Kenya - July 2015

Donald and I were blessed with the opportunity to travel to Kenya with a team from our church in July of this year. This trip wouldn't have been possible without a huge team of financial supporters, prayer warriors and kid wranglers. Thanks to all of you for the gracious sacrifice of your time and resources! Check out below for a snapshot of what our week looked like, a few of our favorite pictures, and a link to a blog post I wrote about our trip. Donald will be returning to Kenya in a couple of weeks. Please be praying for him and the medical team he is traveling with! Thank you!

Day 1 - Travel (Greenville to Detroit to Amsterdam to Nairobi)
Day 2 - More travel (Arrived at 8:30pm Kenya time after 25 hours of travel)
Day 3 - Worship at Koinonia Baptist Church, Lunch with Bernard and family friends
Day 4 - Happy Day Academy
Day 5 - Happy Day Academy; travel to Karatina
Day 6 - Visit OVC families; lunch and afternoon with Bernard's mother and family
Day 7 - Aberdare Baptist Convention's Children and Student Ministry Conference
Day 8 - Happy Day (morning); Returned to Conference (afternoon)
Day 9- Travel to Sweetwaters (visited an OVC child on way)
Day 10- Safari; Travel back to Nairobi; Board flight for home
Day 11- More travel. Arrived to Greenville around 4pm

Now that I've thrown a bunch of names out there...

Bernard is a Kenyan pastor who we are partnered with. Koinonia Baptist is a church he founded, which is now led by a team of pastors. Happy Day Academy is a K3-8th grade private school that Bernard's wife, Mary, started in her home with seven children. It now has a campus with over 200 students. OVC stands for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (read more below or an awesome explanation here). Aberdare Baptist Convention is a group of pastors from all over Central Kenya that is led by Bernard. They organize and host the conferences and medical camps that our church is blessed to be a part of. 

Lots of things are going on in Kenya -- As our team leader told us, we were not packing God up in a box and taking Him with us!! As you can see, God is there and working in big ways through His people!

I had the privilege of being with this class for 2.5 days. Teacher Serah and her 30 first grade students were extremely welcoming. It was hard to say goodbye. You may have noticed their jackets and hats... It was upper 60's/lower 70's, but that is cold to them!

This is a container structure that the men on our team painted at Happy Day. It will be used as a cafeteria for the students who, prior to this, have always eaten outside.

We visited several people who were beneficiaries of the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Chicken and Goat ministry.  This program provides a goat and/or chickens to widows, widowers and children in need.

This is Manasseh. He is the OVC child that we were paired with around two years ago. Manasseh was born with spina bifida, and spends most of his time on this couch or in a wheel chair, yet his joyful laugh is contagious.  I was thrilled to get the chance to meet him (Donald has been able to visit him on previous trips).

Bernard and his mother. She is in her 80's and graciously cooked a huge meal for us (the life expectancy in Kenya is 61).

These are some of the women who attended the Children and Student Ministry Conference. During tea breaks and lunch, our team was able to get to know the men and women, which I absolutely loved. They had lots of questions regarding different ministries within our church and American culture in general.

Stanley was a little boy who attended the conference with his mother. Our team helped take care of the children so their mothers could listen to the speakers without distraction. Stanley's favorite thing to do was roll duct tape down the hill and then go get it with Donald.

This dear family served us lunch on Saturday. Two of the children are actually nieces, but they were adopted into the family after becoming orphans many years ago. Both this family and Bernard's mother killed a chicken to feed our team. Chickens are normally only used for eggs and are rarely used for their meat (maybe once a year for Christmas). Both families sacrificed tremendously by serving us chicken along with bountiful side dishes and tea.

This is James... a six-year-old boy who stole my heart and was the inspiration for my blog post.

This is Joseph, a widower who received this goat through the OVC Chicken and Goat Project. The goat will provide milk for Joseph as well as manure for his garden. 

Bernard and I on the safari. An elephant got on the road in front of us, and it looks like Bernard is pointing at him, but he was actually pointing to a giraffe to my left. It was such a gift to see God's creation in ways I have never seen before.

Home!! Reunited with the kids at the airport. xoxo

Our trip to Kenya was under the umbrella of Grace Church's Culturally Engaged ministry whose mission is "Growing the local church, here and around the world, by proclaiming the Gospel, investing in strategic relationships, and equipping people for a life of service that glorifies God." Please click here to read a post about how this mission has changed my personal thinking, and visit the Culturally Engaged web site for other related posts and helpful links aimed at equipping us to live on mission both locally and abroad.

70's Mom Prayer - Still Relevant

Somewhere along the line I ended up with one of my mom's old Bibles, which is from the late 70's early 80's based on the scribbles in it from my oldest sister. I love seeing what my mom underlined and her notes from times past. These were the years she is where I am now... in the middle of full-on mom life. In the front of the Bible, she taped a newspaper clipping... a prayer for moms (and dads)... one that probably wouldn't even be printed in a newspaper these days. It's a humbling, encouraging reminder to lift up my days to the Lord, when I can barely see through the mountains of laundry, feel beyond the sticky, gritty floors, or hear past my own jaded voice. The prayer is probably not perfect (and I'm sure could be picked apart), but at surface level asking the Lord for humility and the strength for self-sacrifice is the gist of it. 

Thank you, Mom, for cutting this out of the newspaper nearly 40 years ago and being a faithful prayer warrior all of these years. Thank you, Lord, for being the ultimate example of humility and self-sacrifice! We love because He first loved us! 1 John 4:19

Oh God, make me a better parent. It is the most important job in the world and one for which there is no prior training.
Help me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to respond to their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting and contradicting them. Help me be courteous to them as I would have them be to me.
Give me the courage to confess my sins against my children and the generosity of spirit to ask them for forgiveness when I know I have done wrong.
Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame and ridicule.
Oh Lord, reduce the meanness in me.
May I cease to nag. When I am out of sorts, help me, please, to hold my tongue and keep my temper under control.
Blind me to the insignificant short-comings of my children and help me see the good things they do.
Give me a ready word for honest praise. Make me ever mindful that they need the nurturing that comes with encouragement and appreciation for their small successes.
Help me remember that my children are only children so that I may not expect from them the judgement of adults.
Allow me not to rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves, to think for themselves, and to make their own mistakes.
Forbid that I should ever punish them as a means of ridding myself of anger and frustration. Help me to exercise reason and control.
May I grant them all wishes that are sensible and give the courage to withhold a privilege when I know it might do them harm.
Make me fair, just, and considerate. Make me fit to be loved and imitated by my children. May they arise and call me blessed.

Things I Hear from the Driver's Seat

US History According to my Four-Year-Old and Five-Year-Old

Did you know there were two wars? We lost the first one and won the second one.
How?
When the bad guys weren't paying attention, we shot their boat.
Did it sink?
Yes. All the way to the bottom.
Did they come back up?
No.... they didn't have floaties and the bad-guy lifeguards weren't paying attention.
Oh... I know they drownded.
Yeah.
And then they got dead.
Yep.

You're Fired

Did you know there's a girl in my class whose grandma lives with them?
Why?
Because she has had six daddies, and she's about to have her seventh.
Why is she getting a new daddy?
Because the other got fired.
Why'd he get fired?
Because he was fighting in the street and the police officer told him to stop but he kept doing it.
So how did he get fire on him??
Ummm (thinking)........ Oh because one of the neighbors went and got fire and put it on him.
Oh. Was it blue fire??
Hmmm, no I don't think so.

No Nuts

What if the doggie daycare place gave the dogs peanuts for a treat.
Hmmm..... or what about pecans?!?!
Ewwwwwww... Can you imagine a dog eating a real live BIRD??!! That's disgusting, isn't it?!
Insert Mom: Charley, pecans are nuts, sweetie. You're thinking TOUCAN.
Hmm. Oh.

The Toilet Seat Mystery

Mama! Eli left the toilet seat up!
How do you know it was Eli?
Because he's the only who is potty trained.
No, remember.... Daddy is potty trained too!
Guilty Eli pops his head into the room singing: It's a mysteryyyyyyyy (insert speech impediment that makes it even funnier. Think mystawee).

Catchin' Up

A shower?? .......Nah.
I saved the above as a draft ohhhhhh like nine months ago. And it's still funny. To meeeee. :)

Things have been busy. Someone once said "busy" stood for Being Under Satan's Yoke. I mean, yeah that could be true. But not necessarily. Either way, that little acronym is a helpful reminder to remember the great God who I am serving and to keep myself grounded by talking to Him and reading His word. And I often fail at that, even in non-busy times.

Here's a little summary of life in the last few months...

In April we sold our house, Donald went to Kenya, I took the kids to Charleston, and our little girl turned FIVE!
In May, we bought a house, Donald traveled to New Jersey, Donald and I went to Hawaii (sans kids...whaaat!), we moved out of our house and moved into a friends house.
In June, we went to the beach with my family, moved out of our friend's house and into our new house. And I got to go the beach again with my d-group girls (who are about to start their sophomore year in college!)
July was just trying to unpack. And catch up with people.

"Bye Daddy!!!"

 And now it's August and life has come to a screeching halt. The boys and I got hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Oh man. Not fun. Just think about cutting the inside of your mouth with razor blades and then gargling with bleach. Pretty much what it has felt like. I had over 25 sores in my mouth at one time, and eating would just make me cry...actually, sometimes just sitting still would make me cry! The boys were much tougher, and other than Eli waking up at night in pain, they were champs (minus some grumpy attitudes, which weren't remarkably worse than normal).
Anyways, I don't share this with you to bring pity....God was at work! Imagine the things I learned about myself during this time!! Can I be joyful amid pain? Is food an idol in my life? What about my children? Can I still be the mom He asked me to be when I'm not feeling great?? Does my happiness come from my Creator's love for me or from the friends and family I was isolated from and missed like crazy? I am so grateful for the things He showed me during this time. Annnd even though it was hard and overwhelming at times, spending the last two weeks of summer at home with the kids before the rat race of fall began was a gift! I just had to keep my attitude in check :)
So yeah, don't feel sorry for me. But do feel sorry for any friends who may get it... and avoid them like the plague. ;)

Moving on....The kids are so big. So big. Here's a little update on each of them.

Landon- Wow. He's almost two! He started walking in May when he was 18-months. The latest of the children to walk but has certainly made up for lost time... Chases the other two everyyyywhere. Definitely has the little-brother-gotta-keep-up-with-big-brother-and-sister thing going on. So.. a late walker but an early talker. He repeats everything anyone says and has started talking in short sentences. He is quite the comedian and finds himself hilarious. We get lots of laughs just by looking at his expressive face. Landon's favorite foods are eggs, crackers and fruit... and of course he's a huge fan of sweets... Like his mama. Eli and Landon share a room in our new house, and that is going well. Usually they will inadvertently wake each other up in the mornings, but at nighttime they will generally fall asleep even if the other one is talking or singing or whatever else.

Eli will be four in a few weeks. What. He is still a happy, smiley boy, but has found himself crying for silly reasons lately and has recently told all family members at some point in time that they have "broke his feelings." So we are working on his heart in that area. He loves sports, like a ton, and plays basketball in the driveway most days and has just started his first baseball season. He was a pro with the plastic bat and ball combo, so the smaller metal bat is a new challenge. He hasn't gotten too discouraged yet with the swing-and-a-miss... he will get there. Eli is our social kid who doesn't like to spend time alone. He desires to have a playmate always, so he will certainly miss Charley once she is off at school. He will have to learn how to play better with Landon, who is not quite at the "playing-with" age, so I'm sure it will take some time.

Charley, on the other hand, is totally fine with playing by herself. She has rest time while the boys nap (which, Eli has just dropped his nap, btw) and spends at least an hour playing in her room after she and I read together. She is the creative child and loves art, dancing, inventing, performing, writing "books," and imaginative play. She will start taking dance after Labor Day, and is super excited. She takes good care of Landon as her level of patience with him verses with Eli is much higher. He, Landon, often bites, hits and pulls hair, unprovoked, so how she is patient with him, I'm not sure. I mean, she still screams bloody murder if any of the above offenses take place, but she forgives him quickly. If Eli even looks at her wrong, the two of them quickly decide that they are enemies.... we working on that as well. I will say, however, that the last few weeks of summer I have seen them (finally) getting to the age where they can go up to one of their rooms and play together. Even Landon will join them, but sometimes I will find that they are excluding him because he is destroying whatever they are playing with (which is how he earned the nickname 'Godzilla').
Charley starts kindergarten this week!! Hard to believe. I am excited for her and not crazy emotional...yet. I think it may be harder for me if she ends up not enjoying it, which is not what I'm expecting. She loved loved loved preschool, so I'm hoping the transition will be easy. But we will see!

Landon often asks to sit in our "yaps"

Here's our family at a neighbor's birthday party. We are making a fairy house, if it isn't obvious.

We got to see our cousins for a brief visit a few weeks ago! Jrew just turned five and Jazz will be four in December... annnd Baby Girl Rose is due in October!

In other news, we have a new nephew, Addison, who was born last weekend, and as mentioned in the caption above, we will have a new niece in October. Actually TWO new nieces, because my sister is pregnant and due then as well!!!!! We are so excited!!!! Praise God for the sweet little babies. Can't wait to meet them!!!

Sky Top 2012

I think most Upstate families would agree that going to Sky Top Apple Orchard is a fall favorite and a must-do each year. Our family sure loves going! We went at the end of September this year, and the weather was gorgeous... minus the thirty minute rain shower that conveniently happened while we were out in the orchard. It absolutely poured on us, but we were prepared and had everybody bundled in rain gear. Once the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was beautiful!!!!!

Our three silly apples

How Tall is Charley this Fall??

How Tall is Eli this Fall??

How tall is Landon this Fall??

On the Fence

I adore my big sister!

Hahaha Daddy, this is funnnn

First Time Picking an Apple!

Are we supposed to get them off the trees or off the ground?... bc there are more on the ground...

Family Pic! You would never guess that we set the camera on a timer and balanced it on top of the jogger for this pic. Not to mention the three little ones are smiling (and looking) AND we just got drenched!!

Bear Bottom Time!

Dondie and I took the kids on our first family vacation! Since we enjoy people so much, especially friends and family people, we have always traveled either with friends or family OR to go see friends or family. So we dared to be different this time and spent four days with just the five of us. Oh it was incredibly fun. What a blessing to spend time together, away from the busyness of everyday life, enjoying the Lord's BEAUTIFUL creation!
We were in northern NC at a friend's cute-as-anything mountain house, "Bear Bottom" (thank you, thank you, thank you), and did LOTS of fun things such as: hiking, canoeing, BBQ festival-ing, driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, marshmallowing (as Charley calls it), star gazing, etc etc etc!!
We also had some great family laughs by rolling down big hills! At my grandmother's funeral two years ago, I distinctly remember one of my uncles saying that his mom (my grandmother) had taught him how to roll down hills. This made him really emotional because it was just one example of how she had been hands-on with her sons and didn't sit on the sidelines and watch. Anyways, that story really stuck with me, so when the kids (and Dondie) wanted to roll down the hill, well... I just had to!! Oh it was fun! But... cue the two-hour episode of nausea! Who knew rolling down a hill was like riding the Gravitron at the State Fair!! Haha.

So here is our week in pictures! We are hoping to make family vacations a family tradition! :)

We had lots of fun watching the hummingbirds drink it up all week!

Absolutely beautiful.

Ready to hike!
 "Ummm...Daddy?!?..are you sure about this??"

Lots of fun times on the front porch.

Gorgeous view form the top of the property.

I love wild flowers! (and so does Charley... she picked about 435 of them)

Running down the hill like the Little House on the Prairie intro...

Family shot. Landon, your hat made it in the picture at least!!

One of our many deer sightings.

Photo shoot with our lovies.

Gotta have both Lambie and Bear.

One of my favorite lovies.

At a BBQ joint in Galax, VA. Good stuff.

Hi.

Dogs and marshmallows!!! With a view!

Hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog.

Daddy wins!!

Mommy's turn!

Sweet things!

Beautiful sunset over a nearby Christmas Tree Farm.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship!!! Psalm 19:1