It has been ever so long since I posted anything on my blog but decided it’s time to get back to it. I’m currently sitting in the Seattle airport waiting for the last leg of my flight returning home from the Philippines after a month of working to get Bonnie’s Heart Baby Home ready to open. Our family spent nearly eleven months in the Philippines from July 2012 to June 2013 helping to oversee the construction of this 24 bed facility for the youngest children at the Rehoboth Children’s Home. During that time period, we were able to finish two thirds of the facility with the funding that been so generously provided by the family and friends of the late Bonnie Burgard, in whose memory the Baby Home is named. The space completed allows us to house 12 children with a plan to finish the remaining wing to accommodate an additional 12 children later. Once the construction phase was finished, a Show of Hands campaign was initiated to raise pledges of support for the operation of the Baby Home. When the pledges generated from this campaign as well as accumulated giving reached a point where we had enough for one year’s operation, it was time to open the Baby Home.
I took my sewing machine with me on this trip and spent the first few weeks sewing curtains for the Baby Home. It had been so long since I had any reason to sew anything, so this was pure pleasure for me. There were many other details to finish up that consumed the rest the month of September. After doing an orientation of the staff to the Baby Home environment, things went into high gear with moving cribs and clothing, hanging tooth brush holders, getting door knob safety covers, etc. There was a parade of movement between the current facility and the Baby Home as staff and children alike helped carry items that needed to be transferred including the Little Tyke’s slide which was loaded up on a tricycle.
The staff were so excited there was 
no holding them back and they ended up transitioning with the children a day earlier than planned even though we are still without water during the daytime hours. This is soon be resolved with the delivery of a water storage tank provided by the Casino Presbyterian Church in Australia.
It was fun to see the children’s reaction to their new home and even more fun to see the staff enjoying the convenience of the custom designed bathing and diapering facilities. We are still in awe of the miracle that it was to be able to show a picture of a baby bath tub and changing table to a fiberglass factory in Manila and have them produce exactly what we wanted! The same was true with the hole-in-the wall carpentry shop that made the toddler size chairs and tables and the infant feeding tables that are now part of this specialized Baby Home environment.
We moved 7 children ages 0 to 3 years into the Baby Home on Thursday and the very next day received a one day old baby boy with a cleft palette. We know that, sadly, those empty cribs and toddler beds are going to fill up in no time at all. We are so grateful to everyone who helped to make the construction and operation of Bonnie’s Heart Baby Home a reality, allowing us to provide a safe haven for more children who in harm’s way.
In The Fields Of The Fatherless 