Guardians of Hope South Africa had a handover on Friday, November 9, when one of the children was officially welcomed by the new family that has adopted him.
The handover was special as it took place happened on World Adoption Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about adoption.
House mother Elaine Brenkman said the baby, named Reuben, was born on July 18 2018 and was brought by the department of social development from Makhanda on August 8.
“Reuben is the 93rd child under my care and the 34th under the care of Guardians of Hope. We named him Reuben which means ‘Behold a son’.
“Reuben has really been a pleasure to care for. He was such an easy baby, the loudest thing about him is most definitely his snore,” said Brenkman.
According to Brenkman, Reuben loved being spoken to, and he was a real chatterbox. He is inquisitive and prefers being upright, as he doesn’t want to miss a thing.
“He will be dearly missed”, Brenkman said.
His new parents – Nicole and Abraham du Plooy – had been trying to have their own biological family for the past four years.
They then decided up until they decided to take the adopting route, which lead them to baby Reuben.
“Due to my husband’s spinal injury, we knew conceiving our children was not going to be an easy road.
“We went to a fertility clinic and that didn’t help either, so we decided to adopt. We started last year in January 2017 with the adoption process, and in July 2017, last year we were introduced at Guardians of Hope,” said Du Plooy.
She described the first moment they met moment as comfortable.
“We are not going to change his name, but instead change the spelling a bit, so it will be Reuben Carel Asonwabise du Plooy.
