Nancy's Village

Yesterday Mama Musa, Christopher my social worker, a trainee social worker and myself embarked on the 300km round trip to Nancy's village. The purpose of this trip...to get her family to sign her over to me, this does NOT make things legal it just means that we are one step closer!!
The day went well, upon collecting Nancy's uncle he asked 'Where is Nancy, I have promised her family she will be here!' Oh how I wish he had asked me before promising such a thing. Nancy is two years old and not only would the journey be a lot for her but also being in her village, everyone will understandably want to hold her, she is a clingy girl and this would just freak her out. I then felt very guilty though, I do not want the family thinking I am keeping Nancy away from them, if her uncle had asked me before making such a promise I would have told him I didn't think it was a good idea!

Left to right, Nancy's great uncle, my social worker, Moses Uncle (father's side,)
Mama Musa, Edward Uncle (Mother's side,) Grace Mother, Father,
front, me & Nancy's two sisters.

We had a meeting, attending was everyone in the picture above. It was a long but nice day, the family are very welcoming, Christopher got very positive vibes from them which is fantastic.

Nancy's mother & sisters, they look
so alike but Nancy resembles her father.

At the end I made a very short speech, in Swahili, thanks to my Swahili tutor, just basically saying thank-you for such a wonderful gift, I promise to take good care of Nancy and she will always know her family. They seemed really pleased with what I said :-)

Someone mentioned on a previous blog post that I had not told you about Nancy's past, so here goes. My little Nancy was a twin, her mother was not producing enough breast milk for both babies so she handed Nancy over to the care of Cradle and kept her brother Hans, sadly Hans later died.
Coming from a traditional Massai village her family realise that Nancy would not be able to return as it is just a complete contrast to the life she has been living. Nancy had two options, to be adopted or to move on to an older home. Her parents chose the selfless act of relinquishing Nancy for adoption, knowing that she would have a much better life with me than in an orphanage forever.

I must admit during those first two trips we didn't really bond, I loved her like I did all the children but we didn't share a bond like Selemani and I did, however, on returning in June last year things couldn't have been more different. We just bonded straight away, I loved her with all my heart and it was clear she felt the same way. Many people ask me 'Out of all the babies why did you choose these two?' My reply is always the same  'You can not help who you fall in love with!!'

Here is Nancy when I first met her at Cradle at the begining of 2010, she would have been almost six months then.

Also on our trip we were introduced to two-three month old triplets, two boys and one girl. When they were first brought out to us I thought they were newborn, only their smiles gave away their age. They are absolutely beautiful, their mother is struggling to feed them as she is not producing enough milk. I am going to see what I can do to help, maybe I can get enough donations together to be able to purchase one tin of formula per day to supplement the breast milk. All I know is that if someone doesn't help them those babies won't make it. The family do not even own one single outfit for them.