Baby House
Donation protected
Hi friends. My name is Kjelsi Pretorius. I am an RN and I worked at Seattle Children’s Hospital before I went on a volunteer trip to South Africa that changed my life. I fell in love with my wonderful husband, Uli, and my 3 month volunteer trip has turned into almost 7 years. After I moved permanently I became involved in a baby house where my husband and I fell in love with our oldest foster son, Siyabonga (5 years). We have been fighting for his adoption since we took him in as a baby. Although he is still technically a foster son, a piece of paper will change nothing in our family. He is just our son. The same month we took in Siya, I got pregnant with our first biological child, Kaijah (4 years). Then Josiah (2 ½ years) and Ezra (1yr) came in quick succession. Then last November we got a call from the social workers asking if we could please take in 6 month old twins who had been severely neglected. All the baby houses in the area have closed down and they had no place for them. After a fast week of thinking and praying we decided to take a leap of faith and say yes. So the twins (1 year) have been in our family for the last six months. So currently, we have six children under six in our house!!!! To ensure the twins safety we are not allowed to disclose their information. That is why I haven’t written their names and why the picture is blurred out (see below).
Our decision to take in the twins was not one that we took lightly as in our current situation, frankly, we cannot afford them. Some people might call that foolish and irresponsible, but we don’t agree. We have learned and grown so much through our journey with Siya. We are blessed because of him, not the other way around. What I know deep inside of me is I am in South Africa for the purpose of opening my heart and sometimes my home to these babies. We are called to look after the orphans and there will always be divine provision in that. We have already experienced loads of generosity. Family and friends from America and South Africa have gotten us through so far by donating money, baby products, clothes etrc..
The purpose of this GoFundMe blog is to ask for continued support and hopefully make it easier for those who do want to donate. It is costing us about $700 (R8,400)/month to have the twins. We are fortunate to live in a country where labor is not expensive so we have been able to hire a live-in nanny. Her name is Agnes and she is brilliant. We would not survive without her and we want to continue to be able to pay her a good salary and allow her to live without any living expenses. Other expenses are diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, baby products etc... If anyone would like a detailed budget sheet, please let me know and I will e-mail it. I have set the goal amount as $10,000. That will cover all of our expenses involving the twins for a year plus gives us room in case of medical emergencies or unknown expenses. All donations will go through Life Christian Foundation (LCF), an NPO based out of South Africa but also has branches in the US and UK. This is for the purpose of transparency and so that the donations will be tax deductable. Lastly, I want to make it known that our long-term goal is to start our own baby house and would most likely use this avenue as the financial foundation for something like that. This process will help us know how viable and sustainable a baby house would be.
I affectionately describe our house as a place of mostly happy chaos....and sometimes un-happy chaos. None-the-less, the twins are flourishing here. When they came to us they were six months, wearing newborn clothes and could not roll over. Now, they just turned a year and they crawl, pull themselves up to stand and are bigger than their counterpart, Ezra, who is just four days younger. We are happy to provide a safe place for them to thrive. Thank you for taking the time to read this and please only give if you feel led. We are beyond grateful for all the interest and generosity we have already received and that which is yet to come.
Our decision to take in the twins was not one that we took lightly as in our current situation, frankly, we cannot afford them. Some people might call that foolish and irresponsible, but we don’t agree. We have learned and grown so much through our journey with Siya. We are blessed because of him, not the other way around. What I know deep inside of me is I am in South Africa for the purpose of opening my heart and sometimes my home to these babies. We are called to look after the orphans and there will always be divine provision in that. We have already experienced loads of generosity. Family and friends from America and South Africa have gotten us through so far by donating money, baby products, clothes etrc..
The purpose of this GoFundMe blog is to ask for continued support and hopefully make it easier for those who do want to donate. It is costing us about $700 (R8,400)/month to have the twins. We are fortunate to live in a country where labor is not expensive so we have been able to hire a live-in nanny. Her name is Agnes and she is brilliant. We would not survive without her and we want to continue to be able to pay her a good salary and allow her to live without any living expenses. Other expenses are diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, baby products etc... If anyone would like a detailed budget sheet, please let me know and I will e-mail it. I have set the goal amount as $10,000. That will cover all of our expenses involving the twins for a year plus gives us room in case of medical emergencies or unknown expenses. All donations will go through Life Christian Foundation (LCF), an NPO based out of South Africa but also has branches in the US and UK. This is for the purpose of transparency and so that the donations will be tax deductable. Lastly, I want to make it known that our long-term goal is to start our own baby house and would most likely use this avenue as the financial foundation for something like that. This process will help us know how viable and sustainable a baby house would be.
I affectionately describe our house as a place of mostly happy chaos....and sometimes un-happy chaos. None-the-less, the twins are flourishing here. When they came to us they were six months, wearing newborn clothes and could not roll over. Now, they just turned a year and they crawl, pull themselves up to stand and are bigger than their counterpart, Ezra, who is just four days younger. We are happy to provide a safe place for them to thrive. Thank you for taking the time to read this and please only give if you feel led. We are beyond grateful for all the interest and generosity we have already received and that which is yet to come.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kjelsi Pretorius
Organizer
Yakima, WA
Lindsay Brown
Beneficiary