Container

So Andrew got up at 5:30am to go meet the container over at the center.  It was quite an experience unloading all of the items into trucks right on the main road in the middle of Freetown but the container could not reach any of the three locations that the items were going to so it had to be done.    Bystanders began to congregate and by the time they were done several hours later it had gotten a little overwhelming.  Micheal had to retrieve a couple of items from people and Osseh went ahead and brought a load to our house in his car.  When the truck arrived I was in shock.  When I left my American house there was a small area of our garage that held our 'container' items.  This truck held three times that.  The amount of food items was unbelievable.   Levi was overjoyed at the mountain of mac n cheese.  Everyone has loved eating cereal for a change and lunch has been so much easier for me since the arrival of all the peanut butter and tuna fish.  We actually made chocolate chip cookies for the first time tonight and they were well received.  Albert has decided he'd like them for dinner tomorrow.  

Let me be a Debbie downer here and say that I have really struggled since coming back from the U.S.  Dealing with a sick child can be so tiring and when I got here it was the end of the raining season so everything smelled moldy.  It grows like crazy here.  It is especially bad on leather so one of my bags and our belts were completely covered.  Any wooden furniture has fuzz and you have to wash every fabric thing possible.  The rains are also growing moss on the concrete.  It is so slick that  even when I am gingerly walking along with my bowl of food for the chickens there is this one spot that I have yet to master and if anyone decides to videotape one of these daily episodes I could be the winner of 10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos.  Well, I guess that would be Africa's Funniest Home Video's.  Then there were the roaches.  Ew I hate roaches.  Something about the rains effected them coming into our kitchen.  We put out traps and powder and really nothing seemed to work until the rains slowed and now they are gone as far as I can tell.  It's funny what things perk you up.  I have a dining room table that Andrew and I joke that is my 6th child.  I love that table and it is one of the few furniture pieces that I just could not bear to part with.  I searched for a very long time to find it because I wanted one that seated 12.  When we bought it I had visions of Thanksgivings and Christmas's with my grandchildren.  I had ideas of hosting dinner parties with friends and art projects with my 20 kids and their friends in the neighborhood.  Only one of those three things has happened so far.  But, at that table I have a full stock of memories of people that I love dearly eating experimental casseroles and thanksgiving pumpkin dishes.  I remember doing a few failed crafts for kids at the center which lead to about 100 non-epoxied necklaces lining the mantle and shelves for weeks because I just couldn't bear to throw them away until I had searched the web to make sure there was no salvation for them.  There was not.  I laugh at the photo of a very plump little Ivey standing on that table in her halloween outfit.  On that table my mom and I made our first quilt and patched together pieces for my first nephew's birth.  I delicately tapped sharpie marker on spots where someone nicked the top with his light saber and I laughed nervously when another 'him' helped me hang christmas decorations on the chandelier above it.  But even the day I bought it I knew that it would not be long before it would have scratches and nicks.  That was part of the lure.  I wanted to look at those marks when I was 70 and remember.  When the container arrived I felt the satisfaction of it being back with me.  Ready to add scuffs and dents and marks with three new family members.  

Levi was elated over Monty the T-rex who has already bit John and crushed every Lego car in sight.  Ivey's kitchen was a huge hit with the girls and the shopping cart was the subject of several conversations with Isatu where I had to explain how Americans shop at grocery stores and put babies and groceries in the cart to push around.

But the bikes take the cake.  The kids were just beside themselves. Well, all but Ivey who insist walking is just fine.  

The arrival of my sewing machine has kept me up hours into the night (when we have electricity) sewing and smiling like a mad person.  I finished the couch slipcover, throw pillows and stool cushions.  It is now a lot more comfortable and colorful than it was and we are all glad for that.    

But really all that just can't compare to something else.  Like I said, it is funny what things can work you out of a funk.  There were things like fishing line that Brad packed with a hilarious note to go with the poles he made for the boys when he was here.   We found the box from my mom marked with christmas tree stickers that I have sworn on my life I would not open until christmas.   Andrew pointed out some of the boxes saying, 'That is a McCauley special' because apparently Jarrod is a master at getting creative with packaging.  We opened a box to find a ton of children's vitamins from Kelly.  Dave, who is a masterful shipper and the head of all this hustle and bustle container activity, did such an amazing job that not one thing was broken.  Not one thing.  All that planning, working, thinking of things our family would want or need.  All that time spend collecting and packing for us.  FOR US.  That can snap you back to good.  

I must brazenly ask for one more thing.  When I am 70 I want a memory of each of you at that table in West Africa.  Come and experimentally eat some plasas or beanch in the sweltering heat with 5 kids and two hair brained friends.  We'll even serve you chocolate chip cookies made in our new oven.  How could I have any better memories than that?

Overdue thanks.

When I logged onto this site it said that my last blog post was Sept. 11.  Geez, time has flown by.  I have a third quarter year resolution of writing more posts.  I have tons to write about it is just difficult to find time and Internet access.  My stick is broken again so I have to use Andrew's computer at night.  Anyway enough with the excuses and to the meat. 
I have desperately wanted to post some amazing, eloquently written thank you note to everyone who has been a part of our lives and our vision for Sierra Leone.  However, each thing I think up just seems so short of the depth our family feels.  Please know that my lack of saying something awesome is not because of a lack of gratitude but rather an inability to express it.  
I also thought that my plane ride back to SL would be the perfect time to type this perfection of print but as I have mentioned in previous post I am slow.  I was flanked on both sides by children in seats the size of  match boxes trying to keep them from kicking the seat in front of them or dropping red sauce all over their own seats.  Really Brussels Airlines!?!  You thought red sauce was a good menu item on a flight?  With kids and turbulence? And, just let me be American here and complain about  a minor item in life.  Ivey's screen didn't work.  That was annoying.  Here I am choosing to say 'that' instead of 'her' even though she was the one mentioning it every 2 seconds.  The darn Lorax was on and she was really upset about it so we had to do this whole shuffle around to swap seats.  So we get it resolved and she was asleep in 10 minutes.  I hate Murphy.
We made it home just fine and here I am 2 months later never having thanked the many many people and businesses who treated us so kindly.  I know it sounds like I have won a Grammy or something but first I would like to thank God.  Really.  He layed out our days in a symphony of events that were really quite amazing.  I'll tell one of my favorites.  We had received treatment for Ivey's staff infection and unfortunately it came back so we had to do a second round.  Because of that, I wanted to stay longer than anticipated to make sure that it was really gone before we came back.  I woke up one morning and had a long list of calls to make.  One was to our church pastor to respond to a question he had.  When I called he was not available so I left my number for him to call me.  I went on with my list and called the travel agent to ask if it was possible to change dates and got a huge shock.  I found out that it was going to cost us $1200 to do that even though we had changeable tickets (here I would like to insert that I feel that is ridiculous, bogus, and unethical). So, then I had to make a decision.  Do I take the 3 year old with the bubonic plague back to the foreign country where there is no one who can treat it before I feel sure she is well, or do I spend $1200 on plane tickets?  I told the agent I would call back after talking to my husband and I paced the floors a few times.  Then I launched the emergency procedure and called the troops to the living room floor.  Levi, Ivey and I got on our knees with our faces to the floor and prayed for God to help us to know which one to choose.  We got up and I regrouped.  I walked over to the computer that had not worked all morning to just check one more time.  It worked.  I messaged Andrew to see what he would have us do and saw that our pastor from Harpeth had asked me to call him.  I knew that he was wanting to ask about anointing Ivey's head with oil so I called with my times lined up.  He wasn't calling about that though.  He was wanting to tell me that the church wanted to help us with our emergency fund expenses while we were in America.   Now since they already gave us a huge amount of money just 7 months before to buy a car, I must say that I was totally taken aback.  I was just so flabbergasted that we had just prayed and then here was the answer so plainly and so quickly. Harpeth thank you so much for that!  Thank you for anointing Iveys head with oil and issuing such sweet prayers on Ivey's behalf.  Thank you for being a church that loves well. 
I won't list out everyone who helped us because as surely as the sun rises in the east I would forget to mention someone or something and feelings would be hurt.  I would never want that so I'll leave that to personal thank you notes.  Our friends and family housed us with the utmost hospitality.  We just couldn't have been more blessed.
I have mentioned before that we have been very blessed by our doctors and here I will say again that I would highly recommend both Brentwood Childrens Clinic and CoolSprings Allergy Associates.
Also, I want to mention Enterprise rent a car on Germantown Parkway in Cordova, Tn.   I was really impressed and decided I would tell everyone I know how great they treated me.  I felt that they really worked hard to accommodate me, gave me a great price and were extremely courteous.  Totally recommend them if you need a vehicle in Memphis.
I am working on getting the photo's of the container arriving and of Isatu and Albert's birthday parties up soon!
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Just a dance move

I don't have time to write a real informational blog about all the things that have happened lately.  I really want to do that justice so it might have to be a plane ride project.  However, I just had to post two stories from the day that have had me laughing to myself.
Story #1
Levi hates shopping and rightly so.  Hobby Lobby is one of the joys of my existence and one of his darkest nemeses.  Today he repeatedly shouted in the store, ran in the store, ran around aisles where I could not see him and several other top store no-no's.  After giving him the dreaded 3rd strike he was informed that he would be receiving a spanking when we got home.  Ivey had to go to the bathroom and I needed to search for a mailing tube in the beads aisle(they were 1/2 off and I am preparing a gift-so justified right?).  There was no mailing tube anywhere in Hobby Lobby today even thought I know they at one time did have them for art works.  So, Levi had been great for the rest of the shopping trip and even kept Ivey in line so as we checked out and walked to the car I told him that I was very impressed with how well he did for the rest of our shopping trip so I was going to excuse his spanking.  He very seriously told me, "Yeah, when I was in the bathroom I decided to turn my life around."
WHAT!?!

Story #2
Ivey Lane has been given some super awesome dress up shoes from her friend Ruby.  They are glittery yellow with red and white polka dot insides.  If a girl has shoes that awesome who cares if they match. So, she wears them every day no matter what the upper 3/4ths of her is wearing.  She and Levi had just gotten out of the car and were playing in the driveway which proved to be a perfect 'twirl your skirt' moment.  It did not, however, go as I suspect she planned and she kind of tripped doing one of those cartoon moves where your body stays in one spot but your feet are really moving.  There was all this heal clicking noise and stuff.  She ended up catching herself and I asked her if she was ok.  Without skipping a beat she said, "Oh yeah, that was just a dance move."

no doubt

 Levi, Ivey and I have been traveling back and forth from Nashville where Ivey's pediatrician and allergist are to Memphis where we have been visiting family.  I don't really mind transition or travel but after 5 weeks I am ready to be back to some kind of normal.  The update on Ivey's infection is that it was tested and the bacteria was resistant to the antibiotic that she was taking as we expected.  So we did 10 days of a new antibiotic.  We also have been doing 20 minute bleach baths every day, swabbing her nose morning and night and slathering all kinds of cream all over her eczema spots.   Four days after finishing the medicine she got a new infection.  I threw a mental fit that was close to spilling over to a physical fit on the floor.  So we went back to Nashville and our pediatrician put her on another round of antibiotics.  I'll just take this moment to do a little 'tree branching' as I have dubbed the way I write and talk.  I may have a main point but there are usually a 100 things I will branch off and say while getting there.  This first branch is that God has totally blessed us with our doctors too.  They have gone out of their way to help us and have been so kind.  If you need a pediatrician and a fantastic nurse I would 100% recommend Dr. Leeper and Nurse Erica at Brentwood Childrens Clinic.  Also, if you need an allergist Dr. Belleau at Cool Springs Allergy associates is awesome! Once Ivey completes the 10 days I want to watch her for at least a week and then we will go back to the other 1/2 of our family assuming that she gets no other infection.  Otherwise, we will see what we should do next.
So, in the meantime we have been able to see some great friends whom I love dearly.  I can't even say how much I have enjoyed being able to call them on the phone and being able to speak to them face to face.  We have also gotten to do several fun things.  One of them being the pool with aunt Katie who I think might not be able to show her face at her apartment complex any more.  I bought each of our kids snorkel masks because while Levi does ask for things at the store I have never seen him react in such a begging, pleading and groveling way as he did when he spotted these things in Target.  I had to get them for my fab five since they had just recently mentioned wanting them at the beach.  I let Levi have his today for this pool occasion.   Since he doesn't yet have experience with snorkels he would barely let me get it on before he bolted to the pool cannon balling three kids and almost four teens.  That was a bad decision.  Water gushed into the snorkel and down his lungs and he buoyed up and out of the water just as fast as he went in gagging and hacking and making awful sounds.  I know this doesn't sound good for me but I immediately laughed hysterically.  Gagging noises and dry heaving really gets me tickled for some reason.  And when Katie(who was in the pool by him) and I made eye contact I really lost it.   He got out and walked over to me holding his throat and looking serious and gave him his towel.  He just kept coughing and spitting and making all kinds of crazy sounds.  I just kept laughing and patting him on the back until it became obvious he was going to really vomit so I turned him toward the landscaping and he threw up whole pieces of macaroni.  I was thinking about how I was going to have to teach him to chew his food when I realized that everyone had gotten out of the pool and the four teens left completely.  It turns out that I didn't see that he had vomited some macaroni in the pool too because it is hard to see when your laughing hysterically.  Poor Aunt KayKay quickly tried to sweep the junk out while warning the other kids to get back.   Of course I then needed to apologize and explain to all the pool patrons that he just hadn't learned how to use the snorkel yet.  You would think after 6 years of parenting this child that I would have known to leave then but some of us are slow.  I made him sit for long enough to calm down from this unfortunate episode and then allowed him to go back in a little more cautiously and with better instructions this time.  Unfortunately, it worked and he went in down the stairs and was able to put his face in without the tube going under water.  This new approach allowed him to carefully study the bottom of the pool and just as all the kids had gotten back in the pool he surface and shouted that there was macaroni on the bottom. Where the heck are my sunglasses!
Also, I have had lots of time to listen to the radio.  I love the radio.  I have spent some major time catching up on music video's too and I just really want to say that I love No Doubt's video 'Settle Down' and Gwen Stefani makes me want to wear lots of eyeliner and dance weird.  There are six people I know who can attest to the fact that I do not look even a fraction as cool as her doing this.  Plus, what could be a better anthem for this time in life when my kids act like all I feed them is chocolate cake and narcotics while I am trying to remember if I really did dope Ivey up with all the prescribed medicines?

get get get 

in line and settle down, 

get get get in line and settle down

I really mean it this time
and you know it's such a trip
don't get me staaarted
I'm trying to get a hold on this.

I'm a rough and tough
I'm a rough and tough
I'm a rough and tough
and nothin's gonna knock this girl down

Decisions

We had to make some big decisions today and we want to let everyone know that I am bringing Ivey back to the U.S. to receive treatment for her eczema and staff infection.  We have been having issues for months now and are having a really hard time treating it ourselves.  We have been through several rounds of a very strong antibiotic for the staff infection and were advised by our pediatrician to seek medical help since it wasn't clearing up.  Today we went to the best hospital in Sierra Leone and the doctor told us that he could not help because her condition is chronic instead of acute. He advised us to seek a skin specialist and when we asked him if he could recommend one he said he didn't know any.  So we left and called Osseh to see if he knew anyone(his wife is a nurse) and the said he knew one guy and that he would call.  We got a call back a few minutes later and he said that guy had died.  So we went to the second hospital option and the receptionist said that the pediatrician was not there and that she didn't know when he would be coming back.  We asked if they had a skin specialist or dermatologist and the answer was no.  So, since we have no other option but to come back to the U.S. we decided to do just that to get some kind of antibiotic that will kill this terrible infection that we have been battling on and off since we have been here.   I intend to go to our allergist to get a prick test done to see if there are any new allergies that Ivey has developed that are causing the sever eczema she is experiencing.  Also, I am armed with every package I could find of foods that she has eaten that may lead to an answer as to what she may be allergic to.  While this is very expensive move to make we need to do it to get Ivey back to normal.  Staff infections just aren't something to mess around with and we have exhausted all of our options here.  If we don't get the eczema cleared up then we will just keep getting infections.  

Decision number two was what to do with our other four kids.  We have decided that in order for Andrew to continue the mission here that he will go to work for 1/2 days and take our three Sierra Leonian kids with him to the center to play.  They will all come home for lunch and he will work from home in the afternoons.  If he has to go to any meetings TRS said it would be fine for them to stay at the center whenever needed.  That leaves Levi.  He would not do well with that plan and it would be very overwhelming to him to be at the center without one of us there so I am going to bring him back with me and Ivey.  Also, that divides the responsibility  a little more evenly so that the work load will be a little less extreme for Andrew while I am gone.
We are flying out Friday night and should arrive in the U.S. Saturday afternoon.   We will be returning to Sierra Leone Sept. 3rd with Andrew's parents and sister.  They were already planning to visit and so we will just fly in with them. 

I do look forward to seeing people we love dearly but I am really going to miss four others that I am used to being with daily.  Five weeks is a long time to be away from your husband and three of your kids.  Please pray for our family during this time as it will be difficult.  

Ready...Set...GO

Well, this is Andrew again, sooo I guess, expect a lot of words and very little pictures, hah. Don’t worry, the blog queen will be posting again soon, I just like to throw some thoughts out there every once and a while.

Does it surprise you that I have been thinking about some stuff lately? Well, I have. Here is what has been on my mind lately. Obedience. There are several reasons why this has been on my mind lately, but mostly it has to do with our future. Here is the problem, surprisingly… I don’t know what the future holds. I know it is hard to believe. I have spent many hours trying to determine what the future holds for both our family and for The Raining Season aaaaand I have no clue. OK, so what do we do now? There are some big things going on right now on both of these fronts where knowing the future would be extremely beneficial. I know it sounds stupid because you think I would grasp that knowing where God is headed in all this is almost impossible so I should just deal with it, but I can’t seem to get it off my mind. So let me tell you what I have learned recently.


We have found that since we have lived in Sierra Leone there are many times when we have to stop and refocus. Why are we here? What is our main purpose? Is this stress really that big of a deal? Just a time to take the Nintendo game out of your mind, blow inside it, push reset, and pop it back in. (I don’t know why I decided to use that analogy, it works for me, ok). I will admit it, there are wonderful days here, and there are really tough days here. I once had someone tell me, “Don’t doubt in the darkness what you came to know in the light”. Some days our future in Sierra Leone is so exciting my heart starts racing just thinking about it. Sometime the future seems like such a heavy burden that I want to run away. So I had a tough day not too long ago. It was a long day of meetings, dealing with heavy things, and big decisions. I was drained on my way home and honestly couldn’t wait to get home, get my kids in the bed, and have a nice quiet sit down with a good book (is that terrible?). When I walked in the house Heather greeted me and said, “ the kids have been stir crazy today and I think it would be really helpful if you took any that want to go back up to the center tonight for bed time prayers.” NOT what I wanted to do and I think I had a pretty terrible attitude hiking back up the hill with kids in tow. The children at the center have bedtime prayers every night in their rooms except for Wednesdays and Sundays when they have a general worship time in one of the big rooms. Tonight was general worship. Last time I went to general worship, I was asked on the spur of the moment to bring the lesson (mini-sermon). I REALLY was not in the mood to do any preaching this day. I mean, I was really weighed down and struggling. I was relieved to see that Pastor Daniel was ready to bring the message and I was free to hide in a corner and try to keep kids from climbing all over me. I found the most secluded corner I could find and was relieved when Abubakkar, Melvin, and Auntie Hawa (holding Sarah) sat down around me. I like these people, but at that moment I mainly liked them because I knew they wouldn’t climb all over me. Maybe, I reveal a little too much about myself on these dumb blogs.


Ok, I am sitting there during the service and one of those moments when God punches you right in the nose happened again. Do you remember Sarah? She is the little girl I blogged about last time that had the burned face/throat, stick thin limbs, and was extremely scared of me. Well, she is doing a lot better, she is doing a WHOLE lot better. I was sitting there in my funk and looked over and started watching Auntie Hawa playing with Sarah. At this moment I witnessed the love of Christ first hand. This wasn’t just an Auntie doing her job of keeping Sarah busy, this was genuine love for this little cast-off girl. Auntie Hawa was laughing hysterically and get this…Sarah was laughing hysterically. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. At that moment Christ spoke to me. He said, “THIS is what I do. I am the Restorer. I bring good news to the poor, I bind up the broken hearted, I set the captives free.” It was restoration right before my eyes. Ok, I was watching this and God punched me in the nose about my attitude; then he decided to slap me around a little bit more. Sarah, who was previously very alarmed when I came near her, looked over at me and saw me laughing at her and she gets up and comes and sits in my lap. I was a little surprised to say the least. She then started playing with my fingers and the most mysterious other play thing according to EVERY kid at the center….my arm hair. After a minute or so she looked up at me and laughed, then got up and went back to playing with Auntie Hawa. At that moment, whatever the future holds seemed so small and easy to carry. My lesson from God didn’t end there (maybe it will never end). This last Sunday I was sitting in church with none other than Sarah bouncing to the music on my lap. I looked down at her and saw her watching the worship leader with a HUGE smile on her face. I looked up to see who was leading this song and it was Auntie Hawa. That, my friends, is discipleship. That is showing the love of Christ to the broken. That is a Christ like relationship. It doesn’t stop there. It is everywhere at TRS. These children are being restored physically, yes, but they are also being restored spiritually. I see uncles playing soccer with the kids and then helping them memorize their scriptures for their upcoming contest. I see Aunties disciplining these twerpy 5 and 6 year old boys and then praying with them at night. I see our Finance Officer crunching numbers all day and then preaching God’s truth to the kids on Sunday. I see our teams going to serve malnourished babies at a local hospital and taking TRS kids along with them to teach them to serve those in need. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Go and make disciples….


So, back to my depressed self, hiding in the corner of the room. God chose that moment to remind me what I am here for. I am not here to do cost analysis, interviews, program development, meetings, etc., all that is just how God is using my training to build his orphan ministry here. I am here to be a discipler. To these children, to the community, to my own children, to my wife.


Ok, so I was reflecting on this life lesson when God opened my eyes to something else. He said, “reflect on how you learned this last lesson.” I learned it through an action, through obedience, not through reading about it or having a preacher tell me. God’s sanctification process of his children is so wise and effective; I am continually amazed. He knows me so well. The Bible is full of commands for obedience even going so far as to say to love God is to be obedient to his commands.

1Jn 5:2-3

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

Not burdensome, huh? I sure felt burdened when I was worrying about everything under the sun for my family and for TRS. I was sure NOT burdened when I was watching Sarah. What was I missing before? Maybe…..obedience. You see, I spent most of my life with the mindset that I need to know everything before I do anything. I need to figure out the right path, make sure I studied all the theology behind the verse, and make sure I was mature enough to handle the obedience prior to taking the first step. But, that doesn’t match up with what I read. 1 John 2:6 “whoever says he abides in him must WALK as Jesus did.” . Jesus told his followers to lay down your nets and follow me. Obedience came prior to knowledge. I believe baptism is in place as an early part of becoming a Christ follower because it sets a pattern of obedience and submission to the King. Once again, obedience prior to knowledge. I am not looking for a theological argument here, I am just stating that I see a LOT of examples of Christ calling people to obedience prior to there being a large amount of knowledge in place. Why? This doesn’t seem like a very logical thing. Wouldn’t you end up with a lot of dummies following blindly…maybe. Maybe that is the reason for the command, so we walk without tripping over our own feet. I am learning more and more that through the obedience comes intimate knowledge of the Son and in turn, intimate knowledge of the Father. Take my sons for example…would it be very effective for me to just tell them what to do and have them study my words for a while, and then have them make the decision to do the action? It is far more effective for me to show them how to do it myself (Jesus’s ministry here on earth), and then ask them to do it for themselves with me standing right beside (great commission). Through this they learn not only the action, but more about me. Why I do the things I do, what my thinking is behind the action, life lessons through failure, how to walk with their father hand in hand. I used to think of the Bible as a book of commands. Now I see it as a path or window to know Father God better. The commands just help me know him better. His commandments are not burdensome even though my enemy tells me they are.

Ok, so fast forward a couple of weeks and I am sitting in church again. I happened to be sitting next to our newest intake, a young girl who has polio and is bound to a wheel chair. She is an incredible little girl. She is handicapped physically, but not mentally, but I tend to forget this because I focus on her outward appearance. I was standing next to her worshipping, but not singing out loud because all I wanted to hear at that moment was this little girl singing her lungs out to Jesus and doing her best to raise and clap her hands to the King. She was so excited to be sitting there singing to her Father. After the song was over I guess I was standing too long and she leaned over, punched me on the leg, and in perfect English said, “UNCLE, sit DOWN.” God, just saying to me…”see, I am still doing it. It is what I do. You go do it too and you will know me more.”


I don’t know why I felt compelled to share these lessons. I just want to encourage people through things I have learned so that others can experience Christ the way I am just now starting to. It is true life. It isn’t easy, but it is rich and filling and I don’t feel numb any more. God’s commands are not to put a burden on us, but to free us from Satan’s grasp. To be different. To join him in restoration. It is a better way. I spent so many years being told it is NOT a better way or that my OWN way is better; but that was a lie. I also had the thinking of, “ok, I am saved. Now I need to just work on not sinning and attending church for the rest of my life and I have got it made.” I was so focused on myself that I started treating my salvation as the end game and forgetting that me becoming a Christ follower is only the BEGINNING. I hate that I spent so many years in inactivity. I missed out on so much, hoping that others would want to know God by my being an “example” of “not sinning”. Hey man, don’t you want to be like Andrew? He is such a nice guy who doesn’t seem to be doing anything majorly wrong. Who was I kidding? In God is beauty, good things, true life, truth, richness, eternity. Our enemy is evil, darkness, numbness, complacency, lies, he robs us of what we were created for. Brothers and sisters, be hot or cold…..hot or cold. God plan is not in the money, the ministry, the material gifts, the time. His plan is in the sanctification, to make the givers trust him more, to make the receivers rely on him, to make those who “do” understand true life, to break the hold of the enemy, to open our eyes, and to do what he has done from the beginning…draw his people back to him. To make me more like Jesus, to make Sarah more like Jesus, to make you more like Jesus, so that we can be in communion with him. It is what we were made for. I am not talking about obedience in “not sinning” as I so long thought. I am talking about obedience to the things he says to go and DO. So I encourage you, show God your love to him through obedience, it is not burdensome.

Read these scriptures. Don’t just glance over them…

1 Tim 6:17-19
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, this storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is TRULY LIFE.

1 John 2:3-6
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in Him should walk in the same way in which Jesus walked.

Luke 4:18-21
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Walk like he walked. Don’t sit. Show Christ’s love to the world. There is a lot of hurting people out there. Some, don’t hurt any more. Isn’t Sarah beautiful…

Water is life...and death

The joy of rain after 10 days of no water,

The threat,

The assault,

The retaliation,

And another welcomed assault,

The update: Nanna came to visit for 3 weeks and is here presently.

We have 3 new family members. I have long searched for chek chek chickens. We have only seen them in one place and the owners have not wanted to sell them. Everywhere we go I would tell the kids to be on the lookout and for the first time ever I did not get mad when the kids started yelling in the car. The announcement was music to my ears. We hit a jackpot of sorts and there were several to choose from. Rita and Nina were the obvious choice We named Nina after Nanna since she was with us when we got her. When Levi was small he could not say Nanna and instead would say Nina and so it stuck for a while. They are so awesome! In case you don't know about chek chek's they have they wildest feathers. They curl out and up instead of laying flat. Ours have a zebra print feather on most of their bodies and light brownish orange on their chest and poofy little chicken booties. I adore them and am so happy to be re-filling our coop.

The other family member came from Uncle Michael. He brought Levi a chameleon for his birthday. We had made a cage for him for his birthday to keep just such a possession so it was perfect timing. Levi named him Gary.

Slash that. 4 new family members. It is taking me weeks to upload, type and publish this blog so in between writings we added one. Albert is now the caretaker of a strange pigeon that decided to stay with us. We were on the porch talking with Morlai when there was a commotion in the razorwire of his wall. He came down and got a stick to help it out and he flew strait over to ours. Albert climbed the wall and got him down. It was a little strange but the bird just let him pick it up. He has been tucked under Alberts arm or waddling all around the compound all day today. He has made a spot in one of the cubes in the chicken coop. I am hoping that they are kind with it. We shall see in the morning how he faired. The Sierra Leonians have a saying something like 'water is life'. From the time we moved here January 18th until just a month or so ago there was not one drop of rain. The dry season can be very difficult for the people because all the water dries up and it is difficult to get clean water to drink, cook with or clean anything including yourself. So water is in fact life. Unfortunately, water is also death. We stand in awe of the rains that have been happening lately and we have only seen the beginning. It rained for 2 days and one night strait. Most of the people here build their homes of tin or mud that they bake into bricks. Neither of which are very sturdy. We have heard stories about those people having to stay up all night with buckets scooping water out of their homes. They build their beds on stilts so that when the floods enter they can put the few belongings inside up on the bed. I haven't seen it for myself yet so I can't give any more detail than that. I can only imagine that it would be exhausting if not terrifying. Especially if you have children. So during the downpour that happened a few nights ago four people from one family died when their mud hut collapsed under the weight of the rain and an elderly woman who lived on a slope from what I understand was washed away as well. Andrew and I stood on our porch feeling terrible for those people who suffer in this way and pray that there would be a remedy.

Where the name of this blog originated.

So I was talking with our visitor Robin and realized that I wanted to post these few funny things of late. A few weeks ago Dave and Brad were here and brought a memory stick full of basketball games Andrew had missed. This was the first time our African boys had ever seen this sport. As two of the basketball players ran in excitement at each other to do a chest bump and then one slapped the others buttocks. Albert laughed hysterically and said to John, "This is how they greet each other?!? They slap each others booty and jump at each other!" That has always been a little funny to me anyway but to see their reaction was all the more so. Recently, Andrew and the boys stayed up to watch X-men. Actually, I think maybe they needed to be a little older in hind site but we didn't remember it having any bad scenes. It was just a little too scary for their age and they thought that everyone was a witch. They did, however, love it. I was in and out of the room for the first half of the movie but ended up sitting in on it because it is so funny to watch them react to movies. There is a scene in that movie where several of the mutant good guys are surrounded by police and more and more police cars keep coming with sirens on. Two of our boys have never experienced a police car like that and in the scene the mutants are trying to explain that they aren't trying to do anything wrong to no avail because the police are all posed to shoot which they did. They shot Wolverine right in the forehead. That caused another of the mutants to start shooting fire everywhere and John shouted, "YEAH, bring it with your whew whew whew." Sometimes I have trouble breathing around here! Also, during that same time frame we were reading about Abraham and God's covenant with him. The sign of that covenant was circumcision which launched a funny episode in itself about a boy at the center who had to be redone and a chicken pecked him in the privates which they all cringed about. But the real blurb that was hilarious came the next night when Andrew asked if they remembered what we read the night before. There was a pause where everyone was thinking and trying to remember when John very seriously says, "they all got short!".....................uh, yes, good job John. (C-A-T lego's) Today we are celebrating the entry of the very first person God placed in our lives to care for. I remember being at the hospital and feeling shocked that they were about to let me take him home. It is such a weight and burden to do a good job at this role. It has been very difficult to carry out but there are days when I feel successful. He prays beautifully when he decides to. I am pretty sure that he has made me laugh every day for the last 6 years and I truly adore this beautiful, smart, funny, and quirky little freckle faced boy. (Wolverine) I will end this one with one of my favorite parenting moments. I learned humility and how to lock yourself in the bathroom not-so-discreetly to hide from serious embarrassment. We took someone to a doctor's appointment. While waiting, Ivey had a dirty diaper. We trekked out to the car to get the diapers and wipes and I realized that I was not going to be doing this one in the car so we went back in and sat in the chairs next to the bathroom to wait our turn. After about 5 minutes I began to wonder if I had just not turned the handle hard enough but didn't want to disturb someone twice if there was someone in there. Levi, who was approximately three time, and loud, made the announcement that it was taking a long time. I quietly said, "Yes, it is." and hoped that he would end it there. He suggest loudly that maybe it was poop. "Yes it probably is." I said quietly again while I noticed a few snickers. There were approximately 15 people in this waiting room and I am pretty sure that all of them heard it. I tried to change the subject because I had found by that point that if you try to deter children from talking about a subject there are so many questions that you might as well write a 12 page essay about what they shouldn't say and why. So I chose to just answer quietly and hope he would be interested in the People magazine. But unfortunately that is when the poor woman finally emerged from the bathroom. Before I could collect Ivey and her things and close the door behind my little announcer he dashed in there to the toilet and dashed back out and shouted to me(the lady had not even sat down yet), "YEP, IT WAS POOP". I too stayed in the bathroom for quite some time.

Satiated

We owe a LOT of thanks right now to many people. One of them is Dave Williamson. Dave and his wife Amber have been great friends to us since 2005. Sometimes you know you have awesome friends but then a circumstance proves it and you find yourself amazed. That is how I feel about the last few years. When we decided to adopt they somehow secretly got a million donations for a huge yard sale where they cooked hot dogs and sold drinks and made a ton of money! We were so amazed and I didn't know what to say so I don't know if I said anything. Then we decided to move to Africa and work for a nonprofit group in a nonpaying position. Since that would require fundraising the Williamson's jumped to action and have been advocates for us from the first day. They have done an incredible amount of fundraising for us. One of them was a blanket drive. We stood in amazement at the work they and our other awesome friends put forth on our behalf. And again I felt like writing on paper just couldn't sum up the wealth we felt not only for the money they raised, but also the effort to support us. This is the busy season at work for Dave. Ambers mother has been severely sick. They have two kids and volunteer regularly as softball and soccer coach and nursery workers at church. They are really busy. However, they just did a second yard sale at their home and again raised a large sum of money to help cover the remainder of what we have to raise for our two years here. Also, Dave is the leader of our mission board and Amber is our financial partner who takes care of our donations and banking there in the US. They have worked I don't even know how many hours doing errands for us, buying us an oven, getting our container packed and loaded and I don't even know what else. THEN, Dave came to visit us. That requires plane tickets, shots, and vacation time, visas, passports, and $100's of dollars in bug spray and wet wipes. All just to survive 100 degree weather, freezing cold showers, crazy drivers and amebas. He packed lightly because he wanted to have enough room to bring the two checked bags stuffed absolutely full of AWESOME gifts. He gave us updates on friends. He jumped out of the car to join me on the corner of a busy street to haggle with a women about large buckets for our laundry room and then jumped in to buy them. He was patient when it took till 9:00pm to make dinner or till 10:00am to make coffee. He worked in the heat sanding down the metal corners on a piece of furniture we had built, wrestled a king size bed into the house, and as per usual had us laughing most of the week. His presence reminded me how much I love his wife and her italian cooking and super kind heart. She also gave up vacation time and single parented for a week and a half while her husband was here. As I type this he is probably in the air flying home. He will be quickly getting things for our container and then shipping it the next day. What could I possibly say to all of that? I am afraid nothing comparable. But geez I really love them! I feel so simplistic saying this but THANK YOU Dave and Amber for serving us and daily caring for us. I kind of feel like Jack Nickelson in the movie 'As good as it gets' when saying this, but you make us want to be better people. The other person that we want to thank on this blog post was also a visitor this week. We met him and his wife in college at Harding. Then our paths crossed again just a few years ago when they came to Harpeth Community Church and joined our small group. I liked them immensely from the beginning. Brad and Lindsey Conner are hilarious people with huge hearts that beat for the same things that ours do. Lindsey and I are what people in the south refer to as 'cut from the same mold'. So she's awesome. And Brad is an amazing carpenter who makes really beautiful things and is extremely knowledgable on anything to do with homes and how they work. They too have been involved from the beginning with our mission and have worked so hard to help us get to where we are. We rent our house because it did not sell before we left. So he volunteered to do any repairs needed while we were gone-for free. Lindsey gave up many a Saturday with her husband while Brad came over and helped us prepare the house for our departure. He patched walls, fixed leaks, put a lock on our attic, painted and I don't even know what else because that last couple of weeks before we left is such a blur for me. Then he and Dave told us to just leave anything in the garage that needed to go to the container and leave the mattresses we slept on the last night at our house where they were. When we left they went in, got our mattresses and everything in the garage, and loaded up Brads trailer with all of our container possessions. They packed and palletized all of it and stored it away until time for the container. Because of my forgetfulness I have had Brad get things out of our attic twice in the last few months-he is probably sorry to have that key! He came to Sierra Leone last week specifically to do projects for us. We e-mailed him the list of items we wanted to build and he spent untold hours getting the right tools and etc. to prepared and packed for that. He also spent thousands of dollars on plane tickets, visa's, passports, and shots all to wood work in the super hot African sun with several kids surrounding him asking what the buttons did and kicking up sawdust clouds. He even skipped the monkey sanctuary outing because he insisted on getting work done. Here I will insert that laundry takes up so much time here. Not only because we are now a family of seven but also because it is a more complicated line of events. There are lots of dirt stains and piles of muddy clothes from the water discharge pipe when the machine shakes all over the place. But no more. Brad made a platform for the washer, added a platform to lay folded clothes on and cleaned out the entire garage. We put the said buckets in place and I now have one for towels and sheets, one for lights and one for darks. All with lids to keep the stink down. No more muddy clothes! No more digging in piles of cloths and having giant African cockroaches scurry up your arm. He even put up two clothes lines in the garage since it is the raining season and we can't hang our clothes out to dry right now and are at the mercy of unreliable electricity. It is SO fantastic. He fixed the door frames(it is really nice to be able to close all of our doors), fixed our couch, and put hooks up to hang the cork boards and mosquito nets. He made us a king size bed. He made nine large rolling bins for our boys to have storage under their beds. He made three fishing poles for our the boys and they are now awaiting a beach day. The boys are so excited. I am so amazed! He did all that in only a week! His wife also single parented for a week and a half so that her husband could come here for us. We woke up one morning and everyone left to go to the monkey sanctuary with the team that was here-except Brad who didn't want to go so that he could work on projects. Really late that night we found out that it was his birthday AND his wedding anniversary. And again, what words could possibly mean enough to compare to all of that? So again, THANK YOU for all you have done for us!!! You really are so encouraging to us and make us want to be better people. We love you so much!!! I singled these two families out because they just visited us but we also want to say that we owe a huge thank you to so many of our friends. We just are so blessed and couldn't be more thankful for all the gifts and time spend doing errands and time serving at yard sales and shopping for items on our list. We are still in such shock and awe at the Fannie Mae type relationships we have. We are so far in debt to you that I don't know that we could ever repay it. Therefore, we daily thank God for you and pray that each of you would be repaid 10 times over for all you have done for us!

Rotting Roses

There is a veranda off the side of our bedroom that was built with these decorative concrete blocks that are open to see outside but you are kind of hidden. I stood there sinning for quite some time the other day. I was coveting the neighbors plants. There is a certain vine or bush, I am not sure which, that grows here that I love but for weeks no one could tell me where to buy it. I stood there admiring the beautiful bright pink one in this neighbors yard as he was on a ladder trimming and pruning. And then a terrible thing happened. I had also been hiding because this certain veranda is a dead spot where for some reason no one thinks to look when calling for me. I had been laughing every time one of our children went by yelling my name searching for me which they did with increasing loudness every few seconds. I don't feel even slightly bad about it because Andrew was right there playing ball with Albert and he was completely capable of telling them to stop tattling for the 100th time of the day. I even ate cookies while doing it. And to my utter dismay, they found me. That is not, however, the worst thing that has happened. In the last three weeks the electricity has only worked for 2 evenings. It came on at night and went off by the time we woke up. Guma(the water system) has not been flowing for over a week now. We have run out of both reserve barrels and Andrew, Albert and John spent Sunday morning filling buckets at a different tap and bringing them to the barrel just to try to have enough to wash ourselves and the dishes. The laundry is becoming a problem because all of our sheets and towels are dirty and Isatu is out of undies. Then, something happened with our ground wire and current was coming into the house so if you touched anything metal it would shock you. Sometimes it would be really strong. That can be alarming. Therefore, we have not been using the generator regularly. Even if that weren't an issue there is a fuel 'crisis' as they call it where there the gas stations run out of fuel. So we have had to be conservative with the generator. The lack of consistent cooling in our refrigerator caused some meats to go bad which was expensive. And our kitchen smelled horrible for a day. Next, Levi and Ivey got a crazy rash and we put creams on it but nothing worked so we finally took them to the doctor. It turns out they are having a reaction to the malaria medication and have infections in their intestines. The rashes are gone, Levi is back to normal and Ivey is close to being back to normal so no one should worry. We actually were surprised to find out they were sick because they never acted unusual or told us they were hurting. Also, we couldn't go to River #2 for our family day on Saturday because the car's 4 wheel drive isn't working and it makes a terrible noise when you turn a certain direction so it was in the shop. So, we went today instead and terror of all terrors the beach was filthy. It is usually so clean and beautiful but today there was trash everywhere. We inquired of the british man named Freddy that we just met and he said that according to gossip, when the rains come-which they have- that all the trash flows off the river banks and it all floods to the ocean. NNNNNOOOOOO!!!! We have mixed emotions about the rains. On one hand it gets so beautiful here when all the plants are blooming and green and we love the cooler weather. The downside is that besides the mentioned trash ruining my day of escape, there are termites, mosquitos, ants and all kinds of crazy bugs swarming right now. The termites are so annoying! They will fly right into your face. While I am giving the list I'll go ahead and make it complete by saying that on top of everything else our internet stick isn't working. I am typing this on Tuesday night but who knows when I'll post it. I am supposed to be ordering things for the container, and e-mailing our friends list and all kinds of things but with no way to charge the computer and no internet stick that is proving to be quite the problem. As I was typing this the electricity came on and about 20 minutes later the lights started doing the dreaded wave of dimming and brightening but this one was different. There was some clicking and I went to turn off some of the outlets. I was standing there debating turning it off at the wall switch so that it didn't blow anything out when flashes of lights happened outside. I ran out on the front porch and all down the street the light poles where flashing and shooting sparks. It looked like fireworks. Then it was only one. The one that is right outside our gate in front of the compound next to ours. It kept it up for a good 30 seconds and finally the last sparks shot. Andrew had joined me for the last part of that and we ran next door through our shared gate to see if Mr. Brama was ok. He was. He said they need to trim the trees and that the wires touched. So I came back in and started to type this when the electricity went off in one last definitive swoop. A guy who does landscaping came and we bought two of the vines I love for a grand total of $6, the electrician came and we think that the current leak is fixed now, all four of our fuel barrels for the generator are full, the refrigerator is cleaned out, the car will be fixed soon and Levi and Ivey are better. So we are fine but please pray for the electricity and water specifically. After several weeks it is getting tiring and the longer it goes on the harder it is to deal with. Fortunately, we get our drinking water from the store so the water shortage is not affecting that. The washing of ourselves, dishes and laundry is the issue. God has blessed me with a terrible sense of smell so I am not suffering yet but the stink is mounting. Andrew on the other hand has a great sense of smell so it is fortunate also that God has allowed me to always smell like roses. That's probably how my kids found me on the veranda.

Some days mothering takes it out of you. Every day I feel like it is worth it. Today started out with Levi and John at the door of my room with the usual 'Mom, good morning' and then they came and laid down on the edge of the bed to coax me up to get them oatmeal. They do some tooting, giggling, and joking. Oh I love that. They have daily chores and when they were sweeping the compound Levi found a heart shaped leaf and saved it to give me. Oh I love that. Levi got an injury that I had to bandage and he screamed like he was dying. When I was finished and I looked up at John who had been standing there and he had tears flowing down his face. When I asked him what was wrong he just motioned to Levi. Empathy. Oh I love that. Albert has been getting up early every morning this week to 'train' with Andrew so that he can beat me when I play fight him. I tease him that when I get done sleeping I will come win but I know that I don't even stand a chance against this 14 year old in 6 months. Oh I love that. Isatu and Ivey are quite a handful and I am pretty sure that their teen years will put that second sentence in jeopardy. The determination, stubbornness and persistence will serve them really well if harnessed just right. Oh I love that too. I am pretty sure that my mother said that same thing about me. I started to tell my mother happy mothers day on a facebook post but then decided to publicly explain a little about her parenting which I hope to implement. When I was approximately 7 years old we were in the car going to Walmart and there were these men who had parked on the busy side of the parking lot holding signs that said 'will work for food' and I asked what they meant. She explained that they were hungry and that they were trying to find jobs. That really bothered me which she noticed. She told me that she would buy the food if I would go and give it to them. So we went into the Walmart deli area and she bought the food. That really long parking lot seemed so short at 7 when walking towards those two strange men. I kept contemplating what to say as I approached and I can't remember what I did say but I remember the mans face. He thanked me and I walked back. That really long parking lot seemed even longer walking back feeling awkward but I had plenty of time to pray that God would bless them and take care of them. There was another similar event many years later when I was in the 10th grade and working as a waitress. A guy that worked with me was also a student at my high school so I would talk to him regularly. I noticed some oddities about him but didn't inquire because I didn't want to be rude. It was in the middle of winter when I found out that he was moving and I asked where his family was going. It wasn't his family that was moving. It was only him who was moving out of the outdoor shed he had been living in because the people he was renting it from were going to up the rent because he was using to much electricity with his outdoor heater. He couldn't afford the price increase. He was in 11th grade! Where were his parents? I was baffled at how this could happen. How could the people charge him more knowing he had no where else to go? How could I ask my single mother who was struggling to pay for us to do something extra? But it bothered me so much that I told her about it, offered to help with any cost and she said he could sleep on the couch. I took a while to decide if that was what we should do but by the time I finished my saga of a prayer and finally offered that to him he had found something else. But she said yes. My mom taught me empathy, compassion, and love. I don't know how many times she has told me that she hoped that there was never a day that I doubted that she loved me. Mom, there has never been a day where I have doubted that you love me. I am so thankful for that and I hope that my kids can say the same. God blessed me around 7 1/2 years ago with a second mother. Andrew's mother and I are very similar. We started our relationship with her teaching me all about gardening which I had wanted to do for many years. When we still lived in Memphis I loved going flower shopping with her, learning about different plants and getting tips on making my pansy's bigger and better-which they always were due to good advice. Then, about 1 year into our marriage when I had the shock of a pregnancy, she taught me how to sew through the making of curtains, bedding and misc. items for Levi's room. That was yet another lesson that I had really been wanting to learn. You wouldn't believe how much time she spent letting me break her machine over and over again. And then she bought me a serger for christmas and another time a monogramming machine because we shared the love of sewing. She has taught me over and over again about generosity with your time and possessions. I thank God for the place that both of my mothers have had in my life. As I sit in West Africa holding my shirt high up on my neck and slapping at termites and mosquitoes, they will be angry to know that they had a part in me bringing their grandchildren here-but they did. God used what they gave me in empathy, love, and generosity to help me sit and stay here today. I pray that in 20 or so years all 5 of our children will be sitting somewhere in the world remembering lessons on those same things that we taught them. Oh I would REALLY love that.

Heathers addition to Andrew's post

The incredibly macho, handsome, rugged, and muscular guy who stomps on sissys with Isatu

The incredibly macho, handsome, rugged, and muscular guy who stomps on sissys with Kadija

For He makes all things new…

Well, this blog post is just going to be a random collection of thoughts over the past month. I am not the writer my wife is, nor do I have any good pictures so…this may be boring. Also, I have been thinking about a lot of things so this will also be LONG. Malaria meds man- As I mentioned before we are asked for money about 10 times a day. Some people have true needs; some are just hoping they have found a sucker. I pray for wisdom daily and try to rely on the convictions from the Holy Spirit to guide me to know who is who, but sometimes it is really hard. Some days I feel very soft-hearted to all who ask and try to give as much as I can, some days I want everyone to leave me alone and I keep a tight grip on my leones. The times I get hard-hearted are usually when I am driving back home from downtown Freetown, because the number of people who ask me for money downtown jumps to about 483 and I am worn out by the time I return. About 2 weeks ago I drove into town to get some supplies, I was stopped in traffic and this guy comes up to my window telling me that someone is trying to call me, as I was looking where he was pointing his buddy was on the other side of the car grabbing my backpack. Luckily I had the forethought to hook my bag to the emergency hand brake and he couldn’t get it out. I turn around, yelled, and flexed my muscles and he ran away with great fear in his eyes. Actually, I yelled, he yanked the bag again, I grabbed the bag for a short tug of war, then him and his buddy gave up and casually walked away. It REALLY makes me mad when people steal things, especially my own things. It makes me double mad when 20 people are standing around watching it happen and all they did was laugh and tell me to roll my window up higher. JERKFACES!!! Sooo, this really got me fired up for the rest of the day and I was in no mood to be handing out money when someone just tried to steal it all. Well Mr. Scrooge made it through town and successfully completed the mission of not giving ANYONE ANYTHING!! Looking back on what happened next I think God was smiling a little bit when he put me in this situation. I am sitting in the same traffic on the way home when this man runs up to my car; I immediately grab my bag and get ready to tell him to get lost. He starts explaining to me that his daughter has a very severe case of malaria and he is short the money he needs to buy her medicine. I am sitting there thinking, “get away from me, I am sure you are making up some sob story, and I am not in the mood to deal with it right now.” Believe it or not my finger was reaching for the button to roll up the window (maybe I am the jerkface). He stopped me by saying, “PLEASE sir, I am not a beggar. I just have nowhere else to turn. See, I have just come out of the pharmacy and the medicine is 40,000 leones and I only have 33,000. I do not know what to do, but my daughter is dying so I must do something. I saw you sitting here in your car and decided that she is worth it for me to come and beg you for the money. PLEASE sir, if you were not in the car I would be on my knees at your feet asking you this question.” I looked up at his face and saw the same look of desperation I saw on the lady who grabbed my arm that day. This was a man fighting for his daughter, if Ivey were dying and I ran out of money I would be asking everyone I could think of for some money. The look on his face and the way he talked to me made me realize that he HATES having to ask me, but he LOVES his little girl. He was 7000 leones short…one dollar and 60 cents. Yes, Scrooge gave him the money and God once again reminded me that I have a long way to go. I am starting to realize why Solomon asked for wisdom above all things. I really wish I were better at knowing what to do, how to act, and how to reflect Jesus Christ to all I meet. I want people to see me and see a glimpse of King Jesus shining through me. I kind of dull the shine when my heart is so rock-hard sometimes. New Intakes- We took in some new children into the Covering a couple of weeks ago. Most of you blog-stalkers know this already from the other TRS people’s blogs, but I still wanted to write about it because it was beautiful. The first girl out of the TRS poda-poda (van) was an older sister of a girl in our center that we did not know even existed. The girl in our center had not seen her sister in 2 years, but told us she thinks about her every time she eats and hopes that her sister has food as well. We were able to reunite these siblings and that was beautiful to see. The next child off the poda was a young boy about 3 years of age. This was a very special intake because this child was one of the children that TRS was not able to rescue a few years back from a very abusive situation. Frankly, most of us thought we would never see this child again as he was in the last stages of starvation when we were forced to walk away. We have a few other children at the Covering who also grew up at the same place. They know the abuse, they know the neglect, they know the fight, they know the conditions that this young boy was just rescued from. Not long after this young man came out of the poda in the arms of a woman who loves him dearly one of these previously rescued children came down the stairs, she saw this boy, rushed to him, held him tight, and started sobbing. This girl RARELY shows any emotions…but she knows…she knows what he has been through, and she knows where he is now. It was beautiful. The third child out of the poda was a handicapped girl who is about 9 years old but weighs less than Ivey. This is one of those cases where a flood of emotions hit you. The abuse could not be hidden on this girl. Her arms are stick thin, her legs are nothing but bones, she has sores on her bottom because she has been sitting on the floor for so long, and her face, mouth, and esophagus have major burns because she “accidentally” drank boiling hot water. I see her and I get very angry, I get sick to my stomach at the evil present in this world, evil that would hurt and neglect such a helpless child. This little girl was scared. She grinds her teeth when she gets nervous and I could hear the grinding from 10 feet away. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she took in her surroundings trying to determine the best way to survive. What she didn’t know just yet was that she was already in the arms of someone who would NEVER hurt her, she was surrounded by kids who would welcome her with open arms, she had cooks looking over the balcony at the new arrivals who would always keep her belly full, she had people watching who will always fight for justice, she had aunties around her who would go back to the states and tell her story to raise up sponsors for her, she had caregivers pouring out of the building ready to clean her up and love on her, she had a family that will, above all, introduce her to King Jesus, teach her to walk in his ways, and watch as she falls in love with Papa God, soon she will join in with all the other voices as they sing at the top of the lungs, “ I tell Pappa God Tanki”. I checked on her recently and her wounds are healing, she is getting fatter, and she smiled at me…I am hoping soon she will recover enough to let me hold her. Right now I am scary, but that is ok, she has been through some tough things…but she lets her aunties hold her…she likes for them to hold her. That is beautiful! Kadija- Some of you may remember a recent post of mine where I mentioned one of our caregivers so unselfishly giving blood to a little girl who was dying. That little girl is Kadija. She is my friend and she comes in my office every day to give me a hug. I really like this little twerp. I think she is about 5, but she also weighs less than Ivey, I guess a lot of kids weigh less than Ivey, but you get what I mean. I like Kadija because she is super quiet and somehow is able to sneak up on me and jump in my lap without me even knowing she is in my office. I like her because after giving me a hug and visiting for a few minutes, she be-bops on out of here to head up stairs and get some food. I like her because she never forgets to come see me. You see, Kadija doesn’t live here; she lives just outside of our gates with her mom. She loves her mom very much and her face lights up when I ask how her mamma is doing. You see, up until these last 2 months Kadija was sick. She was really sick. She was sick all the time. Her hair was orange from malnutrition and she was such a skinny little thing. The TRS church has embraced this family outside of our gates and built relationships with them. We noticed that Kadija did not look well anytime we saw her. Because Pastor Daniel cares for our community he was able to check into this situation. You see, Kadija’s mom is very young, so young in fact we thought it was her sister at first. She is young and she works HARD trying to care for this little girl, but she just doesn’t know how. She can only afford a little food. She had a box of medicines because she knew her little girl was sick, but she didn’t know what to do with the medicines. So Kadija was sick, Kadija was dying, Kadija received life giving blood. I love our staff here. They are wise men and women. My first thought was that we need to get her into our program. In fact, I just knew that was the right thing to do. Well, once again I was proven to that I have a long way to go. You see, like I said before, Kadija loves her mamma and her mamma loves her. Her mom didn’t need a hand out, she needed a hand up. Sooo now our nurse works with her mamma to teach about medicines, we share our Kids Against Hunger food with the family, our house supervisor walks to kadija’s house every day, picks her up, walks her up to the center to eat lunch and play, and then walks her home late in the afternoon. This gives little Kadija a daily nutritious meal and exercise to strengthen her weakened frame. It gives her mamma time to go work to raise their standard of living and keeps a family together. They come to church here on Sundays now because they saw King Jesus in our staff. I know most of you think I am this incredibly macho, handsome, rugged, and muscular guy who stomps on sissys. I am ok with you thinking that, just stay away from my office when Kadija comes around or you will find me with a cute little 5 year old on my lap trying to explain to her how a wireless mouse works (this is difficult because my Krio is still about 50/50, she speaks no English, there is no word in Krio for wireless). Beans and Rice- Growing up my mom would always tell me, “well you don’t want to be eating beans and rice now do you?” This was always during a lesson about spending your money wisely so you have some left over, or not buying more than you can afford. I cherish these lessons as they have helped shape who I am with finances today. Well, the other day I was in my office eating beans and rice for lunch and just busted out laughing. I eat beans and rice a lot here…and you know what…I really like beans and rice. I really like that my mom and dad cared enough to teach me about money, but mom, I am going to have to change the warning about foolish money spending now that I am in Africa. Adoption ban- after 2 years of waiting I am happy to say that the adoption ban in Sierra Leone has lifted. We are still waiting to hear how to proceed through the correct channels with the government, but doors have opened. This is a great thing for TRS and a great thing for our family. Praise God! The Sierra Leonean government is making strides in putting together an adoption process that will help curtail child trafficking and allow many children a chance at a family. Please be praying for the government, TRS, and our family. My kids- I am just going to go ahead and call it right now. God has BIG plans for my kids. Heather and I are just the ones that are equipping them, but God has BIG plans for them. I thought he had big plans for us, but I think maybe I am wrong; maybe our role is just to give our kids a different perspective on life. I see it every day. Their personalities, talents, and passions complement each other so well and they will be such a strong team as they grow. I see Levi being so curious about the world around him, being able to build almost anything, and always ready for adventure. I see Albert having such a passion for God’s word that I can’t get him to go to sleep at night because he is up reading his Bible. I see him light up when I talk about unreached people; I see him quietly soaking up the world around him. I see John able to win anyone’s friendship with his humor and smile. I see Isatu’s kind spirit, servant heart, and love for prayer. Ivey Lane spends most of her day encouraging. She is just wired to encourage others. She is so sensitive about other people’s suffering that she regularly cries at movies because someone is being ugly to someone else. When Levi taunts her because he beat her at something she says, “you really did a good job, Levi”, and she isn’t being sarcastic, she really admires the job he did in beating her. I see my children fighting for justice, serving the poor, praying, praying, praying, being open to God’s leading even into an adventurous place. I see their white faces opening doors; I see their black faces opening doors. God has a plan; as hard as it is to follow sometimes I am so glad he is leading me. I wish I understood how all of this is going to work, but I don’t. I pray that God will use them to share the good news of his Kingdom. I pray that he will show Heather and I the best way to prepare them. I can’t wait to see how these amazing kids will be used. I am so proud of them. If you are not asleep by now from reading this long blog post I pray that the scripture below will be an encouragement to you. Thank you for following along with us and thank you for praying for us. May God Bless You!! Isa. 1:10-13,16-17 Isa 58:1-3,5-10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “The multitude of your sacrifices-what are they to me? says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals: I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies…Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?”…Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fast 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 cloth him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you 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. I pray that my children will see their parent’s stumbling attempts at trying to follow these directions from God and be encouraged to follow Him into greater things. I pray that their lights will break forth like the dawn and that the glory of the Lord will be their rear guard. I pray that my children will spend themselves on behalf of the hungry, that they will shelter the wanderer, clothe the naked, seek justice, defend the cause of the fatherless and widow and most of all I pray that my kids will love and obey the Lord with their heart, soul, mind, and strength….whatever the costs, wherever the road may lead. That will be beautiful…

Mangos bombing the tin roof

Every now and then we are startled by the very loud thud of a mango hitting the tin roof. I have jumped up in bed several times thinking surely someone had busted down the door only to be told by an orange lipped guard that everything is fine. The kids and Andrew love them. I do not. But it is so nice to have fresh fruits in your yard. I think I would like to have that in every house I live in but if I have the privilege of planning the landscape I am going to move it away from the house a few yards.

It finally rained! Only for about 15 minutes and then it was gone. That is the only rain we have had for the entire time we have been here. I know I have said that several times but that is just amazing to me. We woke up to the sound of it and the kids were so excited that they went strait out to play in the rain in their pajamas. I did not stop them because I was in front.

I opened the bag of flour I was going to use for pancakes and saw a worm on top. That is not what I was hoping for! Our cook tells me you have to sift it every time. So, I am sifting the worms out of flour these days and not eating raw cookie dough any more.

I am now the mother of a nine year old. We asked John if he had ever had any kind of party or cake at the refugee camp and the answer was no as expected. At the center they celebrate with 4 parties a year to celebrate all the birthdays of that quarter. So, I loved getting to celebrate just him. We made him follow a streamer that went from his bed all through the house and at the end we were in the living room waiting to pop the confetti poppers and sing happy birthday. He opened his presents and after a fun day at the beach we had pizza and cake. Yes, those are matches. We are in Africa and I didn't have candles. I am so thankful that God has allowed us this time to be his family. He brings joy to our lives and is really a wonderful person that I adore.

Levi will surely be a biologist. He spends all his time outside looking for creatures. Two Saturdays ago there was a spectacular development. He found a hermit crab. It was way over at the far side of the beach. He begged us unmercifully to take it home. I relented reluctantly. Why? Because they are gross and I was remembering the episode a year or two ago of him loosing one in our house that was missing for months and then showed up one day in the kitchen. Then one day he died and fell out of his shell on me. Disgusting. But, a disgusted mother is no match for a pet needing 5 year old so he took it home. It promptly died. I did not take this one out-he did. This Saturday he came home with somewhere around 19 hermit crabs and 5 clams. I love this photo of him trying to haul all those gross things plus sand across the beach to our car.

This really is getting out of control and I need to put my foot down. However, when he woke up the day after bringing them home, he literally went strait to the crab box and stayed there all day. He loves to watch them. I want to yell, 'no more crabs stinking up the back porch!', but how could I take away his joy? Here he and Ivey are eating egg sandwiches and 'studying hermit crabs'.

And, he is so quirky. This is how eats banana's:

And the funny label of the week is:
Diabetic Raspberry Extra Jelly

The other day I pulled out a map of the world that has been color coded for Christianity. It shows all areas where it is illegal and what area's are hostile with intensely persecuted churches. Albert was very interested and asked several questions about that. He has said for years now that he wants to be a pastor. I showed him how the line is all across north Africa and the persecuted realm is coming south. The line at this point is just north of Sierra Leone. I said, "It appears that God is doing something along this line because many missionaries are feeling led to go to countries and area's right along this border all the way across Africa. I think it is time to push that line back". He smiled, agreed, high 5'd me, and walked away. I almost cried. There was a day that I thought my job as a mother was to protect my children from ever suffering anything including a persecution. I felt that I needed to pray that God would not choose my child. Today I am at peace with the fact that of all the things I have to protect my children from, God is not one of them.