normal.

3 blog posts in one week?
who am i?
thank you so much for all your sweet, encouraging words and comments about this blog.
anytime i talk to someone from the States, they always say people are enjoying these updates.
i have found keeping up with this quite therapeutic.
it is nice to sit down and decipher what i've seen and felt.
so thank you for taking the time to read these stories, look at these pictures and fall in love with these kids too.
they are so easy to love.
i wish each of you could meet all of them.
hear their laughter.
hug their necks.
and feel their joy.

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in cotonou on monday, i bought 2 of the prettiest mangoes i have ever seen! i was PUMPED to eat them this week. so tuesday, i brought them to the centre with me and the little kids were not at school that afternoon. that meant they were lucky enough to share tata's mango with her! it was delicious. and so gigantic. we ate it up. and saved the pit for one of the big kids to enjoy when they got home from school. nothing goes wasted around this house!

micho.

trust me, she is just as sassy as she looks...

damien could not believe how big it was!

a mango as big as cosmo's head.

waiting patiently for Tata to quit taking pictures and cut the mango already.

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micho with her boyfriend damien.

love everything about this picture.

especially the hand on the hip...

damien was playing photographer.

adolphe. micho. cosmo.

cosmo showing off our puppy, bop.

sweet bop.

these dogs are so patient with these kids hanging on them all the time!

bop was over the photo session.

glad to have Tata Katinka back this week!

melt my heart.

sweetness.

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wednesday afternoons the kids don't have school. so after lunch, they are expected to clean their room. and take care of other chores around the property. yesterday, seraphin worked at transplanting part of the garden to another section of our land. it needed to be moved because of the dorm construction. let me tell you something, this boy is a WORKER. a hard, hard, hard worker. he does it with a smile. he does it well. and always gives it all of his effort. it is amazing to witness his sweet spirit. 

katinka and i were admiring his work and everything he had accomplished when we noticed that a cow was standing in the middle of the garden...we don't have a cow at the orphanage. where did this cow from? who knows. but seraphin had to get the cow out of the garden. so he took hold of the rope around the cow and that cow bolted. seraphin was being pulled behind the cow and everyone was just watching! i, of course, was dying laughing. here's seraphin right before getting carried away by the cow. he ultimately got the cow tied up to a tree until the owner from up the road came down to collect the cow several hours later...

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hubert getting water for a shower.

the girls are doing their laundry in the background.

rosaline working on washing her clothes.

alice.

florent washing his khaki school uniform.

adolphe getting a bucket of water for his shower.

the goat got loose...

hubert had to chase it down.

i just stood there laughing and snapping pictures.

that's what aunts are good for, right?

success. :)