Spring Cleaning

 

Like most houses, the orphanage house was ready for a heavy duty spring cleaning. With all the babies that we have living with the mommies at the house, their rooms are getting quite crowded. So we thought we would rearrange the rooms so that the mothers can have more space, however, the mothers did not like that idea because the children’s rooms are infested with bed bugs. The bed bugs are a huge problem and they have been sprayed a couple times, but it hasn’t gotten rid of them yet. Since we have two other girls here helping for the week, we decided it was time to get everything out, spray really well, and clean the house from top to bottom.

We had the children and mothers get everything out of the house one evening and went in early the next morning to spray while the children were at school. We started in the ceiling and sprayed them out on to the ground. They were everywhere…once the whole house had been sprayed; we sprayed the beds outside, the mattresses, pillows, and anything else that we could not wash or iron. Everything that was washable came here to our place and we did laundry for three days straight washing all the sheets, blankets, clothes, curtains, pillow cases, stuffed animals, and so on…everything was hung in the sun to dry and then put under a hot iron. The moms and children had to sleep outside two evenings because the fumes were so strong and we wouldn’t allow any clothing to go inside the house until it was washed and ironed. We are going to be very strict on the children’s rooms and the washing of bed sheets and clothes from now hoping to eliminate the bug problem. We are praying that these efforts are enough to have removed all the bugs and the eggs. These bugs are very painful and we found tons of blood stains on the sheets from where the bugs were biting the children and leaving sores on their arms and legs.

Everyone seems a lot more happy now that we have cleaned out the house rearranged all the furniture and settled back in. The moms are in the biggest rooms in the house, with lots of play space for the babies (now they can have out all their toys, bouncy seats, and play pins without being disturbed by the older children). By having a space big enough for all the babies, the moms have the opportunity to leave all the babies in the room with one mom, while the others are able to get work done and the babies can be stimulated by things around  them. The children also seem happier cleaning out their drawers and junk they have been keeping, but no longer need. We are also having the children mend all their clothes that have holes or are missing buttons to teach them to take care of their things while they have them. They know they only get “new” clothes once a year, so they have to pace the rate at which they wear everything.

Through all this hard work, we are really praying hard that it solved the bed bug problem! Please pray with us that these bugs are gone and won’t enter into the orphanage ever again…they are hard to get rid of, but with God on our side, we it’s not even a small battle. It is a much safer and  cleaner environment for the children, babies, and moms :o)