Babies, sweet babies

Well, these little darlings could break the hardest heart. Spent some time with a lovely missionary family in Maseru and Nancy Dimmock introduced me to a local orphanage where I spent two days holding babies, wiping noses, changing nappies and playing some hand-clap games. New people are in and out of their wee lives and although they are clean and fed, they hardly have any stimulation and spend almost every hour of every day in one large room. O babies.

This pic is of me and little Jackson, the youngest of the Dimmock family, with whom I bonded this week. The Dimmock family is multicultural in every way-- get this-- when Nancy had her first baby (1985-- APARTHEID, Lesotho) her husband Frank brought home a little Masotho baby (singular tense for a person from Lesotho) who had been born to an orphan girl who died just days after delivery. They adopted this wee child and can you imagine the stir they caused when Nancy would breastfeed the boys in public-- one black baby and one white baby?! Amazing. Amazing, our fragility. We are capable of both incredible goodness and wickedness-- and beauty and hope emerges-- from the most surprising places.