The Fey Family

Mom. Mother. Mama. Mommy. For most of us, these words evoke feelings of happiness, warm thoughts and good memories. When I think of my own mom, my heart is filled up. I love my precious mama with all that’s in me. When Jori runs out the door for school and yells “I love you mom, have a great day today”, I can’t keep the smile from my face. Yet these words, that for me are so full of good thoughts and happy feelings, have been giving me a lot of sadness lately. A little boy I love so dearly was angry yesterday. I said “I think you need a hug” and we sat down together on the steps. He let me hold him for a bit then said “I can’t wait for my mommy to come”. This was not said with excitement and anticipation, but with desperation and sadness. This child was abandoned by his own mother and his heart is crying out to be loved. He is sad and angry and literally hurting at the thought of having to wait for a mommy to come and claim him. He has seen many of his friends return to their biol...

Earlier this week, I had my phone stolen right out of my hand. I was at a red light looking at a message that had just come in (I know, shouldn’t do that) and just like that, my phone was grabbed. I yelled and yelled “Hey, I need my phone! Please give me my phone I need those numbers! You can’t take my phone!” and other stuff like that. I was just about to get out of the car when I sensed a presence at the passenger side window; there were 2 men looking at me, one who had my phone in his hand. My very first thought was “Oh, they were just trying to teach me a lesson about having my phone out in the open.” That thought lasted a split second and then I was yelling again. The thief kept saying “Sorry, ma’am, sorry. I shouldn’t have taken your phone. I won’t take from you”, while the older man, who I am assuming heard my screaming and made the younger man do right said “You should pay him R10 ($1)”, to which I replied “I am not paying him, he just stole my phone!” The would be thief staye...

It is Sunday afternoon and I am sitting here, feeling like I am bathing in sweat. Gross, I know, but a pretty accurate description. Jori is swimming with some of the older kids and Tyson and Darin are just heading out to pick up some donations and drop Fetsi off at school. The power is out (again) and I am only able to use our computer thanks to the Peppermint Energy 42, a solar powered generator. Hooray for technology. This is an energy sapping heat, folks. It makes babies inconsolable and turns the rest of us into crabbier, tired, more ill-tempered versions of ourselves. It makes eating somewhat unpleasant and feeding Amo almost impossible. When we see the rain clouds approach, we are thankful not only for the potential of precipitation, but for the cooler temperature and a breeze that we can consider “cooling”. The heat makes my brain a bit fuzzy as well, so while I had big plans to write something more, I seriously can’t. My brain is too hot. I know, it is much hotter in o...

Over the past few months, Darin and I have been around more Americans than usual. This is due to our work with Take Action Ministry and some exciting things that are happening there. Take Action is a group that we have been a part of for a few years, even before we moved to Tshepo ya Bana.  We first met them through Mama Cathrine and Tshwaraganang, an organization that I haven’t written about for a long time. After a few stops and starts trying to get a few projects off the ground there, Take Action realized that there was something missing that was causing the visions of the two organizations to be at odds with each other. The thing that Take Action found was most necessary for a successful partnership was to work with organizations that were rooted in Christ; these could be ministries started by a church or ministries started by people who were very involved in their local church. In mid-September, a team from Help One Now came to see what Take Action was doing in South Af...

It’s Sunday afternoon. Darin and Tyson are in Pretoria on their way to pick up some grocery donations. Jori is at the aunties’ cottage watching “The Princess Diaries” with a couple aunties and Mbali. I just read my third Reader’s Digest of the week (Thank you Grandma Van!!!), thought about taking a little rest, but decided to work on my neglected blog instead. We are getting back into the swing of things with school starting, social workers being back in their offices, doctor and hospital visits being planned, and more. Our kids are now in Grade 6 and Grade 4, which just makes them seem so old!!! They both seem excited about the new school year, although we are all less than thrilled with the whole homework thing. Swimming, playing Wii and running around outside are much more fun ways of spending the afternoon. Tomorrow I will be spending a good part of the morning at Jubilee hospital. I was there last Monday as well and am now returning for a follow-up with our new baby. I wi...

There is only 1 week left in 2014, which means it is time to write up our yearly re-cap, also known as the annual Christmas letter. This is my 3 rd attempt at writing this year’s note and I am not sure it will go much better than the first two tries. I am struggling to come up with anything new to write as most of you have seen our yearly highlights on Facebook or have read about them in our blog! Our littlest, Jori, is not so little anymore. She will be heading to Grade 4 in January, which is considered to be one of the upper grades in their school. Jori still loves helping out at the main house and loves being a little mother to Amo, who often sleeps over by us on the weekends. Jori is happy whether she is running around playing Star Wars on the Wii with her brother or putting on make-up and high heels to head out for a family pizza night. We love her spirit and spunk and find it hard to keep ourselves from smiling at the stuff that comes out of her mouth. Tyson ju...

It's that time of year again! The time where some people are putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and writing their Christmas letters, other people are setting up a time for family pictures to be taken and picking out a design for their annual Christmas card, and a few industrious people are doing both! We will be striking a balance somewhere in the middle, typing up a letter, finding a few pictures where we look photogenic (ok, where I look photogenic) and posting it on our blog, although if you already follow this blog you have a pretty good idea of what our year has looked like. That being said, we would love to hear from you and see your lovely Christmas photos and thanks to the willingness of a man I've never even met, we are going to be able to get some mail from you if you want to send it to us. My friend Mandy is going back to the states over Christmas and her dad is letting us use his PO Box to receive Christmas letters, which she will then deliver to us here ...