I am here!

33 hours later...  I am exhausted, but loving the surprise of my kids showing up at the airport!!

It was a long, long journey to get here, but in the process of a 9 hour detour, because of an engine problem, God brought me an incredible blessing.  Her name is Tamela, (she is here to pick up her daughter) and we are having so much fun here, together!

What will you do??

I will be gone March 21- April 4th. Traveling parts of 2 days on each side.  One of our (the boys and I) first days will be spent with Trent and Carmen, who work with street kids, a couple of Kolfe boys, and parent 10 girls in their home. She is hoping to teach my boys to cook a few things while we are there.

And the first Sunday we will be church, International Evangelical Church, and taking Linda, (missionaries with SIMS at Bingham Academy) out to lunch afterwards.

Beyond that, we will be visiting Kolfe, and our sponsor babies at the Shannon's Day Care (Embracing Hope Ethiopia). My plan is to take the Shannon's out to dinner, and possibly, if they let us... babysitting their kids some night so that they can have a date.

I am looking into the possibility of getting our Project 61 sponsor girl home from boarding school, to spend some time with us the 2nd week. Just praying about that, because she is not doing well in school, so I am not sure if this is wise or not, but keeping the news that I am in town, from her, is proving to be impossible.

We will be at Kolfe more the 2nd weekend, when the Kenya missionary family (TJ and Lindsay) arrives to join us. And the whole trip, we will be spending time with Jennifer, a fb friend who is on a 3 month stay (vision trip) at the Day Care, and also staying at the same guest house. She spends her evenings alone right now, so I am looking forward to folding her into our family. )

There are lots of little things on my to-do list, involving individual boys.  And in general, just loving on our two... who are planning to take most of the time off from school and work, so I will have company.  Loving that, they are always a delight to spend time with, and it is great practice for Ayal's English.

That's about as detailed as I get for this trip, until I can get there and figure things out better. I am hoping some donations come in so that I can travel with money enough to run a small project either at Kolfe or elsewhere... it may end up being for flip flops for all the younger boys, or something completely different. I am praying that God will make that really clear when we are there.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ayal!!

March 2nd was Ayal's 2nd Birthday.

We are declaring him now 22 years old,

but his real age and birth date is anyone's guess.

~ ♥ ~

If you want to read the most amazing memory from my 2nd trip...  click here,

and read about his 1st ever birthday, and the story behind this photo.

At the end of February, I began reminding

both boys that Ayal's birthday was coming up.

Yes, it is that insignificant there.

As I reminded them, now that they

have a family, it was important to us...

And so, Emnatu John, became my hands and feet.

Turns out, that my choice of March 2nd?

Well that will ALWAYS be a holiday in Ethiopia,

and provide both boys with the day off from

work and school...

It's almost like I planned it!

(but I didn't...)  

The pictures are grainy, they had to use

 a camera phone, but we were so thankful

 to be a part of this!

Emnatu sprung for cake, soda,

snacks, party ware and dinner.

Ummmm... THAT'S a CANDLE!!!

John and I were planning to pay for this celebration.

Planning being the prime word there...

Emnatu was greatly offended by this.

Sweet kid argued with me profusely

 that he HAD money,

and would pay for this himself.  :O) 

Love his heart...

♥ Fendisha, my favorite food. ♥

Loving the photos of us in the background of these.

Back in January, I sent birthday cards for the kids.

Emnatu's was sent to Ayal,

and Ayal's was sent to Emnatu...

Happy Birthday, Ayal John!

So glad you were able to feel special for a day!!

Neat Little Piles

Click the link below:

Neat Little Piles

Love this post from Jerry Shannon.  Jerry and Christy live and work among the poorest of the poor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I can't wait to share with you more stories of their ministry when I get back.  Top on my list is for the boys and I to go hold our sponsor babies at the Shannon's day care center... and hopefully take the family out to dinner, to love on them just a bit!

I encourage you to read this post, and catch a glimpse of life for these moms in Ethiopia.  Then pray...

Happy "Family Anniversary"

March 14, 2010,

this young man responded to an email.

He had learned that

God has given him the answer

to a long, long, long prayed prayer.

He now had a Mom,

He had a Dad,

 He had a second brother,

and he had a sister.

So proud to show me his paper from
work, saying he had gotten a raise.



He had people who cared about

him, and his accomplishments.

God used this young man

to change us,

our family,

our priorities,

our fear of leaving the country. ;o)

~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

And in the process,

this young man changed a little too...

God's goodness in

the past 730 days...

Nothing short of amazing!



Something you might have missed during the darkness...

There were things I wanted to share, but didn't the past two months while the blog was off...

Is it just me, or does the size difference between them,
freak anyone else out?  Sheesh!

 Emnatu and 35 other boys/young men, were asked

 (a better word is "forced", but that sounds negative, and

 really, this was a good thing, hence the word "asked")

 to move out of the orphanage January 11th.

This was his life for so many years, he was
dreading the quiet of living on his own.

This is a good thing for Emnatu especially.  John and I had been asking him to move... well, actually, John was nice about it, I was pretty much type-shouting it for quite a while, but Emnatu John was scared.

Life in an orphanage was the only thing he had ever known (orphaned around age 2) so the unknown of adult life had him terrified.  A week before he moved out...  our/his computer was stolen by one of the other boys.  Further proving my point, that it was time!!! (Guess what I will be lugging with me next week??)

He has moved twice since January, but as of the past month, he is now living with Ayal. Life is good. They are able to share expenses, and they have a 3rd roommate, and with a bit of help from Mom and Dad, they are making it comfortably. (I think)

This is their stove.   Try to control your excitement...

They will always be our "boys", but truly, they are now adults, and learning to live as such.  Emnatu has asked me to teach him how to cook.  I don't know how much I can teach him in a foreign country...

This is the "kitchen" from Ayal's last rental. Ooo, ahh....
CLICK ON PHOTO to enlarge...

 I am not good at "camping" cooking, but it is looking like my first Saturday will be spent at a missionary's house, where SHE has offered to teach us all some dishes.  (And, a second missionary is going to make me some pancake mix, so that the boys and I can make Jesus Pancakes back at the guest house.)

See? Now I can...

Share freely that is...

without fear!

Oh, this is going to be good!

(If you are looking for the post on the reasons for the privacy of this blog, check under this post.)

Meet one of our favorites at Kolfe...

Gashaw

I met him my first trip, (Aug of 2010) and fell in love with this sweet, sweet boy.

He is deaf, in an orphanage with only 3 deaf kids.

Gashaw is an underdog, an outcast of sorts...

always just on the edge of friendships.

To be his friend takes work.

I get this kid.  I too often feel like an outcast,

I don't "fit in" anymore in my surroundings.

(and I thank God for that!)

Very few people want to sit and talk for hours of

orphans, sponsor children, Africa...

I'm on the edge of friendships, just like Gashaw, always looking in.

Maybe I have always been that way, maybe because I was an only child... and now, as an adult, it is only worse, with this God given passion, that just doesn't fit comfortably into this American life I live. 

I know that to know me, isn't always to love me,

and I take a work to stick with.

That is why, I love, love, love this young man!

Smiling, in the midst of a downpour!

Hook, line and sinker,

I get this kid.

When we got back from the trip in August, John said he had a soft spot for Gashaw too.

Oh, how I wish you could meet him.... his smile is amazing, and for those who work to speak his language... aw... the rewards are huge.

--------------

Trip #3...  August.

John and I had been working with the older boys to hand out the clothing we had brought.  We didn't have enough for all 250+ kids, but we did our best, based on what the boys determined were the most needy.  But we missed one.

Later that afternoon, Gashaw came up to John and I and signed, asking us if we had a shirt for him.

 WE DIDN'T... we had nothing, and there was no time to go shopping.  "It's okay, it's okay, don't worry, it's fine." Gashaw said to us, with his huge smile, but our hearts literally broke in two.  Why hadn't we thought of him, and held one back?  Of course he wouldn't be hanging around waiting for a hand out, or have his photo taken... Gashaw is never around for that... he doesn't fit like that.

Ethiopian Finger Sign different in so many ways from our ASL.

So we went home, with the resolve to get him a shirt ASAP.  To bring that sweet smile to his face and let him know he is loved and prayed for.

(Now, I know, you are reading this, thinking there will be some big announcement... like, we have another Kolfe Son, or we are paper adopting him...  We were open to both of those, and had even done some checking... but God has better plans for Gashaw that don't include us...)

This is what Emnatu sent us a few months later...

We sent him 2 shirts, a letter, and candy & snacks galore.

A few months ago, I saw this photo on fb... and I knew...  it had significance.  Gashaw doesn't get his photo taken often, especially paired with another boy such as this. (who is being adopted)  ♥ Gashaw is in the process of moving to America. ♥  The boys tell me he is being paper adopted, and will be leaving soon, if not already.  Our hearts are so full of joy for him.  I hope he is there a few more days, and I can squeeze the life out of him one more time!

There are people all around us, that for whatever reason, are a bit different than us. Don't assume that means they don't have something very precious to bring to a friendship. This kid rocks... he is amazing. But you have to give a little to figure it out.

Back up and running again

It's been a long time since I posted.

Only a few of you asked,

which surprised me because of the number

of views this blog got each day.

I interpreted that to mean no one truly cared

one way or the other.

A friend finally mentioned it yesterday.

"Am I not on the privileged list for the blog?"

Well, the good news is that there WAS no privileged list.  There seems to be no way to actually shut a blog down other than to go private with no readers.

Obviously I am back, so let me explain a few

of the reasons why things have changed.

1) A picture paints a thousand words.

I ♥ to share, and photos are the best way for me to do this.  But...  Public photos of orphans are illegal in Ethiopia, and I had been getting hits to this blog from Ethiopia.  I suspect it was missionary friends, but the only information I could gather was which country they were from.  So I had stopped sharing the photos that told the stories I wanted to share. 

With a private blog, this problem is solved.

2)  Front page news??

A woman had set her facebook (with over 2,000) friends to repost each and every post I made.  Sweet that she enjoyed this enough to share, but the pressure to determine if what I wanted to say was really worthy of that size of audience... it was stressing me out, and I was resisting posting at all. 

With a private blog, this problem is solved.

3) Google Searches 

I wanted to keep this blog out of Google searches, so that not every Joe Shmoe, could find it when searching for Kolfe.  That wasn't happening. 

With a private blog, this problem is solved.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are more, but those are the top 3 reasons...

I know doing it this way is MUCH more of a pain for all of you, but, I think it is worth the smaller following it will produce.  Expect photos and stories to start showing up soon!