BG's amazing staff

The staff here amaze me everyday. My favorite moments are when I walk in on one of my house mothers singing and kissing the cheeks of the smallest baby in the house. She giggles when she sees me out of embarrassment and says, "Look! She is learning to sit up!" She sits the baby out in front of her on the ground and lets go of her while still holding her arms out in case the baby falls. She claps and continues to sing praises to this child who is smiling back at her. The reason I love these moments is because there is 237 other things this house mother could be doing...cooking, cleaning, laundry, feeding, and there are 13 other children who also depend on her for care and love. Yet, my house mother will stop what she is doing to just love the children God has placed in her life. I would think it would get exhausting. Many of our house mothers have been here for many years and they are constantly saying goodbye to children that they love and care for as if they were their own. I would think after a while they would put a wall up to prevent themselves from being hurt when they leave...and yet they don't. They keep loving these children and encouraging them to grow and learn and ultimately directing them towards Christ.

I love seeing the excitement and love on the house mothers face when a new child comes in. We have had 3 babies, all less than a month old, come in this week. It is beautiful to watch those first moments of the house mother taking the child back to their house and washing them up, finding clothes to fit them, and feeding them a meal. There is nothing but love and joy in their hearts. Instead of mourning the situation the child may have come out of, they rejoice that the child ended up at BG and not at one of the corrupt orphanages in the country. They always find a reason to rejoice. They always find a reason to praise God in every situation.

I also need to say how much I appreciate the maintenance men at BG. There has been multiple occasions where our front door lock has gotten stuck, and one of them will come to our house (even late at night) to open it for us. Yesterday, we asked if one of them could fix our hot water geyser since it had not been working for a few days. After work, one of them came and not only fixed our geyser but also our two leaky faucets, our sticky front door lock, and a broken tile in our kitchen. He was at our house working for over an hour and just fixed these things without us even asking him to.

God has blessed Beautiful Gate with incredible staff who love God more than anything else. I have so much to learn from them and I am so thankful they are in my life even for a short time.

peace and blessings,

ausi paige