A Visit to The Thusanani Foundation

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Yesterday, we were beyond thrilled to be able to visit the Thusanani Foundation where Nomathemba took occupational and speech therapy here in South Africa. Visiting her therapy sessions gave us a sneak peak into her old life, including the people who knew her best--the pediatrician and two therapists who have known her and advocated for her since she came into care at the Orphanage.







Meeting her therapists touched my heart deeply. They sat there and expressed how she was one of the children they "prayed so hard would get a family". It literally brought tears to my eyes as they spoke in depth about her likes and dislikes, her slow to warm-up personality, and what she was working on in the sessions she attended. They really knew her. They put their whole heart into their positions there and it showed! How could you ever say thank you enough to those angels who "stood in the gap" and loved and cared for your child before you were able to? God is so good


Nomathemba with her speech and occupational therapist

It was clear that Nomathemba felt at home here. She even went into the back room where there was more of the larger equipment. She freely ran back, started swinging and here's where we found her:

I don't blame her--I'd run back to play here too!
Also working at the Thusanani Foundation was her pediatrician, Dr. Janet Lumb. When we met with her she also expressed her extreme joy over Nomathemba getting a family and she spent countless amount of time with us going through her file and answering all of the questions we had about her past and present health. She even made photocopies of her entire chart for us--which was a huge gift considering it tells so much more of her story than we had known! (We only had a medical report that was now a year old). That file is GOLD to us!

Here's a picture of Nomathemba with her South African Pediatrician, Dr. Lumb:
Another huge blessing is to be in South Africa with another family from our adoption agency. They just adopted a little boy and we've had many of our paperwork appointments together. Nomathemba & the rest of the McCawley girls are always asking where their friend Stryker is! It's pretty fun to see this friendship develop. The most amazing part is that this family is from California also so keeping in touch won't be very hard!

Heather, Stryker, Nomathemba, Me (Jenna)- buddies!
To sum up the past day or so: GRATEFUL!

...it's an immense understatement.




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