Lowveld - Dec 2019

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Tedes Matola, and Anastasia, Yolande, Emile and Benjamin, Katy, Jasmine, Rafi and Silvestre Muller. Tedes, who although was not officially adopted, is very much part of the family. looking rather bereft. So I decided to take her in and start caring for her and just love her like a mum would. “About a week later another little girl appeared at my door looking for her sister. That was Rafi and I took her in as well. Then a month later they told me they had a brother, Silvestre! I just shook my head because I had already fallen in love with the two little girls and now there was a brother too. So in he came as well and we were like a family.” Katy soon met the children’s dad, who regularly came to visit them at the orphanage. Their mom had died of malaria and their father was too old to care for them, and so he took them to the orphanage. He and Katy became good friends, and when the time came, he gave her his blessing to adopt the three siblings. “Not long after, a man showed up on my doorstep saying that he heard I took in children. He then asked me to take care of his granddaughter, Yolande, as her parents had died. She was such a darling I couldn’t help but love her instantly.” At that stage Katy was still single, and with four kids in tow, she took another courageous step to leave the orphanage where she had been working and set up another in Matola where there was a need for one. “I left with all four the children, which was a miracle in itself because it was unheard of for a missionary to leave with any children. But it was just the 38 Get It Lowveld December 2019 way God’s plan worked and I was soon able to complete the adoption process for all of them.” Shortly after Katy met her soon-to-be husband, Emile, at church. “I told him I come as a package with four children and he said no problem. I said, you must be joking - you don’t know what that really means! But he was adamant and it wasn’t long before we got married. Adoption is all about saying ‘I want you, I love you, I choose you’ “We were then blessed with a child of our own, Jasmine. Unfortunately she has learning difficulties so we had to move to South Africa to get her into a better school where she could be taught in English. We settled down outside White River three years ago. I then had Benjamin, bringing our family to eight.” Katy muses about her “rainbow” family, with her being British, her husband South African, four of the children Mozambican and the other two something in-between. But through the joy there are also challenges, not the least being the transracial nature of their family. “When you walk through the mall with all the children in tow, you attract a lot of stares. Everyone wants to know who the kids are and why you have them. Sometimes you get a good reaction, sometimes not. But I see more and more transracial families and it has become increasingly normal, which helps.” She notes that as an adoptive parent, it can be an emotional journey as you often wonder if your children are reacting a certain way because of how you brought them up or whether it is part of their DNA and has nothing to do with you. “You wonder when they act out if it is because they don’t love you as much because you are not their biological mother or because they are being normal, difficult teenagers. But ultimately whether they are your adopted kids or biological, you have challenges to face and so do they. You go through ups and downs just as you would with your biological children. That’s life. “But I always tell them that while they weren’t born in my tummy, they were born in my heart. Adoption is all about saying ‘I want you, I love you, I choose you’. It is just as profound as spending nine months in the womb. And my dream for them is to see them do well in life and have the same opportunities as anyone else.”
RM-BD324549NC
Page 1: GET LOWVELD IT Gin-gle bells time!
Page 5 and 6: GET IT Editorial Phone 013-754-1600
Page 7 and 8: Book club A trio of brilliant books
Page 9 and 10: Fancy an orange lolly? Makes 4 x 85
Page 11 and 12: STEP 2 |Find the perfect gift! The
Page 14 and 15: Eurika Mogane, Marchel Kruger, Paul
Page 16 and 17: GIN-GLE ALL THE WAY! They say that
Page 18 and 19: Text: MELLISSA BUSHBY. Photographer
Page 20 and 21: Making her mark Advocate Vulani Bal
Page 22 and 23: Text: ALITA STEENKAMP. Photographer
Page 24 and 25: Sparkling eyes... we’re besotted
Page 26 and 27: FESTIVE GIVEAWAYS 1 DECEMBER 2019 P
Page 28 and 29: The rhythm of Rio! Text: Mellissa B
Page 30 and 31: Summertime drinks Zesty grapefruit
Page 32 and 33: Festive feast If ever there was a t
Page 34 and 35: MARK THE SEASON Text: Lindi Botha.
Page 36 and 37: Boogie away THE BLUES At first glan
Page 38 and 39: Katy and Benjamin, Rafi, (back) Jas
Page 42 and 43: ITALIAN PASSION Putting Low’s Cre
Page 44 and 45: production point of view. “When y
Page 46 and 47: GET IT DIRECTORY RM-XE238547NC Dent
Page 48 and 49: GET IT DIRECTORY COMING UP IN JANUA
Page 50: Spoil December Win a hamper of the

Lowveld - Dec 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?