Talk Is Sheep

Summer Fun

2011-07-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Like most kiddos, my 4 Things love to play in water in the hot summer weather! So, in classy ghetto style, I give you them in their little pool in the garage/carport...(it was the only place that we could put the pool that wouldn't kill the grass and BONUS, it kept me from having to apply sunscreen, woohoo!)

Ahhh, a cool pool in the 90billion degree eleventyhundred percent humidity!

Everybody was getting in on the action-they don't call it the dog days of summer for nuthin'! (also yes, he takes up most of the pool, what a lummox....)

Does this pool make my hair look big???

What are YOU doing to stay cool this summer?

Blueberry Bitterness, Fundraising Success, and the Holiday Weekend

2011-06-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I lied. I did not come right back and write about blueberries. I am sure y'all were on the edge of your seats waiting, but the pain was too fresh. Ok, well, I am partially kidding--I DID have a horrible time picking blueberries with Thing 4 and didn't really feel like re-living it through telling the story. She screamed the entire time and was miserable, it was swelteringly hot and I lost my very favorite silver earring, one I purchased in Africa on our trip to get our daughter and it had huge sentimental value to me so it really made me so, so sad. See why I didn't come back and share my awesome story? ;) However, it has a semi-happy ending because I did go again, ALONE, to pick berries and it was fabulous and then I baked a blueberry almond cake which was even more fabulous so I have now forgiven the blueberry patch. Almost.

Anyway, on to exciting news-my hubby rocked his triathlon-WOOHOO! He did GREAT and through that and some other generous friends, has now raised all the money needed to pay for his trip. THANK YOU to all of you who have given to his trip! But, here is the fun part-$ is still coming in for his trip so he is working to raise an extra $2000 to put toward some special projects while there like goats, water, home improvements, etc. It is SO awesome to see his excitement and enthusiasm to serve the fatherless. I cannot wait to send him off, even though I hate the thought of him being gone. (However, I will let you in on a secret. I am super excited to pack his stuff. No really. I LOVE packing for Africa-I cannot explain it and it is weird and not normal, but it is like a fun game for me to make it fit all small and organized and airline approved. I know, seriously not normal.)

Aside from all the fascinating blueberry news I have to share (I may even go again tomorrow-I know, I am FASCINATING! ;) ), we are just gearing up for a fun 4th of July weekend. My sister in law is here in town with us for the weekend so we are excited to have fun swimming and doing parades and sparklers and cook outs and all the fun things that go with July 4th. I love the 4th because it is just fun, no stress with presents and fancy foods-just having fun outside and celebrating! I am off to go plan what foods we will be making for the cookouts and what fun other stuff we will be doing. What are YOU doing for the long weekend??

A CRAZY Prize For YOU and Just Our Regular Craziness, Too

2011-06-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I remember when summer used to be about being lazy and just hanging out having fun. Well, making sure my kids are having all that fun is EXHAUSTING! This week has been our church's inaugural "Summer Kids Club" and it has had an amazing turnout (over 240 kids!!) from our church and all around the community and has really been a ton of fun. My oldest Thing, however, opted out of the SKC for....middle school volleyball camp. Now, my kids go to an AMAZING private Christian school that is a fabulous community to be part of and I am so happy about her desiring to play volleyball and her spending time with those awesome girls but....did you catch the "middle school" in there? THAT is where I am not happy. I am not sure at all when my sweet little baby became a middle schooler but I am pretty sure I am not ready. Sigh. Anyhoo, the days have mostly consisted of getting sleepy girls up, driving one to volleyball (and feeling sad about it, every day-yes, I am that kind of mom...I know), driving the others to church and checking them in, then taking Thing 4 to do some other sort of crazy thing like blueberry picking (b/c I am not in my right mind...I will write about that disaster tomorrow-try to control your anticipation...) then turning right back around and doing the picking up of all the said Things and then feeding them all and then collapsing from tiredness. We were just not built to be a family that is on the go all the time-it makes me tired and maybe sometimes a wee tiny bit crankyish, possibly...

However, we have one more BIG EXCITING thing to end this week of crazy and this is where YOU come in!!!! If you have been around this blog much in the last couple years, you know we have a big heart for Africa and for some of the people living there who are in need of things we cannot imagine being without-things like clean water, food, PARENTS!! I have gone to Ethiopia a couple of times in the past year and now this summer my hubby is going to Uganda and Ethiopia. You can read about his trip and the background to his going on the trip and doing the Tri here. (he has his own blog now, how fun!) To help fund his trip and beyond, he is doing another triathlon THIS SUNDAY!! WOOHOO! The cool thing is that by him doing this triathlon, YOU could win some AWESOME stuff pictured below:

THE MEGA PRIZE PACK OF AWESOMENESS!!
•Any 1 Item from The Mama Sheep Shop – your choice!
•“Got Love” Beach Bag
•1 lb. bag of authentic Ethiopian coffee – whole beans or ground (BEST in the world, no joke)
•“Go-Mug” stainless steel and wood grain travel mug from Gobena Coffee
•Dude Perfect T-shirt – you pick the size – and bumper sticker
•Living Water International 25 oz. water bottle
•Baby Juddah’s Mustard Seed basket
•Gary Smalley book collection: 'Change Your Heart, Change Your Life', 'Great Parents, Lousy Lovers' and 'The DNA of Relationships'
•Mystery item from Uganda, to be revealed soon!
•who knows maybe something else, too…

Here is how it works-for only $10, you can enter the prize pack giveaway by guessing the time in which he will complete the race. The closest guesser to the actual time wins all that awesome stuff in the picture above and more! And as the donation amount increases, your number of guesses you can make (read:chances of WINNING) increases. And you don't even have to run, bike or swim. Oh yeah, for reals. Go to his site HERE-NOW! Go! and enter your guess-the tri is in just 4 DAYS! (I am considering entering a guest under a secret name so maybe I can win it all...but he may be suspicious when he sees the stuff around our house, hmmm....) If you don't want to do the guessing/winning the prize thing, there are also opportunities to sponsor him or his good friend who is also joining him to help raise $ (but who is not going on the trip, he is just doing it to help my hubby-what an AWESOME friend!) so you can jump in there, too. I feel as though my summer-induced exhaustion has made this whole explanation make not much sense so, go here to his blog and read for yourself and get in on the mega prize pack of awesomeness!

Are you still here? GO ALREADY!

But please come back tomorrow for the riveting story of blueberries and tears...I mean, who would want to miss that, right??

Check, Check....Is This Thing On?

2011-06-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Anyone? Anyone?......Bueller?.....

(one of the best movies ever, btw)

Well, I meant to take a bloggy break, but before I knew it it turned into almost 6 (much needed) months off! But, I have missed my bloggy peeps and lots of life has happened in those months so I thought maybe we might just pick right back up again, what do y'all think? If you are still around to say hi, give a shout out in the comments.

OH! I also need to catch you up on a cool prize opportunity you can get in on THIS week, too! I shared it on facebook but wanna share it here too so look for that in the next day or so :)

Missed y'all! :)

Hi!

2011-01-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile, I know. I decided to just let some things go this holiday season, namely anything other than just hanging out with my family and cooking and enjoying my kiddos' Christmas break and time off from school. It was FABULOUS! Just to drop a lot of expectations I have put upon myself and just BE. It made the holiday break an amazing and resorative time for our whole family. However, getting back into school and the busyness that comes with that schedule has been less enjoyale. I was just not built for getting up before 9 am, particularly not in the winter, sigh....Anyone else wrestle with the cold, grey monotany of winter like I do?? Ugh, cannot wait till spring! BUT, this winter might just fly by a little faster because right now we are getting ready for a certain little guy named Juddah and my good friend Cherrie to arrive here Thursday evening and get things rolling on his surgery-God has been so amazing! We are really getting excited and my children have just really been so sweet about it-they went to the store this weekend and bought him little stuffed animals all on their own, it was their idea and they used their own money. I love their heart for others, not much more you could ask for as a mom!! The link to Juddah's blog is here and you can read about his arrival to the US. While you are praying for his arrival and such (and I KNOW you are ;) ), please pray for our family-two have fallen victim to a tummy bug and we have to have a healthy house for he and Cherrie to come stay in so pray it right out of here ASAP!! Thanks for the 2 of you still checking in here and hopefully next post will be a little sooner in coming! (AND have pictures, I know....lame)

Updates

2010-12-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

I know I have been scarce around these parts but I wanted to stop in to say hey and share some exciting stuff. Since I last posted, my littlest Thing turned 2!! Woohoo! She has a huge personality and 'tude, loves anything she can fiddle and mess with, and also has had a verbal EXPLOSION in the past 3 weeks and has been hilarious with the new whole phrases she is coming up with daily. She was pretty behind on her language development so when all the sudden she has started not just saying some words but whole sentences, and hilarious ones with great inflection at that, it has been absolutely amazing. One of our favorites is when she runs up and literally pounces on you like a cat and says, "I gotchoo!" SO. STINKIN'. CUTE. Here is a picture to show off her 2 year old cuteness:

She keeps us running ALL the time though because she is a tornado so my energy and time to write is very very scarce right now. No worries, I know I will have more time again for writing some day!

Another VERY AWESOME thing that has been consuming my time is working to get little Judah (remember him? read about him here and here if you don't...) from Ethiopia some medical help. He has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus and fused cranial sutures and cannot get the life-saving surgery he needs there in Ethiopia. Please check out his blog here and read what has been going on. The most recent post shares the most incredibly awesome news though-there is a hospital here where I live that is willing to consider treating him and doing his surgery (donated!!) and so Cherrie, a friend with a deep passion for Korah and with whom I hung out with in ET in October, is flying here to go with me to a meeting with the hospital execs on Monday!!! Yeah, Lord!!!! Way to show off! Cherrie's multiple flights to ET in the last year have made it possible for her to fly here free so she is hopping on a plane in the morning. I CAN NOT WAIT for this meeting-it is surreal!!! I have no other words than PRAISE THE LORD! (And also maybe I better lay off the ALL CAPS and exclamation points!!!!) I will let y'all know how it goes! Please pray for all systems to be go b/c we still have a lot of hurdles to clear with his medical visa, TB and HIV tests, etc.

A Confession and Some Special Links

2010-11-18T06:08:00.000-08:00

Y'all are great-I loved the comments about what things you look forward to about the holidays! Go read them from yesterday's post if you didn't have a chance so you can see what everyone shared! I should use more exclamation points!!!! And no worries about being super "spiritual" in your holiday traditions-we totally watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving weekend, too, haha!!! Also, my friend Kelly in the comments MIGHT have been being a teensy bit sarcastic about our housegroup because I will let you in on a secret-I HATE CHRISTMAS CAROLING!! I really do. I LOVE to sing, and I LOVE music, and I do lots of sing-y things, but I loathe Christmas caroling. I just hate tromping around ringing on doorbells and such and having to awkwardly stand there singing cheesy Christmas songs at people while they try to smile and not feel awkward also while they listen to you. The whole thing is weird to me and I am not a fan, sorry. I realize I may have just lost most of my 3 followers with that admission...;) But I am happy to be the one who stays behind and make hot chocolate and cider for the weary carolers to come back to at the end-does that count for anything??? (Oh, and in regards to the other part of the comment about miming, do not even get me started on how I feel about miming....)

Ok, now that I have painted such a lovely picture of myself, how about I share a few links that I think are worth taking a look at. First up is something that is VERY dear to my heart and is the exact post I have been trying to write for about a month or so now. It is a post written by a woman who is a missionary in Haiti and the post is about mission trips and working with impoverished people in other countries and a great book that we, too are reading. I have written, fretted over, edited, and ultimately deleted a post several times that was trying to say the very same things the author shared in this post so when I read it I was thrilled b/c now I don't have to try to write it, I will just link y'all to it and tell you to go read it! Ha, it is not being lazy, it is being efficient... I do believe it is worth your time to read it if you are at all interested in missions. Go ahead and read-I'll wait here.

One other link that I wanted to share is to my internet friend Christie's blog. Christie is moving to Uganda in just about 2 weeks to live and work in a village called Bugabo. She has partnered with local people there to help build a school and she will be teaching at this school as well. The children in the village need sponsors to pay for all the needs that go with getting an education. Now, before you say no thanks, get this-sponsorship for a child in ONLY $100 FOR A YEAR!! Hmm, that is less than $10 a month. $100 will cover tuition, uniform, shoes, school supplies, a meal during school, and medical/dental visits (as needed) for one year. That is a pretty sweet return on a small investment. I know not everyone can do this, but for all those of you who wanted to sponsor kiddos in Korah but missed the cut off, here is your chance in Uganda! Christie will be living in the village, with the children and families, in their culture, and being a part of helping them help themselves. In a time when everyone is looking for a "good deal", this is a pretty AMAZING deal for $100. Christie is very open to answering any and all questions about this, too, if you need more info so feel free to give her a shout about it. She has literally given up everything in her life, the entire American dream and all that comes with it, to live among these people she loves. Let's help her do it! Go check out her blog now, if you would please!

And since I have written several posts without pictures, I will leave you with one of my weird kids on Halloween just so you can have a complete picture of how our family rolls :)

Well, Hello There!

2010-11-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

Y'all, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth, I just needed some time to process in my head and heart all that went on on my trip and also spend some much needed just-family time with my hubby and girls. I hope you understand, you seem like an understanding bunch ;), and I will be back to posting more regularly. Sometimes I just need a break from the blog/facebook/email world, ya know? And especially after the trip, I needed to re-group a little since the world did not stop spinning for me and I had to jump right back into mom/school/work/life duties-how rude of that world! But, I am getting VERY excited about the holidays coming up and really looking forward to the time with my family and friends, celebrating the millions of things for which I am thankful and also preparing to celebrate the reason for every single thing I am/have/do, the birth of my Savior!!!

So, to get things back rolling here on the blog, let's do a group discussion. What things are you looking forward to most this holiday season? Share them in the comments so we can all learn a little more about what this little Sheep flock does during Thanksgiving and Christmas and beyond and maybe get some fun ideas to add to our own holiday traditions! I will start with one that is weird and fun all at the same time: the last few years we have done, along with my sister's family (8 of them), a Mayflower dinner some time the week of Thanksgiving. We find an obnoxiously cramped and uncomfortable space (we have used a basement shop/tool room, an outside children's wooden playhouse, etc) and cram all 14 of us in there, much like the pilgrims were on the Mayflower (minus the barf from seasick folks and stink of various "functions"-we are not THAT committed to simulating reality) and we have dried beef and stale crackers and one year even had "ale" (gross!!!) for the kids to take a sip of since that is what they had on the ship as water was not available. Then we read the story of how the Pilgrims did this and more (one baby was even born aboard the Mayflower mid-journey!!), for a LONG time on a cramped ship going where they knew and had NOTHING, so they could come here to a new land where they could be free to worship the one True God. Funny how that part often gets lost in the stories of the Pilgrims and Indians and school plays-but the reason for their sacrifice and suffering was their commitment to honoring God's words in the Bible and not being forced to worship their earthly king. Many of them lost their lives and lost loved ones and suffered so dearly for the cost of religious freedom, so that I can sit here many many years later freely typing about the God I love. So, we laugh about our Mayflower dinner b/c it is weird and cramped and uncomfortable and the little ones cry and fuss and it is not really all that fun, honestly, and that is exactly the point. :) It is a very, very small taste of how it was for those first brave women and men and their families-I have nothing to complain about and so very much to be thankful for.

Ok, your turn-share your family traditions/jokes/things the holidays would be complete without in the comments! :)

An AMAZING Last Day!!

2010-11-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

** Sorry this took me a few days to get posted, I have been doing a lot of sleeping since I got home :)**

Well, God pulled out all the stops in sending me out of here with an absolutely great day! I awoke to a Bisrat alarm-I heard his voice calling “hello, Jody?” throughout our house and he showed up at our bedroom door where Danielle and I were asleep. Things here are so different, I just honestly have to laugh about it. Can you imagine that in the States?? hahaha. He came by b/c he was supposed to come with me to the airport to say goodbye when I left but he had something come up for his job so he could not-at least that is what I think happened, I was half asleep for most of it....
After he left, we realized we needed to get up and get moving anyway as we were supposed to head to Korah pretty soon so it all worked out ok. We got to the church office there and did our standard wait around until we could figure out what was going on for the day and while we were waiting, the people with the clay and tools showed up! We were so excited, I wasn't going to miss it after all! D and I got an area set up in the shelter to work with the women on beads and we (surprise!) waited while Pastor and Sammy were supposed to go round up the ladies. We sat for a bit, chatting with Murad and Daniel, the guy who was serving as the translator for the clay lady. Then Murad announced we were actually not doing the clay until next week. WHAT?! I won't be here next week!! I was really heartbroken and not even sure what had happened. I know that is just the way things sometimes go here, that you have to hold plans loosely, but I felt tears welling up in my eyes, thankfully behind my sunglasses. This was the thing I was most excited about on the whole trip! Everything else had gotten switched around and I could deal with that, but this? Not so much. However, I knew good and well there was nothing I could do about it so I asked if we could just go visit the babies one more time before I left. Off we went behind the church, along the rocky trash path to her home with Murad. The babies were asleep completely covered under a blanket (how they can breathe under there I do not know) so I didn't want her to disturb them just b/c I wanted to see them. We asked if things were going ok and how her supply of formula and diapers was and then I asked if she had chosen names for them yet so I could pray for them. Well, this is where God began to show me why I wasn't off doing beads. The mama told Murad she named them the names I had called them the other day, Sarah and Judah! I could not believe that, this time the sunglasses did not hide the tears. She had not named them yet b/c she was waiting on the “right” names, and then she said she liked those that I called them. Oh my heart!! Murad said “Jody, you are very lucky.” No, no luck here, just undeserved blessings from the Lord! I told her I was leaving and would not get to see her again and she came and gave me a big hug and we exchanged kisses on alternating cheeks and I gave her another tight squeeze-now I can pray for those babies by name! The especially fun thing is that we had always planned on using the name Sarah for one of our girls but just never had for one reason or another, and I know my hubby LOVES that name, so that is why I liked it for that tiny sweet girl-so I feel like we really DO have a Sarah now! We said goodbye and I was already on cloud nine as we walked away from there. But alas, God was not done yet!

I had brought a couple shirts for the child my dad sponsors and I wanted to see if I could by any chance find him and give them to him personally. Sammy and Murad talked back and forth and talked with some kids, or as we like to call it their underground communication network, and came back saying “ok, let's go”. I asked how they know how to find people since there are no street names and no addresses, and I explained addresses in America. M laughed and said, “no, here it is not like that, you just ask people and guess”. It seems ridiculous, yet somehow they always know where to find people, it is unreal. You have to see it to understand how crazy it is! We walked for a good bit, past chickens and donkeys and large mats of hot peppers drying in the sun to make into berbere powder, a very hot and spicy pepper blend they use here in most dishes. He lived far from the church and eventually we found his little home tucked back at the end of an alley of sorts. The tin covering the walls was rusted and flimsy and we had to duck to go through the tiny doorway. It was totally dark inside, with the exception of a patch of sunlight from a dinner plate-sized skylight cut into the roof. The floor was dirt covered with dried grass and the walls were made of tarp material rather than the typical mud. It actually had multiple rooms and ornately embroidered maroon curtains, in stark contrast to the dirty, cobbled-together rest of the house, separated the kitchen/bedroom from the main room. The actual sponsored child was not at home as he was taking an exam but his mother and 2 sisters were there and they graciously welcomed us into their home. We explained who we were and I showed her the things I had brought for her son from my dad. She was very happy to have them and then sweetly asked us to sit so she could make us coffee! I am telling you, I love these people. Can you even imagine such a thing in America? A random foreign stranger shows up at your door and asks to come in and then you sit them down and make them coffee? No way, jose! We sat and she ducked through the fancy curtains to prepare the coffee. The 2 younger sisters were there, smiling shyly at us and helping their mother. They were both absolutely beautiful! I called them over to share something in my bag with them, my “modern day phylacteries” as I was calling them. Phylacteries were the things the Pharisees in the Bible wore on their foreheads and wrists, little boxes strapped on with scriptures inside and they were worn in response to the verse Deuteronomy 6:8 that says “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” I had almost the same thing, silly bands that are in the shape of pictures and colors that represent the Gospel story! :) (They are called Believer Bands if you want to get some, btw) I had 2 sets in my bag and, with Murad's help, I showed the girls each band, telling them what it represented. There is a black apple, a red cross, a white heart, a green plant, and a gold crown. I shared with them (and their listening mother) that we all have forgiveness and new life offered to us in exchange for sin that we all have-and this forgiveness is b/c of Jesus' death on the cross and if we choose to accept that amazing gift from God, we have a place in His kingdom in heaven! Then I gave them their own set to each wear on their wrist to remind them of that Truth and to also share the story with their friends if they wanted. They were excited to have them and so was I! I couldn't help but think that if I had been up at the shelter making beads, this would never have happened and I saw once again God's perfect timing and plan revealed to us. I was just thrilled to have spent my afternoon in this home, sharing the greatest gift one could ever get, eternal life in Christ through His grace. This day alone made the entire trip worth it to me.

We eventually reluctantly left their home and headed to meet up at the coffee shop with the rest of the guys and Cherrie, all of whom had been off doing various things. We got there and saw the now-familiar mom and her little one who are beggars on the sidewalk, sleeping among the cars and foot traffic whirring by. It tore at my heart that this is their life, and I wondered out loud if she might be able to come to the bead training next week to learn that craft to earn income rather than put her and her daughter in harm's way every day. So, b/c he has a heart of gold, Murad went over and asked her if she lived in Korah, b/c the training is for only Korah people, and she said yes, she does live there! Long story short, it is tentatively set up for her to come either Tuesday or Wednesday to come to the training-PLEASE pray she does!! It could make such a difference in her and her child's life. Eventually everyone collected there at the shop and we set out for home, stopping on the way home to pick up our food for dinner, a live sheep from a herd on the side of the road! Yup, they were going to do a big sheep roast party since I was leaving-I just love these guys!! The sheep here look like our goats back home, but with fat tails. Our fat-tailed dinner rode home INSIDE the van, upside down on the floor while Yiesmachew held it by the ankles, and it protested with loud bleats every now and again. Almost the same as when I am bringing dinner home from Kroger.....The rest of the afternoon was filled with gathering the needed items for the party-firewood (the sheep gets cooked on a HUGE pan on rocks over a fire outside), bread, onions, cokes, etc. I was offered the chance to be the one to cut the sheep's neck, and really was going to do it, but at the last minute chickened out and was really glad I did when I watched them do it. It is just so gross, even though I had seen it before. Poor Cherrie was not watching as she HATES that part and I accidentally told her too many details about it and sent her into a fit of gagging-sorry Cherrie!!! :( The guys had a good time grossing me out by playing with the jaw bone and tongue of the sheep and I decided it would be a good time to go do something else. Little by little different people would show up and they all helped in preparing the meal-at one point Murad, Yiesmachew and our van driver Sammy were all peeling and chopping onions and out of nowhere Maste was there and cutting up chunks of the meat to cook while some other guys were chopping up tomatoes. It was just so fun to watch everyone working like busy bess and getting all excited about the big feast to come! There was no such thing as too many cooks there in the courtyard. Berhanu set up a beautiful coffee ceremony as well, along with the traditional snack served with it, popcorn. Talk about the royal treatment, y'all! I was floored, and my heart was beyond full from all the amazing events of this day with my Ethiopian family. Danielle and I each got a turn at the fire, cooking the sheep, which started out fun and was quickly ruined by the fact that I looked down in the pan and saw TEETH! So nasty, the jaw bone was in there!! I was so grossed out, they thought that was just hilarious-also, I was cooking beside Habtamu one of the other drivers and I thought, where the heck did HE come from?? I am telling you, people just show up all over the place! Here and there one of the guys would snap a sprig of rosemary right off the bush from the yard and throw it in the pan and Maste would come add more salt at various times to the meat and onions and tomatoes already in the pan. This could give Iron Chef a run for it's money, for sure-these guys can cook! Danielle made mashed potatoes to go along with it for the guys to try since they had never had them served like that before. Oh my word, they were SO good, D can also cook!!!! She makes a mean garlic mashed potato, y'all. I sat there, belly full of mashed potatoes and roasted sheep/goat and popcorn and coffee, surrounded by people who are my brothers and sisters in Christ, of all different colors and from different corners of the world, and thought how on earth did God see fit to bless my life in such an amazing manner?? My heart nearly then burst from my chest when the 15 year old boy from Korah, who now lives at Sumer's house, presented me with an ornate and delicate silver cross and said “for your Habesha baby” (meaning for my little Thing 4, adopted from ET) Seriously? I mean was he trying to just kill me from making my heart burst at that moment??? Oh how I felt torn between desperately wanting to see my family back home and yet not wanting to leave this family here. I am so thankful for the internet that will keep us in touch with one another!! The drive to the airport was hard, so many thoughts and feelings rolling around-I never like the beginning of all the flying anyway, it makes me nervous, and we were all a little sad that my time here was at an end, but I also wanted to get home and hug and love on my kids and husband. At the airport, we all gathered in a huddle, they guys, Cherrie, Danielle, Alicia and myself, and they prayed for me and for my trip, and D and I cried as she will stay another week. God has knit our hearts together so well during our time here that leaving her was especially hard-good thing she lives in America and is a little easier to visit!! Then it was finally time to make the dreaded walk up the hill, alone, b/c they cannot come past a certain point if they are not traveling, also. I actually sailed through security and check in ans the exit visa faster than I ever had and was sort of dreading sitting in the airport alone for 2 hours. God once again held me as I saw an American couple we had met a week earlier on the plane who were traveling for their first visit to meet the children they are adopting! They were again on my same flight back to Amsterdam and so we sat and talked the whole time while waiting for our flight. It turned out they had seen the video from my trip this summer as well as had read my blog, haha-small world! We had a great time laughing about our unique experiences over the last week in Ethiopia and we all agreed we were ready for American bathrooms again! Overall, this trip was not at all really what it started out to be, and at times on the trip that frustrated me, but God was more than faithful and the trip was so much more than I could have asked or imagined. He is just so good, ALL the time.

Hurry Up And Wait Day

2010-10-27T15:25:00.001-07:00

I don't have any great stories for today as today was filled with a lot of not doing anything other than waiting to do something. We spent the morning at the house while the church guys had a meeting. Since we had nothing really to do as we are at the mercy of the drivers showing up, we went and played with the monkey again (who I think peed on me, ew) and sat on the sidewalk drinking macchiatos that some street vendor kid brought us - a rough life here, I know. Although, just for the record, it is not like a French-style sidewalk cafe or anything, it was sitting on the dirt wall outside the dive bar across the crazy people and animal-filled road with clouds of diesel smoke trailing behind the cars and blue and white taxis whizzing by. Bisrat and Maste showed up and said they were here to go shopping with us so we weren't doing nothing while the meeting was going on so we thought we were in fact going to go. Apparently, I forgot I was in Ethiopia b/c we then sat around another hour just talking about leaving, then Biz and Maste went out of the room, we thought to call the driver. However, after awhile we realized they were totally gone and were nowhere to be found which is completely typical here. We looked around and asked some of the guys out front and they told us the guys were up at the cafe nearby eating lunch. Ack! Sometimes this place makes me crazy, how it is normal for people to just show up and disappear for hours.

Eventually, my American-ness finally took over and I felt restless to do something so I went in search of an internet cafe to try to figure out some blog posting/internet issues. Internet cafes here are basically small rooms like a hole in the wall in the middle of a row of shops. They have a couple computers and for me to use it for 30 minutes cost me about 25 cents. I wrestled with the internet for a bit and eventually got things figured out, only to turn around to Maste showing up in the internet cafe (apparently Bizi had gone back to the guest house - sure, why not...) Later we asked Maste how he found us and he said he just asked and the guys outside in the street (there are ALWAYS people out in the street) told him - he said "everyone knows who you are, you are obvious, firenge" hahaha. I guess we are. Finally, it seemed it was time to go and we hopped in the van, and decided to pick up Bisrat on the way. Another friend of mine from this summer, Tekabe, showed up and was very excited to see me - how fun! He hopped in the van as well and off Danielle and I went with our van full of ET guys, blaring hip hop music all the way down the road. We had a good laugh over our present circumstances vs. your typical image of missionaries. Well, our van pulled into a restaurant and we realized I guess we were stopping for lunch. We actually had a great time at lunch, we laughed and laughed together until our stomachs ached and I realized that these friends across the world are truly an amazing blessing in my life. They all love the Lord, too, and we just get along as if we are not living on completely different continents. We finished our lunch (I had something they call mixed juice - it has "juices" in layers, parfait-style, but they are really more like a pudding consistency-it was avocado, strawberry and mango and it is SO GOOD) and stopped at the bank to exchange some money and FINALLY headed out to shop. Or so we thought. A few guys had left the group and the rest of us went off in the van, only to pull over to the side and sit and wait because the other van with Cherrie and some of the church guys was "right behind us", which is Ethiopian for "sit there for 20 minutes...." Eventually was all met up and did some van switching and then we did actually go to shop, only 5 hours, yes 5 literal hours, after we thought we were going to go. We realized then that doing anything in Korah today for us wasn't going to happen so we figured we'd make the best of the day.

We asked if we could go to the Merkato, an experience neither of us have ever had here. It is a wild marketplace of shops here where you do NOT go by yourself if you are a white woman as there are a lot of thieves and it can get crazy and dangerous. Fortunately, our crew of body guards (the church guys are big and all muscle) got out of the van with us and we each got one who walked by our side and I held my bag slung across me with one hand on it the whole time. It looked like there were individual shops as there were doorways all along the busy street and we went up to one to get some scarves. This place was a festival of colors and textures! Jewel-toned cloths hanging form above, oriental carpets in large heaps, and people everywhere literally throwing brightly colored fabrics at us and calling out to us to buy. The room we were in was at least 15 feet high and the scarves and wraps were stacked to the ceiling! People sitting way up high (on what and how I do not know) clad in head and partial face coverings were calling down to us and unfurling their technicolored wares. The guys with us explained ALL of them were different sellers, in this very crowded room, and we needed to figure out which things we wanted and pay that seller. How in the world they keep track of inventory here is beyond my ability to understand-I have never seen anything like that in my life! It was fascinating and overwhelming and beautiful and a little scary all at the same time. We finished there and headed to an area of silver shops. Silver is very inexpensive here-they sell it by weight, a little less than $2US per gram. I was able to replace my Africa pendant that had gotten ruined for far less than I could at home so I was happy.

We spotted big, huge-muscled Berhanu walking down the sidewalk, hand in hand with a little girl from the street. It was so sweet, he walked and they chatted and he took her into a bakery and bought her something to eat. She came and hung out with us for a bit in one of the shops, not at all shy and aked me in English "what is your name?" She wanted to look at all the pictures of my family that I had in my bag and did not believe that I was the mother of a Habesha (Ethiopian) girl. She walked back with us to the van, holding onto her new love Berhanu, and there she got a special gift. Cherrie had bought her a tiny, delicate silver cross on a chain to wear under her clothes. When they gave it to her, Berhanu told her about Jesus and how He had died on the cross for her and that He loves her very much. Oh my gosh, it was such a sweet thing to watch, she was so beautiful with her radiant smile and new necklace shining against her dark skin. We helped her carefully tuck it under her clothes so she would not have it stolen and she hugged and kissed all of us goodbye. It broke my heart to think of her trust in us-we are not mean people and really enjoyed having her with us, but so easily she could have gone with someone who was not that way and it just brought tears to my eyes. These precious children are in such danger here of child trafficking, sex slavery, kidnapping, being sold to work, etc. It disgusts me to think of how common it is, too-she has a mother but her mother must work to keep them alive and so this little Hannah spends her days unsupervised on the streets. Oh Lord, protect that beautiful child....

We were absolutely wiped out by then because just simple shopping is such an ordeal so we just headed home. Some of us kicked a soccer ball around a bit and then introduced some of the guys to the movie Indiana Jones-Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was hilarious to watch them get into it, and also to watch them cringe and cover their eyes at the snakes. Some things are just the same across all cultures. What a strange day of doing a lot and nothing all at the same day. Tomorrow we have plans to be back in Korah either making beads (durn clay lady not showing up again!!!!Oh Ethiopia, you are killing me....) or going on more home visits. I hope we get to go see the babies again! That will be my last day to serve here in Korah and then I get on the plane late tomorrow night (Thursday) so I will probably not post for a bit. Sorry this post was full of mostly uninteresting details-I hope to have a great report of my last day in Korah to make up for it!

Tuesday

2010-10-27T03:43:00.001-07:00

Today was an interesting day as it always is here, with plans being made as you go along. This morning was spent at the church in Korah where all of the guys on staff were treated by a chiropractor here from America. She not only treats backs/spines but does holistic medicine and acupuncture and was treating them for various ailments. I have to say I was pretty skeptical about the whole practice b/c it had a lot to do with "energy systems" in the body but it ended up being more interesting to watch than I felt like admitting and really did seem to work to help relieve some stress and help them feel better. I was, however, eventually getting bored watching so I went outside to wander around and when I was out there, the sweet little man who is the guard at the shelter came up to me. He was saying to a bunch of things I could not understand and pointing to his back and I nodded along, trying to understand what he meant and thinking he wanted to see the doctor. He turned around and pulled his jacket and shirt up and showed me his back, revealing a large hump on his back. I wasn't sure if it was a recent injury so I rubbed my hand across his back to see if he indicated pain and he did not. I pointed to the church building to ask if he wanted to go in - he smiled and so I took him into the church to the doctor and asked if she could look at him. It turns out when he was younger he had fallen off a horse and they told him it was not broken, but the doctor today felt there was no way it had NOT been broken and was very concerned. It had healed back poorly, which had caused the hump, and if left completely untreated would cause worsening problems over time. He got cracked and twisted like the others and then sent over to be a human pincusion all along his back. He is such a sweet man and seemed so happy to be being treated and I was so happy for him.

After a while, Danielle, myself and 2 of the guys walked up to the ALERT hospital, which is the original hospital where leprosy was treated and around which the Korah community has grown. It was, with gorgeous tropical flowers and plant all over with white-coated medical staff walking about. Everything here is sort of indoor/outdoor so it was not like a hospital back in the States, more of a large compound with many separate buildings/shelters that have various purposes. One of the best parts about the compound is the hand craft area. There are several different crafts that are handmade there, by the leprosy patients, some of whom have been there for over 40 years! We went into a tin-walled shelter that had a dirt floor and random cast-off chairs and piles of things to sit on. Inside there was a group of women who were spinning cotton fiber from fluffy wads into yarn on hand-held drop spindles-it was AMAZING!! Some only have parts of their hands and fingers and yet had incredible skill at working that spindle. Danielle got to sit with one woman who showed her how to spin and and D gave it a try as well. It was not easy at all and yet these women do this all day everyday and are so fast! The cotton yarn is then either woven into blankets or crocheted into stunning bed covers/table cloths/sweaters/etc. The crocheters were hard at work in the metal shack next door and we went in to sit with them and see their work. I watched in awe as these women, most with only shiny stumps where fingers once were and some with functioning eyesight in only one eye, deftly making lace items on the tiniest crochet hooks ever. They were so much fun, too! Just like knitting circles back home, they chatted and laughed and let us join in their conversation. They all asked to have their picture taken and gave beautiful smiles as I took their photo. I was just overwhelmed with their beauty, really and truly. Their smiles just lit up their faces, and they just giggled like girls. I really and truly loved the time with them. They told us next time they would make us coffee, today they were not prepared. So sweet!

We eventually said goodbye and walked up to the porch of a building where a very friendly old man wash working on a loom to weave straw mats. He was quite talkative and was happy to have his picture taken and show off his amazing work. He told us he has been doing that for 45 years!!! He wears leg braces and has lost parts of his feet and walks with the aid of crutches and if that is not enough, he does not have fingers-yes, for real. And there is no way I could weave a mat with the skill he did, it was mesmerizing to watch him take the fibrous strand and weave and twist it over and under, again and again. We went into the building into a room filled with giant weaving looms and were led to another sunlight-filled side room by a woman clad in a bright purple dress. In this room, she and another woman, who had had parts of her hands and face and legs brutally claimed by leprosy, wound the spun cotton yarn onto sections of bamboo sticks that served as bobbins. There were boxes of fully wound bobbins in various places and on the floor, small wooden wheels with a simple cranks with which the bobbins were wound. I had the privilege of being taught how to wind by the purple dress lady and sat on the floor, filling up a bobbin (after the 3rd try) and feeling quite pleased with myself, until I turned to see the other woman (the one with no fingers) whizzing along filling up bobbin after bobbin in the time it took me to do half of one. Show off ;).

We next visited the women who sew and hand-embroider the traditional clothing and textiles with the elaborate patterns made of colorful threads. They had ornate antique Singer foot pedal machines to make the items with the woven fabric (woven downstairs from the yarn spun on the drop spindles-this place is a full service operation, all done here and no machines-amazing) and then they are embroidered with the gorgeous patterns. These women were also very welcoming and asked us to eat with them, but we declined knowing it was their lunch, and left them to eat in peace. We ate there at the compound with the guys and then purchased some of the hand-made items in the store they have that sells them. What a fascinating place! It made my heart so full to spend the afternoon there!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry outside in a tub and I spent the evening at the home of a family I know who lives here and who has a relative in my home town. They live in a very beautiful home on the other side of the city from where I am staying so it took the whole evening. They made an elaborate meal for me, which was very good for the most part, aside from a few traditional dishes I just cannot really get past, like the one with intestines and organs and assorted things in it. I ate some, and it was honestly not terrible, but finally the spicyness and the thought of what it was just rendered me unable to finish it. We ended the evening with a coffee ceremony and then Bisrat,who had come with me, took me to where he lives to show me his room. It was small, with just a bed and a mat on the floor where he prays and reads his Bible, and I got to meet the family who have the main house in the compound where he rents his room. They are very nice and like a family to Bizy.

We finally made it back to the house where I am staying and who was here when I got home? Maste! (a friend from my trip here this summer, just fyi if you didn't read then) What a nice surprise! We chatted a bit and then I went upstairs to hang out with Danielle and Alicia (who lives here) and I got to do something VERY fun. I got to.....HOLD A REAL LIVE MONKEY!! The guy who lives across the street had just gotten it today, it is some kind that only lives in Ethiopia and they call it a little baboon. Well, it is like a velcro monkey and it grabbed itself right onto me and snuggled onto me! It even made little squeaky monkey sounds!! At last, I got to not only see but HOLD a monkey on this trip. My little Things at home would have LOVED it!! (especially you, Thing 2!!) We took pictures and you can see them above along with shots from the rest of the day. At this point I have no idea what tomorrow holds but I am sure it will be different than whatever we plan since that has been the theme of the week thus far, haha. Please pray the clay will FINALLY get delivered so we can do the beads!! Whatever ends up happening, I am sure it will hold plenty of stories of God's amazing goodness and grace because those seem to be around every corner this trip.

Internet Issues

2010-10-27T03:18:00.001-07:00

I have a post or 2 ready to upload but I am having some small internet
issues getting it loaded. Hopefully it will be fixed by the
afternoon!!! Thank you all for praying and reading along-please keep
the prayers coming!!!

Unexpected Blessings

2010-10-26T06:18:00.001-07:00

We had planned on being at Korah early for the bead making/training but then life in Ethiopia happened and our "plans" changed. The driver did not come until close to 11 am and since we cannot go anywhere w/o him, we were stuck at the house till he showed up. It was no big deal as we spent the time going to a couple of small stands across the street to buy bread and some necessary odds and ends. The bread here at the bakery stand is SO good-it is fresh and cost me one birr, or about 6 cents. Not sure if I can eat at Panera again, on principle, haha. We gathered up some supplies to take to the twins as were going to go visit them again today (yay!) and then just hung out until the driver came. We were off soon enough and made a stop at the bank for Cherrie to change money, only the bank was out of receipts so we could not do it. This meant we had to go to another bank so off we went to another bank - the whole process for poor Cherrie to simply exchange money took over an hour. Nothing is really simple or quick here, it is just a fact of life. It can be extremely frustrating to have to go all over the place, taking hours for what would be a 15 minute errand back home, but it is also just the way it is so you just have to roll with it. Danielle and I enjoyed rockin' out in the van with Surafael listening to Usher and Bob Marley full blast (always the way S plays music) while we waited for Cherrie in the second bank. We were visited here and there by beggars coming to the windows seeking a birr or 2, and we also learned about the woman going around writing what we thought were parking tickets. They are actually papers that tell what time you park there and then she will charge you 1 birr per hour and you take your paper to her and pay when you leave. She is like a human parking meter.

We finally arrived in Korah at about 12 noon and went to the twins' house to make another visit and bring some supplies. When we got there, they were again covered all up in the rag/blanket pile which the mom pulled back for us to see their faces. One was slurping at a bottle in his sleep and the other was trying to lick the side of the bottle, hoping for some, too so I asked if I could feed her. I was told yes and I went to unwrap her and was surprised to find her scrawny little bottom half completely devoid of clothing or diaper and her shirt was wet from laying on wet blankets. The last diaper had been used the day before so they were just lying on blankets, although the mom was very resourceful and had split a discarded diaper package wrapper and laid it under the blankets to sort of keep the bed underneath dry-ish (unsuccessfully). She came over to get the baby properly wrapped to hand to me and then I received a wet bundle, and promptly realized the little one was not wet just from urine when I put my hand right in a blob of, um, well, you know... Thank goodness we had brought diapers and wipes with us! I got her out of her soiled outfit and was amazed at the absolute tiny-ness of this human being in my hands - she was the length of my forearm and I could hold her body in one hand. She absolutely swam in the diaper I put on her, wrapping the velcro tapes completely criss-crossed across one another. Pastor (who is the sweetest, gentlest, quietest man in the world with a heart of gold) was with us from the church and he helped me get the little lady into some new clothes and I fed her a bottle. The babies still have not been named and I said I liked the name Sarah (they say "say-RAH" here) for her and Judah (they say "YOO-duh"), like a strong Lion, for the boy. Pastor and Berhanu began talking to the mother about naming them those names (which by the way, I was not at all trying to get her to name them that, just that is who they will be in my mind) and in the process got to talk about the meaning of the Lion of Judah and the story of Abraham and Sarah with the mother, who is Ethiopian Orthodox. What an unexpected blessing! We stayed a bit longer snuggling those sweet babies then it was time to say ciao and we headed out.

Danielle and I went with Pastor and Murad to visit and take pictures of the families of the kids at boarding school to send to them. We walked along the rocky, trash-strewn road literally right alongside a large herd of donkeys and I was surprised when the guys told me we were going to Netsanet's house! I had never been there, although I had met her grandmother this summer. We wound down through some alleys and across some rocks and back along a narrow path that went between some mud and tin homes and arrived at a doorway of a mud walled home and went inside. Sure enough, there was N's grandmother! We hugged and did the traditional kisses on alternating cheeks 3 or 4 times-they told her I was N's sponsor and she looked again and all the sudden recognition showed in her face and she got back up and came and hugged and kissed me multiple times again, talking Amharic a mile a minute. They told me she didn't recognize me at first b/c I was wearing different clothes from the last time she saw me and she was very excited to see me again. We talked with her for some time, I showed her photos on my camera of N that I had taken on Friday when we visited the school and then took her picture to send to N, along with a note that Pastor wrote as she dictated. We finished with Pastor praying as we all prayed along in our own language and then said multiple goodbyes that of course included lots of cheek kissing and hugging. We left but shortly past her house she caught up with me and walked up to the road with me holding my hand :)

We next went to the home of one of Danielle's sponsored boys and were treated there to a coffee ceremony! Yummmmmm. There is seriously nothing else like it. They too had photos shared and taken and wrote notes to their children at the school and then Danielle was asked to pray before we left. This mother was so smiley and jolly, really liked her. Soon enough we were on our way again, this time down another rocky path to Danielle's other sponsored child's home. Danielle was surprised to see that they had thankfully been moved out of the horrible, minscule living area they had been in before to a mud walled home with a dirt floor covered in the signature ragged old vinyl, painted white inside with furniture and even a tv! Murad explained that a humanitarian group had built her the home, kind of like ET version of Habitat for Humanity. We talked, shared photos and then Murad said it was a good opportunity to share the gospel if we wanted to! Heck yeah, we wanted to! I got to share with her that b/c Jesus died on the cross in our place, we now can come to God freely, with nothing between us and Him and that He loves her so very very much. She nodded and said (via Murad) "these are good words that you are saying" and then Pastor asked me if I would pray this time. What an amazing time in that house! God's unexpected blessings are always the best ones. We reluctantly left her home and headed to take a "taxi" (aka toyota van) to the coffee shop which is their standard meeting place (think "Friends" only with cows out in front and big comfy couches traded for small aluminum tables crammed close together). Here is a riddle for you: how many Ethiopians and Firengis (white people) can you fit in a taxi? NINETEEN. At least that is how many were in ours-and did I mention they have different philosophies about deodorant than Americans? It was pretty funny, and absolutely against about 15 laws in the US.

We spent the next hour at the coffee shop (me, D, Murad, Pastor, and Yiesmachew showed up at some point) just talking about our home visits, ET culture vs. American culture, language differences, politics and how they relate to the Bible, and several other minor topics :) It was such an interesting conversation and we laughed till our sides hurt and also learned a lot about each others' cultures. Eventually the driver with the rest of the group showed up by the sidewalk in the van, right next to the absolutely adorable little girl who was the "face" for her mother begging on the sidewalk. Parents will often have their children do the begging since people are more likely to give to children in need, which absolutely breaks my heart. I took some birr over to the mother rather than give it to the little girl, b/c I did not want her to think that she was only worth helping b/c she had a child nor reinforce the practice. I hate to see the children begging and it is so dangerous and so common here- yuck. The young mother partly hid her face shyly behind her shawl but I put my hand on her cheek and told her "beautiful" anyway, b/c she was and she needed to know it.

We left the coffee shop and went back to the house to get Cherrie and Sammy back for a meeting and we all got cleaned up from the day and made some plans for dinner at a pizza place. There was another 2 hour drive around the city while all 9 of us tagged along on a search for lithium batteries (did I mention simple errands don't exist here??) and were treated to the same Usher song from earlier about 6 times b/c the driver knew D and I liked to sing and dance to it and so he kept playing it for us, a lot. I maybe like to sing and dance to it a little less now ;) We went to an Italian place for dinner (ET was briefly occupied by Italy) and I ordered ravioli with marinara sauce and the server brought me a bowl of spaghetti with some sort of a meat sauce which caused a big ruckus when I asked about it - all the church guys were trying to straighten it out and then the poor manager got involved - ugh, my worst nightmare. I hate making an issue about food at restaurants, ask my hubby - finally Mr. Manager came over and asked me from the menu "did you order this?" pointing to the dish I ordered. I answered yes and he said "oh, ok, Yes. We do not have ravioli today. And we only have this kind of sauce. So, it's ok." Hahaha, I just love it here, how they just thought "yeah, this isn't at all what was ordered, but that's ok, I will just give them this anyway." Didn't bother me, the spaghetti was great :)

Anyway, I am home at last and ready for a good night's rest before a very busy day tomorrow-hopefully the clay will be delivered and we can do the bead-making. If for some reason it is put off until Wednesday, then tomorrow will be more home visits and a few other activities in Korah.
Can't wait to see what the Lord has in store on this Great Adventure!

2010-10-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

Sunday

2010-10-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

I got to hold a miracle today.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny after a long night of orthodox prayers called throughout the city ALL night long, starting at midnight. I figured it must be a holy day for the orthodox church because that is usually the occasions on which they start the prayers at midnight. On the way to the church we were going to in Korah, Murad (one of the leader guys) confirmed that it was a day where they were honoring some man or saint or something in that religion. We got to the church and before we went in to the stick-framed building covered in green and orange tarp material that comprises the church, Berhanu gestured for us to come follow him. We went behind the building on the rocky, litter-strewn path to a little area where there were "homes". They were small spaces in the rocky dirt surrounded by rusted pieces of corrugated tin, lopsidedly placed here and there with pieces of life - dishes, blankets, plastic shards, mateless shoes, bottle caps - in piles in and around them. One had a cook fire smoldering in it and another had several chickens picking around in the dirt while an orange striped cat sat nearby, perhaps contemplating a chicken dinner. I was certain no one could, or rather SHOULD, be living in this place of dirt and trash and animals and rusted metal, but I knew they were. Sigh....We ducked into a short rectangular doorway into a very dark room. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the extreme darkness and I saw a small woman stand up off of a filthy blanket-covered sleeping area. Flies buzzed around. There was an ancient, ragged piece of blue and white linoleum semi-covering the dirt floor, torn and ripped in many places, a large yellow water can in the middle of the floor, and another bed against the wall on the other side of the very tiny room. The whole space was maybe 30-40 sq feet? I was standing next to the other bed from the one the woman had been resting on and it had a pile of very dirty rags and blankets heaped on it. The back of my leg felt very warm and I turned to realize I was centimeters away from having my long skirt catch on fire as there was a small pot over coals on the floor behind me. I stepped away from it to the other side of the room, sat down on some sort of seat, watching a cloud of gnats and flies scatter out from under the seat as soon it was disturbed, and I mentally begged my face not to reveal my inner cringing at the bugs. It was then that I noticed 2 dark brown heads poking out of the top of the pile of rags and blankets on the bed across from me. There were twin babies under there!

Cherrie had told us about this woman who she had been taken to shortly after her twins were born and the babies were quite close to death when she found them. They were just a few pounds each as they had no food and the poor mother had not had any milk come in and could not nurse them. They had been taken to the clinic and Cherrie has helped find diapers and food for the babies and the mama. It is such a hard situation as clean water to make formula is not readily available and so bottled water must be obtained and to clean the bottles, the regular (unclean) water they use is collected and put into the big yellow can, then boiled over the hot coals, then used to clean each bottle, for 2 babies, multiple times a day, every day. It is like primitive camping with 2 newborns when you don't feel well, but way harder and way less fun and in horrible filthy conditions. Alone, with no husband to help. Every single day of your life. Heartbreaking. Cherrie assured the mother she was doing a very good job cleaning and taking care of the bottles and making the formula (which she really was!), and handed each of us a baby to hold-they were so tiny! They are 20 days old and smaller than any of my babies were when they were born. Oh they were so beautiful! Just amazing,as they are doing well and gaining weight and looking healthy-they have come so far even just in the last 2 weeks!! We had the privilege of feeding them each a tiny bottle. Danielle's little girl greedily sucked down her formula while my little guy got bored halfway through, sighed and went back to sleep. This little life in my hands and the one in Danielle's hands next to mine were nothing less than the hand of God performing an absolute miracle.

I looked around me at the squalor I was sitting in with the dirt walls and the flies and the ragged blankets and thought of the American nurseries all decorated to the nines, with all the bedding matching just so and elaborate murals on the walls, etc. I couldn't quite get my mind around the discrepancy. I choked back the tears welling up a couple of times. I couldn't stop the mama-worries that started churning in my mind at first. These babies were so fragile, life is so fragile-would they make it? They seem to be growing and healthy now, but then what? What about this tiny mother, can she do this by herself? How about when they are crawling, do they crawl on that floor? When they want to put everything in their mouths like toddlers do, then what? Oh sometimes it is so much for a heart to try to take in. All I could do was praise God that He has them in His hands, and all we can do is take the situation as it is right now and not try to predict the future. No, I don't mean that they are not working on a plan for helping this family (they are), I just mean that here, you have babies on the verge of death in front of you and just keeping them alive now is top priority over future crawling and toddling worries. I just honestly pray they live to be old enough for those issues to need to be addressed. It was soon time to leave after the babies were re-wrapped snugly in blankets and we said goodbyes-I hugged the mother and told her what all mamas need to know, that she WAS a good mother to her babies.

We picked out way back across the dirt and rocks and down the path back to the church where the worship music was rockin' out. The service was all in Amharic but I was told they were talking about the scripture Romans 12:1-2 about being living sacrifices for God. Various children would come in and out, sitting next to me and pinching and squeezing the skin on my arms. I think they are curious to see how white skin feels and behaves so I am always getting squeezing and pinched wherever I am here. All the freckles and spots on my arms really intrigue them, haha! The little girl who snuggled up next to me at one point in the service spent a good deal of time pushing the wrinkly skin on my knuckles up and down and then held her pinky up to mine in deep concentration, comparing the 2. She shrugged and decided to be satisfied sitting and holding my arm across her chest, like how one might carry a pumpkin in from the patch, while the service went on. I laughed to myself as here that is so normal and didn't phase me in the least, but I wonder what I would do if one of my children did that to a stranger at church at home? :)

Church was followed by lunch at a coffee shop. Danielle and I both ate the rice and vegetables, so familiar from my trip this summer since we ate some form of the same every day for lunch. It was amazingly delicious and that may have to do with the fact that it was not trail mix nor a slim jim, which have comprised most of my meals here thus far. The meal was finished off with delicious macchiatos, which I MUST figure out how to make at home b/c I love them beyond what is reasonable feelings for a cup of coffee. In my defense, they are not just a cup of coffee, people. They are like heaven in a tiny cup. We went back to the house where I had some time to talk with the various folks who live here at the house and then my brother Bisrat showed up in the doorway! He said his trademark phrase "I am very excited!" and we had a huge bear hug. We sat and talked and caught up on life for about 2 hours. I showed him my family pictures and he had a great laugh about Thing 3's chubby round cheeks and said "I really love her!" Haha, those chubby cheeks are hard not to love!! We made plans for him to maybe come to Korah to be with us for the bead-making if he could, and if not, to have dinner Tuesday. We talked about some ways maybe we could go visit some of the street children also, maybe at the end of the week, and share with them about how much they are LOVED by God and so special to Him and also maybe help them to find some food. I really hope we can work that out!!

The rest of today has been just like a Sunday evening at home, reading, doing not much in a relatively quiet (with the soccer match blaring from the bar across the street-the ET version of Pat and Chris on Sunday Night Football ;) ) house. Tomorrow, it is game on at Korah, all day! Please pray that God would use me however He most wants to use me for the rest of my time here. I hope your Sunday was as full of His mighty miracles, no matter what size package they came in, as mine was!!!!

Relaxing Day

2010-10-23T15:42:00.001-07:00

Well, today went as we planned yesterday. Not really a ministry day at all, just a fun time to relax and hang out after the long day at the school. I did wake up with the dawn call to prayer over the loud speakers throughout the city and thought "oh no, I will not go back to sleep now" but I was wrong. I went right back to sleep and woke up a little after 9 and then we just sort of lazed around and chit chatted most of the morning. We walked to the nearby stores and bought very necessary items like toilet paper ("soft" it is called here) and water, as well as some bananas and bread and some other snacks. We took our haul back up the hill to the house, which was steeper than I remembered, and rearranged our bags to get ready to go out to change money and then go watch the guys' football (soccer) match. We got in the car to go and some random person standing there (I really don't even know who it was) handed me his cell phone and said "it is Bisrat". What? How in the world do they all know where to call everyone all the time and who knows where who is? It is a mystery to me and always and forever will be, no matter how much I see it. I took the phone and sure enough, it WAS Bizy! We have plans to see each other tomorrow after church, woohoo! I started to go into detail of what time I thought church would be over and where we would be and he just said "yes, I will find you" and I remembered of course he would, haha. This place is unlike any other-I love it, just makes me laugh.

We headed out and stopped multiple times for the usual ins and outs of random people. When we got to the place to change money, I realized I had been in that very same market before on my last trip, which was amazing to me because I get completely turned around here and everything looks the same and so I don't really know where anything is. But, I found myself starting to be in familiar places and recognize where I had been before. It was fun to go into the "supermarket" (think 7-11 type store, not Kroger) with Cherrie and Danielle while Surafel got our money changed for us and look around at the things there, some familiar (hello, Pringles! I heart you!) and some I have no clue what they were. Soon enough we were off again and the money exchanged at the highest rate I have ever had here-16.75 birr to the dollar! Awesome! (well for me, not so much for their economy though) It is great to get your money in birr, you feel completely loaded with your giant wad of money-until you realize it is like 20 bucks, ha.

Anyway, after that we did some more crazy driving around the city, dropped off some things I had brought to an Ethiopian friend (who met us in the middle of the road-no joke, Surafel was on the phone, we just pulled over in the middle of driving and there he was in the car beind us and I met him on the side of the road-I told you, I will never ever understand how that works here), and stopped back by the house where we are staying for the guys to change shoes and clothes for the big game-of course Surafel had jumped out of the van somewhere before we even got to the house, and then showed up at the van later before we left. If you have not picked up on it, there is a lot of stopping and starting that is just part of life here. Off we zoomed again to the match, at last!

We walked through a cow pasture, with some cows with gigantic horns that gave me the stink eye (I was relived to see the tethers on their legs later) and got to the cleared area with their wooden stick-frame goals, rocks marking the corners of the playing area. The game was soon underway and those boys played hard! It was a lot of fun to watch them having such a good time-Cherrie told us the drivers get together teams and then they play each other. They did not have any of the bells and whistles of American soccer players but wow, they play soccer at a whole other level! We teased Cherrie about being such a soccer mom b/c she brought oranges and water for all the guys-some things are just the same no matter what continent you are on.

After the game we all went back to the house for some to rest and some to shower. Danielle and I had a great time just talking and Cherrie came up, too. We all get along very well which is really nice. Cherrie had remembered that it was one of the Yiesmachu's birthday tomorrow so we put together a plan to take the guys to dinner, then Kaldi's (Ethiopian Starbucks) and have cake and ice cream. Danielle had a shirt to give him for his birthday so we wrapped it up and took it to dinner with us. Well, they ate dinner at the 1st place we went, but us Americans did not partake in that meal. They were eating a unique dish to Ethiopia called kitfo which is a raw meat dish served with various fiery spices and a flat bread made out of the fermented roots of the false banana plant. Mmmmmm. Hence the reason I just had a Sprite. Those guys went to town on the dinner which for some reason afterwards made them VERY giggly and funny in the van and Cherrie said they always get like this after a kitfo dinner-it was hilarious. We pulled into Kaldi's and I realized it was the same one I had been to before on my first ever trip here (remember that Dawn and Tim and Pat? With the frapoocinos??) and we non-kitfo eaters had a yummy dinner with french fries and super delicious coffee and a birthday cake. The servers all came out singing happy birthday with candles all on the cake-the smile on Y's face was great!! These guys work so hard as the leaders of the church ministry in such a difficult place and it was really enjoyable to see them having so much fun. Tomorrow is church day so I am looking forward to that experience. Weekends here tend to be a little more laid back, just like at home, but Monday we will be hard at work in Korah helping the group learning to make clay beads to generate income-I cannot wait!!

Shashemane day

2010-10-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

We did not get much sleep before this day started. We had gotten into Bole Airport a little early and got through immigration, baggage claim, and customs without incident (aside from when they searched Danielle's luggage and raised an eyebrow at Sammy's tattoo machine she had in there, haha). We waited a bit for Cherrie and the guys to get there but when they did it was so fun, Cherrie literally came running, arms flung wide and a big smile on her face, to greet us. What a great welcome to some tired travelers! We were thrilled to see them and quickly got loaded up in the van to head to the house where we are staying (btw, I think I am going to start loading my minivan Ethiopian-style in the carpool line, backpacks and lunchboxes piled up on the roof....)

We got back to the house and had a big unloading party, passing out all the goodies brought from the states. After unloading and getting settled in, Cherrie showed me how to use the internet and we all chatted and caught up some, having a hard time stopping but knowing we had only a few hours till we would get up and head out. Finally, we all turned in to get at least a few hours of sleep, which did not come easily for me. I usually am not too bothered by the sounds of Ethiopia (and they are many) but for some reason the street dogs having a massive fight outside my window coupled with someone hammering and firing up an electric saw (what? It was 2 am-what on earth were they doing??) made sleep pretty elusive. Not to mention the mosquito buzzing by my ear, causing me to smack the air and my head in vain every few minutes. Yes, it was as restful as it sounds ;) Eventually though I must have fallen asleep b/c I woke up to the noises of the guys all over the house and realized somehow my alarm had never gone off and it was almost 6:00. We all ran around like crazy people and I even got a shower in 5 minutes and we left close to 6:15. (Yay African time!)

It was once again confounding to me all the people walking walking walking everywhere in the streets. So many, of every age, walking all over the place. Where are they all going and what are they doing? Random dogs and goats here and there joined them in the streets and even a seemingly ownerless horse with one broken and casted leg. Ah, yup, I'm in Ethiopia alright! Of course we stopped once in the middle of somewhere while some people in our sardine can van got in and out and talked to some other people and then we were off again. That is always happening and I have no idea what they are doing and how/why they pick up people and drop off people in seemingly random places.

We drove for a few hours, seeing the beautiful African countryside. All the flattened Acacia trees make the olive and khaki horizon look just like God took His hand and put His palm down on the whole of Ethiopia when it got past a certain height. It was a sunny drive and we stopped at a small outdoor restaurant to eat before we arrived as we were told there was a good chance the food here would make us sick. Needless to say, I was ok with that decision and had a nice cold Mirinda (orange soda here). The guys all got some plate of strange cooked innards that we all said no thank you to and we shared a plate of french fries. We were on our way soon enough again and before we knew it, we arrived at Shashemane, pulling up the long tree lined drive and passing the church building and loads of gorgeous bright red poinsettias, which grow wild here. Trees overhead hung down long graceful arms that ended in red blossoms of some type and vibrant yellow canas graced the sides of all the walk ways. Absolutely beautiful!

We pulled up and got out and children started showing up from all over the place. It was so neat to see some familiar faces from this summer when I was here! We visited for awhile and I was escorted around the grounds by a group of boys who were trying to find the monkeys that live here to show me. We looked for those darn monkeys several times while here, by the way, and they never showed up. Hmmm, I began to have memories of snipe hunting as a child...But in the procees of looking for the possibly non-existent monkeys, I was shown the girls' dorm, dining hall, kitchen, and several avocado, mango and banana trees. Abandon all thoughts you have of a nice large commercial kitchen to serve a large boarding school-there were 3 cooks cooking in a shed-type building with no light. They cooked in large cauldrons over open fires and that building was smoky and stiflingly hot inside. They were so happy to see me and welcomed me into the room where I took a picture, exchanged hellos, and got out of the smoke-filled inferno.

We made our way back up the very steep stone staircase to the main drive and hung out some more-which was basically the theme of the day. I heard a bunch of yelling and voices behind me and I looked to see my Netsanet RUNNING toward me!! I dropped my bag and grabbed the video camera until she got right near me and then we just collapsed in a giggling hug. She looked great and healthy! We spent the rest of the day side by side. She is so sweet and gentle-spirited, very quiet but with a silly side, too. It was great to see her with a large group of friends. They all took me and showed me their beds and closets and I was blessed to meet and talk to the housemother for them. She was a sweet woman who I instantly connected with over the universal language of motherhood. She also brought up the monkey issue and said there had just been several playing in the yard out front of the girls' dorm but didn't know where they now were....likely story. (btw, I am typing this in the van on the death-defying drive home and just had to fix a large typo that was due to the slamming on of the brakes to avoid hitting a gigantic hyena running in front of us)

I was told by one of the workers at the school that there was a girl who had fallen and I looked over to see a crowd building in one area. I quickly went over and a girl had indeed fallen while running and had passed out and they were having trouble reviving her. I felt completely useless so I did the only thing I could do for her and prayed like mad. It was definitely scary and Berhanu (one of the guys from the Korah church) carried her all the way up the giant hill to the van where they quickly whisked her off to the hospital. That left me and Danielle there really on our own to just hang out with the kids. (Incidentally, the girl ended up ok and finally came to and just had some significant bruising, praise God!) Honestly, it was a long and very draining day, physically and emotionally.

It was great to see the children and visit with them, but they are very physically demanding in that they literally hang onto your arms and shirt and hands and pull you everywhere you go and we went all over the place-the school grounds are large and we walked all over them multiple times. They are also very hilly. Emotionally, there is the constant language issue where we sort of understand each other but never completely and it does get frustrating. So, that coupled with jet lag from traveling and sitting in the warm sun found me falling asleep sitting upright mid-afternoon while showing the kids videos on my camera. I guess my little cat nap of 2 minutes was enough to push me through to get up and get the kids to walk with me to a different part of the grounds.

At this point, another little buddy of mine from the summer had shown up and was very chatty-he knows English pretty well-and he came with us, too. There are a lot of avocado trees there and the children would point them out to me as we walked, as well as some other tree that had hard green fruits that I did not recognize. We went up the road and I heard from the kids "enjori, enjori" which I did actually know meant "strawberry". The girls ran over to me with a handful of some kind of berries (not strawberries, maybe mulberries or some form of not-ripe blackberries?) and gave them to me. They were SOUR, oh my goodness. We all had puckered up faces and I tried to discreetly toss the rest of mine into the grass. Rats, I was really hoping for a strawberry, haha. Anyway, somehow we all ended up in a pack of boys and so we talked a lot and then for some reason they all wanted me to give them American names and then write that name on their arm in pen. Well, there were a LOT of boys so chances are if I know you from home and you are a male, your name is written on some kid's arm in Ethiopia since I was too tired to think of more than about 3 names on my own.

Eventually, it was time to head toward the vans and we had to say our goodbyes. My sweet girl walked along the drive next to the van the entire time until we finally left the gates (which took some doing-you never really just leave here, it always includes a lot of stopping for some reason). But it gave me multiple chances to wave and say "ciao!" to her beautiful face. What a blessing to get to see her again! The ride home was long and bumpy and fairly scary as we whizzed around donkey carts and giant trucks alike. I slept a good bit of it and we arrived home safe and sound. I was glad when we talked with Cherrie about our plans for tomorrow. They are for Danielle and I to sleep late and not have any big plans for the morning and then the guys have a big soccer match (football) in the afternoon. Those are very good plans, I think :) I am fairly certain I left out a lot from today, but this is already really long and my bed is calling my name so I will end here. I have included some pictures above of the GORGEOUS grounds of the school!

ps-if you sent letters/packages with me for the kids, they are here but we didn't distribute them today because it was kind of a hectic day at the school but they WILL get to the children very soon!!

Getting Here

2010-10-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Departure day came with grey and rainy in Virginia. It was not an easy task to haul myself out of my warm, cozy bed to get up and face the rainy morning, knowing I had a long next 24 hours of travel ahead of me and would have to again say goodbye to the 5 people I love most in the world for 10 days. But, it had to be done and so I dragged myself through the morning, finishing up last minute details and leaving notes and surprises behind for the Things to make the time apart a little more fun and a little less traumatic. My sweet husband surprised me with a breakfast treat he picked up on the way home from his office mid-morning because he knows me well enough to know I would not eat lunch when it was time to leave as I would be too nervous. And he was right :). I was nervous about the travel, about leaving him and the kids, about the unknowns that awaited me on the other side of all the travel, and because I had one too-heavy suitcase that I could not find a good way to pare down-it was all things NEEDED in Ethiopia, none of it frivolous by any means, so I prayed like mad. And also maybe practiced my pleading eyes and dramatic speech that it was for poor children in Africa and were they REALLY going to deny these precious children?? Well, guess what? They never even weighed it!! Just checked it on through! AND they didn't weigh my carry-ons either, which I am sure were pushing (read: way over) the limit. Miracle #1 out of about 4 million I think I will experience on this trip. The goodbye was painful and tearful-I love my family so much and no matter how much we know this is where I should be right now, it still just really stinks to say good bye. My first leg of flying was great-sat next to a lady whose daughter is training to be a nurse practitioner in a missionary clinic in Tanzania! And her dad was with her-he is a retired minister of 65 years and has written several books since he has retired, one of which he gave me at the end of the flight, his own personal copy with all his notes and markings in it, because he wanted me to have it. It was all about how to live out faith in real life. Thanks, God. What a blessing! I had a bit of a layover till my next flight and spent it observing life in the international terminal-so funny! All the different people from all over the place coming through here-fascinating! My next leg of travel was to Amsterdam and while it was freezing on the plane, it was great because I had no one next to me and could stretch out some and even sleep a little! I just don't sleep well on planes and so this was a great thing. However, here are some very important observations from that flight: 1. People that have "priority boarding" b/c of miles clubs or whatever think they are very important and this makes me laugh-yes, mostly at them 2. International flights do not smell good-too many smells from too many types of bodies from all over the world. Bathrooms on international flights smell even worse. 3. There are a lot of movies and music from which one can select to entertain oneself on the flight-it is still a mystery to me why I chose Lady Gaga and had a hard time sitting still in my seat and not dancing to her weird music, which I have incidentally been singing in my head for the last 6 hours. 4. People snore in many varied, and LOUD, forms.

We arrived in Amsterdam a bit early and I found my gate pretty easily, another answered prayer because I was worried it would be tricky. I thought it was so funny that EVERYWHERE in this airport they sell tulip bulbs! (And also rubber versions of wooden clogs, haha) Hello, Holland!. I found the restroom to wash my face and such and realized that Europeans have no problems standing very close to you-very close. As in, I almost-washed-another-ladies'-face kind of close. God is really teaching me about letting go of my personal space issues, ;).

Danielle arrived shortly after my bonding time with the women in the bathroom and it was good to see a familiar face! We chatted easily, like we have always been friends, about our flights thus far and things in Addis. She is really sweet and easy going and fun so I think it will be great spending this time in Ethiopia with her! I have already stopped counting God's miracles and blessings on this trip because they are many! We boarded the plane bound for Addis shortly after her arrival and found it funny that we were in the same row on the plane, out of a LOT of seats! Funny, but not surprising. You see, God has orchestrated every bit of this crazy trip, down to details I never even considered. He is just so good!! I slept most of the flight to Khartoum (in Sudan, where we stopped to re-fuel), a HUGE miracle, and I am especially glad as we will get in late to Addis and then get up at 5 am to head to the boarding school to visit the kids from Korah. I cannot wait to see the fruit of the sponsorships and to be the eyes for the sponsors back home. I look forward to delivering lots of letters and little gifts from folks back in the States to the children and then sharing with you all about our visit. The next post should be all about that! Stay tuned and please keep praying-God hears the prayers of His people and it is so reassuring knowing we have an army of prayer warriors calling upon Him on our behalf. THANK YOU!!!!

Reassured and Headed Out!

2010-10-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, packing my final bags, cooked and froze dinners for my family here, finished making the kids' costumes for Halloween so they are ready when I get back, baked and froze Thing 3's birthday cake to be served immediately upon return home (she will be 4 on the 28th-eek!! where did 4 years go???), laundry mostly caught up (is it ever REALLY??), jewelry orders caught up....hmm, I guess I better really go on this trip. I have to be honest, I was at the "freaking out, what was I thinking" point yesterday-really in a panic. I was just overwhelmed with the gravity of leaving the people I love most in the world, being very far away, missing all the daily bits of life that make up time. Not to mention I was having yet ANOTHER allergy spasm so I was sneezing uncontrollably and barely able to breathe in between sneezes. It was not my finest hour, at all. I fell into bed completely exhausted and miserably and if I am being truthful, afraid of what I had gotten myself into. I woke up very groggy from my allergy fog and sent Things 1 and 2 off to school with hugs and kisses, then curled up on the couch under a blanket with Things 3 and 4 and dozed some more while they watched tv, something I never ever do. I still felt sort of worried about things and wanted to avoid the real world. Well, God knows His children and I am blessed to be one. He knows that, just like my Things, some need a little more reassurance in certain situations than others, and some need a LOT more reassurance in certain situations. I am one of those. So, a friend called to ask me something about an email so I finally dragged myself to my computer and checked my inbox. In it I had an email from Cherrie who I am working with in Ethiopia-she said that next week they would be training Korah folks to make clay beads and I was going to be on the team doing that! Oh my word, what she did NOT know, is that I have been praying for about 2 months about teaching some of my jewelry making stuff to the people living there so that they could use it to generate income to make a living. I had not done anything about it b/c I wasn't really sure how to do it, but then go figure, God just up and took care of that for me!! How else could my playing with clay in my Etsy shop be missionary training??! Ha ha! (btw, my Etsy shop is set to "vacation mode" while I am in ET, it will be back up Nov 1st!) As a friend commented on my facebook post, I get to be doing what I love with a people that I love in Ethiopia! I got so excited again seeing that yes, God has indeed directed our steps to this trip and He knows my heart and has a purpose for me being there, even though it is hard to leave my family here. Also, that friend I mentioned who called about an email shared some of the most encouraging words to me about my trip, just really spoke to my heart. God is so good to reassure me over and over...and over!! Here are His words to me as He reassured me:

"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11

If you would, could you please keep me and the folks I am working with in your prayers as we minister in Korah and Addis Ababa? And also, for my sweet family here? They are a blessing beyond measure and this next 10 days will be hard for all of us to be apart from each other, and my husband will be on mom AND dad duty while I am gone so, you know what to do....pray for him!! Ok,then with that I say ciao(how they say goodbye in Ethiopia-yes, really) and the next post will be from my travels!

Clarification

2010-10-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all! It has come to my attention that some folks weren't sure exactly what I meant a couple of posts ago sooo, here is a little clarification. I am returning to Ethiopia in 11 days! Yes, for real :) I will be spending 8 days there, serving primarily in Korah with some friends distributing shoes for a TOMS shoe drop and also visiting the children at the boarding school who were sponsored through Project 61! Yahoo!! I cannot wait to go visit them and see them in their new place and see what they think of it and bring them some supplies and gifts. There are also several other ministry things in Addis I may get myself into once I get there-things like that have a way of happening, haha. I am SOOO excited to see my dear friend Bizi again, as well-he and I email/chat frequently and have some plans to maybe do some stuff with some of the street kiddos in the city. The whole trip sort of came from out of nowhere and feels a little bit crazy to be going back so soon, but I am really excited and beyond blessed to have the most amazing husband in the world who is the one who said "go!!" and even booked the ticket for me :) He is seriously the best, most supportive, understanding guy in the world and has the same passion for Ethiopia I do-this trip was a great fit for me and so he said go on, I'll catch the next one-did I mention he is AWESOME??? And by the way, his triathlon brought in over FIVE THOUSAND dollars for Korah! We were just blown away at how God got so many people excited about bringing water to our brothers and sisters in Africa-He is so GOOD!!! I will probably continue to be a bit scarce with the posts until I leave since life is a little nutso right now with the regular chaos of life here at Chez Things paired with getting ready to take off again, but I plan on blogging my adventures from there so I hope you all will come along with me!

Baa.

2010-09-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share that I have listed several new items in my Etsy shop The Mama Sheep, featured at the top of my blog, in the past couple of days. It is a great time to think about Christmas shopping, since I saw Christmas decorations in the store at the beginning of September and all. Well, then actually, I guess that would make us all behind in getting ready for Christmas, wouldn't it? What are you waiting for then? My word, go shop people!!! And of course you will not just want to spend money that does nothing but make the owners of our big old stores even richer, right?? No, of course not! That would be silly-you want to spend your money where it will be used to help children who do not have enough food, clothes, or worst of all, love. Well, then, it seems that The Mama Sheep shop on Etsy is just the thing because all the money that comes into the shop goes back out of the shop to children in need around the world (and in fact, in Ethiopia in less than 3 weeks!!). Isn't that nice how that worked out? Problem solved! C'mon over to the shop, look around-if you see something you like, buy it! (please) If you don't, but have an idea of something you would like, contact me to see if we can make it happen-I really like to do custom pieces, because when I know who the piece is for, I can include that in my process of creating it.

Well, there it is, my semi-sheepish (get it? SHEEP-ish?? haha, I need to go to bed....) self-promotion. So with all that being said, I will leave you with this pearl of wisdom:

There are only 86 days till Christmas. Get on it.

(I am nothing if not helpful. A real giver, that's me ;) )

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You

2010-09-23T07:14:00.001-07:00

Soooooo, any of you readers interested in another in-person account of "Life in Ethiopia" say in about 3 1/2 weeks? :)

Word Soup

2010-09-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Y'all, what a letdown. I had been working on this one post for a week. I began it in a moment of deep theological pondering and wondering and wrestling with serving God in missions and just started typing away. I posted another post in the meantime as I wasn't ready to publish the "deep one" yet, I had so much feeling and heart left to write in it. So each night, I would think about it some more and add some more to it. I thought it was close to getting put on the blog on Friday. It was very long week-I really wanted to put it on there Wednesday, but, well, hahahahaha, I have 4 kids, one of which is a TORNADO. (I will maybe post pictured of how she got unto my (permanent, un-removable, bright turquoise) alcohol inks from my jewelry buisness and graciously decorated the carpet, sofa, ottoman, AND hardwood floors--but I also may not, the pain is still too fresh...) So, long story never short when I am writing it, I hopped on here Friday night to put the finishing touches on my moving, make-you-think, deep theological blog post and get that sucker on the innerwebs for all to read and be enlightened. However, when I read it through, I had this thought: WHAT THE HECK DOES ALL THAT MUMBO JUMBO EVEN MEAN???? I seriously do NOT know what I was talking about, and I am the one who wrote it. I am thinking late at night after a days of wrangling ink spreading tornados maybe is not the best time to tap out some Deep Thoughts. It IS a good time for putting together incoherent snippets of Jesus words that are great fodder for mockery, apparently. So, in lieu of inflicting my word soup upon your fine eyes this Monday morning, I will share several bits from other peoples' posts that were the very words of my heart that I seem completely unable to express. The Compassion Bloggers were at it again on a tour in Guatemala-all the posts were truly fabulous-go read through them if you want to be blessed and please sponsor a child (click the link on my sidebar), or 10, if you can-you will not regret it, we have been sponsors for years and seen firsthand the work Compassion does in country. Anyway, I wanted to share some words from this post by Ann Voskamp as "A Holy Experience":
...our lives full of cluttered ease, muffle out the songs. That when we go to the places that strip life back to its barest essence -- of courage and love and raw, unmasked pain -- our hearts feel again, beat again, hear again the haunting music of a beautiful, bleeding humanity.
Maybe it's this: God hides with the poor and in the pain and we can only witness Him at His most beautifully creative work in the places needing redemption.
Maybe we are only at our most beautiful work in the same places too --- the places where we don't hide behind the distractions of stuff, where we finally empty our hands of all our possessions and idols and come to God empty and ready. The places where we can make art with tears.

and she adds this:

No one tells you that wealth numbs you to life and consumerism callouses your soul to the sacred.
Or maybe Someone did: “"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:25 NIV)
Oh AMEN!! Read it again if you have to-I have over and over.
I will end with these oh-so-true yet jarring words also from the CB Tour by trip leader Shaun Groves' post that cuts straight to the heart of what poverty and injustice are:
When someone, because of war or insanity, brings death to a village or classroom all at once – in an instant – we’re outraged. When 3,000 people are sent to early graves by airplanes punched through skyscrapers, we hold telethons and fight back. But when 24,000 children under the age of five died from poverty related causes today – and yesterday, and the day before that – it didn’t even get a mention on CNN. Their deaths didn’t fling us into impassioned action either. Or even prayer.

Because poverty is slow violence.

It IS. And we DO ignore it. But we SHOULD NOT.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?....spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,then your light will rise in the darkness,and your night will become like the noonday" (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10)

Woo Hoo!

2010-09-13T06:27:00.001-07:00

Well, yesterday (Sunday) morning dawned rainy and grey and cold for the triathlon. Yuck. What a way to wake up-at an ungodly hour, too, by the way. The things we do for love ;) Pat left the hotel before 6 to go get set up with a good friend who came to help him in all things triathlon-related (not an area where God has gifted me to be a helpmate since well, I am allergic to running and all...) We left the hotel about 45 minutes later, after everyone cheerfully waking up, hopping out of bed and getting dressed, filled with excitement for the day in the rain. (If you believe that, I have a bridge for sale I'd love to chat with you about...) We grumpily, um, stoically, er, HAPPILY went out to the car to drive to the race site and cheer on our triathlete. We quickly realized that with the rain and traffic, we were not going to make it to see the start of the swim part so we parked and the big Things got umbrellas, the little Things got loaded in the stroller and I found a tarp in the back of the van (it is amazing what is in the back of that thing sometimes....) and all classy-like draped the double stroller in it and we were off. Holy mackerel, some crazies were already on their bikes! What the what?!? The swim had only started 10 minutes ago-these are a whole other breed of people, y'all.... We waited on the side of the rail till our guy came flying by on his bike and we cheered him on. From that point, we stopped at various points to catch glimpses of him and give a big "WOO!HOO!" whenever he went by.

For the running part, Pat donned his Project 61 tee in honor of all the folks in Korah he is raising money for and he finished the race and did very well.
He had hoped to do it in 2 hours or less and he did it in about 1.5 hours-way to go, honey!! It really was a great day and here is a super cool thing-so far about $4600 has come in!!! That is SOOOOO close to the crazy $5000 goal God whispered to me in the beginning. We will keep the website up for about another week if any of you still want to give and hadn't gotten to it yet :) THANK YOU to all of you have given to this fundraiser for Korah-we have just LOVED seeing the support of people all over the place, especially the CHILDREN!! What a blessing to get donations from kiddos who want to help their peers across the world-God is SO. GOOD.

Places to Go

2010-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

(click on the photo to go to a great site!!)

I have 2 places I want you to go today from here. The first is my husband's website for his triathlon THIS WEEKEND!!!! Oh yes, y'all-God once again showed up BIG time and we are believing Him for something awesome!! When we set out, our goal was to raise about $1200 for Korah. God very quickly (as in overnight, in less than 12 hours, immediately!) blew that goal out of the water and said "Who do you think you are dealing with here, an amateur??" So my hubby set the goal a little higher, going for DOUBLE the original number and shooting for $2400, which was also quickly reached. A little seed got planted in my head to pray for something crazy-$5000. What? Well, the tri is in 3 DAYS, and we are at $3400!!!!! After knowing Him a long time and seeing what God is capable of, I look at that and say "ONLY $1600 more? Let's do it!!" Can you be the one(s) to help us get to that crazy $5k?? Here is the link-click it and take a few minutes to peruse the website, it is a lot of fun to read!! GO! (please :) ) There is no running/biking/swimming involved just for reading, btw ;)

The second place I want you to go is to this blog post. You all know we are big Compassion supporters (if you click on the Compassion link on my sidebar, you can go find out how to sponsor a child if you want!) and I love when they send a group of bloggy folks on a Compassion Blogger trip. Right now the current group of bloggers in in Guatemala and this post made me shout "yes!! that is exactly it!!" It is my heart in someone else's words...

Go read, shout out loud also and be blessed.

My Shower

2010-09-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

I often have some of my greatest revelations and conversations with God in the shower. It is turning into my "inner room" that I go into to pray, haha! I wonder if that is what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 6:6? Anyway, the other day I was cleaning the shower in my bathroom (I know, it happens on occasion but don't tell, I got a rep to protect...). It's the brand new shower, replaced after the ice incident this past winter. It is a nice shiny bright white, a welcome contrast to the former ugly brown shower which had gotten dulled by years of hard water and bad ventilation. But, even while it is nice and shiny and new, I am sad to report that there is still not great ventilation in there and this new shower seems to be as equally prone to icky mildew as the old one was. Gross. So, thus the need to clean it when it gets to the point where I can see it even without my contacts when I am in the shower (oh, um, just kidding, because that would be gross, right? I would NEVER let it get that bad...sure, never, that would be crazy...)

Anyway, my chatty but adorable 3 year old was sitting on the sink observing and talking my ear off, er, keeping me company while I cleaned and asked many questions, as 3 year olds are prone to do. I had tried to scrub the corners by reaching into the shower but was at a ridiculous angle as our bathroom is quite small and knew that the only way I could REALLY clean it was to get in there. I slipped off my shoes and stepped into the shower armed with my scrub brush. Thing 3 was quite intrigued by this and asked me why I was getting in the shower while I was dressed (and was careful to remind me eleventy-billion times not to turn the shower on since I was in my clothes :) ) I explained to her that the shower really needed to be cleaned and sometimes the only way to really get something clean is to get in there and get a little messy in the process. There was no way to get to the real grime and crud lurking in the corners while reaching across from the outside. Sure, I could get a little bit of the job done and swipe a few spots of ickyness away, but if I really wanted to remove the funk in all the nooks and crannies (btw, how gross is that phrase?? what even is a cranny?? ew.), I had to be right in front of the stains and grime to really put all my strength into scrubbing away the gross stuff. As I was explaining that to her, I thought how much it is like that with relationships with people. If we are going to help people to have their hearts made clean and spotless by introducing them to the saving grace of Jesus, we are going to have to get into their lives. We might be able to swipe some bits of niceness and sprinkle some drops of "Jesus" to folks by reaching into their lives from across the way, but if we really want to show them that they can be cleaned by the blood of the Savior, and if we really want them to know the true, holy, pure love of God, we have to be willing to roll up our sleeves and get messy with them. We need to go where they are, look with them at the dark murky corners if necessary (sometimes figuratively and sometimes literally) and be willing to work right in the middle of that with them to show them the cleansing power of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. There is just no other way other than to get in there, no matter how inconvenient or how daunting the prospect may seem. There are times when I can just do a quick spot clean of the shower to get it to hang on a little longer until I can get a good scrubbing in-you now, to get the bigger creepy spots to go away so they are less obvious. Jesus had a few times where he shared to great crowds from a distance (from the boat off the shores of Galilee, etc) and gave them a broad view of His purpose in coming to Earth, but His real work was done in His relationships with people when He got right in there with them-when He met the outcast Samaritan woman at the well, when He physically touched the leper, when He got into the boat with His fishermen disciples, when He spat on the earth to make a healing balm of mud for a blind man, and on and on. Those times where He got in and got messy while He cleaned hearts are what show He is a God who TRULY loves and will do whatever it takes to purify us unto Himself. We can hardly be expected to do less in the lives of others since the God we serve was willing to do it. We must be willing to get in there and get to work. For the next week after I got into my shower and saw the gleaming white walls, I was thrilled! (and also maybe I need to get out more...) The hard work of seemingly-endless scrubbing, which honestly annoyed me at the time, was so worth it to not have the heebie jeebies every time I stepped into my shiny, white, non-funky shower. It is also easier to keep clean once I give it a thorough scrubbing and see it looking so great-I am more motivated to do it more often! Realistically, I know I will have to do it again and again as that shower is prone to getting funkified pretty easily even though it is new, but hopefully not as much of a deep cleaning as that day. And once again I see that the human heart is so similar-prone to getting cruddy with sin and the burdens of life, but so much more easily de-gunked once we have a relationship with Jesus where are made new and we can go and get cleansed through prayer and forgiveness daily...and so yes, we will have to get in there and work and get grubby time and again in order to keep the crud of sin from creeping back in. But oh, there is nothing as good a clean heart before the Lord!! Just like with my mildewy shower, I need to let Jesus get into my heart to really get at every icky corner and be "made holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word" (Eph. 5:26), and I need to be willing to get into the lives of others so they too can know the beauty of the clean heart Jesus can give.

Who knew?? Cleaning the shower is good for more than just a funk-free bathing experience! It can teach you the things of God! ;)

I'm Gellin' Like A Felon

2010-08-29T12:10:00.001-07:00

You know, after 4 children, you would think that a quietly playing child behind a closed door would set off warning bells. However, I heard some tapping behind the door and was enjoying 5 minutes of peace to get my laundry put away and figured it was the sound of blocks smacking. However, I started thinking that it didn't totally sound like blocks, it was a little odd somehow.....and went in to find this:

Turns out smacking and squishing an entire nearly-full tub of hair gel all over your head and body and jammies and carpet and sister's clothes and toys sounds an awful lot like blocks...almost.

Hard Things

2010-08-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

It is the first day of school for my 2 oldest daughters and that day is ALWAYS hard for me. You would think after years of this (my oldest is in 5th grade), it would get easier, but it never is. They are a little nervous, a little excited, I am sad to send them off and my house feels emptier and lonely, despite the 2 crazies fighting over toys and pulling hair (oh Thing 4 is a hair puller these days-argh!! so maddening!!) I still have running around here with me. That coupled with the change of seasons dangling in the humid aging August air makes me feel squeezed in my heart. Add to that a little (ok a lot) extra squeezing when I think of all the children I left behind in Africa who are getting ready for school for the first time without a mom to pack their backpacks and pick out their "first day outfit" and make sure they get to class ok, and sometimes I feel so gripped by the hard stuff that it literally feels hard to breathe and is physically exhausting. I am definitely a "feeler"-I feel things deeply and they profoundly affect my days and moods, many times more than they ought. But, alas, it is the way I roll and so I spend a fair amount of time battling back feelings that can threaten to overwhelm at times. The first day of school always makes me think about how fast time is flying and how I am powerless to stop it. It makes me realize that TRULY, I "do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" just as God states in James 4:14. I cannot grasp and cling to a handful of morning mist any more than I can keep my children close to me forever, but I want to, and sometimes I try. And fail. But I have found, that like the mist in the mountains behind my house, if I learn to appreciate the beauty of the mornings, where the mist partially covers the green rolling peaks and hides their full splendor, I can realize that when it is gone, while I remember it's beauty fondly, I get to see the full majesty of the mountains revealed.

(photo taken from my deck this past spring)

That is how it will be with us. I know my children are but a vapor just as I am and I cannot stop time, and I know my time in Africa this summer was all too short and I pray that the Lord will allow me to return sooner rather than later-things in this life are so fleeting, yet when they are gone, the full majesty of our Lord will be fully revealed. When I think of it like that, it makes the hard things a little more bearable, for God's grace IS sufficient and thankfully His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23)!

He Did It!!!!

2010-08-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

All the spots at the school in Ethiopia are filled-ALL THE OLDER KIDS in the last post have sponsors!! God did it-He is SO. GOOD. Can I get an AMEN????

Time is Ticking Away

2010-08-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

(photo from Project 61 blog)

I know that you all do not want to just read about Korah all the time, and I will resume posting about mundane, lame things in my life soon enough, but truly, that place has my heart firmly in its grip right now and this is something I NEED to share about in this post. So many of you have shared with me that it has in fact gripped your heart as well, and in fact there has been a HUGE response for the sponsorship of children--for that I say THANK YOU!!! Thank you for reading, for listening, for imagining, and for RESPONDING. Since I know you all care deeply about this special place, I have something to ask-can you help me find just a few more sponsors? Get this-they are only about 15 children away from filling every possible sponsorship slot they have available! AMAZING!!!! But, the ones left who need sponsors need them the very most. You see, these are older boys mostly, plus 2 girls, who are looking at their last chance. Their last chance-to get out of the trash dump, to get out of the filth, to get out of the ash filled air and the putrid smells-and get an education. Their LAST chance to pursue a future that is radically different than the generations before them. THEIR LAST CHANCE. They are teenagers, not the little cute faces we all want to squeeze and chubby hands we don't mind holding. They are older kids, the forgotten ones that people don't notice, until they get in trouble maybe. They are big boys who work, every day, in the dump, trying to scratch out, literally, survival for themselves and often their family. They are not usually the ones people request when inquiring about sponsoring a child. But...they are boys who have heard about this Jesus guy around the church project. They are boys who are smart and funny and who want to succeed. They are kids who have the capacity to learn and love, and who desperately want to be loved in return. They want to believe the promises of this Jesus guy they hear about, but they have been let down an awful lot by life and people. I think they deserve a chance, don't you? You can read about them more in this post on the Project 61 blog.

If that did not grab your heart and squeeze it enough, here is something that made me sit, silent tears running down my face at dinner tonight just to think about it-this is the Facebook status of Sumer from tonight about the boys: "Took 15 boys who live at the trash dump out to dinner tonight. One was missing, Biru, he only has one pair of pants and shoes and they are covered in mud and trash...so he did not come. He needs a sponsor! :)"

Can you imagine it, being a teenager and not being able to go out when ALL your friends and family are, for a special treat of dinner OUT (yay! no trash to eat tonight!) not because you don't have a fancy enough party dress or the just the right shoes to complete your snazzy outfit, but because you HAVE NO OTHER CLOTHES OR SHOES AND YOU SMELL LIKE GARBAGE. No. This should not be. Can you step up and help? If you have, THANK YOU, a thousand times over. You ARE making a difference-this is changing the next generation of people in Korah. If you know someone who you think might like to be a sponsor, can you be bold and ask them? Can you share with them about these wonderful kids? Can you help give them a CHANCE? Every child, little or big, is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord-we need to let them know they are beautiful in our eyes, as well. If you are interested or know someone who is, please contact Erin, sponsorship coordinator for Project 61, at erin@p61.org We are running out of time to get these boys sponsored before the school year starts-please think about it! :)

James 2:14-17

Weaving

2010-08-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

So guess what? Did you know this blog started as a knitting blog? Hence the "Talk Is Sheep" title, in case you ever wondered where that came from. Ha ha, oh where the Lord has taken it! I do really like to knit, although I used to do it WAY more than I do now, and I have always been facinated by the "fiber arts"-knitting, crocheting, weaving, etc. Well, it turns out that what I have to tell you is not that far off from my orginal blog start-God has been doing some weaving of His own in my life and I am just starting to see the edges of the beautiful tapestry He is putting together-and I love it!! I am not sure how that piece will look when the Lord is finished, but one part He is working on now is something my hubby has put together. You see, the husband did not go on my recent trip to Ethiopia, yet God has woven his heart together with mine in our passion to see change come to Korah. My guy has taken something that was a long time goal of his own-to do a triathlon-and united it, (er, wove/weaved/tied as if using some sort of string-like item) to our desire to see our brothers and sisters in Africa have something very basic-WATER. Life-giving, life-saving, life-sustaining, clean water--and more than that, the Living Water that is Jesus! Hubby had already planned on doing this triathlon in September and has been hard at work training for it-no small feat, by the way. He is a sports lover and follower, but has never been a triathlete kinda guy (not being mean-he was a big old football player-not exactly the same category as triathlete, ya know what I'm sayin'?) Our friend Troy was sharing how he was going to complete a half marathon as a fundraiser for their adoption and the wheels in my husband's head started spinning (ooh! like a spinning wheel! that they make yarn on! see? I am going to use this weaving analogy to death in this post, maybe) and he set up the coolest website. Here is the link to it: http://tri4korah.bbnow.org/

PLEASE go to the site, read all through it-I am amazed at how well it is done and how informative it is-way to go, honey! But truly, it has the potential to be a VERY. BIG. blessing to a community who needs it. You see, the funds he raises from his triathalon will go directly to the community of Korah. When we were there in Africa, we all (on my OH team) felt like we wanted to do something with a lasting effect in that community, not just feed them lunch, play some soccer and walk away. We wanted them to be able to be self-sustaining, to have a safe place to live and clean water to drink. The folks at the project had shared with our team leaders that there is some land available that they could buy and use for all sorts of community needs, the biggest being putting in a well. A well means clean water available to the community-something so basic, so necessary, so taken for granted here in the US. Literally, the difference between life and death for some. But, in order to purchase the land for this well and begin the process of digging it, they needed to pay $25,000 down (and ultimately a total of $125,000 to completely own the land). Well, there were 22 of us on the team and we figured if each of us could raise about $1200, the down-payment would be covered easily! That is the background on the project link above-I have prayed and asked God for GREAT BIG things out of this-and so far He has not disappointed! We smashed the goal of $1200 in just a couple of hours thanks to just a couple amazing donors--what do you think, folks? Can we make a crazy goal of $5ooo? I would love to blow the doors off of this fundraising effort and get those beautiful folks in Korah access to water. And here is a secret-I loathe fundraising. But I am actually happy to do it for this-I cannot get this place out of my head and heart. I think about them all day when I am awake, and dream about it when I sleep, for real. Check out the website and see how it works-we are not asking for big amounts at all-and in fact, it is set up so the whole family can be involved, with amounts as small as 26 cents! So, this is also a great opportunity to get your kiddos and their friends involved in giving to others. I don't know about you, but I am always looking for ways to do that that make sense and seem doable, you know what I mean? I want my kids to learn early the value of giving of what they have been blessed with in order to help others. I thought that was such a fun thing that my hubby included in this!

I also wanted to share that they are nearing the maxed out point of enrollment for sponsored kiddos at the boarding school in Ethiopia! Can I get a gigantic WOOHOO!! Y'all are just amazing and I am so thankful for the bunches and bunches of you who said 'Yes' to God's calling on your heart for these kids. If you have not yet signed up to sponsor, do not despair! They are putting together a waiting list of sponsors in case someone cannot fulfill their committment for any reason or if more kids become eligible for sponsorship, etc. so please still pursue it if you feel led. But, if you cannot at this time, please check out the triathlon website above and see if anything there grabs your attention. Woven together, we CAN make a real difference!!

Finally, if neither sponsorship nor the triathlon thing seems a good fit for you, please feel free to check out my Etsy shop from the link at the top of this page. I have Isaiah 61 bracelets that directly support our sweet Netsanet, whom we are sponsoring, and lots of other goodies that support the work of several amazing organizations. All these areas in my life that have long been passions of mine-creating, writing, my husband, children (I was a child devel/social work major)-are all being woven together right now by the Lord for a common purpose of His and I am so blessed to see glimpses here and there of the beautiful work God is making with them-what an undeserved joy!!

"I want them to be encouraged, and knit together by the strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself" Colossians 2:2

What I Did On My Summer Vacation...

2010-08-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

Ask Not What You Can Do for Ethiopia, But What Ethiopia Can Do For You (and your kids!)

2010-08-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

So I MAY have mentioned Korah and getting involved there a time or 2--read back in older posts if you are new here or have not read what I am talking about. Recently, we were in Tennessee visiting with friends and had an opportunity to get together some letters and things to send to our sponsored child in Ethiopia. I literally just casually told my daughters if they felt like writing letters to Netsanet to be included with the things from us, they could. I gave them no guidelines on what to say other than just introduce themselves to her. That night, my oldest came into our room and gave us this:

Oh my heart! Did you catch the part where it says "My name is Emma and I have three younger sisters. I want you to know that I also consider you one of my sisters"???? Think you need to wait till your kids are older to go on mission trips or even have your family go somewhere permanently? Think that you need a ton of $ so that your kids can go with you and see it firsthand? Think your kids are too young to "get it"? Think that sponsoring a child is just for that child's benefit? Think again. I am not bragging about my kids and their being all holy or anything. This is NOT my child with the naturally gentle heart for others or the one that adores being a big sister to the little ones. She is an incredible funny kid with a great heart, but I think she would also be just fine being an only child, if ya know what I am sayin'. BUT, God is growing her heart for others by leaps and bounds and it makes me praise Him all over again! I watched her start to ask for things when we were shopping at Target for clothes for Netsanet, then just shut her mouth without finishing her sentence. I watched her gently and quietly tell her little sister, "not today-that is not why we are here" when that one requested something on that shopping trip. She is genuinely SO excited about her newest sister, and that is straight from the Father above! So when you are considering the cost of getting involved in whatever God calls you to, whether great or small, don't forget to consider the GREAT BLESSINGS, too, b/c God never seems stop giving them!!! :)

The Place That Has My Heart

2010-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

Please watch this to get a small view of Korah, the place where I left part of my heart, and the place to which I WILL return in some capacity, when the Lord shows me how and when.

The Village of Korah - A short documentary from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.

The Last Day

2010-07-27T20:13:00.001-07:00

(Sorry it took so long to get these last days posted...the rest of the journey is posted in previous days if you need to catch up!!)

I awoke with a heavy heart today as we were leaving. I wanted so badly to see Pat and my girls back home, but I cannot explain it-I felt like I was leaving part of me there. I was close to tears much of the morning knowing that time, as usual, is both fleeting and unstoppable and this day proved no different. We all scurried to get our last things packed up and hauled down to the lobby so they could be loaded onto the top of the bus. We took lots of pictures and the guys (Tekabe, Masti, and Bisrat) all got OH Africa shirts like we all have. We said our good-byes to the guest house staff and loaded ourselves up in the bus to make a quick stop at El Olam to drop some things off and say goodbye to the first group of children we met. That was a sweet visit and after that, we went on a surprise last visit to the children at Korah. (It ended up being much less of a surprise though b/c on the way there, we managed to get the big bus snagged on multiple low-hanging electric lines b/c of our massive quantity of luggage on the roof-hi, we know you have next to nothing in this life, and we're here to also rip down your only power source!) This was one of my favorite times there b/c we got to see their summer camp program in action-the children were all in class rooms (do not think of an American classroom-think benches on red lava gravel floor surrounded by a wooden frame covered in tarp material with a white board nailed to the frame in the front-voila! Korah classroom! I loved it!) The children were all finishing their exercises where they were learning English and then the best part. An Ethiopian young lady came in and "taught" them I think 'fast' and slow' or something-by them singing!! IT. WAS. AWESOME. That place was rocking out! I took a ton of video and intend to take the sound off it and put it on a CD to listen to in the car, oh my goodness it was AMAZING!!! Those kids can SING, and it was with so much JOY to the Lord-I am thinking of introducing this as a means of learning at my daughters' school ;) After that was finished, a group of kids gathered around me practicing their English by interrogating, er, asking me all sorts of questions about my life. It was so much fun, if a bit oppressive. Seriously, NO. SUCH. THING. as personal space here whatsoever. I realized I had my laptop with me in my backpack so I got it out and showed them some pictures I had on it of my girls-it was so cute hearing them repeating my children's names in their thick Ethiopian accents. They were all excited by my Habesha (Ethiopian) daughter and I had a random picture of my kitchen in there so I showed them how I cook on an oven that gets hot inside, rather than over an open fire, like most of them. They said, "America kitchens very clean" and I decided that they were my favorite children ever :) They all soon disappeared and I realized it was lunch time, which we were helping to serve. I brought in a stack of plates to the church building where they were all going to eat and heard excited voices behind me saying, "Jody, Jody!" I turned around to Netsanet (found out the real spelling, btw) and her little friends! Yay! I hadn't seen them yet! I got to help serve them lunch and then they completely melted my heart by calling me over to feed me a bite of their lunch-I would rather have died than take even a bite of food from sweet Netsanet, but I know in Ethiopia it is a a sign of affection to feed a bite to someone and children often do so to their parents so I gratefully took the smallest bite possible that could still "count". Oh these children have such kind and generous hearts-I miss them already. I gave Netsanet the last bottle of nail polish we had left-a super sparkly pink and she asked to have them painted on the spot. Well, Masti was nowhere to be found so I went ahead and did it. I showed her mine and told her Masti painted them which sent her into a fit of giggles. Oh this girl is too sweet-I am so so so happy she is going to get a chance at a better future by going to boarding school in September-praise God! We took some group pics at Korah and pictures of all the staff guys with huge hearts of gold, and it was time to go. Netsanet squeezed the life out of me as I squeezed back tears and then I hopped on the bus, needing to "rip off the band aid" so to speak. I was finally getting anxious to just go home-all this good-bying was getting too hard. We pulled out with cheers from the kids following us-what blessed memories we have made in this place and I am thrilled to know this is not the end of our relationship with this special community. We ended our trip with some final shopping but since I had finished all my shopping earlier in the week, Bizi and I went off to buy coffee for the entire team to take back to the states. We walked to this place he said was the best place to get it and it was like a game of Frogger, zig zagging in and out of cars, buses, donkeys, etc.We finally arrived at the coffee store, a bustling place that felt like any other local coffee house back home. After buying 65 bags of coffee and convincing Bizi that no, he really couldn't carry that much by himself despite his usual insistence to carry things for us (American boys reading this, listen up!!!), we both went off hauling multiple bags and eventually made it back to the bus where we dropped it all off. Off we went again to the Compassion International office as I had brought some gifts for our sponsored child and had been trying to get them to the office all week unsuccessfully. Wow, did I get baptized into full Addis Ababa culture then-hopping random busses and crowded taxi vans one after another, blindly following Bisrat's lead. It was fun, though-I got a small taste of just real life in this city. No such thing as hopping in my Honda van here and getting somewhere in 5 minutes. On the way to one bus, we passed a man who was squatted down on the side walk, dressed in nice enough clothes for me to know he was not someone who lived on the streets all the time, and he was holding his head and tears were streaming down his face. At first we walked past, but then I asked Bizi why the man might be crying, and he said, "I don't know-should we go check?" I said yes and so Bizi bent over and asked him what was going on while I looked away so as not to embarrass him by people looking-they are always looking b/c my white face stands out here. We found out the man lived in the countryside and had just gotten robbed (pickpocketing is not totally uncommon here) and he had no way to go home to his family. There is no homeless shelter here and if he had no money and no way to go home, he was stuck here, in his mind and maybe reality, forever. I think I would have just sat down and wept, too. Bizi and I put together enough birr to get him a bus ticket home and maybe some food-all told? Less than $12 US. Yes, that can mean being ripped from your family and living on the street for an undetermined amount of time, or going home, here in Ethiopia. How many times have I thrown away 10 or 12 bucks on drinks at a football game, or a new pair of sunglasses I didn't need? This man said he could not believe he was holding 100 birr and thanked us—I walked right back and hugged him, deciding I did not care at that moment whether or not it was culturally appropriate, and off we walked in search of a bus. Fortunately we got off our bus before it got super crowded-they pack these things FULL! As in, you cannot move an inch full-I was so happy we got off soon after getting on, only to hop in another blue and white crowded van taxi. Some girl hopped in beside Bizi and he said something to her that made her giggle a lot. Seems Masti isn't the only ladies man of the group...he later told me he had told her she was very pretty. Good grief...no picking up girls in the taxi when we are trying to run an errand, Bizi! Soon we hopped out across from a high wall with bronze mini-scultpures of Africa all around it—this surrounded the African Union for all the African countries. We crossed the street Frogger-style again and walked up a big hill, with my trying to not sound like I was sucking wind as much as I was from the smog and the altitude here, and then we rounded the corner to a large office building. I was told there were lots of NGOs in this compound (non-government organizations that do humanitarian aid). We found the Compassion offices on the 3^rd and 4^th floors (of course, couldn't be on the ground level after walking the entire city)-I loved that place! It was so busy and it had all Ethiopian employees-which made me happy to know it was not only bringing help to children in extreme poverty, it was bringing jobs to the people in this country as well. Everyone there was very friendly and they took my gifts and promised they would get them to Sultan. As we were going back down the steps, the man that had helped me leaned over the railing and offered us coffee or tea-the Ethiopian people give the South a run for it's money in the hospitality category, for sure! We had to decline as we were already running late (or right on time, African time....) and took back off for the bus full of the rest of the team who had called and were waiting on us. Oops. 47 taxis and one Frogger game later, we arrived back at the bus to the cheers of the team. Sorry, guys. :( We made a quick stop outside an orthodox church where we saw GINORMOUS tortoises that just live in the grassy areas outside the church. We didn't go in the church but the grounds around it were beautiful and very peaceful. Lo and behold it looked like a storm was rolling in and so we got back in the bus (I am NOT going to miss that thing, ugh) and headed to the National Museum which houses the Lucy skeleton, the oldest discovered human skeleton, found here in Ethiopia. I laughed at the admission price of 10 birr, or less that $1US. Can you imagine going to a museum with priceless artifacts in the US for less than a dollar???? We saw all sorts of interesting artifacts and works of art, including the Lucy skeleton (which may be a replica as I think the real one is still touring the US, oddly enough) and then we went to a restaurant right next door called, appropriately, the Lucy Restaurant. Masti and I shared a questionable pizza that we both agreed was not very good for different reasons-he said it was too American style while I thought it was decidedly NOT American style enough and the "ham" that was supposed to be on it was definitely no, and I still don't know what it was. I drank my last Mirinda (of this visit anyway ;) ) and we all took some pictures and finally, it was really time to head to the airport. Sigh. Saying goodbye to Eyasu and the driver was bittersweet as we have spent a lot of time with them this week, but saying goodbye to Masti and Bizi was incredibly hard as we have become such good friends, or in Bizi's case, as he said "now we are family". I am so thankful for the friends God brought me here, ones I never in a million years expected, but ones better than I could have asked for or imagined. God is once again SO GOOD.

Wolisso Day

2010-07-27T19:37:00.001-07:00

(Sorry it has taken me so long to get these last days posted...)

Today we had to be up and ready to go very early-we had to make one stop at a small orphanage that we had missed the day before b/c of our whirlwind day, and then we had a 3 hour drive south to Woliso. We were on the bus by 8 a.m. and headed out to Miskaye Orphanage. It was a small, nice place and when we got there, all the children (about 15?) were standing on the steps singing us a welcome song in thickly-accented English-they were SO cute!! I got to go back and see the babies-I had spent very little time on this trip with babies personally so I needed to get a baby fix. I quickly took possession of tiny Binyam and we spent the next hour and a half just hanging out. He was so still, just snuggled onto me and looking around. He was also so tiny, and it was strange to me that my wild and crazy almost 2 year old was this size when we met her a little over a year ago here in Ethiopia. Amazing! This little guy and I just sat on the porch, half in the sun, half in the shade and just made faces at each other and snuggled. We also walked around a bit and it was just a sweet time with this little guy. There were a handful of boys who spent time kicking a soccer ball around with our guys and the little girls got treated to dolls and special sunglasses that made one little girl in particular break out into uncontrollable giggling. She just could not stop giggling about her heart shaped glasses and was more than pleased to pose for any photo ops-ADORABLE!! All too soon it was time to get back on the bus so we said good-bye to the children and they surprised us by singing the good-bye version of their sweet welcome song. We waved and yelled "Ciao!" out the windows and we were off to Woliso. The ride there was long but amazing! The countryside of Ethiopia is absolutely stunning, particularly during the rainy season as everything was green and lush. We saw amazing round huts with thatched straw roofs and had to yield the right of way more than a few times to oxen in the road. We drove over what we all thought was a lake as it was muddy water as far as the eye could see, trees reaching up through it here and there, but our guides informed us that no, it was simply a flooded field from all the rain that would go back to being all dry when the rainy season was over. Unbelievable. There were houses at the edges that the water cam right up to the door and they had built stick bridges to be able to get out and across the temporary moat. Children and adults waded through the muddy water, skirts tied up and carrying things on their heads to wherever they were going. At one point we saw a pair of white legs out there with some brown ones and we were intrigued as to why. This way of life was both beautiful and amazing to see, and also worrisome to think of things like typhoid and malaria and who knows what else that comes from SO MUCH standing water, right outside of their doors, literally. Also, I wondered if there might be a better way to harness all that water in some sort of dam or retaining pond to distribute throughout the year when water is non-existent. Teri, one of my teammates who was sharing a bus seat with me, and I discussed how to balance doing something of that nature, without also completely changing the very identity of who these people are and we were not sure it was possible. They are farmers who have lived this way of life for centuries and while it would make their life so much easier to have some good water systems, it could also very well extinguish some of the beauty of their way of life. No easy answers... Because I had been sitting at the front of the bus, I had helped serve lunch to the team and just stayed sitting up in the middle facing backwards for a change of scenery. I was so glad I did b/c right as we were coming into Woliso, we passed a place called the Lodge and I saw a grey monkey scamper up the wall! I shouted out to everyone that there was monkey but by the time they all turned to look, we were well past it and it had gone over the wall. They all were not sure they wanted to believe me :) but I saw it! Amazing! I have never seen a monkey outside of the zoo, for sure. (Aside from my children, that is ;) ) We pulled down a muddy, rocky side street and were greeted by dirty brown faces with big smiles, and outstretched hands. These children were so poor-they had little clothing and what they had was filthy and torn. One poor sweet boy stood off to himself, eyeing the bus warily, clad in only a tattered old shirt. We unloaded all the stuff for the orphanage and got ready for yet another muddy trek in as it was impassable for the bus. At his encouragement and to my detriment, I followed Bisrat (Bizi) who I am certain took me the muddiest way possible. How do our guides never end up seeming to be muddy themselves, though?? We entered the gate to a beautifully landscaped place that was right out of a national geographic photo of a 3^rd world orphanage. They had used native plants to make a tropical border to a dirt path that ran around the compound. There was a green painted room that served as the boys dorm, where every bunk bed was covered by a thick mosquito net. The girls dorm was next door, although several of their mosquito nets had large holes in them, completely defeating the purpose. This made me sad-I need to think about how to maybe get them some replacement nets as this could literally mean the difference between life and death for these children living out in a land where malaria is a huge issue. All the floors of each building were covered in long strands of thick green grass that had been laid out, not uncommon in Ethiopia-usually seen at the coffee ceremony and it symbolizes freshness and life. They has even put it on the floor of the dining building, which was also adorned with pieces of notebook paper tacked to the wall with various scriptures and sayings about God, both in Amharic and English. It was a nice place for how incredibly poor it was-they had made it a really pleasant place to be (except for the bathroom-so gross, just a disgusting hole in the gound, breeding who knows what kind of diseases-no, I didn't use it) We all were handed a Mirinda or a Coke to drink, which the guy giving them out totally impressed us by opening one bottle with the underside of the lid of another. Then Masti showed off that he has mastered the same skill and was pretty pleased by the oohs and ahhs he received by his onlookers-ah,boys....;) We all dutifully pulled back the plastic in the Mirinda bottle caps to see if we had won a mikena (car), which none of us had-rats. Although one of us might have, as it was written in Amharic characters and Masti and Bizi were doing the checking for us so I should have paid closer attention to see if one of them pocketed the bottle cap after telling us it said "sorry, try again", haha! I told them I'd give it to them anyway, though, so I think it was legit ;) It makes me laugh how many things are universal across cultures-how many of us have opened a coke bottle looking for a free coke, $5, etc? Ha! Anyway, after our little soda break, we did our usual split and the soccer guys grabbed some soccer balls and headed out into the muddy center of the compound to play and the rest of us went to the building where they do church and group activities and set up craft stations, some inside, some outside, and some in a chicken-wire enclosed space in front of the office. I had a few of the children come color with me, but not a lot. So in between children I walked around and took pictures of other activities. Masti had decided he wanted to help paint nails and oh my...he needed some help. This sweet girl sat down, giggling about Masti wanting to paint her nails, but was a willing victim. One nail in and I knew he needed a lesson so I showed him how to put nail polish on a finger in a way that was different than putting white out on a document-poor girl had blue nail polish all over her pinky! He eventually got the hang of it, although he painted a blue dot of polish right in the middle of her forehead. She laughed and laughed and I asked him what he told her-he said he told her he would make her the prettiest girl in the whole village. Good grief, Mr. Ladies Man...I think she was smitten as she let him work on her nails for quite some time-I walked back over later and he was making a design with white polka dots on each finger. Overachiever... He did mine later in the day and I still have it on to show my kids-I told him he needs to start a manicure business-he'd have ladies lined up outside, haha! (Incidentally, the next day he told me he took the nail polish home to his mother and she bought a blue scarf to match it-how cute!) There was somewhat of a communication mix up about the children's lunch that we were going to serve and take care of for the kids so they ended up all having to go in and eat lunch instead of continuing to do crafts with us. Unfortunately, b/c of our long drive back, we had to pack up and waited till their lunch was over but had to say good-bye. There were children that were not part of the orphanage hanging on the gate made of sticks, looking longingly at the children inside, and it struck me as so sad that children in a very poor orphanage way out in the middle of nowhere probably have it better than the poverty stricken children outside the gates. Sometimes it just doesn't make me sad, it makes me angry. Why is it this way? Why has it gotten this bad? Why aren't more people stepping out of their comfortable worlds to do something about it? This is all of our problem, as we are all equals in the eyes of the Lord, and all charged with loving and caring for each other. It is frustrating, to say the least. We trekked back out, trying unsuccessfully to find the least amount of mud possible so that we didn't track it all into the bus. The children outside the compound all surrounded the bus, begging for food or a small toy, and then an elderly man showed up in the middle of the mass, aggressively begging for food. Heartbreaking-he finally seemed satisfied with the granola bar and pack of peanut butter crackers in his hand, but I knew that might be it for some time for him. What a terrible way to have to live. We all headed back out once the bus was loaded, I was again facing backwards in the middle for the start of the trip and guess what? I saw ANOTHER monkey! And guess what? NO ONE else saw it, EXCEPT the bus door opener guy (Eyasu) who pointed to it, but only speaks Amharic, so now of course no one believed me—but I saw it, it had white tufty fur around it's little face and was sitting on the top corner of a tin roof. There was also this neat area down over in a wide low spot with a line of concrete semi-circle basins formed on the ground which was where they were doing laundry. Laundromat, Ethiopian style :) I wondered how they felt with all of us snapping pictures, as I pictured a mass of Ethiopians crowding into my laundry room taking pictures of me switching loads. I put my camera away :) We were in a hurry to get back before dark for a couple reasons-one being the huge number of times that we almost impaled the bus with an ox horn many times as they just wander in the road-in the dark, you may not see them until it is too late. Also, apparently being robbed is a very real possibility and with a busload of white Americans, we were like a magnet. We did take a few minutes to stop and get fuel for the bus and were lucky enough to stop at a station where someone had parked a truck full of... CAMELS! Yup, for real. So cool! They would just pop their heads up and look around with their droopy, unamused camel eyes. So funny! Not the usual sight at the gas station back home. We also found the closes thing to a "real" bathroom at a little motel next door and we were all relived to find flushing pottys, a rarity it seemed on this particular day. There was a big UN truck parked there, too. Glad to know this part of the country is not forgotten. We were back on the bus and headed home, all of us tired and a little groggy. We invited the guides and Eyasu to eat dinner with us at the guest house, learning that Eyasu lives very far away and sleeps on the bus when he does not go to his home. We were horrified to find out he basically lived on this bus, even though that is not uncommon here, and he also gets paid very little money. Well, you cannot tell a bunch like this that-after getting permission from the bus driver (his "boss") we took Eyasu to eat with us, one of the guys gave up an entire clean outfit for him (down to the underwear and everything-thanks, Nick!) and we took him to the guest house and let him take a shower and put on his new clothes. We also got together some money to give him but we had to give it to him without the bus driver knowing b/c Bizi explained that if the driver knew, he would not pay him b/c he would think he already had $$. This was shocking to us as the bus driver was quite nice, and Bizi said, no, it is not a good thing, but that it is just the way it is here. Frustration again... It was so much fun blessing Eyasu-he was so cute all in his new clothes but the poor guys was probably completely overwhelmed and frightened by 15 overly-beaming white girls circled around and staring at him all excited while we gave him the money. He was so excited and gave hugs out to everyone-what a fun night! However, our keeping him there as long as we did sent him home in one of the hardest rains I have EVER seen/heard in my life! Unreal-and it came in the closed (but apparently leaky) window right onto my bed, of course. That bed and I are not friends. I will not miss it one bit when I am gone!! Oh but I will miss so much of this place-so much of my heart is here, in this weird, hard, strange, beautiful, gracious place. I love Ethiopia so much, and I cannot explain it. It is NOT comfortable, easy, convienient, efficient—but I love it and the people here so very very much. I have made deep friendships here and am so sad to think about leaving them behind. This may be a developing nation, but praise God they have email! :)

Interested in Korah Sponsorship?

2010-07-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

A number of you expressed intereest and I have emails for some of you, but not all-if you are interested in sponsoring one or more of the children in Korah, will you please contact me (click on that) so I can send you the particulars of how to do it? THANKS!!

A Quick Hello

2010-07-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

I am home since Saturday but have not been feeling great-seems like bad allergies but could be something else. Pray it is just allergies as I have a trip to go on this coming weekend...I have the last 2 days of our trip written up and will post them later today, but wanted to say hey to all of you and thanks for journeying to Africa with me. I am having a really hard time balancing my joy at seeing my family again with my heartache at leaving Ethiopia. I love that country and it's people for reasons I cannot even explain b/c it is such a hard place. But oh I could have stayed another month...or 6. Maybe. Although it HAS been nice to be able to freely brush my teeth or get a drop of water on my mouth in the shower without freaking out ;)

A Busy Day!

2010-07-22T22:53:00.001-07:00

Today was to be an exciting day-for the first time we were going outside of Addis Ababa! We drove for awhile to the north of the city, getting to see some beautiful countryside and traditional huts. We passed so many donkeys loaded down with saddle bags or sacks of grain, etc. Masti sat with me on the bus ride and informed me that they call those "donkey-bishi" like "Mitsubishi". Ha ha, I laughed hard at that. It was very cold and rainy all day long. We were relieved when the orphanage we were visiting had a large indoor room that we could do all our craft activities with the kiddos. We set up several stations and just had a great time doing activities with the kids-they were all a very sweet bunch and very well behaved. They were so much fun to be with and it was a really relaxing time with them. Being out in the country was a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively—there is SO.MUCH.SMOG in Addis, blech. We left there to go on quite an adventure-we went in search of the birth mother of Kelly and Shane's adopted son from Ethiopia! They had met her one other time, but not in her home so all of us went around on the bus till we got in the right general area where they thought she lived. Then our faithful Bizi hopped out to talk to some folks and show them a picture and in less than 5 minutes he was back with a thumbs up-he had found out where to go find her! I will leave the rest of the details of that meeting up to Kelly to share since it is her story, but suffice it to say we eventually found her and the reunion was miraculous and a beautiful blessing to ALL of us, really. By the time we were done with that, we thought we were headed home and could skip our afternoon plans for orphanage visits since we were so late, but we kept getting calls about when we were coming as they were waiting on us soooooo, off we went! We were visiting another place that works with HIV+ children and arrived, in the cold rain of course, to a sweet group of kids who said "Welcome our guests!" in English that they had obviously practiced well-it was so heart warming! They had waited all day in the yucky cold rain for us to show up and I am so glad we did! We didn't have a lot of time to stay there but we made the most of it-we did face painting and nail painting and coloring. The best part was that the mothers of any of the children that had mothers were there and they all wanted their nails painted too. I had such fun painting all those mama's nails and making them feel fancy!! Some seemed a little sheepish but would finally offer their hard-working hand-but only the left b/c they eat with the right :) I find that so interesting-it took us several rounds of painting nails at various places to finally figure out why the older girls or women only wanted one hand painted, ha! Then they joked that they also wanted lipstick and make up done-seems you get ladies together getting their nails done and they just get giggly and silly, no matter what the culture! So much fun! Finally it was time to go and we rolled into the guest house tired, cold, and wet and scarfed down dinner, had a team meeting and hit the hay. Phew! This day was a whirlwind!! Thanks for hanging in there along my journey-it has been fun to share with y'all back home and I love knowing that I have friends "here" with me virtually!

I may not get the next day posted (which is actually today for me) before I get home as we jump on a plane home at the time I normally post-so look for it soon after I get home! We went to Woliso, south of Addis and it was spectacular to get out of the city and see a whole new side of Ethiopia!

Mother Theresa Orphanage

2010-07-22T22:45:00.001-07:00

Well, I literally did not sleep for any minutes. I was so nervous about the meeting with Thing 4's birthmom and also had had a little scare walking out at night (I'm fine, Pat and Mom :) ) and so sleep just completely eluded me. I gave up at 5 am and just got up to get a shower, figuring at least the water would be warm this time. I got ready and went downstairs to read my Bible for a bit, trying to get my nerves to settle, unsuccessfully. Finally I heard others stirring and went up to chat to keep my mind off things. All of the sudden the driver showed up 40 minutes EARLY (didn't he read the last post about African time??) and I was so surprised I forgot to be nervous and just hopped in the car with him and off we went to the new Hannah's Hope in the pouring rain. It was close so we were there quickly and it was good to see Almaz again-she is a lot of fun and just a special person who does her job well. We waited a bit and I was sure she was not going to come-Almaz went off to check something and I sat alone, trying to be calm. Almaz popped her head in and said "Ok, she's here!" and then all the sudden she was and we were hugging, and both just silently weeping. There really are not words to describe the moment-we speak none of the same language and live as different lives as one could possibly live, yet we have a bond that no one else has and we are family. She was tinier and younger than I expected. She had come with a friend and I completely understood, I wished I had had my husband with me also-not an easy meeting alone. We sat and talked through Almaz' translation and I showed her a huge stack of photos I had brought along of the past year with Thing 4. That was so fun to show her, but I also wondered how it made her feel at times. She asked if she could bring me some pictures of some family for me to take home and I eagerly said yes. We talked and shared a bit more and then it was time to be done-we took some pictures together and she just kept thanking me and even bent down to kiss my lower leg-ugh, that just broke my heart into pieces. I'm just not sure why God arranged it so that she would give birth but I would raise my sweet girl, but I do know it is not b/c I am anything special or someone that needs to be kissed like that. It was a good meeting, and hard, and somewhat strange all at the same time, and I am so glad I did it. I saw very little of the new Hannah's Hope-b/c of my schedule and the AGCI staff schedule and the pouring rain, we just decided to head back to my guest house to meet up with my team.

They were just getting ready to head out and off we went to the Mother Theresa HIV Orphanage. It was on the far opposite side of the city from where we were and in a slightly less populated area. We were all impressed when we drove it-it was a very nice complex with several nice buildings and a driveway that ran the length of the compound. We were not permitted to take pictures there so I cannot show you, but it was a beautiful place, and very peaceful. But the children-they were sick little ones. Even the "healthy" ones all seemed to have sniffles or spots or coughs of some kind and that 'institutional' smell pervaded everything. They were all very nice children, and they ALL wanted to hold onto and touch Colin, Kelly P.'s 14 year-old son. His teenage boy with light skin and light hair factor was like a magnet for the little boys! Poor Colin got swarmed every time we came out of a building on our tour of the facility, haha. The head Sister of the Orphanage came and talked with us, giving us a little history of the place and explaining that most Mother Theresa homes were not this nice, but it had all come from donations and they had the best HIV lab and equipment in the nation to treat the poor-praise Jesus!! This woman radiated her love for these children and the poorest of the poor and it made her giggle every time she mentioned something amazing that they had to provide to these children and mothers. She was really an inspiration. We toured the clinic where the children and mothers receive treatment, including the room with the critically ill children-there are not words to describe the emotion I felt looking at those frail, dying children. It should not be this way, and those children are innocent victims of this wretched disease. We peeked in on moms who were just as sick and I waved and smiled to all of them, hoping for a brief moment they would still feel like a person of value in this world since they spend their time alone and outcast by those who fear they will "catch" AIDS from them by being near. We were told that most of the moms with advanced stages of the disease basically come here to die, but they get to die in peace and with friends who love them anyway. Still, I had such a heavy heart at this place. Especialy after going in the baby room, which was lined with cribs full of adorable HIV positive children-all of whom spend almost all their time there. This home has only 7 full time staff to 320 children-you can do the math and see how many people are available to hold these babies. None. She said they are not often held and played with b/c there is just not the staff for it and that we were free to touch and hold and love them as much as we wanted b/c they so rarely get it. Oh, Lord, please being more people to this place to help....We also got to see a large, very nice and very modern building, brand new, at the back of the grounds—this was a building built originally for the university but that fell through and it has been turned over to be used as a school for the HIV children and also to public school children. Because it will be staffed with the Brothers of the La Salle order who are known to be great teachers, there will be many who desire for their children to come to this school, making it one of the first to be integrated with HIV+ children and those who are not, truly an amazing thing as the HIV+ children have been shunned and outcast from their schools b/c of the disease. We finished our day there doing crafts with the children outside-it was a beautiful day outside and we had a fabulous break from the rain and mud. It was a hard visit there-it is a beautiful place, but it puts a "far away" disease right in your face, and I felt helpless toward these sick little ones.

We left there and stopped off at a random lot on the street where a bunch of street children were. The ones who wanted to play soccer hopped out with some soccer balls and started a pick up game with the children. Some of us went off with Bizi in search of a grocery store and ended up getting soaked to the skin in a huge downpour. I was rapidly running out of dry clothes-good thing I had one pair of pants left at the guest house!! We got home exhausted and soaked and ready to call it a day, hence the reason for this late blog post that is kind of scant on details. I'm just super tired and taking the night off-see ya tomorrow!

I'm On African Time

2010-07-20T12:04:00.001-07:00

Day 5-African time...

Our whole day was turned upside down today as we couldn't seem to find anyone with the correct plan and schedule for our day. We ended up scrapping the plan we had and planning to do some shopping in the morning and heading to a couple places for the afternoon. We headed out for shopping after waiting around for what seemed like forever to get the bus moving...turns out that was just practice for the rest of the day. We made a "quick" stop for people to change money that turned into almost an hour (maybe more??) of sitting on the parked bus while the money exchange went on---in African time, which means devoid of any time of schedule constraints or awareness that minutes or hours even exist. FINALLY we headed out to the shopping place, only to stop several more times on the way and park, and sit on the bus, and wait while one of the guides/drivers got out, did who knows what, and got back in and drove off again. This is what happens everywhere.we.go. It has become a joke to our group. "Hey everyone hurry up and get on the bus! Now let's sit here forever and then go sit parked in the middle of the road for some more and then drive around and do u-turns in the middle of a heavily trafficked street!" Ahhhhh, Africa. It is a wonder the entire population of Addis Ababa is not wiped out in a year from the driving in this place-insane does not even begin to cover it.

After an eternity, we reached our shopping destination, fortunately the same place I went last time I was here and I headed to my favorite shop. I was pleased to see the same woman working there as last year and we bargained hard for my huge amount of purchases. I was happy enough with my prices and left only to find some street guy trying to sell my teammate Gina a plain mediocre soccer ball for 1500 birr, or about $135 US$. I grabbed Gina and told him NO WAY! And walked away from him, giving him the chin up thrust that means, 'no, and don't ask again'. He continued to follow us though and strangely enough, was finally offering the ball at 100 birr, or about 13 bucks. Hmmm, funny how prices fall in just minutes....We still were not interested and Gina asked me to come to a shop with her to buy a necklace. We went to a nice place that looked semi-familiar to me. The shop owner seemed very nice and had good prices quoted, nothing seemed over inflated or out of whack-I showed him the picture of my family and he pointed at my husband and said, "I remember this face, this man! He has been here before! Yes, I remember him!!" And I thought that must be why it felt familiar in there, I vaguely remember going in there last year and talking with that man and finding out he was a Christian too. We chatted some and he explained to me what the different ornate silver crosses I was buying meant-they are from the different original regional churches of the ancient Ethiopian orthodox faith. Masti, one of our guides (they are the 2 guys in the photo below), popped in to the store and I asked him if the prices were good, just to be sure, and he said yes. We made several purchases there and the shop owner took my hand and said "God bless, sister-see you again" when I left. He was so nice and it was a great way to end our shopping excursion.

We were hurried on to the bus as it was already later in the day than we planned, and of course, sat for like 15 minutes. Since we were running behind, lunch of noodles and bread was handed back on the bus on plastic plates and we all ate on the bus, with wafts of diesel smog puffing in the windows. Drive through, Ethiopian mission-trip style :) We decided to split into 2 groups today, one half of us going to some of the orphan care places with the same agency that works with El Olam from Day 1, and the other half going back to Korah. I decided on Korah since I knew it meant I could see my Neseret again!! We made a quick stop at the guest house to grab supplies, hopped on the bus annnnnd sat. And then we drove for a while, drivers and guides talking on phones, jumping out, going to places and sitting and waiting on ???? and then sitting some more in the middle of the road and we still don't know why. There is no getting worked up about being on time here or having a strict schedule as it just doesn't happen. Eventually we all got to our various locations and those of us that headed to Korah were treated to a roaring, cheering crowd of children when we pulled down the road leading to the shelter!!! We could not even get off the bus as they were swarming it and I saw Nesenet's beaming face in the crowd-I made a beeline for her and we hugged a good tight squeeze that must have had some sort of adhesive effect as she did not let me go the whole rest of the afternoon. Several of my buddies from the other day also quickly glued themselves to my fingers and arms and waist. We talked back and forth in broken language understanding, but they all like when I can recognize and pronounce their names—hearing everyone's adoption referral names during our process really paid off!! :) It never ceases to amaze me all the small things God has placed in my life up to this point that have really prepared me for this trip-I feel very at home with the Ethiopian people despite the language difference. I have remembered and been taught much more Amharic than ever on this trip-the children today had a great time teaching me the words for rain, girl, boy, sleep, cat, flower, and several others. And I knew them so well, until right now, when I cannot remember a single one. Ugh, I hate that.

One of the highlights of my day was when we read from my Bible the story of Philip and the Ethiopian from the Book of Acts. A little bit older boy read it in English quite well, pausing when he didn't understand something and asking me "was is dat?" and I would explain. Off to my side I realized someone in the group of probably 20 oppressively clustered around me (there is no personal space in Ethiopia) was translating in Amharic and the children were nodding in understanding. At the end I asked the reader if he understood the story and explained that the first recorded converted Christian to be baptized was an Ethiopian! What a sweet part of my day that was!! I was so blessed by those minutes we read together.

After that, we again walked down to the big field/open dirt spot by the river where we had gone the other day and the gaggle of girls I was with, and a few stray boys as well (ooh! I remembered-"sit" is girl!-I think...), sat on the grass and drew pictures and took photos and wrote our names and they tried to braid my hair. They were so climb-y I had to finally ask them if they could not touch the back of my neck and showed them my blistered sunburn I had received the first day at Korah when I had put my hair up and put sunscreen everywhere EXCEPT the back of my neck. They let out a gasp of horror when I showed them-apparently blistered and sunburned white skin is not something they see regularly and from that moment on, one girl took it upon herself to be my neck body guard and anyone that came up and hugged or leaned on my neck, she scolded in Amharic and peeled back the neck of my shirt to show them. They would then gasp, sweetly say "Sorry!" and pat my back—these kids are just too sweet considering their hard life. I had yet another wounded knee brought to me that I cleaned and band-aided and this apparently qualified me to be the area doctor. A few minutes later, a girl got hit by a flying soccer ball and apparently it hurt her a good deal and all these kids came running, "JO-DEE, JO-DEE!!" and tugging on my hands to pull me up and go help her. She was already with 2 adults and I tried to tell them that unless she needed a band aid I was fairly useless, but they were persistent and one even went so far as to call my name, re-enact the girl lying on the ground, and grab my hand and drag me over. I have never wished for superpowers more in my life!! Thank goodness another member of our team has some medical knowledge and was checking her out some so I went over and looked concerned, hoping it would satisfy my groupies that I had helped little Mekdes out, sort of like staring into the popped up hood of a car saying hmmmm.... Mekdes was having some significant trouble and a huge crowd was pushing in around her so another team member and I helped to shoo nosy children away-there, phew, maybe that counted as helping ;) One of the Korah ministry leaders picked the hurt girl up (she was about 12 or 14 so not an easy task) and carried her out of there-that is a man there!!!

After that, we decided to call the day a wrap and headed back-it was time to leave. Some of the girls showed me their "houses" on the way back, with such pride. Oh how they deserve so much more than the filth in which they live! I asked Nesenet where her house was in hopes of meeting her grandmother before I left. She just pointed 'up there' ahead of us. As we were getting ready to leave and get on the bus, an old sunken woman appeared in the street where no other adults were, came up to Nesenet and began to speak to her. I wondered...could this be??? Sure enough, after a quick inquiry, it WAS her grandmother! I said hello and touched her on the shoulder as it was clear her eyes were completely clouded over and I am not sure what, if any vision she had. I embraced her and touched her cheek to mine as is the Ethiopian greeting. She began to say something and made a gesture of holding her stomach, pointing to Nesenet, and then miming eating. One of the sweet children there knew enough to tell me that the grandmother was telling me Nesenet was sick b/c she does not eat. She kept grabbing my wrist and doing the same gestures until a leader from the ministry came up to interpret. I explained to him what I thought she was saying, I think he was trying to shoo her away, and he asked me if Nesenet was in the program. I told him yes, she had started today, and I was her sponsor. He said "Oh!" and quickly relayed this to the grandmother. Well, she picked up my hand and began kissing it repeatedly then raised her hands and made a bowing gesture to me and was talking amharic a mile a minute. Whoa, I did NOT want her bowing to me, I wanted her to know we were equals and I just was helping out with what God gave me so I gently put her hands down and kissed her 3 times on alternating cheeks to indicate a regular old greeting between 2 good friends. And I hugged her and put my hand on her face and patted it and told her "ish, ish"--"It's OK". I was so thankful God brought her into the street from I have no idea where!! I asked her for a picture of her and Nesenet together and she removed her outer head covering, which consisted not of the beautiful gabis, but of a shabby old towel saftey pinned under her chin, and it pained me that she would not look up for the photo. Such a hard life she has had, I am sure. I wanted to tell her I was sorry for the loss of her daughter, but by then the translator was busy with something else so I hugged and kissed her goodbye and walked back to the bus with Nesenet, who squeezed me tight before we said our good byes. She is such a sweet, gentle child-not grabby or anything, always insisting on wearing my backpack wherever we go, and being super protective of me when other kids got grabby or tried to reach in my bag or anything. I got a good one, that girl!!

We all hurried onto the bus as it was getting late and was had to get the rest of our group only to....yup, wait some more, like 20 minutes or so. Good grief, where was the driver now?? Dana, an OH team member, threatened to just drive us out of there herself, at which Masti said he was getting off, haha! Funny Ethiopians, they love to tease!! :) We finally rumbled out of there as it was getting to be dusk and after doing our usual stop in the road, someone gets off and then back on routine (WHAT in the WORLD are they doing all the time???), we finally collected the rest of the team and went searching for a restaurant for dinner. This turned into "National Lampoon's African Vacation" as we drove around the same place several times trying to find the "right" place that was open, according to Masti's standards. Oh my, we finally ended up in a semi-night club type restaurant and eventually ate something, finishing dinner at 9:15. Have I mentioned anything about African time, yet?? Fortunately, this time when we got on the bus, we only sat waiting for our elusive driver to return for about 5 minutes and made it home where we finally had clean laundry waiting for us after a couple days of waiting on it-seems our clothes were on African time, as well, haha.

I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow personally-I am scheduled to meet my daughter's birth mother, whom we were unable to meet when we came to get her. I was warned that the meeting is set up and they think she will come, but to be prepared that she may not, which is ok, I have walked that road before. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I have a bunch of pictures for her of our family and life back home. I am praying it is a blessed time. I also get to see the new Hannah's Hope where our agency, AGCI, has moved in recent months!!

Oh, and for any old time AGCI folks reading this, guess what?? The place where the other half of the team went today to work with the agency's newly arrived babies?? THE OLD HANNAH'S HOPE!! Still being used for orphan care and Kelly P. said it was completely unexpected and surreal to be here almost a year later in the exact same spot, photographing new children to advocate for their adoption back home just like she did a year ago when she traveled with her sis, Kristi J, to pick up Kristi's daughter! Is God crazy or what?? So fun!! I'm off to sleep after a busy day-here's praying my bed stays in one piece ;)

*Update: Zoe's birthmom came and the meeting was good and hard and weird, yay!*

Ararat Day

2010-07-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

I did not sleep well last night-I had a mosquito buzzing around my head keeping me paranoid about malaria until I finally got up and put bug spray on my head and face. Once I went to sleep, I just kept dreaming of walking with the sweet sweet children from Korah down a rocky path. I was awakened again by the VERY LOUD amplified muslim prayer chanting that is piped through speakers all over the city—on Saturdays and Sundays it goes from 5 am to 9 am and today's singer was decidedly off key. It was also pouring down rain. I decided to make the most of being wide awake at 6 am and take an actual warm shower for the first time this trip-it was fabulous! Even if our "shower" is a 2 ft square surrounded by a curtain hanging from the ceiling that provides no protection for the spraying water so that the entire slick tile floor is wet, and usually muddy. Not wearing shoes in the bathroom is not an option. And also? It is 9 gals to 1 weird quirky bathroom-again, good thing I have all that practice at not showering back home! :)

We had breakfast and got ready to head out to our day's destination, Ararat Ministry. No one was really sure where it was and the guy that we thought was coming to take us did not come but, our faithful guide Bizi said he thought he knew about where it was and we would find it so off we went, into the countryside surrounding Addis Ababa. It was an interesting drive, saw lots of green and also lots of BIG mud puddles from all the rain. We took a few wrong turns here and there and asked people every now and then on the road which way to go next-it was lots of fun b/c we got to see several different places in Addis. The bus helper guy (they have one who drives, and one who does other stuff like jump out with a big stick to put in any mud puddles we came up on to see if they were too deep for the van to drive through-he is a very important man-we had a couple close calls that were slightly terrifying as our bus went nearly over sideways into the puddle.) would point things out to me since I was in the front seat by him-where there are apartments for Somali refugees, what was growing in fields, what certain words were. We finally, after Bizi made several phone calls (everyone here has cell phones and the national telephone company has a monopoly on the service and controls all of it) while I wrote down #'s for him, we got as close as we could to Ararat.

By this time we were outside the city and could see the surrounding mountains all around, covered in green and adorned with puffs of white clouds at the tops. It was truly breathtaking in it's beauty, yet so strange to see the primitive round straw huts in front of us and off in the distance the relatively modern buildings of the city of Addis. Our destination proved to be right next to part of the runway for the airport, which I had always thought was in the middle of nowhere from when we had landed or taken off here. I guess it still was...We were told we would have to walk into the community on foot as it did not have a road for vehicles. We got out into a large bunch of squelchy mud that had a long puddle along the length of the road where we needed to cross. After some muddy missteps with folks getting their shoes completely stuck in the mud, the stick helper from the bus put out a cinder block in the middle of the puddle for me to cross. Chivalry, Ethiopian style :) Apparently Bizi had a similar idea at the same time only he dropped his large rock down, and my nice, finally-showered self, was promptly covered head to toe in a shower of dark brown mud. Oh the look on poor Bizi's face! I laughed so hard b/c really, what else could you do? And as Bizi was covering his mouth and saying, "Oh! I am so SORRY!", I turned to him and said, "BIZ-EE!!" in a teasing tone like, "aw man..." He was not sure whether to laugh or keep apologizing while the rest of the group-after their initial gasps of horror at watching the event happen, was in hysterics and wildly snapping pictures while Bizi ran over to me to help me the rest of the way out of my ditch. We hugged and I laughed and told him we were still friends and no big deal, and Melissa helped me wipe the mud out of my ear and off my face. There was really no hope for getting it off my clothes, backpack or out of my hair until it dried some so on we walked down a rocky path, my team members turning back to survey the damage every now and then and giggle. Then all the sudden I had 2 little dirty children following behind me giggling-I laughed with them b/c I knew I was quite a sight. We walked on down the wide rocky path, encountered a lot more mud, and then rounded the corner to the top of a breathtaking green terraced field. After some walking through sodden long muddy grass (so thankful for my water-proof hiking shoes!!), we arrived at he gate of Ararat, in the middle of nowhere, it seemed.

This place was different from the others-no small chilren greeted us with sweet smiles, although we did get some curious stares. The center of the small compound was a patch of swampy grass with some large rocks placed through the middle to walk on and it is surrounded by 3 small buildings, the church meeting place, the office maybe? and a random small hut that I don't know it's purpose. We were told to go up into the church building where they were having a service and we entered a red crushed rock floored space with white washed mud/manure? (from the smell) walls and a simple raised pulpit type space in the front. There was a tin roof and a couple of windows but with the curtains drwan, it was fairly dark in there. They made all the children sit in back so that we could sit up front and they were singing and clapping to begin their service. We sat through a long service, that Bizi translated for us, and honestly, while it was fascinating to worship God side by side in 2 different languages, was long and draining. I was fighting sleep as were several other team members despite the stand up-sit down routine we did about 10 times. The bench of folks behind me from our team kept sinking down into the earthen floor and every time I glanced back they were lower and lower, providing enough comic relief that it kept me awake until the service was over. By the end, they were all leaning forward and hanging on to the back of our bench to avoid putting any extra pressure on their bench, it was hilarious.

I noticed that the babies that were their with their mothers b/c they were nursing still had no diapers on and I knew it was because diapers were not an option in this place. Can you even imagine??? Needless to say, the babies were filthy with their own soiling. Some had some rags tucked in their pants which later I found one such child wandering with the rag hanging to the ground through the split in her disintegrating pants. I went in search of her mother, and we found her and she snatched it away hanging her head in embarrassment. I tapped her on the shoulder to look at me and put my hand on her and said "Enat" (Mother) and patted myself and said "Enat" and nodded to let her know I am a mom, too, and I know she was struggling and doing the very best she could under the circumstances. She teared up and nodded and I embraced her, and she just kept patting me and kissing my neck and raising her hand up, as if she felt relieved to be understood and to take a break from the sheer back-breaking work of everyday life and lean on someone who "got it" in some minute way. My heart broke for her-I felt her shame and brokenness as if it were my own in that instant and wanted to take her for a weekend at the spa or something-she just needed such a break and to be loved on, but that is an absolute impossibility in this poor farming community-there is not such thing as "me" time. All day I witnessed broken defeated women and I LOVED that we did simple things like paint their nails for them and give those that we could new shirts or shoes—it would not change their world, no, but for a few minutes, they got to rest and be a little pampered.

The children here were somewhat different from the others we had encountered thus far-they did not approach us and though they were curious, kept their distance, until they saw we had candy and crafts and coloring books and clothes for them. We did all sorts of activities with them, including a FABULOUS wall mural on which they all made their hand prints and we did ours and it said "Jesus Loves Ararat". At the end of the day that was hung on the rear wall of the church building, really brightening up a stark space. But the children here were aggressive and it was very much "street rules"-if they put their things (new toothbrushes, books, flip flops, crayons, etc) down, someone snatched it up and many fights broke out over things being taken from another. I watched a child pick up a fallen cracker right out of the mud and eat it, they would eat whatever they found or could take from another.

We bought the community 4 sheep again and I was the accidental viewer yet again of the slaughter-I was walking and all the sudden looked to my side right as they slip the throat-I just cannot see that again, especially since this time the sheep did not give up easily and continued to thrash about after it's neck had been cut. And they did it right on the path where everyone walked so that you had to go out into the muddy wet grass if you wanted to avoid stepping in the puddles of blood. It was disgusting. No one really cared about this place, though-they would wipe their nose on a begged tissue then toss it on the ground without even a care. All their food trash was just thrown wherever they were at the moment and when we went around with a bag for trash, they grabbed at it to see what they might be getting out of it. It was draining, and I felt like this was just a dark place spiritually. We were told the area was a place where devil worship was prominent and it felt like that was a reality. Hard to explain, just not a light-filled place. But, I did feel like we brought in some light today-and there was much more joy with those children and mamas when we left than when we came, but this group was heavy to be around and took a lot out of me. I did clean and bandage another couple of festering, repulsive wounds and teach a few children how to use a toothbrush and tooth paste, but I was ready to go when it was time to go, after the sheep was cooked and we served it to all of them. I knew this was the only meal most of them would eat today, and maybe for several days. We were told that many families have a rotation of who gets to eat at what meal-if you ate breakfast, then you were done for the day. If you did not, then you could eat lunch, then you had your one meal, and so on. Sigh. Too much to even comprehend in a country where my kids eat 3 meals and a couple snacks a day.

On the way out through the muddy, slippery field (where Bizi grabbed my arm as I stepped on a slick part and held on to me as we walked across the muddy hill and I teased him that oh NOW he cared about keeping me out of the mud ;) ), we passed at least one pile of dinner that had come back up due to someone's body not being able to comprehend such food. Yuck. I was so ready to get back on the bus that I may have jumped in and swam across the puddled up ditch if I needed to. Fortunately, the sun had been out and the ground had swallowed a little of the water and I jumped across the ditch with no more incidents.

The bus ride back to our guest house confirmed that others had similar feelings as I about today. Kelly Bullock, one of my roomies, and I stayed up late into the night talking about it and both agreed that maybe our purpose in being there today, besides bringing in the light of Jesus, was to stand in the gap and pray for that dark place. We spent some time praying together for Ararat before finally going to bed. We were exhausted from our day, but sleep was fairly elusive for me, and that was not helped when my bed broke in the middle of the night and I awoke with my middle on the floor. It had already done that one time today when I sat on it to put on my socks and I had fixed it, but I thought it might still be precarious and so I did laugh, but wow, this just seemed to not be my day. Bless Kelly B., she was out of her bed and to my side to help me put my mattress on the floor to go back to sleep before I really even knew what was going on. It was chilly but I was too cold and tired to get out of my mattress to get a sweatshirt so I just snuggled down in and finally went to sleep and never heard another thing for about 4 hours, praise the Lord. After today, tomorrow could ONLY get better! :)

Korah Day (I have given up on numbering them)

2010-07-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

*THIS POST IS LONG AND GRAPHIC-consider yourself warned!!!*

Korah. It means 'cursed child'. And that sums up where we went today so very well. Korah is the community IN and surrounding the city dump of Addis Ababa. It is approximately 130,000 people, who are the least of the least in Addis—it used to be a leper colony and there are still folks living there with leprosy. They are a community shunned by the people in Addis and considered forgotten. We began our day by getting things ready to head out, packing up donated items to meet some of the needs of the children in Project 61.

Project 61 is a ministry of a woman named Summer, who came to Ethiopia for the first time in January and went to Korah, was moved in her heart and called by the Lord to do something about it, and returned in March to nail down the ministry plan with some locals in the Korah community. She then moved with her entire family (hub and 3 young children) here in June, after selling everything they had. Yes, for real. And I have met her and she is normal and friendly and sweet-and amazingly humble. The folks in Korah love her and say she is an angel sent by God.

We stopped on the way to Korah to buy some sheep/goats to feed the kids at the project lunch today-turns out the $ we had bought 4 goats--which were purchased from a herd on the side of a street, lashed by the feet and tossed, alive, on top of one of our vans. Grocery shopping, Ethiopian style :) We got to Korah and got out to the sound of children singing off in a building through a gate. The walls and gate to the church shelter are painted bright, bright blue and this place stands out in stark contrast to the squalor around it. We got a quick tour of the dorms in the shelter which houses 26 children. They were relatively clean and well kept, yet very sparse and not anywhere even close to a "dorm" in the US. The doors were low and some of the guys had to duck to get inside and the walls were made of mud strengthened with straw. After a few minutes of meeting some of the children who swarmed us in the street, we got split into 2 groups, one going into some of the "homes" around Korah to visit and meet the families, and one going into the actual dump to meet a family who lives there. I was in the second group so I can only report that side of the story. And finding the words to do so is not going to be easy. But, it needs to be told....

We began walking down a rocky path off a side street, which itself was muddy and trash-covered. There were people everywhere, especially coming out to look at us ferengis (white foreigners) walking through there. They were mostly friendly and welcoming when I would smile and wave. We could tell when we were getting closer to the dump by the smell. A team-mate offered me some vicks vapo rub to put up my nose but I told her no. It was horrible, but I thought I could stand it. It wasn't until we started into the edge of the actual dump, beside the rapidly cascading streams of raw sewage and walking through the squelching, trash-laden mud, that I finally began to gag and could not stop—I managed to squeak out yes to the vicks, please, and promptly coated the inside of my nostrils. I never thought I would love that stuff so much. The stench was indescribable, really. Trash of every sort all over the ground, in the weeds, with a narrow trodden path through the middles of it that we were being led down. I was informed we were not actually yet IN the dump at that point, just on the outskirts-um, WHAT? How could it get worse?? We traipsed down down down a grassy trashy hill and finally arrived at our destination-the home of a boy who is in the sponsorship program at the church shelter where we had first arrived. We all ducked through the low tin door of this home, which consisted of mud and straw walls, corrugated tin/cardboard roof, and a dirt floor. There was a narrow bench running along the back wall on which all 12 of us tried to sit, but some spilled over onto the floor. There were large posters of Jesus and Mary on the earthen walls and a scraggly plaid curtain hanging from a string in the corner, and I'm still not really sure why. There was this main room and a small sleeping room off of it, which had a filthy blanket on the hard floor, I presume where they slept. This whole place was about the size of our dining area at our house,
which is not big by American standards. The family of Haptamu had set out the items to do a coffee ceremony for us-which pained me for them to make popcorn and coffee for us when I knew they had nothing. Not "not much", nothing. The father rose and spoke to us via translator. He thanked us for coming and helping his family, explaining that he is too old and weak to work and his wife used to pick through the trash for metal that she would sell, but she was too tired to do it anymore. He could not provide for his family, but the church/school (part of Project 61) was making it possible for his children to have a good life. He told us how he had lost one house there in Korah and the one they were in now could be gone at any time as it was on government land, technically, and if they decided they wanted to bulldoze it or dump trash where it was located, they certainly could and he would have no home. One of his sons is actually going to the University in the fall, which is truly a MIRACLE, along with Haptamu's schooling that will begin in September. He was so thankful, I felt so unworthy of his thanks as we had done nothing really but come visit at that point. Summer asked Kelly if someone from our group would feel comfortable sharing about the Lord and why we were there so Kelly stood up and, with the help of a translator, told him that we were sent there by Jesus to help them b/c they were loved by Him. And that we are grateful for what we have so that we can share it with their family. She also shared with them that in heaven, where we will see Jesus, there is no sickness, and no poverty-we will all be free, and we will all be brothers and sisters, no difference, no outcasts. It was a holy moment in that mud shack.

After this, the family made line outside their home where they shook our hands and hugged us and thanked us again. My heart just hurt for them to think that they live in that dark mud house, in the midst of filthy trash, and here they were graciously serving us coffee and hugging us just for being willing to come where they spend every.single.day. We trekked up the hill and turned left to head into the heart of the dump. I re-loaded my vicks after another round of gagging and sheer willing myself not to vomit. We walked along a very narrow path that was muddy and every now and then covered in crazy swarms of ants (which very quickly crawl up your shoes and bite, and hurt, btw) There were streams of brown, repulsive water flowing from several points, all the drainage from the mountains of trash. Although my jeans were rolled up, they still ended up smeared with the oozing mud, particularly after a wrong step sent a blob squirting up the back of my uncovered calf-yes, it was as disgusting as it sounds. We made a precarious leap over one of the streams of trash water and at that point were "officially" in the dump and were no longer allowed to take photos. I will try to give you a word picture then.

It was unreal. Swarms of human ants, all over the piles of rotting trash-bones, old shoes, tires, torn fabric, old food, and on and on. Big black vultures circled over-head. One of the girls showed us one of the plants on the ground that people there eat, growing right in the middle of all the trash. The women were all clad in belted gowns of trash bags. They carried MASSIVE sacks on their back as they would leave, filled with scraps of plastic or metal that they had found by digging through the garbage. They were covered head to toe in the same mud we had walked through, and yet when Summer would see them, she would walk up, embrace them and kiss their face without hesitation. They are the mothers of the children in the project. Some came to check us out-a few were sponsored children that will go to school in September. One gave me a big hug and in the process her mud-covered sack slid across my bare arm, leaving it covered with....I don't even want to know. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as I wiped it on my shirt so as not to appear ungrateful for her embrace. We walked on a bit more and for some reason, the 2 large pigs surprised me-I had never seen pigs here in Ethiopia before! They were doing what pigs do best, being gross in the mud, right nearby to a woman digging through some trash. I walked a bit with one of the guides and he told me the small bunches of animals we saw-some goats, a few oxen, pigs-were part of farms. Farms? In the DUMP?? He told me yes, and they plant vegetables there to eat and try to sell. No, do not think of a nice tidy community gardens area or a pretty rolling green Virginia farm, think of a foul-smelling, disease-laden pit of filthy rotting garbage-and the animals standing atop small piles of trash and some sort of scraggly plants growing here and there-a farm in Korah. I shudder to think what is in that soil, and therefore their food. This is why there is disease, this is why they die, this is why children here have no mothers and fathers.

We finally came to the end of our "tour" through the dump and walked and talked on the way back with Summer and one of the guides about their project. The one boy who came as a guide used to "work" in the dump (read: pick through garbage to make a few cents a day) but now comes to the project's summer camp in hopes of getting sponsored and then sent to the boarding school. The sponsorship, which is $700 per year, covers everything for a child: for the rest of the summer, they go to the summer camp where they get one decent meal a day, and then in September they will go to a boarding school which is 3 hours away. They will have covered: room, board (3 meals a day), books, tuition, hygiene needs, uniform, and transportation to and from school when needed during breaks. They have room for 200 at this school and have 130 sponsored already. The boy who was working as guide told me "sponsors-this give us hope, a great lot of hope!" as he patted his chest. Summer explained that the children literally view their sponsors as saviors b/c it means they get to get out of Korah. She said many of them refer to the sponsors as mama or abat (dad) and she and the staff (all Ethiopian except her, most from the Korah community as well) try to cultivate that relationship between sponsor and child, rather than it just be $$ coming in. We passed another group of mothers of the children from the summer camp and she was greeted warmly by all the ladies-the boys in our group from the project said "Summer, she is our strong sees-ter!" to which she simply giggles a dismissive response.

We arrived back at the church alley and as I walked up to the group of other team mates and swarms of little brown-faced kiddos, a dark mahogany-skinned girl I had not remembered seeing before came up to me. She stopped in front of me and pointed to herself and said in a tiny sweet voice "my mother?" and made the gesture for sleep with her hands by her head. I had a feeling she was not telling me her mama was napping and she confirmed my fears when she repeated "mother? mort (dead)". I told her I was just so sorry and I hugged her, and then I felt something I had not yet had happen to me-this broken little child was clinging around my middle and crying in my arms, for her dead mother. And then this broken-hearted white mother was crying too, and holding that girl for dear life, telling her I loved her and I was just so sorry. I knew it must have been recent since she was still openly crying about it. She and I became inseparable from that point on and I made some inquires as to her story and status in the program. It turned out she had just been there 2 days around the project and her mother had died and she had held her mother's dead body for 2 days before she was told that her mama was dead. Her grandmother, who she now lived with, is crippled (and possibly had leprosy? Not totally sure) and had dragged herself (I was shown a gesture of pulling herself with her arms) to the church to see if they could help in any way. Well, to make a long story short, guess who now has a sponsor and is headed to boarding school in the fall?? My girl Nesenet!!! (Oh and Pat? guess what honey!? Another girl for us!) We went right into the office that minute and got it squared away and I was just not prepared for the men who worked there to get up and kiss my cheeks and tell me, "thank you thank you, God bless you, sister". And the news spread like wild fire-those kids know the word sponsor and they all kept coming up asking "sponsor?" while patting my arm and pointing to Nesenet. They were so excited for their friend, it was so humbling to see them rejoicing for her. I felt so humbled and so ungrateful of their attention-b/c really, in the grand scheme of things, $700, for a year of completely covered everything, that would change her life forever???? Even with a tight budget, I knew that would not be a terribly big deal to come up with since it was God put that little girl in my life (hmmm, Etsy shop has a new focus I'm thinkin').

After some time hanging out (which included several thumb wars-did not know that Ethiopian kids knew that but turns out it is international!!) with my new daughter who will live in Ethiopia, I got to watch the slaughtering of the goats we had purchased earlier. Oh my word, I cannot say enough how grateful I am once again for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for me so that I still do not have to offer animal sacrifices like they did in the Old Testament. I did not think it would bother me as much as it did, but wow, after a few seconds of when they began to pour the blood out of it's neck into a bucket, I needed to be done watching. (I also got to watch some of the skinning and let me tell you, you praise the Lord every time you walk in to Kroger and buy a nicely wrapped package of meat) Those 2 goats ended up being cooked into an enormous amount of stew for all the children and we got bread as well. We were not sure if it would feed them all since they had also brought in any of the street children that had been hanging around the group so I got out my Bible, read the story of the feeding of the 5, 000 to myself and prayed for the same-and those children all got full tummies today. Just for the curious, we did not eat the goat stew, we ate rice and bread that had been packed for us by the guest house-not sure if the stew would have been good or too traumatizing, haha

After lunch, Nesenet came and found me and sat on my lap while we had another coffee ceremony. Oh how I love the bunna here. We all then left the compound of the church and headed to a "field" to play soccer. We walked down through muddy streets running with some sort of murky whitish water that again had me fighting back gagging. There were people everywhere living in places that defy description, some round huts made of hay (like in our cartoons), some in piles of tin arranged to make some sort of lean to, some just in the dirt with their things in piles. Small children just stop and go to the bathroom in the street (which is made of rocks and mud) and so many of the children have no shoes or shoes that bear no resemblance to actual foot protection. I walked the whole way with Nesenet glued to my side, holding my hand, arm around my waist, while 3 other children also held onto various fingers of mine all at the same time. We went down a very steep rocky hillside that I found challenging in my top of the line hiking shoes, and down which these children ran like it was a flat grass path. We arrived at the bottom to the most beautiful area-an open space of dirt surrounded by Eucalyptus tree skyscrapers all around. Nesenet got very excited and tugged me over to this hillside saying "water water" and I looked over the very step edge to see a rushing brown muddy river-it was amazing! She told me "koshasha" which apparently means "dirty", which fit. Some kids were playing in it and a girl tried to get me to go down and go in it with her-no way, jose!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon there just playing soccer, sitting and loving on the kids, etc. Nesenet wanted to see what was in my backpack so I showed her and when I showed her the band aids, another little girl grabbed her friend's feet and thrust them toward me. Both of her little ankles had small open sores on them where her ill-fitting shoes had rubbed. I cleaned them off with an alcohol wipe and put band aids on them, only to turn around and be brought another older girl with a large sore on her leg. I took a deep breath, asked God to help me out on this, and wiped her off with another alcohol wipe, took out some first aid tape I had and a stack of tissues and taped them over her wound securely. (FYI, I told the director Sami and he will be getting them both taken care of at the church, just for you Mom and Tracy, since I know you are reading this and yes I was careful and yes I cleaned my hands afterwards.) I had several more kiddos come over for me to check spots on their faces to see if they too needed band aids-seems like it is universal for kids to want band aids!! They were all ok and too soon it was time to walk back up the steep steep hill and head toward the bus to leave.

Leaving Nesenet was very very hard-she has had enough loss, I didn't want to add more. I gave her a special stuffed bunny to remember our day together and told her we would write letters and she would too, from SCHOOL!!!! And I cried, a lot. She stood outside the bus waiting the whole time for us to leave, moving at all times to make sure I was in her eyesight and giving me a big grin and a wave any time our eyes met. My heart was so full, and so aching. Any of those children there could have been my daughter Zoe had God not brought her to our family. Between that and leaving Nesenet, my heart had had a workout. Then Sami (who himself grew up in the trash dump) got on the bus to tell us thank you and God bless us and that no one comes there to Korah, not even people from Addis-it is a forgotten, shunned commuity-but we gave them hope that they are not forgotten. Oh my heart! We came back, ate a very small supper and met and talked about what was next for Korah. Kelly and Shane had met with the directors for a bit asking how we could continue to partner with them. It was explained to Kelly and Shane that no one comes there, not even ambulances if people are sick and when Kelly asked how they get the help they need, they were told "God sends us angels like Summer, and your group." Apparently we were the first group to stay and play with the children and feed them-others had come and toured, taken photos, and left. We had no idea and so we are all committed to letting people know about these beautiful people so that they WILL NOT be forgotten. We are their voice and want them to see that God's people take seriously the command to love people. If you want any information about getting involved, please let me know. We have some goals in mind to work toward for them, one of which is filling all the possible sponsored child slots at the boarding school.

The rest of the evening was an uneventful wrestling match with tortoise speed internet and a chilly walk back to the guest house where I sit, trying to sum up a day that defies description in hopes that I can be a small part in helping these people to have hope that others care and think they are worth every minute and a million more...

Day 2/3-What Day Is It??

2010-07-17T13:12:00.001-07:00

Day 2/3 or whatever day it is...;)

After a shortish night of sleep, I woke up and got to take a frigid semi-shower due to still no electricity. Again, not a huge deal, just not a relaxing shower at all. We got together a bunch of clothes, shoes, diapers, and formula as well as art supplies for our day at El Olam orphanage. After a breakfast of cream colored eggs (they look different b/c their chickens eat different things-we will not talk about what different things b/c well, ew), bread and fresh mango juice (yum!), we were off!! We made a quick stop at the bank to exchange all our money and the rate was 13.5 birr to 1 USD—great for us Americans but not great for the Ethiopian economy, even a year ago it was 10-11 birr to a dollar. I'm not sure if it is even possible for Ethiopia to be poorer than last time I was here, but it sure seems it. It is both heartbreaking and maddening-it just SHOULD.NOT.BE. This is an ancient country rich in so much history and beauty and it is literally crumbling and the people are so beautiful, both physically and in spirit. They exude warmth, you just have to smile first :) But a woman I didn't even know came up, asked me why we were here, and then when I told her, she hugged me and planted a (wet) kiss forcefully from her hand to my mouth, as is customary here. Now, picture that same scene on a street in NYC, eh??? Not likely, at least w/o someone getting knocked out, haha.

We arrived at the orphanage and were greeted at the gate by a mob of brown eyes and loud voices and hugging and jumping up and down. Apparently today was scheduled as a party for them and so party we did! I passed out a zillion stickers which were promptly stuck on hands and foreheads and cheeks. Children mobbed those who had candy and I watched as the quick ones hid their suckers in the back of their waistbands and then put out hands and pleaded for "one, mama-one" I was glad to remember one key word in Amaharic-"beka" which means all one. Some of the folks on the team were being overwhelmed with mobs of greedy kiddos so I got to be the enforcer and tell the children "beka, beka!" and they dutifully listened (you hear that, Hilt girls? I told them all done and they PROMPTLY LISTENED! :) just sayin'. ) The children were then split up and went to various rooms to color, have their faces painted, or play soccer. Some folks went into the baby room to hold the babies-they were so tiny and weak and all of them had horrible, in need of medical attention, coughs. They were definitely undernourished and extremely underweight. They also had clearly been in the same clothes for days, for various reasons that were not understandable to us. Some gals on the team gave their day to changing the babies, holding, feeding and just generally loving those sweet little ones, in a room deviod of anything but a couple of old tiny cribs and 2 mattresses on the floor, presumably for the nannies that work there? But those sweet nannies had nowhere to sit, no chairs at all, let alone a rocking chair—and there were 2 of them to 8 babies-and the carpet on the floor on which they sit felt damp and smelled of urine. Blech. (Hey, have I mentioned yet that you might want to consider adoption? Don't think you have enough space/$/etc? This is what their alternative is-a million dollar house where every child has their own room and they can play every sport and do every activity is really not necessary, folks --but love, and food, and clothes not covered in their own waste and filth are-do you have any of those things? You are qualified to adopt then ;) )

Our group provided lunch for the kids that day and they had a feast of injera, wat, shiro, potatoes and carrots, and dabo, all served on multi-colored plastic Ikea plates just like I have at home, haha. That Ikea is everywhere!! They also got to all drink Mirinda, the Ethiopian equivalent of orange Fanta. Our team also had some of the Eth food for our lunch and some were seeing injera, a rolled up spongy flat bread on which food is served and with which food is eaten in Ethiopia. They were pretty skeptical and many decided to pass-since the food was really not very spicy (rare here!!), I actually really enjoyed it, especially the shiro, a sort of refried beans-esque dish made with (I think) chick peas or lentils. After lunch we were treated to a coffee ceremony where we munched popcorn (traditionally served at the coffee ceremony, and oddly goes quite nicely with the rich, deep mahogany opaque liquid they call bunna (emphasis on the second syllable). It is unlike any coffee in the US-the beans are green and are roasted over open coals, then hand ground and poured through a special pot called a jabena/gobena (seen it spelled both ways but was informed today by our guides Bisrat and Tekabe it is pronounced the "j" way)-I might have been informed of that by them when they got done laughing at my original pronunciation but that is not important...

We spent the time after lunch just sort of hanging out and chillin' with the kiddos. A sweet older girl became my shadow and I dreaded answering her when she finally asked the question I knew was coming, "Miss? you, me-we go to America together?" Ugh. There is no real way to say no without feeling like garbage, btw. Especially by the 3rd or 4th time you are asked. At some point in the afternoon, all the donated clothes we had brought were taken into a room off to the side and we called the children in 1 or 2 at a time to fit them with new shoes and a new outfit, which were SORELY needed. I put some pictures up below of some befores and afters of the shoes that they showed up in, and the ones they left with. So much fun to see them clomping around in their new, apparently strange feeling flip flops, especially the boys who had chosen the flip flops that were decorated with floofy, colorful strips of fabric, haha. We painted nails (including gigantic Clay, as featured below-he's single, ladies, for all y'all whose hearts just melted at that picture :) ) and played more soccer and then, Kelly, our team leader, and Carol, another team member, came back with.....a brand new washing machine for the orphanage!!! Yes, really. They needed one and one of Kelly's goals for this trip is to leave each place we go with something sustainable to help them, not just swoop in, play with some kids, leave, and feel like we did something—so off she and Carol went with a guide and they got a washer with a spinner that will take most of the water out so that they can hang them to dry easily. Jesus in action. There's a pic below of it being brought in. The children also performed some songs for us, including their version of "Zaccheus" (HILARIOUS!!) and "Go Tell It On The Mountain" I got these on video so maybe when I am home, I can post it. When it was finally time to leave, we all gathered in a circle and prayed together, both in English by Shane (Kelly's husband) and by Mesfin, one of the orphanage employees. It was hard to say goodbye to our sweet new friends, especially since my friend had disappeared and I never got to say goodbye to her. :(

When we got back to the guest house, we were still without power but there were guys working on it, in the rain, outside. Not surprisingly, when we were standing in the lobby, moments later there was a LOUD popping and crackling and a bunch of puffs of smoke all along the wire they had run in from the outside (did I mention it was raining??) and connected to the light fixture in the ceiling. Electical work, Ethiopian-style. A few minutes later, we had power, then we didn't, then we did, then we didn't, and it has not come back. Oh well. BUT, actually two of 3 floors do have electricity now, just not the floor I am on, haha-good thing I'm conditioned to rarely showering due to having 4 kids. Once again we had some confusion with the guest home staff and we had no dinner so we headed out to a restaurant and ate the YUMMIEST Italian food!! Whew, it has been a long and busy day that is ending with another cold damp night so I guess I better head out to walk back to our guest house. I hope y'all are not too sick of my hugely long posts, but there is really no way to tell about my days otherwise. And honestly, even these words seem inadequate.

I have another post to put up about our trip to Korah today (which was mostly while you were sleeping, so please come back to read it. It was quite a day.....

Day One (super long post, sorry)

2010-07-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

**this is really long b/c we had no internet connection for me to post it in bits-sorry!!*

I'm in the middle of my travel to Ethiopia and so far so good! The day started off early at home in Blacksburg since we had to drive to Charlotte, NC for my flight. After getting everyone up and dressed and everything loaded, which was a LOT of stuff-4 huge suitcases for me to take, chock full of donations for the kids in Ethiopia-we were off! (also after an unfruitful attempt to capture our stupid cat, er, elusive feline, who ran out the door in the process of packing and hid under the bushes just out of reach-too bad kitty, now you get 5 days outside with only critters to eat if that's how you're gonna roll) We got to Charlotte with 218 lbs of donations praying they would waive the fees since it was donations for children-they did not. Rats. Rats to the tune of $400, btw!! But, once again God was in it as just days before, a couple of amazing friends had given me $ out of nowhere stating that it was to be uses for luggage fees if needed-and guess what?? It was exactly $400!!! Yeah, God is in the details for sure :)

The next part was honestly the hardest thing I have ever done-saying goodby to Pat and the girls. Seriously, it hit all of use like a ton of bricks that we would be apart for longer than we ever have been and it was just so hard to say goodbye and walk away from them. I know and they know this is where I am supposed to be right now, but there are never any gurantees with life and walking away from them was just plain hard, God-ordained or not. Plus I have NEVER flown completely by myself before, it has always been with other people so it was a little daunting!! But, all was easy and God mercifully had me right near my gate and I got the added bonus of "escorting" an elderly Ethiopian woman on the leg of the flight from Charlotte to DC-her family was dropping her off and she spoke no English and they were trying to make sure she was taken care of. I recognized her as Ethiopian right away by her gabbi (white shawl worn often by older women) and thing chain she wore on her forehead-I told her daughter I was on this flight and could I be of any help? She was so excited and hugged me all up-I the welcoming culture of the Ethiopian people! I felt so protective of this sweet woman who I had never met and who spoke not a lick of English-but we had a partnership, she and I. She needed to know where to go, and I needed to have something to keep me from freaking out about leaving my family-once again, God was in the details. We got on the plane, took a short uneventful ride to DC, and hopped off onto the tarmac to grab bags and go into the terminal. My elderly companion was met by an airport worker and I was able to tell her she had no carry on luggage and just needed to get to her gate-we hugged and said goodbye. I was hoping I'd see her again but I knew that there were several flights out of Dulles to Ethiopia so who knew. Again, it turned out I was right in the concourse I already needed to be in for my next flight-I was so worried I'd have to change b/c Dulles has these weird bus things that look like At-Ats from Star Wars and they confuse me :) A short walk later, after asking a sweet Ethiopian gift shop worker where the Ethiopian Airlines gate was (I specifically found her b/c like I said, Ethiopians feel like family to
me : ), I was my gate and ready to meet the folks I'd be spending the next 10 days with. After some texting, found out they were all right in front of me in the sea of folks milling around the gate and we sat and got to know each other for some time since we had a long layover. Phew! They were all very nice and friendly-I was maybe a little nervous about not knowing any of them ;) We all had a little bit of tense moments when the check in folks tried to be very strict and tell us our carry ons could only weigh 15 lbs (um, what?! That is like a pair of shoes and my suitcase!! Since all our big bags were donations, we had all packed our personal ff in our carry on little roll-y suitcases) I had some "discussions" with the workers about not charging us and it was interesting how similar it felt to the haggling that goes on in the Ethiopian marketplace—something I found both frustrating and oddly fun all at the same time last time I traveled!! Turns out haggling must be my "spiritual gift" b/c all the sudden my bag of 30 lbs was tagged to go through as was everyone else's in our group-yay, God---AGAIN!! :) During this time, I felt a tug on my shoulder, tuned around and who should be there clapping and hugging me? My Ethiopian friend from my first flight! She was so excited-it was so sweet! I was just as excited as we stood smiling and nodding and hugging each other-I hate not speaking Amharic. The plane ride thus far has been....eh. It is a smaller plane and pretty crowded with very limited options when you get restless-about 5 movies that all just play on a continuous loop such that if you miss the beginning, too bad, you can catch it in 2 hrs. There is nothing else to do, not really much are to walk, and I am realizing flying Emirates the last time we came to Ethiopia has forever spoiled me with their endless things to do, see, etc. Plus, by 3 am our time, I had already been served dinner and breakfast so my body is thoroughly confused!!! We have completed the first leg of the flight and are currently sitting on a runway in Rome, Italy where we stopped for them to re-fuel and clean the plane, all while we are still on it as we do not get to get off-boo. And wow, it is HOT in here!! (and btw, the combo of a lot of people and a lot of different ethnic smells can get quite intense on a very hot plane, just fyi—wanted you to get the full experience from reading this) But, I can say I've been to Italy, right?! (which btw, from the tiny oval window looks just like the view out the window in DC-concrete, scrubby weeds, and planes. Isn't there supposed to be vineyards and pasta and people riding bikes and painting everywhere in Italy???) We have about 7 more hours after we take off until we arrive in Addis Ababa! I think I can I think I can......God has just been so GOOD, as always, on this trip and goes before and behind us. Can't wait to see what He has up His great big sleeves next! Ciao for now!

Later that day....

The last leg of the flight to Addis Ababa was mostly uneventful. I shared a row with a nice girl who slept almost the entire flight. My feet swelled to probably 3x their normal size and so I spent a good amount of time standing and walking around in the tiny amount of space the plane afforded. We got to Addis, made a beeline for the visa office to avoid the long line and got through very quickly. We spent a very long time waiting for ALL the luggage to get there but eventually every single piece showed up-and of course one of mine was both broken AND wet—ewwww. I asked an employee about the broken suitcase, but he just shrugged and walked away. Good times. We finally got all the luggage through security and out to meet our driver from the guest house, Masti. He was very friendly and I remembered once again why I like Ethiopians so much :) They took us to a mini bus that was very very tall (with a oriental carpeted, fringed interior ceiling and a big plastic framed photo of a hite Jesus with blue eyes-I'm thinkin' of pimpin' out my Honda Odyssey in the same style....) and proceeded to load almost ALL of the luggage on top of it in a precarious mountain that makes Americans freak out and ask about ropes and bungee cord and makes Ethiopians laugh and get in to drive away. It is "winter" here and was quite chilly and raining-the kind of chilly where you can see your breath, yep, in Africa. It DOES get cold here, just not like it does at home. The drive to our guest home was dark, wet, and suprisingly devoid of other vehicles or people on the street, which is unusual for Addis. Our guest home arrival proved pretty confusing for everyone-we weren't sure what to do with out mountain of luggage they had unloaded into the foyer, we weren't sure where the boys were staying (in another guest house around the corner it turned out) or what we were doing for dinner, although after the plane ride's continual feeding schedule, no one was especially hungry, it seemed anyway. Add to that the trying to figure out our schedule for tomorrow with the drivers and some difficulties understanding everyone's accents, it sort of was the icing on the cake when the power went out. It is still not back on and probably will not be until tomorrow-and I was super thankful for the tiny flashlight I packed-it was one of only about 3 we had in our group!! We ended up walking to the nearby other guest house to eat dinner-pizza, with a little bit of Ethiopian flair, a not totally uncommon food here actually b/c of a brief Italian occupation decades ago. It was ok, not like home :) Everyone was starting to get a little bleary-eyed from traveling so we headed back to our guest house to get settled in, in the candlelight, and listen to the street dogs bark wildly outside our gate. There are strange sounds here in the city of Addis Ababa, but they make it what it is and they do not bother me like they do some. I realized, upon returning to our bags, that my nicely secured locked bags were going to stay that way unless I figured out a solution since I left the keys with Pat back home-oops. Leaving at the airport was kind of a blur, I might have mentioned that.... Anyway, I tried 2 other girls' luggage keys to no avail and finally asked Masti if he had any bolt or wire cutters. He and another guy scurried off, came back with 2 different sets of lopper looking things, ended up taking them apart and stabbing the point through the lock and popping them open by banging it with the other half of the shears. Locksmiths, Ethiopian-style :) It is interesting to see the group's reactions to Africa as none of them have ever been here except Kelly and her husband, Shane (our trip leaders), and myself. I am so excited to see what God does with all of us on this trip-I know we will have changed hearts for sure!! I'm dying to call home and talk to my family since I cannot email without power. I can find the person with the cell phone soon-it is just amazing what technology we rely on in our lives and when we are without it, we (maybe just me??) feel a little lost. Up semi-early tomorrow to head off on our first adventure at El Olam orphanage-guess I should go to bed!! Hopefully the power will be restored tomorrow but if not, no biggie! It's just like camping, but in Africa :)

(I posted just a few photos of travel stuff and tomorrow I will post a re-cap of today at our first orphanage--tomorrow we head to our day with the kiddos at the dump/leper colony---so excited!!)

If you want to see more photos now, go to the Ordinary Hero blog to check it out! (just google "Ordinary Hero blog" b/c I don't think I can ppost it as a link from here.

Quick update

2010-07-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. This is Pat, Jody's husband. I wanted to let you know that I got a text from her during the night. They made it safely to Ethiopia but have had no power or Internet service since they've been there, thus no emails or updates. She asked for prayer as they were heading to the first orphanage today. If I get more info before she is able to post, I'll try to

Buried Alive

2010-07-12T21:46:00.001-07:00

I have SO.MANY.DONATIONS for this trip, I am honestly not sure if I can take all of it. I have exceeded allowable baggage weights AND amounts already. Praying for a merciful United employee who might consider waiving the fees for me....can you pray with me on that one?? I leave in a little over 24 hours!!!!! I will be posting here as much as possible during my trip-we were able to post quite well when we traveled last time so here's hopin' I can this time, as well!!! Next time I post, I will be THERE!!! (I hope, hee hee)

this is PART of what is behind the couch I am sitting in front of in the top picture and also does not represent the next BUNCH of stuff I got today.....oh my.

Bits and Pieces

2010-06-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

I have a few new things listed in my Etsy shop-the link is above-so you should check 'em out! A few new bracelets and my newest item-rings! They are fun little pieces that are light as a feather, literally, yet are pretty tough and sturdy, too! I have had SO. MUCH. FUN. with the Mama Sheep stuff, I just really want to make stuff all the time. It annoys me when life interrupts my creating!! Oh well, to everything there is a season I suppose....

So, I leave in TWO WEEKS for Ethiopia!! Squeeeee!!! I cannot believe I will be there in 2 weeks, seeing/smelling/touching/hearing the smells of Africa!!! And I have been overwhelmed with donations from folks of all sorts of items for the kiddos I will spend time with on my trip-my living room is filling up with evidence of the generosity and big hearts of friends and strangers alike!! I have had emails from people I have never met and do not know how they got my email and they are offering me supplies for the children and all sorts of stuff-God is just SO. GOOD! Amazing. I am not even sure how on Earth I am going to get it to Ethiopia as I am certain it will not fit in my luggage, even with me taking my own clothes in just my carry-on, but who cares! God will make a way! And also, here is something-I have raised every cent of my trip, plus $$ for travel expenses and possibly extra luggage fees if necessary and I have never asked outright for $$ for my trip! Can you say yay God??!!!

I will do my absolute best to post from Ethiopia-I was able to do it when we traveled to adopt so I am hoping to do it this time, too. Since so many people have given to this trip, I feel like all of us are going so I will keep up my end by giving you all a virtual trip, 'k?

Well, gotta scram as I have 40 million things to do in the next few days...ok, I really want to go work on my jewelry, hee hee....

You MUST Have One (or 3!!) Of These!!!

2010-06-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Kelly is right now fundraising for their second adoption and a couple of AWESOME things they are selling-not your regular T-shirt fundraiser here! They have stainless steel travel mugs and cute tote bags with an AWESOME message right on them. Check it out:

16 oz. mug, $20 which INCLUDES SHIPPING!!!! what?! um, AWESOME!

Black cotton tote bag, $12 which INCLUDES SHIPPING!!!! yes, please!! Lightweight, roomy, super easy to toss in your purse too for when you need an extra bag (which for me is ALWAYS!!)

SO, go to her blog, The Minus 1 Project, and order like 15 of each...just think of the great Christmas gifts they will make and how you will be done with shopping WAAAAY before December. And even better, think of the message it will get out to anyone who sees you drinking coffee or shopping or going to the pool or the library or the mall or the grocery store or....EVERYWHERE. Can you just imagine how many people can get the message that there are kids out there in desperate need of LOVE and a HOME??? Oh yes, a coffee cup CAN change the world. Let's all get them and get this message OUT, friends!!!!!!

Are You Tired?

2010-06-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

This was sent in our church's weekly bylines, written by one of our elders, and it just struck so deep in my heart. This past year has been a very very weary one for me both physically and spiritually due to the adoption adjustments, some kind of significant health issues, school board duties at my children's school, and just regular life with 4 kids! I pray it refreshes your heart as it did mine:

Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing."
They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, "Children, do you have any fish?"
They answered him, "No."
He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some."
So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
(John 21:3-6 ESV)

I was struck while reading this how gentle Jesus is with his tired followers. These guys fished all night on the lake and caught nothing. How tenderly Jesus speaks to them. He, the resurrected Lord, says, "Children, do you have any fish?" No thunder, no dolby soundtrack or special effects. Just a question and a new little command. What caught my attention is how he doesn't send them back out into the deep, or hundred yards this way or that, or give them some big task that they have no energy to undertake. It's very simple, just put the net on the other side. These weary men have nothing to show for a long night of work, but Jesus gets them to do one thing, a small thing really... they don't even have to move the boat. And then, the ropes of the net tighten and sink rapidly with the great influx of fish. There is certainly humor in this -- that there are zero fish on this side of the boat and a hundred-plus big fish on the other side of the boat. But the point is, tired and empty as they are, he gives them one thing to do that changes everything. Sometimes Christ's followers are so tired they can't even move the boat. No matter, just do the small thing he asks of you and see what happens...

Wanna Be Part Of A Miracle?

2010-06-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hello? Anyone still stop by this here sheep pen? It has been all but abandoned by the Mama Sheep-but, speaking of the Mama Sheep (we WERE speaking of it weren't we??), I finished my first show and it was awesome!! A LOT of work, wow, but that is b/c it came up last minute and I had 6 days to put together enough pieces for the show. Can you say sleep deprivation?? But, I made over 100 pieces and sold about a third of them, which is really not too bad since there was only about 35 folks at this event. It was a knitting retreat hosted by our local yarn shop (AWESOME place, somewhat overwhelming in a sensory level, but in the good kind of way) The even was SO FUN!!! Beautiful yarn EVERYWHERE! Creative people who think in colors and textures and strange ways like me everywhere! Even though I knew very few of them, I felt very comfortable with them. Any they gave me very positive feedback about my creations and even some helpful ideas for future items. And I learned a fun new way to knit a sock b/ I got to attend one of the workshops so double bonus! I haven't knit in MONTHS so it was a lot of fun. But, sadly, I realized I really do need to bite the bullet and buy a little pair of reading glasses/bifocals b/c well, I cannot see at all when I am doing close up stuff. Wow, with my white streaks in my hair and my glasses and my knitting, I can be the first 34 year old granny in town!!! Ugh.

But, by far the best part of the weekend was all the folks I got to share with about Ethiopia, the plight of the orphan, and the fact that ANYONE can, and should, do something about it. God can use ANY thing you offer Him, even painting washers destined for the trash (the painted ones are reclaimed ones from a flood in PA-thanks to my Dad!!), to CHANGE the world FOREVER for a child. Think you don't have anything that seems like it will help? Take a look at my INCREDIBLE sign up there in the photo. It was GIFTED to me by some fabulous friends who own a sign shop, who believe all are called to be a part of caring for the fatherless in some way, and who used their gifts and abilities and business to contribute to a ministry dedicated to caring for God's children (and incidentally blessed my socks off-maybe why I needed to go to that sock knitting class). See? All He asks for is you to be willing and He will make it happen.

What do you have to offer?

ps-checked out my friend Kelly's blog yet??? Her most recent post will make you THINK. And then hopefully ACT-b/c just THINKING about the children with no families doesn't change their lives, just sayin' ;)

The Minus 1 Project

2010-05-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been terrible at keeping up my blog lately-honestly, it has been b/c I have been BUSY with ORDERS from my shop-YAHOO!!!!!! God has been AWESOME and right on time as usual. I have my first $ turn-in deadline this weekend for my trip to Ethiopia this summer and so far I have raised exactly what I need for that turn-in. Surprised? I am not-I know how God rolls ;)

So, while I am posting spottily at best, PLEASE go check out my very good friend Kelly's blog, The Minus 1 Project. They are beginning their second adoption, their 1st blog, and will be having some AWESOME stuff for sale soon to raise funds-stuff that is not out there already and I am EXCITED to get my hands on!! I will show myself holding it and laughing with glee as soon as I get it (that's a hint as to what it is.....any guesses??) and give y'all a link to the goods. :) She had been my good friend for years, was instrumental in opening our eyes to adoption, and just all around awesome. GO. Read her blog-be a follower. Go NOW.

Bring Out Yer Dead!

2010-05-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

I AM alive!! However, we had 2 weeks of being sick, and last week was HORRIBLE with 5 of 6 of us with the barfy flu (including mommy!!) so needless to say, blogging did not happen. Nor did much of anything else. I'm still trying to catch up on laundry (hahahahahaha, not even a possibility) and just stopped in to say hi so...HI!!! I just have a minute before I fall right over asleep but wanted to tell you if you have not checked out my Etsy shop, I listed a bunch of new stuff so go see it-and BUY some stuff, too :)!! (you know, if you want, please?) I also wanted to give you the amazing news that I am OVER HALFWAY to my fundraising amount for my trip to Ethiopia, all while I have been playing with jewelry!! Is God awesome or what?! Also, and totally unrelated to fundraising or my trip but very related to God being awesome (as really all things are, you know)-THE COUNTER TOPS ARE COMING TODAY, THE COUNTER TOPS ARE COMING TODAY!!!!!!!! YAY!! There is a light at the end of this winterstorm-damaged tunnel!! (there is also STILL a homeless potty next to my bed-we must not speak of it while I am giddy about my counter tops, 'mkay?) I will post pictures asap-poor counter top guys, bet they don't know they are going to be featured on the innerwebs makin' my house all purty.....

Oh! and guess what? For Mother's Day, my AWESOME family gave me the teensy tiniest little cutie netbook computer so that I can take it to Ethiopia when I go and be able to email them and journal my trip while I am there!!! I am typing on it right now-IT IS SO CUTE!!! You can just about fit it in your little pocket...and it's name is Sylvester.

(What? You do not name your computers? Well, you should. Sylvester would have friends then...)

Bullets

2010-04-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

-New stuff added to the shop!! Go order now to get it in time for Mother's Day!!

-So far, The Mama Sheep (my Etsy shop, reference above) is doing well and I am excited to see what God is doing with my jewelry sales to fund my trip to Ethiopia this summer!

-There is a small chance I may get to see my favorite Dawn in the world, also known as Thing 4's mother in law, in 10 days-please Lord, make it so!

-We have a new shower, after some MAJOR run-arounds with our plumber and although it is still unusable b/c we have no walls around it nor any door/curtain or shower head, we HAVE the shower installed and a new handle for it, and it is SHINY!!

-We have drywall guys coming either tomorrow or Wednesday-woohoo! I may have a functioning house before Summer!!

-The toilet is still in my bed room.

(it can't ALL be good news, right??)

One Year Anniversay of This...

2010-04-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

"...I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." Isaiah 43:5b.

And He did. God is GOOD.

The Mama Sheep

2010-04-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Come check out my new Etsy shop, The Mama Sheep!!

I am SOOOOO excited that I finally have it up and running! (And I sold 2 of my first 4 listings in less than 12 hours of opening the shop-woohoo!!!) I am using the proceeds as a fundraiser for my mission trip to Ethiopia this summer visiting orphanages. After that, I plan to keep the shop stocked and going strong to raise funds for our church's adoption and foster care ministry. I am so excited to use a passion of mine to bring life, love and hope to children without forever families (YET!!) In case someone you know is in need of the perfect Mother's Day gift, I have just listed a personalized hand-stamped pendant for which you can select your child/children's birthstone crystal beads to be added as a charm. Wouldn't that be a sweet gift to celebrate the blessing of motherhood?? (yes, hubbies who might be reading this, it WOULD. Go. Order NOW!) For adoptive families, I am also going to be adding "Expecting from...." hand-stamped pendants where you can specify the country, a tasteful pink or blue glass bead if you know which gender little one is going to be joining your family or you can select a different beaded charm if you'd rather! I am HAPPY to do custom work as I love to do one of a kind pieces-not a big fan of mass producing stuff, takes the fun right out of it :) So c'mon over to the sheep pen and enjoy the view!!

ps-the plumber did NOT come Wednesday. Big surprise. However, we are not giving him a hard time about it because he had a good reason. His van broke down the day before and when his helper worker guy got under it to fix it, it somehow rolled onto him and they ended up at the ER. Fortunately he was not killed, praise the Lord!!, but was pretty badly hurt sooooo, I guess we will let this one slide. No, I am not making it up, it is just one more of the kind of crazy ridiculous things that always seem to happen in our world! We will never have that toilet out of our bedroom-maybe I should just use it as my background for my Etsy photos.....

Just Some Things

2010-04-13T21:07:00.001-07:00

We have had a weirdly busy 2 weeks and so I have just not gotten to write anything here. But I did in my mind a lot, ha! I am super sleepy so I will just make this a quick one to answer some questions!

Thing 4's hair-yes, it is humongous. I currently do this with it: I use coconut oil on it either before or after a bath to give it some moisture and keep it healthy. I used to only do that after her bath but I read on Happy Girl Hair about doing it BEFORE the bath and how it helps the water not be as damaging/drying and so I tried it and it made combing out so much easier! We only wash her hair with shampoo about 1x a week, sometimes even 10 days. I use some random drugstore type shampoo (I think it is "Just for Me" brand? obviously I don't have a great closeness with it but it has a green bottle and orange lid and a smiley little cute brown girl on the bottle-does that help any :)? ) that is a conditioner/'poo combo and then we also use conditioner, again cheapy Pantene for Women of Color (lame name!). When we do not wash with shampoo, we do use the conditioner to 'wash' it (called "cowashing"). After her bath, she gets coconut oil if we didn't do it before the tub b/c it helps her scalp, too. She tends to get dry on her scalp so that helps. Then, I comb it out with a wide, fat toothed comb. She is not a fan. It is loud. And struggle-y. And there are tears. And maybe some swearing. From both of us. But, if I do not do this step, it is even worse when I finally do it and it is NOT. GOOD. At all. So, after I am done torturing, I mean, combing, her, then she goes to bed. Yeah, we have tried the satin sleep cap. It caused some trauma. Trauma that presented as hysterical screaming in the middle of the night and when checked on by us, looked like a tiny pink-jammie clad bank robber with no eyeholes in her mask had taken up residence in the crib-and was angry about it. So, we will need to wait a little longer on being able to use that. Same with the satin pillowcase. I just felt too panicky on the nights we tried it b/c of the SIDS thing with pillows, etc in cribs. Just wasn't worth it to me for her to suffocate in order to keep her hair looking decent, you know? Call me crazy... Anyhoo, this means she wakes up with a little bit of bed head (read:her hair had a wild party all night long and looks like a frat house the morning after) I keep a spray bottle filled with water and a couple squirts of her regular conditioner (the Pantene stuff) and just shake it up. She gets a spray down with this, which she likes and thinks is funny, then a hopefully quick comb through since the night before she got a through one (which she does not think is funny-she still hates it-it is still loud and possibly sweary, but slightly less so overall). Then, the magic goo I use is a cheapo one (sense a theme?) that I got one night when her hair was just huge and I knew coconut oil alone would no longer cut it but I didn't want to wait for something I ordered online or whatever. I needed it NOW and just went to the store and I bought this stuff and it works remarkably well-BB Hair Oil Moisturizer. (pictured below in a terribly blurry pic from the innerwebs) It is a creamy lotion with some good healthy natural oils in it that do a decent job of defining and managing her curls. I do think that I am going to need to change it soon b/c her hair is getting VERY long and I just have to use a TON to have it work these days and it is just not ideal. It is really hard to get it to cover it all evenly. But, for boys or shorter hair, I think this would be super. And it is like $3 and you can get it at most "Marts" and/or grocery stores. It does have a weird smell at first but it does fade quickly-not a super strong smell but it is one of the ingredients that make it smell a little odd-urea. Yeah, sounds gross to the max, but it is used in many many moisturizing things and does do well. So there is our hair routine-still a work in progress but that is what we are currently doing. Hoping to try something else soon for her giant amount of hair...

Speaking of a work in progress, our house. STILL a mess. NOT one bit of work done yet. Waiting on counter tops to come in. Waiting on the shower to come in. Waiting for pigs to fly... Well, look up for swine tomorrow, friends, because the PLUMBER IS COMING! To do WORK! And get this party started-yahoo!!!! It is a miracle! I am not saying we are suffering, but 6 of us using one tiny bathroom is getting a little old. As is the toilet that has been sitting next to my bed for 2 months...but, whatever, the plumber is coming!!!! And supposedly, once he gets his stuff done, everything will all get started and the skies will part and birds will sing and the toilet will leave my boudoir and go where it belongs. I can't wait.

Ok, this was not quick at all-and I had some other things to discuss, but I am even more super-sleepy than I was before this long diatribe so off I go to spend time with my nice soft bed and fall asleep gazing upon....that dumb toilet.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

2010-03-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

After Thing 4's comb-out/detangling.

Yeah, we got some hair goin' on!

"Mama! PLEASE stop taking pictures of me and

FIX MY HAIR!"

MUUUUUUCH better!

"Mama, I love it so much it makes me drool!"

(Don't be fooled, EVERYTHING makes my girlie drool. Blech. She's a wet one. Oh, and NO hair was cut, this is just the difference once it is sprayed with water/conditioner and lotion slathered on. Yup, it makes THAT MUCH difference!)

Everyday Miracles

2010-03-29T21:12:00.000-07:00

Look what God plopped right in my back yard!

Breathtaking!

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Genesis 9:13

What I Am Doing On My Summer Vacation

2010-03-25T20:01:00.000-07:00

I am....

going back to Ethiopia! Woohoo! I am going on a 10 day mission trip to serve some sweet kiddos in several orphanages and will give you more details soon. I am SO very very excited, so thrilled that I have the BEST husband ever who said "You NEED to go on that trip!" and who is encouraging me and supporting me 110% while I leave him alone with 4 kiddos :). I will be selling some fun jewelry (made by moi!) and stuff to raise the money for the trip which I will feature right here on this very blog in the next day or so so stay tuned!!

Coffee Anyone?

2010-03-17T11:32:00.001-07:00

Wow, you know you are tired when you doze off (and you are in that funny place between sleeping and awake where you THINK you are awake, but you are really not) and you are trying to warm up your coffee in the microwave, by pushing the buttons with a fork of course, only you wake all the way up and realize it is NOT in fact the microwave nor coffee but the laptop in front of you and you are making funny air jabby gestures with your hands, as if pushing microwave buttons, with a fork. I think maybe I need a little extra sleep perhaps. Or maybe just a little extra coffee, heated up in the REAL microwave, not the fork jabbed laptop from my dreams.

Perhaps it is because my kitchen has looked like this for the last month that I do not know where things are and how to make a simple cup of coffee these days:

Maybe a nice shower would wake me up, too, if my shower didn't currently look like this:

As you can see, still not much progress on the house repairs after the winter of misery. The insurance/contractor mess is taking a little longer to sort out than was originally thought (anyone surprised by that??) and they will hopefully start next week. BUT, we do have a nice new roof on the back of our house complete with ice barrier, one working early 80's blue bathtub that comes with rubber duckies and Dora stick up toys, and at least part of a working kitchen so I am not complaining!! Even if I have to go to my dining room and sometimes climb over the kitchen cabinets that are on the floor in there to find dishes or cups, I have a mostly warm home (currently minus some wall sections but whatever) filled with people I love. And, my coffee pot still works, just as long as I actually push the buttons on IT, not the computer, with my fingers.

(But now if I COULD make coffee be dispensed from the laptop, I might be on to something......)

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

2010-03-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

What's black and white and red all over?

(besides our family at the beach)

An embarrassed zebra!

A sunburned zebra?

A zebra that works at Target???

Whatever. Just go read The Parable of the Zebra, it is a way better read than my lame jokes.

(oh, and then go clicky click on the Compassion link and sponsor a child, or two!! Some good answers to some good questions about Compassion's work can be found here. And of course, lots of amazing posts about the Kenya trip can be found here.)

The Final Visit!

2010-03-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

We have our final post placement visit first thing tomorrow morning-woo hoo! That means it is our last visit with our social worker following our adoption and it also means we have had Thing 4 home almost ONE YEAR already-what?! When did that happen?? Oh and by first thing in the morning I mean FIRST THING-8 o'clock. Oh my. Our super sweet and accommodating social worker is coming then so as to be here when all the kids are here and mom and dad are both home before work and school so they don't all have to miss another day. Except, um, I HATE THE MORNING. Me and morning=ENEMIES. And yes, I am usually up by then (against my will) because I have to pack lunches and say goodbyes to Things 1 and 2 before school. But, I am usually in my jammies, eyes half closed still, and uttering unintelligible words while frantically trying to get my hands on a cold, extremely fizzy diet soda. The fizz MUST be strong-it's all about the burn, people! I gotta wake up somehow! What's that? Coffee? Uh, coffee is my go to for the mid-afternoon slump around 3 o'clock when I have to get through the second half of the day. I also prefer non-breakfast foods for breakfast like lasagna--yup, that's how I roll. (And also apparently I have a caffeine problem it seems) Anyhoo, now I have to get up AND be dressed in real clothes and have the kiddos dressed and ready to seen by the public by 8. Not a good thing for someone whose perfect schedule would be go to bed at 1 a.m. and up at 9 (or 10, whatever) Oh boy, maybe I should just stay awake all night and collapse from exhaustion after she leaves...hmmm, I'm sure that would highlight my responsible mom side, eh? I better go make lunches now and go to bed. And maybe I will just sleep in my clothes...I kid, I kid. (or do I??? I think that is just being efficient.)

ps-check out some AWESOME blog posts from the Compassion blogger tour in Kenya here!!! So amazing-and the pictures of the children are STUNNING! If you want to sponsor a child yourself, click the "go deeper" button on the top side of my blog!

My Heart Burns For Africa

2010-03-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

I am love with Africa. I don't even know why sometimes, but I love it. We have friends from several African countries and there is just something about them that is just so wonderful-I love their accents, their beautiful brown skin, their ALWAYS present smiles (why are Africans so smiley?? It is unreal-every one of our African friends is super smiley all the time and often laughing!! Must be in the African air or something) And of course, my 4th daughter was born in Ethiopia so I have an especially deep love for that country and it's people. I long to go back in some capacity and I know God has Africa in our life forever. We are just waiting to see how that will all play out. We also sponsor a sweet boy in Ethiopia through Compassion, an organization I LOVE (have I maybe mentioned that one or a thousand times??) and who is truly doing GREAT things for children in poverty all over the world. Anyway, for the next week I plan to live vicariously through the group of Compassion bloggers who are in Kenya. Care to join me? Click here!!

Amen.

2010-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

No need to add anything to this post (click it to go read it), it says it all.

Help Haiti Live!!

2010-02-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

Help Haiti Live is a concert sponsored by Compassion International. INCREDIBLE musicians for an INCREDIBLE reason!! If you cannot get to the concert in Nashville, you can WATCH ONLINE February 27th (like TODAY people!!)!! For real! Awesome? I think so!!

Winter. Blech.

2010-02-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

So, I hate winter. Like LOATHE. I do not make any attempts even to cover up that fact. I DO NOT LIKE to be cold. At all. Ever. So this winter with our 44 inches or whatever the final total of snow is has been particularly nightmarish for me. Well, it just got even more enjoyable last week. Seems when the water all freezes in your gutters and keeps re-freezing and accumulating more water until it is a gigantic solid mass of ice completely encasing your very high-up and impossible to reach gutters, it creates what is called an ice dam. This makes it impossible for any water that is coming off the roof from the 837 inches of snow melting to go into the gutter. But alas, gravity says that water has to go somewhere. Also, water that blows up under your shingles when you have winds in excess of 55 mph and freezes seems to lift them up and damage seals around roof vents as well. (Are you seeing where this is going??) And what started out as "um, honey, this window is dripping" has now become a new half of a roof put on our home, industrial drying equipment blowing in our house for the last week straight (mmm, extra industrial drafty, so nice in the winter), holes cut in walls to get out wet insulation and allow the blowers to get air in there to dry out the walls, baseboards and window trim removed, a shower being torn out, counter tops set to be torn out, and possibly some cabinets and more insulation/walls torn out too in the kitchen and the kids' bedroom. In February. When it is cold. And, as noted, I am not a fan of cold. I am also not a fan of having my house torn up and cut into pieces, while chasing around 4 kids, a cat, a dog, and an ever changing number of rodents. (btw, Snowy was found yesterday, flattened and stuck, yes, actually stuck, to a wall behind a book shelf-my life is so special right now. Disgusting.) I am however a fan of our homeowners insurance and their awesome helpfulness and also a fan of getting to replace my hideous brown 1979 shower and equally hideous fake butcher block laminate counter tops with shiny new ones. A silver lining after all!! (I have wanted to replace those suckers for years so thanks, Ice! But now please go away. Forever. Thank you. And we could have done without all the drama too, Water. Jeez.)

But I STILL hate winter. Blech.

PS-and our local high school had the whole gym end of it collapse b/c of snow and ice, very very scary-winter is not any good at all. NONE.

Do A Dollop

2010-02-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

Introducing the newest member of our family and resident of the Hamster Bermuda Triangle:

Daisy.

Good luck to you, fair rodent-hope you stick around longer than your predecessors.

(why yes, that IS a disco ball back there next to the hamster cage-hamsters love to do the Hustle, it is a little known fact...)

(and no, we have not found the previous hamster so having this new one virtually guarantees that one will show up--but a sweet friend offered us one of their baby rodents and Thing 2 was just dying for one sooooo....the things we do as parents, I swear, ridiculous.)

Missing!

2010-02-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Oh, we have terrible hamster problems here at Chez Things. You can read about the beginning of our hamster curse here. So, the latest involves Thing 2's Christmas hamster, Snowy. She desperately wanted one ever since her previous hammie died tragically a year or so ago. So, we got her a super cute winter white hamster for Christmas and she was THRILLED!

However, this past Saturday night, we went to dinner at our neighbors' house and when we came home, one of the tubes had been knocked off the side of the cage. And well, Snowy is M.I.A. No sign of her anywhere. It is very frustrating-I don't even know how to possibly find a very tiny hamster in our comparatively gigantic house (I mean in comparison to the hamster, b/c well, anything bigger than a shoe box is gigantic to a hamster...) I am sure she is sneaking around behind me every time I bend down to look under another piece of furniture-and laughing at me!! We feel pretty certain the dog did not eat it (although he has tried in the past with our other hamster, no not the one referenced above that we killed within hours, the one that replaced that one-he ate it and threw it up, and it lived, for 6 more months-NO, I am NOT making that up, can you even make stuff like that up?? I told you, hamster CURSED!!) b/c well, let's just say we are pretty sure, and leave it at that. But the cat seems a little shifty so I don't know...I'm actually quite certain, given that we got ANOTHER foot of snow this weekend (that makes 2 giganto snow storm this winter already-we live in the south for a reason-why the snow, Winter?? why??), that that little rodent hopped a plane for Bermuda. And I just may have to go look for her there....

I Need Your Input

2010-01-21T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hi Blog friends! I need your help on something-consider it market research :). I am thinking of setting up an Etsy shop in which I can sell some of the things I make. If you do not know what Etsy is, go look and then come back--I will wait :)

Ok, now that you are back, what do you think? I was thinking of listing items like the following (click the links to see photos, some you need to scroll down to see):
-monogrammed towels like the one I made here or burp cloths, customized
-jewelry like washer necklaces that can be personalized, bracelets, earrings, brooches, etc.
-coin/make-up bags, like these zipper pouches
-smaller hand knits like headbands, mittens, ornaments, scarves, children's clothes, possibly some shawls, etc (the larger things like blankets or sweaters would be really difficult as they take a good bit of time and the materials cost a lot and so I am thinking that while I am capable of making them, not too many folks are willing to pay like $200+ for a sweater that I would need to charge to recoup the cost of materials and time, you know?)
-hand-made children's games like the ones in this post
-hand-painted monogrammed tile coasters (oops, I made these for Christmas gifts but didn't take a picture--use your imagination and make them fabulous in your mind :) )
-pillows, made customized for the buyer if desired
-appliqued totes/bibs/tees with various cute silhouette designs (sort of like this one my friend Dawn made me with Africa, hearts, birds, dinosaurs, etc-the sky is the limit on this one!!)

There are a million ideas running through my head for other items, too. The main purpose of this shop would be to finish paying for our adoption and after that to fund future adoptions, whether ours or someone else's. If God is done growing our family, I would love to give $ from the shop to our church's new adoption ministry to help others answer God's call on their hearts. Anyway, all of that aside, my question for you is this: would you buy these types of things? Are they things you could see yourself purchasing for yourself or as a gift for someone else? I don't want to set up a supply where there is no demand:) If you feel like you could see yourself being potentially interested in any of these types of items, could you tell me in the comments? I am NOT asking you to buy anything or commit to anything AT ALL, just getting a feel for the potential success I would have. If you are a blog lurker, can you come out of lurking just to let me know what you think of this shop idea? Your feedback is very valuable to me!! Thanks in advance!!

How You Can Help (and you CAN!!!)

2010-01-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Feel like you cannot do anything? You can give to the work Compassion is doing after the Haiti earthquake.

Feel like you are too far away? Compassion is already there hard at work as Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65, 000 children in Haiti, at least a third of them in the areas hardest hit. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches in the country to meet the needs of that church's neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to meet and assess the needs of these children and their families quickly. THEY ARE ALREADY THERE and their office is still standing-Hallelujah!!

Feel like it would be too hard to figure out what charity might be ethical, responsible and wonder what they are doing with your donation? Here is how Compassion International uses their funds in general and here is how they will be using them for relief for the Haiti earthquake:

• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families' needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families' needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

(Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.)

Here is a link to information to make sure the charity to which you donate is real and doing what they say they are doing with your money. Sadly, sickos out there use things like this to scam people-make sure you are not one of them!!

Feel like it is too difficult or would be time consuming? Simply text "disaster" to 90999 to donate $10 to the work Compassion is doing and the charge will show on your next phone bill. Yes, it really is THAT easy. If you don't text or feel like that is out of your comfort zone, you can go HERE to donate to Compassion, as well.

If you have ever been to this blog before, you know I am a huge fan of Compassion International and I believe they are truly the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world. However, if you are unfamiliar with their work and would just feel better doing so, you may also text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate to the Red Cross (or go to the website) or also donate through Samaritan's Purse.

We CAN do something and we SHOULD. Can you fathom what it would mean if everyone just gave $10? WOW. just WOW. I think I need to go send a text....

Haiti Earthquate

Christmas Gifties Part 2

2010-01-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry it took me forever to get to the rest of the gifties I made for Christmas, but at least I am getting it posted before next Christ mas, haha! Life just sometimes is a little nutso with 4 kids so posts sometimes are easy and sometimes like moving a mountain! Without further ado, I give you the next batch of handmade gifts of 2009:
This is a little travel tic-tac-toe board I made for my niece. The base for it is a placemat I bought at Target. I then used a satin stitch to make the pink grid on the mat. I sewed a small zipper pouch out of some stash fabric and a zipper I had and then sewed it to the mat also. I made markers that were turquoise on one side and white on the other (I made 9 total) and those hide out in the zippy pouch when not in use. Finally, I sewed a ribbon to the edge of the mat so that it could be rolled up and tied closed for on the go tic tac toe! It is perfect to grab and bring along for car trips, waiting at restaurants, waiting at the doctor's office, whatever. And for the same reasons, I made the gift below, Story Dice:
I read about these online in several places and absolutely loved the idea! I was going to make the pictures by stamping them, but this site provided the graphics, already sized and everything, so I for once took the "easy way out" and used them. I purchased the wooden cubes at Michael's and sanded the edges to round them a bit like real dice and to help them roll easier. I then Mod Podged the images onto the dice and put another couple coats on to seal them and then made a cute little zipper pouch to tote them in. Here are the directions I included:

"The goal of this game is to roll as many of the dice as you would like. Then create a story, tall tale, poem, or song using the pictures you roll. You can also roll the dice and create a piece of art that incorporates all the pictures. The only limit is your imagination!"

This gift was a huge hit with all the kids-I am thinking of making a set for our girls, as well. And they can even be used for little kids by asking "what picture is that?", etc. They are limitless!

My next niece is a very tactile learner and she has a high need to touch and interact with things in order to learn. So I made her a set of bean bags out of different fabrics with different textures. Each bag has a letter of her name on it, capital on one side and lowercase on the other-she is in Kindergarten so it will help her recognize and spell her name as well as allow her to make up new words out of the letters if she wants to. And just thrown them around and hit her brothers or whatever, too. Can't be all learning all the time, right?? :) I got the idea here:

For my sister, I made this little meal plan menu thingy--I printed a blank calendar on a transparency and then cut a cute piece of scrapbook to go behind and put it all in a regular wooden picture frame that I painted red. The paper had to not be too busy of a pattern such that it obscured the calendar-that was a little harder to find than I thought it would be!! But it can even be changed out seasonally or with decor so the sky is the limit on this. Then she can use a dry erase marker to write the month's meals on the glass and just erase and re-use it each month, easy peasy! (I saw where you can also make the calendar out of vinyl with a fancy pants cricut machine for you scrapbook folks, which I am not) I also added a pretty ribbon to hang it, but I did that after I took the picture so use your imagination :)

And finally, every year my girls and I make an ornament to give to friends and family. I saw this here and knew that was our ornament this year!! It turned out so cute! LOVE IT!

Can you stand the cuteness? (and the blurriness? sorry!!)

handprint with chubby fingers into snowmen=CUTEVILLE! plus a fun memory of the size of a little one's hand that year :). Bought the plain glass ornaments at Michael's of course and then just used white paint for the handprints and then paint pens for the details.

So there you have it! The wrap up of handmade gifts this year! Thanks for bearing with me!! I am working on a few other projects now and maybe one day I will finish them and post them. Of course one day I may also finish my laundry and the dishes too, but I am not feeling real hopeful....

Before And After

2010-01-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

One year ago today, we went to dinner to celebrate our referral call and we took the flash drive filled with her pictures (the thing in my hand with the cord hanging down)to dinner with us so we could hop over to the store right after and print all 34 of them out....Tonight, exactly one year later, we went to the very same restaurant, but we needed one more seat and we left the flash drive at home in favor of the 3D version...

What a year it has been!!

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation

2010-01-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, first off-I got tagged for a neat award/blog meme thing from Maria, but I could not copy and paste the words and stuff and so I was too lazy to re-type it all and go back and forth so go read hers, think "oh, she's cool!" and then imagine great answers full of neat little tidbits of info about me, 'k?

Anyway, over the next couple of days I will share some of the bajillion Christmas gifts I made this year. I LOVED making so much stuff this year as creating makes me feel happy, but it left me no time for much else, which is honestly ok. I needed the computer break and just the time making and creating, sometimes side by side with my girls which was even better-it is restorative for me....well, except when it doesn't go well and then it is just frustrating and sweary but we will not get in to that business....

First up is the knitted teacher gifts:
Peekaboo Mittens (which I love and want some for me!!)

Next is the Branching Out scarf made out of a silk/wool combo yarn, mmmmmm, yummy:

Here we have a batch of treasure stones I made for my nephew:

He loves to do those kits where you can dig/scrape out something like a dinosaur skeleton with mini archaeologist tools. So, when I found a recipe to make the stones, I was excited! I hid a bunch of money in the stones, using "regular" coins, and then also some fun ones like a silver dollar, 50 cent piece, and even a paper dollar that I rolled up tiny and fit into a section of a straw so it wouldn't get messed up by the wet "dough" of the rocks before I baked them. They were SO easy and fun to make and I kept giggling while making them saying "look! they look JUST LIKE ROCKS!" I packaged them in a landscaping bucket filled with moss and included "instructions" one the side of the bucket. I am happy to report that he loved them, which makes me SO happy! They could be made for a party treasure hunt with a prize for each kiddo inside, be "fairy stones" with some added glitter and/or paint, Easter egg hunt if you shape them more egg-ish, the possibilities are endless!!

Finally, for this post, these are a few washer necklaces I made:

These are made with fender washers you can buy at any hardware or home improvement store. You can search for them on the web and find tons of instructions/variations on these-this is just how I chose to do mine. A few I covered with scrapbook paper and clear glaze, but they were really fussy and more of them didn't turn out well than ones that did so that was kind of annoying. I preferred the ones I hand-stamped as I could make them personal for the recipient as I did in the picture above-those are the names of the recipient's children. I ordered a set of steel letter stamps from Harbor Freight and used them to personalize the necklaces. These are not hard to make, well, unless you are a moron and cannot seem to hold the letters the correct way and repeatedly mess up the same thing over and over by stamping a letter sideways/upside down and then it might start to get teensy bit sweary, as previously mentioned-all hypothetically of course. You need a heavy hammer, a hard surface like a concrete basement floor, and a sharpie to blacken the letters. If you want more specific instructions, let me know and I can share with you how I did it. It was a really lot of fun (except for the sweary parts). I didn't manage to take pictures of some of the ones I added beads/charms to, but they were pretty cool, too. I am really not bragging or trying to toot my own horn, for reals-I am just as surprised as anyone when stuff I make turns out decently!!! Of course, I am honestly never really satisfied with anything I make either and will endlessly fool with and fret over it, noticing every little flaw. But, I really do love to make stuff and I have finally come to the conclusion that I was created to create-it is the thing that gets me so excited! I like to create most for others, it is like my gift to me to make gifts for others. So, basically, I am selfish!! haha!

I will have one more post of stuff I inflicted upon, um I mean, created, for others in the next couple days. If you made any gifts, leave a comment and email me pictures!! I love to see others' stuff and be inspired!!

Elves Busy At Work...

2009-12-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

I am super busy trying to finish up Christmas gifts, which I will post when I finish, or whenever my hands uncramp enough to be able to type again...

Meanwhile, if you need any last-minute, cheap, and fun crafts, go here--my new FAVORITE site!!

Oh, and PS-We got close to 15 inches of snow yesterday-crazy!

Christmas Gift Ponderings

2009-12-11T10:42:00.000-08:00

Here is just something that has been on my mind for awhile and so I am just typing up something little about it for those of you who have kids in school. With Christmas coming up, there are a ton of gift-giving occasions and opportunities to spend a lot of money, which I know for me can be overwhelming. So, oftentimes, the default is to spend time and money and effort on family and friends and then find something little and pleasant for the "teacher gifts" category. But I am thinking that that does not seem right. These teachers pour into my children all day, every day. Honestly, they spend more waking hours with my children than I do, which makes me a little sad, but also makes me praise God that my children have FABULOUS teachers at their small Christian school. So it seems to me a wee bit ridiculous to say "hey, thanks for giving yourself to exhaustion for my children day in and day out, for teaching them about all things educational as well as (in my case) spiritual, and for generally making sure they stay alive, happy and well taken care of when they are away from home, so here is a box of cocoa mix." It just doesn't cut it for me, I guess. I am just thinking we can do better for our children's teachers (and I mean the main ones that spend the majority of their time with them, not every single staff member at the school, although wouldn't that be great too?? It is not like educators are rolling in money, people!!) and I am encouraging all of you readers who have kids in school to give it some thought, too. I am not even talking about spending large sums of money-for example, I knit them special stuff usually out of some sort of gorgeous yarn, and not the same gifts, each one gets something unique for them. This is not to "toot my horn", it is I guess in response to the plethora of stuff on the web I read about "Teacher Gifts Ideas!" that is a bookmark and a card, or a bag of candy, or whatever. Now, I know that for some, that is all you can give, and that is ok, I am certainly not judging anyone's economical status, and again, it is really not about how much money you spend at all. It is more about the time, thought, and effort you make. I just think these folks deserve the absolute best we can give them. They are shaping and educating our children, OUR most precious gift. If we entrust our most valuable thing to them all day, every day, shouldn't we express our gratitude in a way that really conveys how special and wonderful they are? Not sure if a "make your own cookies" jar does that--unless of course they are someone who LOVES cookies, then it is perfect! That is all I am saying I guess--take the time to put some thought into what would be a special gift for THAT teacher so they know they matter to you and your child. Just something to think about. Now I will step off my soap box to go re-vamp my gift list I think.....

PS-I am just a guilty of doing the quick and easy "teacher gift" so please don't feel judged, just thought I'd put it out there for other people to think on as well as myself!

I Love My Love My Love My Calendar Girl

2009-12-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hello, Miss August!
They (Cranial Technoligies) just released the 2010 DOC Band Babies calendar and our little lady made it in there out of over 3400 entries!! Not only that but so did cutie patootie Elias:

And of course, we CANNOT leave out Mr. Cover Model himself, Zoe's future Hubby...........Mr. Jaxson!!!

I am so excited and proud of these little cuties! To think that they all lived in the same place in Addis Ababa is unbelievable!! And it is just goes to show that there are truly no Ethiopian babies that are not ADORABLE!!!!!

First Birthday Fun

2009-11-29T20:29:00.000-08:00

Thing 4 turned 1 a little over a week ago (yup, I am a blog slacker--judge on with your bad selves....) so here are some pictures of her first birthday! :)

This is the special family plate that the birthday person gets to use for each meal on their birthday.

Can you see me back here behind all my loot???

Hey, uh, Mom? You look pretty excited about looking in MY gift bag!!

YAY CAKE!!!!!

Watch Out! and Some Things Worth Reading

2009-11-13T05:26:00.000-08:00

Thing 4 has taken her first steps just one week before her first birthday-look out! There is a WILD THANG on the loose!!!

Go here to read a very good Veteran's Day post from one of my favorite blogs.

Go here to read a post from a Compassion blogger traveling in El Salvador and visiting with his sponsored child-kinda just sums up the work of Compassion with real live faces and conversations-I just LOVE that organization so very much!! They truly are the hands and feet of Jesus in the lives of children all over the world! This year marked their 1 MILLIONTH sponsored child-yeah, ONE MILLION! Can you believe it? And they started with one, so yes, you CAN make a difference one child at a time, too!! No, they are not asking me to say this but YES, you should click on the side of my blog and GO sponsor a child yourself if you don't already!! Meeting one of our little sponsored guys when we went to Ethiopia was one of the highlights of my life, truly!!

Sultan, one of our sponsored children, mastering our video camera in Ethiopia

Chatting with our newly Hokied-up Sultan :) I love that there is a little boy in rural Southern Ethiopia running around sporting Hokie colors!!

A Laugh A Minute

2009-11-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Thing 3 just turned 3 about a week and a half ago and she has really come into her own with a personality as big as her beautiful blue eyes. She literally keeps us laughing all day long, often the barely-able-to-breathe belly laugh kind of laughing, too. Just this morning, I was pounding something with a hammer and she said to me, "Mama, you're scaring my ears!" She also announced "When Zoe goes back to Africa, I will be taking my crib back." Hmm, looks like she is in for a rude awakening... I love that girl, she has brought a lot of joy to the last 3 years in this family!

Thanks everyone for the kind and encouraging comments to the previous post-I will admit, I feared some ugliness and judgy comments might occur so I tried to brace myself veen though I knew they would make me sad, but alas, they never came. You guys are all awesome!

International Adoption: Behind the Blogs

2009-11-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

I have been writing this post in my head for a long time, almost 6 months actually. And I debated it for several reasons, one being the effort it would take to actually type it (can you say TIRED??) and two being the consideration of how my daughter may feel one day reading it. So I have prayed and feel like God gave me the ok to write it for 3 reasons--to encourage those who have walked a similar path that they are NOT alone, to help those whose experience was different to understand us others, and for those who have not yet adopted to see all sides of the journey. So without further adieu, I will share what it has been like for our family since meeting our newest family member.

I read a good bit about struggling with attachment and the possibility that it may feel awkward at first with your new child and even post-adoption depression, so I felt like I was prepared for that possibility. I prayed that that would not be the case for us and that our first meeting of our baby girl would be wonderful-and it WAS! It truly was one of the holiest moments in which I have ever participated and God showed us a side of His love that was truly magnificent. With this fabulous first moment where the clouds parted and angels sang and all the world was rainbows and happy tears came a reassurance to me that, yup, we were a-ok and would not have one bit of trouble with loving and attaching to this sweet creature. In fact, we were already hopelessly entranced by her. Within just a few minutes of holding her, I could tell she was not well--she had very rattly breathing and just seemed pretty out of it, so I was a little concerned. As the rest of the days in Ethiopia went on, she continued to have a hard time breathing, even one night had me sitting up praying fervently that she would not die because she was wheezing and struggling to breathe so much. I was very worried at that possibility-I realized didn't even know if this was normal for her, if she had a serious illness, how to comfort her, where a doctor or hospital might be-she felt very unfamiliar to me and it was a weird feeling for a mom of 3 to feel like she had no clue what to do with a baby. I felt less competent with this tiny stranger than I ever did with my first daughter and it was unsettling. I just wanted to get her home and get her taken care of with familiar doctors and pharmacies and rocking chairs so we could begin our joyous new life as a family of 6. The trip home was fairly uneventful, she slept great and it was wonderful to get my other 3 kids back in my arms at the airport, wonderful and FAMILIAR. We got her to the doctor the very next morning where it was debated whether or not to put her in the hospital, but she was ultimately put on significant breathing treatments and medications and round the clock care, plus bottles to deal with every couple hours (a big difference from my nursing experiences) and so our new life together was not joyous, but rather chaotic and crazy. She continued to have breathing problems that eventually landed me and her in a locked-down isolation unit at a hospital an hour away from home while they tried to figure out if she had TB (which she did not, btw). We got out of the hospital on Mother's Day and I realized I felt totally disconnected from my other kids from not having spent much time with them at all in the last month, and also from this baby whom I had been spending all my time with, but who I really didn't know b/c all that time was spent with doctors and medicines and hospitals. Well, NOW I was ready for that joyous family of 6 thing. But again, it didn't happen. Instead, I began to get to know our newest little lady and guess what? She was NOT fun at all!! She screamed all. the. time. LOUDLY. And a LOT. As in ALWAYS. The only thing that would even come close to getting her to stop was to hold her, all the time, and no, not in a carrier. It was exhausting. And I wanted her to stop, a LOT. Not to mention that her screaming would then set my 2 year old into a wailing, inconsolable crying fit of her own and we spent many a day with 2 very loudly wailing children next to me on the floor while I silently wept, amongst great Mt. Everest's of laundry and heaps of dirty dishes and tumbleweeds of dog fur on unvacuumed floors, and asked God why He had called us to THIS? Was this what we had prayed for, hoped for, wanted, anticipated so eagerly for the last year? Is this what all of our friends and family had been so excited about? Had we misunderstood what God asked us to do and this was the consequences? I felt like I couldn't function normally in any way and it felt like my family was all coming unglued. And the biggest panic I had was that I COULD NOT GET OUT OF IT. I debated giving AGCI (our agency) a call and asking "What is your return policy?" but really felt that "because she is driving me to the brink of insanity and shattering the peace of our household with her ridiculous, never-ending caterwauling screams" was not a reason they would accept for disrupting the adoption. But really, I would panic-this is FOREVER. I cannot get out of it and I am stuck and my life will never be enjoyable again, my other kids will resent us and their new sister for ruining their nice life and our family will be a shambles and I will celebrate all my holidays alone while my children prefer to be with their in-laws and talk about what a horrible family they grew up in. Did I mention I felt a little panicky here and there??? And the worst was the blogs of other families who had adopted, too-with their shiny happy pictures and stories and reports of feeling like "they have always been a part of our family and were meant to be with us! we are so blessed!" Ugh. I just felt like this little person did NOT feel like a part of our family, and I resented her coming in and up-ending everything that was good and comfortable and happy about our family, even if it wasn't her fault (and even if I had also felt this way about one of our bio kids when she was born and had severe colic). And then oh, the GUILT. It was consuming. Well-meaning friends would squeal with delight when they saw my little girl for the first time and say "Oh Jody, you must be on cloud 9!" and "How wonderful!"and "You are so blessed!" as I would manage to eek out a smile and respond "mmmmhmmmm", while silently flogging myself with the whip of guilt--"what kind of mother are you?" "how can you feel that way about a helpless ORPHAN? don't you know that God called you to love her?" "you ARE blessed, and not even grateful, how terrible..." "it is really not that bad, you are just being selfish and unloving" Not to mention the guilt of all the attachment information swirling around in my head: do not let your baby cry, immediately meet their needs so they know they are loved and cared for, don't let anyone else hold/feed/TRY TO SILENCE them for the first few months, spend time holding and cuddling your baby as much as possible and if you do not, your baby will never ever feel like you are her mother and will grow up severely dysfunctional-how does one do this with a baby who never ever is still or quiet ever unless she is asleep?? That was the other thing-this girl, once she could breathe, would NOT be still, ever. And drooled and spit up literally 24/7 so I was always filthy and smelly, she was always filthy and smelly, and it was just unpleasant to say the least. I would relish the times she was asleep and hiss vicious threats to my other children through clenched teeth:"if you wake that baby up, you will never see the light of day again, and also will be forced to eat spinach and lima beans for every single meal until the day you die! and we will stop having Christmas. and fun. forever." The whole time she slept, I felt the urgency to do whatever I could possibly do during that time b/c when she woke up, I was going to once again be a slave to the whims and demands of this loud 15 pound little tyrant. The minute I heard her start to stir in her bed, I would say "no no no..." and wish her back to sleep. And again, the guilt-'what is wrong with me???' Other moms posting about "oh I woke my baby up b/c I missed him so much" and I am thinking "here! take mine then so you have something to occupy your time!" And another kind of guilt that I couldn't shake-had we made a mistake taking our child from her homeland? How would I feel if I had to relinquish my children and some person of another race, another culture, another language, another EVERYTHING took them across the world to absolutely NOTHING familiar?? That guilt was haunting and paralyzing (and honestly still is some days--I place those questions at God's feet regularly). I felt empty and spent and angry and sad and overwhelmed and confused. THIS was NOT what I prayed for. THIS was NOT what I wanted or seemingly what anyone else was going through. THIS was NOT what God called us to. Or was it? I would constantly replay the last 18 months of our life, and sometimes even further back to things God had done, and I knew without one speck of a doubt that God had walked us right here. "But Lord? Right here stinks." And He said "I know, but I am right here too." And honestly, some days that was an encouragement, and some days I yelled at Him, "Then DO SOMETHING!!! Fix this!!" I began to pray very specifically to have a heart of love for my baby girl. To love her with my feelings, not just with my head-because I was willing and able to do whatever necessary to take care of my girl and provide for her, but I just felt no affection, just anger and frustration. I clung to articles by Melissa Fay Green where she talked about similar experiences with her newly brought home son. I would read, and re-read them. She is a champion of adoption, had done it multiple times, and yet, could it be possible that she had a hard time adjusting to her new children, too? God showed me many other women and families who had adopted, and struggled like I was, as well. And I began to realize that it did not mean that this was how things would be forever, even if it was for now. And I remembered the dark days of colic with one of my other daughters and how now she is without a doubt one of my favorite people on this planet. And I surrendered it to God and asked not for Him to "fix it" anymore, but to give me the stamina to walk through it with Him. I knew He had called us to this little girl, and I knew He was good, so I knew I needed to choose to trust, even when it seemed like unending darkness sometimes. And you know what? God has slowly knit our family together and grown great, deep affection and love in our hearts for each other. It did NOT happen overnight and it was at times very challenging. But I can honestly say, now, that I love our newest daughter passionately and love to spend time with her and feel like she is every bit as much my own as my other 3 daughters. Yes, life is still exhausting, and yes, she is still crazy busy and LOUD and likes to be heard and attended to, um, promptly--I guess she knows she is number 4 and is not about to be lost in the shuffle, haha! It has been a long 6 months and we have been stretched and tugged and pulled and broken. But I would hope that we have been broken like warm bread, that from being broken can be shared to nourish others rather than broken into jagged pieces that wound and cause pain. This was ultimately my goal in sharing our story-to take our brokenness and use it for God's glory. To encourage others who may be struggling to feel affection toward their new children. To raise awareness amongst those who are adopting that it may not be like you expect, and that is ok. And to let my newest little Thing know I love her--and that I would do every minute of the last 6 months over if I needed to for her to be here as my daughter.

She's Makin' A List And Checkin' It Twice

2009-10-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

6 Months Ago

2009-10-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

How Will God Use YOU?

2009-10-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

That was the question we asked our church body today as we launched a brand new ministry named "Loved By Choice", a foster care and adoption ministry!! We have a website that is brand new and under construction but we hope to have some pretty neat stuff on it this week. I have been pretty busy making the presentation video and planning for the presentation of the ministry today so that explains the lack of computer presence I have had lately. But the presentation went great and we have a big group of folks signed up to come to the info seminar we will be having on November 14th at our church. We are presenting info about being a foster, adoptive or wrap-around family which is one who could provide all kinds of support to foster and adopting families and children. This has been a long time in the making to get this ministry going and God finally brought it to fruition and we are really excited about where it will go and how many lives will be affected by it. There are 4 of us that were the "development team", if you will, 3 of whom have adopted internationally and one of whom is a social worker with our Department of Social Services and who works with foster care, and ALL 4 of whom love Jesus and want to be obedient to His call to "defend the cause of the fatherless" (Isaiah 1:17). God is on the move at our church and working in the hearts of His people and as we said to our church family today, YOU are God's plan for the orphan. How will God use YOU?

Muffin Update

2009-10-07T05:30:00.000-07:00

My mom passed on this idea from a co-worker about those pumkin muffins I posted about. Mix the can of pumpkin with a CHOCOLATE cake mix and they will be super moist and yummy and decadent yet semi-healthy as they have pumpkin and no eggs and oil. Well, in the name of research for you, my blog peeps, I used Betty Crocker Triple Fudge mix and OH. MY. GOODNESS. I have re-named the recipe 'Sin Muffins'. They do not taste pumpkiny mixed with chocolate so there is no veggie/squash type thing going on, it just makes them super moist (oh I HATE that word-skeeves me out) and you will not feel like there is one healthy thing about them. So just keep telling yourself, while you are on your 50th or so muffin that "hey, these suckers have VEGETABLES in them, they gotta be good for me!!!" Enjoy!!

ps-Ironically, eating 50 or so of these may contribute to a "muffin top" of your very own, but hey! they have VEGGIES in them, people!!

Monday Stinks

2009-09-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

And to add to the dead animal tally around here, our big dumb dog graced us with THIS this morning:

At first I felt a little bad for it because it looks all cute and fluffy and Flower-from-Bambi-ish, until I looked a little closer and saw it's BIG WHITE FANG sticking out of it's mouth. Sooooo not Flower.

Monday stinks. And so does EVERYTHING else at our house now. Yuck.

Blah-g

2009-09-24T19:49:00.001-07:00

Y'all, I have just been tired in my spirit lately, the kind of tired that makes anything I think about writing on here seem like too much effort. Ever get like that? But it has been nice just taking a break from all of it and getting back into school mode. I have really been enjoying my days home with the just the little ones and have been baking and cooking up a storm-I love to cook when it becomes Fall for some reason! Hmm, maybe the reason is my lack of cooking anything real for most of the Summer and I am trying to soothe my guilty conscience....maybe, whatever. But I miss my big girls when they are gone, too. Cannot win in the parenting arena sometimes!! Little Miss Thing 4 has become a wild thang with half a (non-purple) tooth since I last wrote and pulling up and cruising on EVERYTHING! Hello child, you are only 10 months old you crazy loon, sit back down please!! But I do feel like we have finally turned a corner and are really starting to enjoy our newly re-formed family. Yes, it has been a rough road of adjusting and attaching for all of us. I have a blog post written in my head about that and maybe if y'all are nice to me, I might just put it onto the actual blog one of these days, ha. Does anyone else do that, compose posts in your head that just never seem to make it out of there?? It is just often easier to type out a quick sentence on Facebook instead, mostly because I have the attention span of a gnat and I cannot focus for more than 5 seconds. Anyhoo, since I got nuthin' real exciting to say right now because I am a lazy blogger, I will leave you with my one of my favorite, super-easy, super-yummy Fall recipes I have made thus far:

Pumkin Muffins

1 can pumpkin
1 box spice cake mix

Mix together, plop in batter muffin tins and bake according to cupcake directions on cake mix (maybe 20ish minutes? I cannot remember and I am too lazy to walk the 15 feet to the kitchen to check). DE-STINKIN-LICIOUS!!! It is like eating Fall.

(Apparently really blurry Fall, sorry)

Football Season Is Here!!

2009-09-06T21:42:00.001-07:00

We introduced our newest family member to the fever that is Hokie football this weekend, complete with a trip to the stadium and into the players' tunnel for her to touch the Hokie Stone, and even if it was not the Hokies' win, we think she understood the importance. I mean, look how happy we are, I mean, SHE is, to be sporting orange and maroon???

I think she gets it :).

Purple Haze, All In My Brain

2009-09-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a conversation that Thing 3 and I had in the car today:

Me to Thing 4: Zoe, will you ever get any teeth?

Thing3: Yes, she does (go with me, people, it is toddler-speak)-she TOLD me! (said with the sassy attitude only a 2-almost-3 year old can provide)

Me: She did?

Thing 3: Yes, and they will be purple!!!

Me: Purple?? Her teeth? Hmm...

Thing 3: Oh yes, PURPLE, Mama. Because she will have them and they WILL be purple. Because she said so. And I said so.

Alrighty then, little miss Sassypants, good to know. We will be on the lookout for any purple toofers sprouting through and keep you all informed. It looks like the helmet will be the least of the things we need to answer questions about to total strangers....

Hello, Strangers!

2009-08-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all! Well the musical finished up last weekend and IT. WAS. AWESOME. Really one of the most fun things I have done and I am super sad it is over, but alas, I suppose all good things must come to an end. And also the laundry has become alive and is breathing down my neck and threatening to kick me out of the house so I guess it might be nice if I was around the house once in a while. Since I last posted anything, the older 2 Things have gone back to school (sniff, sniff) and we have all been busy getting back into that groove. Also, while you are still chuckling about my musical participation, I will add to you chuckle fodder by letting you know that the Husband and I got 24 hours away from ALL the kiddos and spent it at Mountain Lake Resort for 'Dirty Dancing' weekend, oh yes we did! It is about 25 minutes from our house and is the place where most of the movie 'Dirty Dancing'[ was filmed, GASP!, 22 years ago (What?! how can that be since I remember it so well and I am still just a college kid??). We missed a lot of the "activities" by the time we could get up there but we did get to go to the big dance they had Saturday nite and it was a blast! I have some pictures and will post them when I am not exhausted (hahahaha, look for them about 2035 then...) and hopefully I will get to them before the laundry takes over. Glad to be back to blogland and hope there are still all 3 of you out there checkin' in!

On Hiatus

2009-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

So our very busy dress rehearsal schedule and soon to be performances, coupled with daily life here at Chez Things, is necessitating a blog hiatus until after the show closes. So, if you are local or even if you are not, below are the show details-c'mon and see it!! Otherwise, I will see you back here in about 2 weeks and until then, here is a topic: Joseph's coat, neithuh technicoluh naw dreamy, talk amongst ya selves........

Performance Dates:Thursday through Sunday, August 13-16 & August 20-23, 2009

Curtain times are at 7:30 pm (Thursday through Saturday) and 2:30 pm for the Sunday matinee.

Location: Haymarket Theatre, Squires Student Center, Blacksburg

Tickets available at the door: General Admission $15 Senior (+65) $10 Student/Child $6

For more information, visit the web site: http://www.civic.bev.net/sme/

I Spy

2009-08-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

How many real human children are in this picture?