Heartland Children’s Lodge

A heartfelt welcome to each and every one of you that has taken the time to look at our Go Fund Me and came here to find out more about us and what our dream is.

My name is Edrich and I am 45 years old. I am married to the love of my life Juanita who is 37 years old. Together we have two of our own children aged 13 and 9 and a foster child that we took in September 2019 and he has been with us ever since. We made the decision to adopt him less than a month after he was placed with us, so yes, we actually have 3 children...lol. The adoption process cannot be done yet as we have so many complications with the Social Worker and Home Affairs in getting his Birth Certificate and Court Documents. At this stage the poor little man still does not exist on paper. We are however fighting on to get what we need so that we can officially adopt him. (This has become even more complicated as you will read further on)

On the night he was abandoned a security guard on night shift in the area saw a lady with the baby in a field. He asked her what she was doing and she said that her daughter abandoned him and that she is not willing to take care of him so she was going to leave him here in the field. The security guard had a good enough heart and took the baby from her and took him to the nearest Place of Safety. At this time my wife and I have been involved with a Children's Home for 3 years already where my wife mostly volunteered and I did what I could when they asked for my help. We received a call from our Children's Home that we were involved with the day after the baby was found and they asked us if we would be willing to take a baby. At this stage we have already been registered as a "Place of Safety" and we naturally accepted and went to pick him up around 18:00 that evening. So the love affair started and as mentioned, less than a month after he was placed with us we decided that we cannot let this little guy go and we would be applying to foster him and then adopt.

We called him Caleb. He came into our lives when he was just 3 Days old and he is now 2

My wife & I have had a dream for many years which we unfortunately always placed on the "back burner" because of the hectic schedules that came with running a business and raising kids. During the start of 2019 we decided that we were going to stop making excuses for not doing what we know in our hearts we were supposed to do. Our plan was to open our own Children's Home and we called it Heartland Children's Lodge. We registered a Non-Profit Company and we were all excited about the future and the difference we were going to make, and then the unforeseen happened.

During the latter part of 2019 business started declining for reasons we would prefer not to discuss on here in too much detail, but let's just say we (and more so myself) started loosing faith in humanity, as certain people were the direct result of our declining business through malicious intent because we were not willing to take part in unethical practices. Lets just leave it at that, no use in crying over spilled milk. We had to eventually close our business in October 2019 after 7 years of blood sweat and tears. As a result of that and our savings being depleted to try and keep the business afloat, we were evicted from the house we rented at the time. At this time we were still unaware of what these certain people were doing that caused our decline in business and we were convinced that it was just that time of the year where business is a bit slower (In our business winter was always a quiet time but it always turned around in October of every year) This time however, October came and went and we realized something was not quite right. At this stage our savings was already depleted and we could not pay rent anymore or afford food or anything and we were officially asked to leave our rental property in December 2019.

This was a mayor shock to our system, so unexpected and happened so fast that we did not have the luxury of time to consult with the Company that provided us with work about what was happening. We only found out much later when we we settled at Juanita's mom from other employees in the Company that the person we were referring to above who was in a Team Leader position, ordered staff not to appoint us on any work, and we could only assume it is because we refused her orders directly to lie to clients so that they could benefit from it. I was tired and stressed out, lost everything we had, including my vehicle that was repossessed and I was living with my Mother-in-Law, suffice to say I could not face taking on a Big Corp. Company without evidence and I decided to cut my losses and move on. We got pressure from all sides and our only concern was that we should get to a place where there is some stability so that Caleb would not be removed from our care. In the process of trying to move our belongings to someone that offered to store our belongings (a person from our church at the time), and trying to figure out where we can go, many of our belongings went missing. This was only discovered when we eventually ended up moving in with Juanita's mom on a small mining town about 2 hours drive away from where we lived in Pretoria, South Africa. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of the worst time of my life!!!!

During the next couple of weeks we had to sell everything we had left, from Pots and Pans to Beds just to be able to help financially as Juanita's mom is not financially well off and she could not take care of us but at least she could give us a roof over our heads. I eventually sold most of my expensive tools and workshop equipment as well as we could not find work. (It was my hobby to work on cars so I had quite a collection of tools and equipment). Nevertheless, this didn't bother me at the time as feeding our kids was much more important than equipment standing in my Mother-in-Law's garage). It was however a huge blow to us that we felt we would never recover from. To be honest, I still feel that way as I have tried finding work again but could not find anything. Juanita eventually got a office job at the lady that owns the old Mining Town (It was sold to a private individual by the mine as the mine was not operating anymore). Because our schools are such a mess in South Africa my kids are attending Home School through a dear friend of mine that has his own Learning Institution, free of charge. That also makes it difficult for me to go and take a 9-5 job as I have to get them through Home Schooling. Juanita works 6:00am to 17:00pm every other day and 6:00am to 15:00pm the other two days of the week and every second Saturday until 12:00 for a salary of R6000. That is a mere $436.07 a month which is better than nothing but we can't really do much with that. We are however grateful for what we have at this stage. Juanita's boss also at least at the time let us stay in one of the houses on the mine. We were very grateful but it's not a place where we would like our kids to grow up and one of our main goals was also to get away from there to a safer place for us and our kids. A place we can call our own (we have never owned our own house) and we will work our hands to the bones to be able to provide that to our children. We borrowed beds at that stage and was given a lounge suite out of an Estate. We want to be completely transparent and that's why I am mentioning this. We had some household goods left that nobody wanted to buy, but bare essentials. We didn't have a Medical Aid which is a very stressful situation taking in consideration the condition of State Owned Hospitals in South Africa and we didn't have any life cover policies or any savings or anything like that whatsoever.

NOW, this is where everything changed and my story begins and I experienced the biggest blow I have ever had to face. I'm not going into too much detail. My life has been a complete disaster the past three months as my wife left me and I had to leave. I havent seeen my children in 3 months and my life feels like it has no meaning anymore. I attempted suicide one night with a Stanley Knife and this is where God stepped in and that blade would not penetrate my skin on my wrist!! A Miracle for sure!! Everyday for me now consists of mayor anxiety attacks and sobbing as I cannot believe that my wife of 14 years would do something like that to us and our children. (This is a short version of evens as I cannot tell the entire story here)

I'm trying to get my business back on track again here is Pretoria but nothing is happening.

I gave my life to Jesus, got baptized and went through deliverance but as mentioned the pain everyday to face life without my soulmate and my children is hell!!!! I'm struggling emotionally, financially I'm down and out. As I write this I've had a Zero bank balance for the past three weeks and no work is coming in.

The lord has however given me visions and spoke clearly to me and he said I must carry on with Heartland Children's Lodge.

I'm also standing for my marriage as I know for a fact that satan has taken over my once beautiful wife and turned her into a completely different person within days. We are interceding in prayer for her every day and I will quit the day I draw my last breath as I love my wife with all my heart and I know she is a wonderful person with a heart of gold!!! The Lord has also spoken to me on several occasions and clearly said to me "I will be restoring your marriage" so I cannot and don't want to give up as I love my wife so much and this Heartland Children's Lodge was our dream and vision together.

Please know that my intent is not to make my wife look bad, because she isn't but if satan get's into your life you will make bad decisions and do all the wrong things and have absolutely no feeling of remorse about it. I love my wife and kids with my whole heart and that is why I'm willing to go through the suffering to stand for my marriage. I also know God has been using this time to make me a better person and I keep on praying for Him to change me into the man and father He want's me to be. I made mistakes during the two year period after we had to close our business, was more grumpy, fought with my wife because of my frustrations, was depressed because I felt like a failure for not being able to provide for my family and said things I never meant and should never have said. So yes I gave satan a gap into my life as well and acted in a completely wrong manner towards my wife. But still the last year things where starting to get better and I felt the love from her side, you know what I mean, you can feel when there is real love in a hug or kiss and that's why i'm so convinced that satan decided that he had to do something before we get out of this place and actually get to do what we were called to do, Heartland Children's Lodge. So I have my faults in this as well and I take full responsibility but I still believe we could have worked through our issues and I will never give up on fighting to win my Soulmate's heart back!!!

So that's my story, trust me, I had to re-write this entire thing because of what happened. It was just never in the realm of possibilities that she would ever do something like that but since we ended up in that place she was under the influence of very bad people and satan took full advantage of it. I believe with my entire heart that God will restore our marriage as He told me in visions 5 times and 1 other vision where He just showed us together again and I have Faith!! I will never give up on her. She is a wonderful person!!

I can also not give up on our calling of the Place of Safety even though I'm going to have to do it on my own for now.

For now the actual full scale children's home cannot happen and I will only be re-registering as a place of safety on my own again. Under that I operate as a private individual and I'm allowed to take care for up to 6 babies max at a time.

So the main purpose of the Go Fund Me is to get me in a position where I can get a house and to finance my work with the abandoned babies and also eventually start working with physically and sexually abused children. Getting abandoned babies into a safe environment will always be my passion and I will keep on doing what I can as long as I draw breath, even if I have to do it without my wife for now. So in essence, any donations received through this Go Fund Me will at the end of the day, looking at the bigger picture, go towards doing something good for a child or baby somewhere and also a man that has lost everything and just wants to get back on his feet so that I have something when God give's me my family back. I will not quit because of my situation as there are thousands of children that need help. At this stage it looks like Mount Everest in front of me, but God moves mountains and just getting a house alone is a massive ask, not to mention the running cost of such a home. I will obviously try and source other donations as well. My vision is to take in any babies ans infants up to 4 years old for now. If some of the children can be adopted into good homes, praise God, but children that are not adopted I vow to be part of their lives until my time is over on this earth. Eventually we (i have Faith my wife and children will be back by then) we want to register a Children's Home and as mentioned those that are not adopted we will take through school and studies after school until they can get a job and live a normal balanced life and I will always be there for them and if possible I want to adopt all the children that are not so fortunate to get adopted by good families.

I would be so great-full for each and every donation received trough this Go fund Me and it will enable me to get out of a very dark hole again and to continue doing what I can for the babies and children that needs help. I also just want to feel like a human being again and that my life is actually worth something. God is first priority in my life at this stage even though He knows that everyday's tears for my wife and kids is just something I cannot help and I'm praying that He understands.

So that is my story in a Nutshell and as I always say, nothing will stand in my way to realize my dreams of making in difference in children's lives. (Which was once my wife dream as well and I believe it's still in her heart and so is her love for God and for me, it's just been suppressed by all the lies and deception from the devil) I welcome anyone wanting to contact me to give me a call or send me an e-mail.

My motto is for every child saved from being abandoned, it could result in an entire generation being saved. I hope and trust that people like you reading this will feel the excitement in your heart and what change your donations through the Grace of God can bring to not only me, loosing my family (even though I believe with my entire being it's only temporarily) which has been and still remains the toughest time of my life but also to so many lost and broken children.

Any donations will be much appreciated, once off or monthly contribution. I'm launching this first because I'm going to need a house with everything in place before I can apply for the registration through the various entities so that there can be no problems when they come out to do the home inspections. I'm not even going to attempt government funding as they are closing children's homes instead. I will have to get a few ladies as staff to help with the daily caring for the babies and children and they will have to be paid a salary and and and....but I believe and have Faith that I will make it. Once there is funds and I can start rebuilding my life and do what I need to do I will give regular updates on the progress so that you know where your donations are going. Even though I'm a bit shy I will even try and start a YouTube channel to show progress and just talk my heart out. I'm being straight forward, this is also to get myself back on my feet again, and I'm praying for new opportunities in business where I can earn decent money while running the Place of Safety. Apart from the business where nothing is happening at the moment unfortunately, I have send out near to 50 CV's to companies through people with connections and nothing has materialized yet. That's why I felt i should stop ignoring God and get Heartland Children's Lodge up and running and He will provide for the rest. I pray so much for a house of my own as well and a car that doesn't run on Grace only so that I have something decent when God brings my wife and children back to me.

Thank you again to everyone that took the time to read my story and God Bless

Edrich

Please call me Edrich at +27 61 487 4121 or e-mail me at [email protected] should you which to make contact with me.

PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE IF I DON'T ANSWER OR SEND A WHATSAPP.

HERE'S TO NEW BEGINNINGS.

Michael Ketterer that was on America's Got Talent said before his first Audition "When a child is in Foster Care and you are just surviving, you cannot dream", so for me it's also important to provide these children with a safe place that they can call home and where they can dream.