of urgency that hits my gut every time I think about it too long. So I just move. And then I propel others to action with the same kind of vigor and energy that comes from being compelled.

What compels me? Truly, it’s the cycle of orphanhood that has always compelled me, since my first trip to Russia in 1993. Knowing that we have a God who heals, restores, and renovates through us, makes me run toward those and that which needs healed, restored, and renovated. I’ve spent decades studying this cycle, learning about those who fall victim to it, observing the crap methods that many countries (including our own) deal with these victims. I have seen the stats on how many orphans are orphans of orphans… And I know that sometimes, it’s just a *little* love, compassion, or helping hand that these victims need in order to break free from the oppression, poverty, neglect, and abuse that is/was their daily life.

Doma takes a look at orphanhood and gets to the ‘why’ behind it– we find women most vulnerable to orphaning their children and empower them. We know the long-lasting effects of growing up without a family, in an institution, in ‘the system’– add that to poverty like we’ve never seen before… and well, you know the rest…

Join me October 6-17 as we visit young ladies in Russia who grew up in the orphanage system, and who are now moms themselves. I’ll never forget when a female orphan graduate was visiting me in my home a few years ago. I observed that she didn’t know how to blow dry her hair, and then it hit me that she never had a mom to teach her the simplest daily living skills. She will tell you about the moment that changed her life forever— When a team visited her orphanage, someone asked her if she had heard that God had a plan for her life?

What else can we share with these young ladies just by living life with them for a short time? We will be hosting retreats for them, offering them a mother’s day out, and sharing with them the ‘power’ that is ours with Christ. True women’s empowerment, yeah?

Some of the moms are single, some are married.. so if you’re a guy, and you’re interested in joining our team, there is an opportunity for you to spend time with some of their husbands, as well. So be not deterred by all this mommy talk! (And we might actually go into some of my favorite places on earth (orphanages) just for a short visit… we’ll see!)

It’s not much time away from the daily grind. It’s not much money to redirect in your budget. But it will definitely make an immense impact on the lives of the women you meet, and of the toddlers and infants you spend time with. And of course, it will contribute significantly to breaking the orphan cycle.

One lady, J.E., is starting her recovery journey. Thursday was her first day out of prison and into her recovery home. She spent the last 60 days detoxing from crack cocaine in a cell. For the latter part of it, the clearer part, she had to block out the negative talk from the other prisoners… the ladies not quite in support of J.E.’s journey to recover. The ones that couldn’t wait to get out and get back to their life on the streets and their crack houses, and even their ‘boyfriends’ (pimps) . Their addictions speaking stronger than reason. Their minds filled with fuzz. Thinking clearly isn’t a luxury they can afford. The crack not really ever a desire or a ‘choice’, but more of a medicine to fill the pain, the holes, the gaps that childhood brought.

It’s no wonder the street children in Russia, in some locations, have had an increase of 700% in HIV this year, mainly due to IV drug use. What kind of life have they had? I know, because I’ve been in orphanages. I have read that they will only develop (on average), two of the 42 basic and complex emotions that most people have. As an early intervention specialist, I know and have observed what they are missing birth to age 5 (among others complications, the love, care, socialization, and ‘luxury’ of having their emotional needs met). And I see firsthand the cycles of abuse and neglect that begin at home and continue into institutionalized life.

And these ladies we’re working with at CATCH court, the ones living on the streets from fix to fix… Yes, they were orphaned too. Yes, we have orphaned children here in the US. I read somewhere that in Russia, 1/3 of orphans are orphans of orphans. And I’d argue the rates are higher here in the US. The 25 ladies I know personally have all orphaned their children. Yes, I personally know all 25 of them, and hear weekly as they struggle through the pain of being mothers, yet not parenting their babies. (See, now that they are not numbing the pain, they are walking head on into the pain–another post for another time)… And I hear about their childhoods from their official files…

That preschool age, when many of us are worried that our kids are sick of the same pool already this summer– or ‘oh no’, did we *scar* them because we yelled over spilled milk, or we chat for hours with friends because ‘so and so’ is struggling with bedtime and needs 6 books and 2 songs to fall asleep. (Important conversations, btw!) But with our ladies, I don’t even want to tell you some of their preschool stories. What their parents were struggling with, what stepdads were doing to them starting at age 2 (that we know of…), the things that social services uncovered as they were put into foster care home after foster care home… the things that the foster care families were doing to them… the pain, the pain, the pain. And so the fuzz of the tween years and early adulthood for them begins. The *choices* that we are so quick to judge…

And so now they are adults, trying to live a sober, healthy life at last. Learning everything for the first time. Truly, everything (from laundry to picking out produce, to reading… we see it all!) To be stuck in a jail cell detoxing for 60+ days with only negative reinforcement. To be coming out of the ‘fuzz’ after years and years of abuse and neglect and pain.

On Thursday at court, when we asked J.E. if it helped to get visits and cards and shampoo, and ‘money on her books’, boxer shorts and T-shirts, and a friend to accompany her from jail to her treatment center, and a welcoming committee with love and smiles– when we asked her if all of these things that CATCH and doma are doing for her actually made a difference in those 60 days– she sobbed. Sobbed. And through her tears on Thursday, barely audibly she said ‘I feel like a princess’.

A princess!

We are so overwhelmed by the issue of Human Trafficking, that we wonder what WE can do to be an abolitionist, an activist, an agent of change… Don’t be paralyzed, my friends. Be compelled to action and compassion. And well, I guess we can start by buying underwear for prostitutes–and from there we can see a princess emerge.

Thank you to all doma supporters who continue to pray and financially support our work with these ladies. We love you deeply!

domaconnection.org

1) Instead of keeping my kids away from ‘bad influences’, all three have been watched and/or held by former prostitutes, recovering addicts, orphaned children, and HIV positive men, women, and children.

2) My children have passport pictures that were taken when they were under 6 months old.

3) Since pregnant women can’t take malaria meds, I have been known to be dressed head to toe covered up in 90 degree weather in Africa, trying to ward off malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

4) In the console of my car, I have sippie cups and Starbucks cups. Under the seat I have flip flops and high heels. In the trunk I have suit skirts and bathing suit coverups. In the dash, I have a zoo pass and a list of jail visiting hours.

5) My current diaper bag says “Abolitionist” on it.

6) I have product (red) onesies from birth-2T.

7) I have suits from Ann Taylor sizes 0, 2, 4, 6, and most recently, 8!

My son (biological) once asked me if I remembered the time he was once a Russian orphan… ??

9) All 3 kids are named after the Beatles, who are known as political and peace activists. (Lucy, Jude, Sadie Natalya)

10) I was once laughed at by 2 nonprofit directors– One thought it was hilarious that I offered to ‘open up’ Ethiopia for him. Another, when I told him I wanted a job like his, responded sarcastically that he doesn’t “actually HOLD the babies”. And so instead, I opened up Ethiopia for my nonprofit, while also always make it a priority to hold EVERY baby I can in the villages/orphanages we work- -while also holding MY OWN 3 babies. What a life!!!

P.S. I almost accompanied each of these with pictures to prove them all, but thought that might be too ‘lawyerey’ to document the evidence–