House of Loveness, Zimbabwe

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.  -Mary Oliver After many years of celebrating Christmas together in as a family post-divorce with my ex-husband and our four children, this year I made the decision to go to Africa for the holiday. It was a last minute decision after much soul-searching. I really wanted to be with my four children on Christmas this year.   My children are ages 17-22 so time is limited with them as they create their own lives outside of family. I especially needed to be with family after losing my stepfather on November 30, 2012.   Mom and my soul father John My own father died twenty-four years ago when I was twenty-five. My stepfather, John, came into my mother's life seventeen years later.   I called him my soul father because calling him a stepfather just didn't seem good enough for a man like John. My mom and John met and married

Tariro and Cheepo November 30, 2012 Graduation Day           “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a nation."                                                    -Nelson Mandela November 30, 2012 was a special day in Zimbabwe.  Thirty-two children celebrated their end of the school year graduation from the school supported by House of Loveness.  In a country where many orphans drop out of school by first grade, these children were beating the odds. It was a moment filled with blessings, resourcefulness and grace. The blessings were for a school that opened in May 2010 after a conversation House of Loveness founder Betsy Blankenbaker had with a local foster mother in Zimbabwe who wanted to teach but there were no opportunities. The local schools that were