February 25th, 2012… nearly 8 months after leaving Tenele and my children behind, I had the blessing of hearing my childrens’ voices over Skype (not video, but I’ll take what I can get)! I had been trying to get a hold of my children in Swazi for a long, long time, but I couldn’t get through. The line wasn’t connecting right or the phone was always off. So I grew quite frustrated and stopped trying to call because it was always a disappointment…well, not this time!

This is what I wrote in my journal:

“I finally got to talk to Ayanda today! Oh, her voice and excitement is the music my very sould needed! Thank you so much, Abba! Ayanda excitedly told me that she took Tenele to church last week. SERIOUSLY? TENELE ACTUALLY WENT TO CHURCH?!!! Praise God!

Aaaaaand I got to actually TALK TO MY TENELE-BELL! Wow! Seriously, Daddy, thank you for this greatest gift! She sounds so good! She started crying at one point while talking to me and gave the phone to Ayanda. Both Ayanda and I weren’t sure why she was crying. [But I think I know why.] I talked with Ayanda for over 40 minutes and talked to Tenele several different times. I even got to hear Baby M-K’s crying voice!”

At one point during our conversation, I asked Ayanda if Tenele had the baby with her. She said yes and I jokingly said I wanted to talk to her (although we both knew she couldn’t talk). Ayanda laughed and then there was some silence on the line…then some crying, then I heard Tenele’s voice yelling at Ayanda, who responds with something alont the lines of, “Mary-Kate told me to!” Apparently, when I told Ayanda I wanted to talk to the baby, she woke her up, which obviously made her cry and made her mama mad, too. So, I told Ayanda to put the phone by the baby’s ear so she could hear my voice. I started singing my favorite SiSwati song, “Siya Hamba” (“Walking in the Light of God”) and the baby soothed and immediately stopped crying. It was SO AMAZING that it was almost scary! I heard Tenele and Ayanda’s surprised voices in the background. Then Ayanda took the phone back and began talking to me again. Moments later the baby started crying once again, so Ayanda put the phone back to her ear and I started singing again. This time it was a different song and baby M-K kept crying. I went back to “Siya Hamba” and sure enough…she stopped crying immediately!!!!!

It was like a miracle! I could sing to that baby girl oceans away and it would still soothe her!

How incredible is the love of the Lord. I could not ask for more. I love only because “He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19