Huffmans In Kenya

testimony

2012-01-28T12:03:00.005-06:00

It's been a good week of transitioning back to this time zone. Bud and Claire overcame jet lag in no time, Elisha and I are almost over it. Almost. Sometimes being removed from an environment will give you new eyes to see. I don't think we realized what a huge transformation King Jesus continues to do in our children. I mean, we know they are being transformed but being away for 6 weeks and coming back refreshed, we're able to see even more what a mighty work the Lord has done in our children and staff too. Here's a few little things I've noticed this week...

When we were out there one day (can't remember which day, not even sure what today is!), I sat in house three and had some Kenyan chai. It was about that time that the children were out of school for lunch. The house three children were starting to come home for lunch. Their parent's, Grace and Joseph welcomed them in a way that was just so sweet. I could see the bond Jesus had brought to make them all one family. Grace would hug on each girl that came in, asking them how school was. She would stroke their hair and encourage them to study hard. They all sat at the table together and the children were excited to all share with their mom and dad about their day in school so far. Each child was eager to be the next to share something. They laughed together and took time for one another. It was beautiful.

Today Bud noticed the house moms in our new church building. They decided on their own to start meeting together once a week to have bible study and encourage one another. YES! So sweet. Bud also noticed one of the boys, Eric, talking to Christabelle (house 2 mom). Eric left her with a note in his hand. Bud was curious about it and found that Christabelle will share bible scriptures with children as Jesus puts it on her heart, according to each child's need for encouragement or correction. Love it.

Lucy Lou is dancing when all the girls will circle up and play games where they take turns dancing. She is more active and playful. I haven't heard her cry once this week! She is becoming more confident and independent. This is huge.

Those are just a few little glances we've had this week. There are many more we could share and end up writing a novel. We just praise Jesus for the love and transformation He continues to do in our children. Our hearts are grateful.

Ok, now for the fun part... more pictures....

Precious. With hair extensions now.

For Christmas Eve, I was told our house two dad bought for the kids a new movie for them to watch. So they watched George of the Jungle. After Elizabeth shared that with me, it made sense why our kids were having the time of their life in our little miniature forest we have at Mattaw.

Geoffrey.

Elizabeth felt the urge to try and be a kid again too. But what you can't tell from this picture is she only lasted a few seconds and was only inches above the ground. Props to you Elizabeth for trying! (remember, she's our full time nurse, check out her blog for many updates: kenyanurse.com) I can't express our thankfulness for having her here full time!

Dominic.

Kakai.

Brian, Dan and Jose.

Pauline.

Gracie.

Lucy Lou.

The kids are very resourceful in what they make for toys. Something common they do is use a leaf and tree bark to make a noise that sounds like a kazoo. Geoffrey demonstrated for me.

And I just happened to walk out the door of house two and caught these two running off to play.

(Claire and Lucy Lou)

Lucy Lou, Claire, Georgie and Rose.

And these two are quite the entertainment. That is if you can catch them both in a great mood at the same time! They were performing some sort of dance and song on this trailer. I have no idea what they were saying. I'm quite sure they didn't know either.

Not sure what exactly this coming week holds. Just expecting to see more of the love of Jesus at work in and around these children.

Beautiful faces

2012-01-26T19:06:00.002-06:00

Velma

Phillip

Mercy

Ohh baby Georgie

Nasike

Ok so maybe the cow isn't so much a beautiful face but while taking this picture I realized her eyes go different directions. Maybe that's why she's our meanest cow. She's just confused, not mean.

Heart content and overflowing with JOY!

2012-01-25T11:33:00.005-06:00

There is so much to update on. I'm really not sure where to start.

We said goodbyes, hugged many necks and left Texas this past weekend. It does not get easier saying goodbye. Although my heart was content with it, it's still hard to be so far from family.

I look into the eyes of Love and keep saying yes though. In His presence, saying yes to hard things becomes joyful... and worth it.

Elisha on the other hand had a great time in Texas but did not even flinch at the idea of coming back "home". He loves his grandparents but wasn't sad one bit to leave them. The whole process of watching him reach an age where he now understands where home is and love his home has been great for us to see. It's one of those parenting moments where you see the hand of Jesus at work in your child's life.

We still love Texas.

But happy to be home in Kenya.

(Bud snapped this picture at the guesthouse in Nairobi, I though it was pretty cute!)

The flights went really well. I am thankful for such troopers when it comes to crazy long waits in airports and long plane rides. We had our low moments but overall I have to say my kids are rock stars at traveling and overcoming jet lag. We were going to stay in Nairobi longer but we were all too antsy to get back home.

Bud surprised me with our boys coming to Nairobi to pick us from the airport. I can't even express the joy it was to walk out of the airport to find Caleb, Ian and Daniel there. Our family is back together.

Elisha barged in our doors with excitement. Claire was a bit reserved and wouldn't let me put her down the first hour or so. Once Violet came this morning, she was 100% back to knowing she is home.

This morning we rushed to get out to Mattaw Children's Village to see all of our children. We all loaded the car with excitement to go love on our kiddos. We hit the ground and had our children surrounding us non stop. What a joy to see their beautiful healthy faces. They look more beautiful today than ever.

Euni

Lucy Lou

We couldn't go empty handed so we brought out some juice and cookies. The simple things that brings more joy to the day.

One of our new cows bought since we left

Our kids happily volunteered to help wash clothes while the Mattaw kids went back to school. I hope they keep this great attitude up! Oh and Claire was already was running around in her diaper. The weather is perfect! We are enjoying it a ton. It's nice and blazing hot in the day and cools off in the morning and evenings. We're about to catch a pool day with friends.

Daniel and Ian playing checkers out at Mattaw today. Ian has grown about four inches since left! We seriously have to get a basketball court built soon and get him practicing! Daniel is doing amazing. We've enjoyed settling back into our home with them. They keep us laughing often.

There's so much more I could share but I'll break it down and share over the next several days. I will share this news though. We received a call from the children's department asking us to rescue a little girl around 7 years old. Her dad went crazy, murdered the mom and cut her into many pieces. Then he ended up in the hospital/prison and died. This little girl is left with no family. My heart ached when hearing this and of course I was ready to jump in the car and get her now. She is temporarily in a safe place though so we will go pick her up when we open the doors to house four on Valentines day! I'm thrilled that we have the opportunity to give this little girl a new family with a bright future and hope that only Jesus can give. I can't wait to share more with you on how much transformation has taken place in the children we've rescued at Mattaw and also those we will bring through the gates in a few weeks.

Just an update

2012-01-16T14:06:00.002-06:00

I figured I should write something to update on. I've kinda had writers block... or I guess it's called bloggers block?

It's been such a wonderful trip back to see family. We're bummed we missed a few places and faces, but next time!

We are feeling very refreshed. It's a new year with SO many great things ahead of us. We've seen some pretty big miraculous provisions (not just monetary) in the past several weeks... it's blown our minds! We have our eyes fixed on Jesus and Kenya in a deeper way as we pack our bags this week. Our hearts ache to get back to our "family" in Kenya.

We're blown away with the response to sponsoring our Mattaw children. THANK YOU big time to those that continue to sponsor and to those that just signed up. We are so grateful. We are currently sponsored enough to be able to open house FOUR soon after our return home. How exciting is that?! It's a great way to start the year out in Kenya.

We just got a little something in the mail that the Mattaw children made for their sponsors. We've been waiting for weeks and found that they were lost in the mail. We almost ended up sending out updates to sponsors without this little gift but got them just in time! So if you're a sponsor, some sweet stuff in on its way to you. We're on Kenyan time getting these out.

We've also had time to dream and plan with our board here. We're thankful for this group of men, or more like spiritual fathers to us and Mattaw. That has been a good solid start for the new year as well.

Last week we were in Dallas/Ft. Worth area, Alabama, and New Mexico. It was our most traveled week. We LOVED getting to meet with many and talk about Mattaw. So thankful to those that loved on us, encouraged us and hosted our little family. Very exciting to see the body of Christ doing what they were created to do.

This past weekend Bud and I celebrated five years of marriage! What a great celebration it is! We're thankful to have such amazing grandparents to our children. Both of our parents are now in the same town and were able to take turns watching our kids while we went on a little getaway. We spent the weekend in downtown Ft. Worth. It was one of the best times away with my husband. And not because of the location but because it was like falling in love for the first time again... but times FIVE! What a godly loving husband I get to walk out dreams and visions from Jesus with.

Huffman family pictures 2012

2012-01-03T12:25:00.004-06:00

Huffmans 2012

We had our friend Kensie take some family photos a few days ago. Being back in Texas at this particular time is pretty convenient with the mile stones each of our children are at. Elisha just turned four and Claire turns two next month! It's crazy to believe but we're enjoying every day of raising them (not that its always easy or "fun"). I couldn't be more nutty about them than I am today. What a joy to raise these two...

We originally had Kensie take photos since all of Bud's family was in town. His sister lives in North Carolina and was here for a quick visit. Might as well take some other shots while we're at it. Keepin it real...

Elisha and Claire with their Poppa and Nene...

And there's some other really great shots of this one but I just had to post the funny one....

That's right Claire, boys have cooties, even your brother. Don't ever forget that until you're like 20... or 30.

Our visit to the states has proven over and over again that it was perfect timing. We've gotten a lot accomplished, the best being family time and being refreshed. Sometimes you just don't realize what rest you need until you sit down right?

I've tried not to say much about our vacation part of this trip home. We had a winter and I know many of our precious missionary friends back in Kenya really miss winter and family. I can remember the tension in having Christmas in Kenya. Definitely more good than not but you can be torn in your heart on where you want to be. I love the simplicity it brings but it's just not the same. So I decided not to post hardly anything and pretty much nothing.

This week the majority of our time is spent on administration work for Mattaw. It's been good to get things accomplished! We are just waiting on a few things in order to mail out stuff to our sponsors and newsletter to our supporters. Hopefully I can figure out how to get the newsletter put on here electronically. We'll see if I'm that technologically inclined. (is that a word or did that even make sense?)

This weekend we are off to the big city. Going to the Dallas area to catch up with a few people, visit one of our supporting churches where I graduated high school and then fly out to Birmingham, Alabama. Very excited to connect with Servant Life and meet their staff. We'll just be there for a night and meet with the staff then fly back. If you are looking into coming over on a team this summer, you can check out their website: servantlife.com. But if you are not a youth or youth group leader, you can contact our Team Coordinator Scott: team.mattaw@yahoo.com for further questions. Looking forward to having over 100 people come through to serve and love the poor. There's a lot of excitement and hope looking at what year 2012 holds!

More updates.... Better take more advantage of this constant high speed Internet...

Running into 2012!

2012-01-01T09:12:00.002-06:00

As I reflect on this past year and want to unload all that has happened... good, bad, ugly, hurtful, lovely, beautiful, joy, the list goes on. I can't for one minute dwell on the heartache and trials we faced. I fall into the arms of Love and can do nothing but give the one glory for all that made the impossible possible. His name is JESUS! We start the year by glorifying and loving Jesus. It's so simple. Our life seems so busy and complicated at times but it all comes down to this simple thing. Jesus.

I start out the year with this scripture so strongly on my heart. It's my desire for my life and for you.

¹⁶May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].

¹⁷May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,

¹⁸That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];

¹⁹[That you may really come] to know [practically, ^[e]through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses^[f]mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] ^[g]unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and ^[h]become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

²⁰Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]--

This past year He has shown us more depths, widths and heights of his crazy super duper love for US. All of us. No one is left unnoticed although we might feel like it. All those hopes and dreams that we thought would happen this past year, we still cling onto because we hold onto the mighty loving King of all.

Our life is not about doing something great, its not the point. It's not about doing something but being in Someone. There's no striving to make his purpose within us happen.

We just look into the face of Love.

It's so simple.

May we all this year come to reality that we have "become a body wholly filled and flooded by God himself".

From that flows floods of living water, water that gives a drink to the lowly, needy and unloved. It can hydrate entire nations and satisfy their desires. It fills us up to be able to run out into a dying world and feed nations.

Daniel

2011-12-26T15:48:00.003-06:00

Howdy y'all! This past week we had our Christmas vacation with my parents in the mountains (Ruidoso, NM). My brother and four of his boys were there too. His wife and youngest couldn't make it since their youngest was in the hospital with rev twice and has to pretty much live in a bubble for awhile. We were pretty bummed about that! But we were still able to go and have a good time, it just wasn't the same without them. So we've had a good dose of family time. Here in a few days Bud's sister will visit and we'll spend time with his side of the family. After we get a good fill of time with them, the "itch" I started getting last week will turn into an "intense rash" causing me to go insane and want to be back in Kenya with our family there. Yep, I've got the itch to be in Kenya NOW. But remembering to be content where I'm at and I truly am thankful to be here. My heart is just longing to be back home. And today the itch is worse. So in the mean time I'll just write about home and catch up on a few pictures.

Linda and I eating chapati in house one. It's their version of tortillas. Very yummy.

On our last safari with Dan, Linda, Ian and Daniel.

Daniel and Ian playing with fire a.k.a a baboon. They were brave to sit this close to such a beast! Have you seen their teeth?!

Ian and Dan. Dan and Linda have sponsored Ian for four years now!

Jim reading with some of our Mattaw children in house two

This morning we were able to Skype with our boys (young men) in Kenya. Elizabeth, our nurse, has her parents visiting her right now. They were able to come and spend Christmas with her. I was thrilled to hear they are also taking care of our boys (Caleb, Ian and Daniel) by having them over for every meal and having them tag along with them wherever they go. Of course we miss our Mattaw kiddos terribly but more than that, we miss these three boys. They are part of our family and honestly I could cry just thinking about them not being with us for Christmas. And I really do miss cooking for them even if they do eat us out of the house! I've talked about Caleb on HERE before and also mentioned Ian with some pictures here and there. But I haven't talked much about Daniel. These three boys have unique stories and are special indeed. Our vision at Mattaw Children's Village is to place children in families by training Kenyan house parents to raise them. We want the Kenyans to raise Kenyans and be the ones to restore what a family looks like. With these three boys it was different. Sometimes we have to let God break our box of how we do things and not be sticklers on how we think things should go. Mattaw is God's vision and we believe bringing these three boys into our family was part of God's plan too. We have a little two bedroom guesthouse on the same compound as our house. We've had single missionaries live in it before but it became empty around the same time that Caleb graduated high school and around the same time we decided to not put Ian in boarding school anymore. It was necessary for him to transfer to a better school which is near our house. So a year ago Caleb and Ian moved into our guesthouse and even though they were already part of our family, it became more full time.

Let me back way up right quick. Before opening Mattaw (which happened September 2008), we lived in Kitale for over a year. We spent a lot of that time learning more of the culture and living in Kitale. We did a lot of praying in preparation of Mattaw. It felt we weren't doing much but for Bud and I as a married couple, we were setting a foundation for our family and ministry in Kenya. I remember hearing over and over not to despise small beginnings. We did have four young college students come and live with us for a few months. We were able to give them opportunities to serve in different ministries around Kitale. One of the things we did with them was street kid outreaches. During one of those times is when we rescued Ian. That same morning God had woke me up to go save Daniel, a little street boy that we would see in town almost on a daily basis for several months. There's a lot more to their story but I'm already being long winded so I'll save that for another time. Basically we got them in rags, beaten down by the world but with the leading of Jesus they became our sons. Ian and Daniel were pretty opposite. Ian wasn't addicted to glue, Daniel was. Ian was very shy, Daniel was loud but hilarious. Our college students helped us welcome them into our home. We have sweet memories of that summer with them. Around September we ended up coming back to the states to have Elisha in December. While we were gone we had our friend Todd stay in our house and take care of Daniel and Ian for us. Before leaving though Daniel had already ran away to the streets a few times. Each time we would track him down and bring him back home. The glue and addiction was so strong. While in the states Todd called and said he ran away a few times again. Eventually we had to let him go. Later that next year he was picked up by a street kid rehabilitation ministry. We were so happy to find that out. He lived there up until this past year when he showed up at our gate. I won't get into details on how that happened but when I pulled out of our gate one day to find him standing there, I jumped out of my car and welcomed him back home with open arms. It had been several years since he lived with us so we gave it a test run. He had changed so much and matured more than we could believe. He is definitely still the funny Daniel we've always known but now he has grown up more and able to make reasonable decisions. He now knows how loved he was and is by us. He's over the addiction to the glue, streets and everything else that came with that. He's been on a long and hard journey at such a young age but God has been faithful to care for him. We know God has BIG plans for his life and we're thankful to help get him there. Wherever that may be. For now though he is home at our house.

The main reason I share this with you is to ask you to consider being his sponsor. He's been living with us this time around since September this year. We wanted to make sure he was committed to staying with us and didn't want to run away. He is such a respectful and loving young man. We don't take it lightly the responsibility to raise him in his last years of being a kid. He's now about 13 years old. We're not sure his exact age and there's really no way to find out.

So I've waited this long to find a sponsor for him so that if someone commits to sponsoring him, they will know its long term. There's a few preferences I have for those that prayerfully consider to sponsor Daniel. To sponsor him, it would be a bit different than sponsoring a child living at Mattaw. You would mostly communicate directly with us on how he is doing. Ian's sponsors just visited him and that was HUGE for him to get to meet them. So one request is that you would communicate with him often. Another one is that you are planning to visit Kenya one day, hopefully in the next couple of years. We are setting up an email account for Ian to be able to write with Dan and Linda and plan to do that same for Daniel and whoever would sponsor him. Also the total cost to sponsor a Mattaw child per month is broken up into five sponsors to make it $35 each. For Daniel we prefer to just have one sponsor like we do for Ian, making it $100 per month. This covers his schooling and needs per month. We cover food and housing expenses. We wish we could do more, which we have been doing, but he needs a sponsor. It also gives someone else the opportunity to make an impact on his life and be so blessed in return. If you would like more details, please email us: mattaw@yahoo.com.

I better close this long winded update! We're on our way out the door to catch a double date with my brother and his wife. Mexican food here we come. As much as I miss our home in Kenya, I will surely enjoy tonight!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-24T04:03:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas from our family to you! May it be full of joy as we remember the reason we celebrate, it's Jesus' birthday!

Widows

2011-12-15T05:32:00.003-06:00

I shared several weeks ago about the privelege I had to go and be with a group of widows around the village Mattaw is located. People have told us about them for a long time and they had invited me several times, always wanting to go but it just never worked. I've always had a heart for older ladies. I was very close to both of my grandmothers. In high school I loved going up to the nursing home to paint toe nails and play bingo. Just like kids are pretty similar no matter the culture, sweet grandma's are too. But this group is pretty unique. They're all widows and considered a burden to those around them. They all are coming from broken families with much poverty, sickness and hurt. There's no option to put them in a nursing home. Many end up dying alone. Many are out casted. Women are looked down upon but even more if they aren't married. But these group of ladies came together on their own and have a strong bond. I was intrigued that they are all from several different denominations. That just doesn't happen. They try and meet once a week, each time rotating locations between their mud huts.

I was able to go at just the right time. One of our teachers at Mattaw, Dorcas, knows them and was raised by many of them. She said her mom is usually part of the group but was sick the day I went. So off we went in my little green vehicle. Thankfully it's four wheel drive! I've had this vehicle since the time I lived alone in another village (5 years ago). (I call that time in my life: BB (before Bud)) It has gotten me places you wouldn't imagine. We've made our own roads through maize fields. Dorcas was my navigator. We went through the woods, down a dirt road, around several corners, down many more red dirt roads, through mud puddles, used the 4x4 a few times, down more roads, through a field, turned down a smaller less traveled road, then drove down what was a walking path but we made it a road to where we came upon the woman's mud hut. They were all already there and as soon as we arrived they ran out with joy to greet us with hugs and how are you's. I was welcomed in and to my surprise made the guest of honor. It was a tiny room but kept with care. It was obvious Lydia did what she could with what she had. I learned a lot that day. We arrived about 3:30 and I took off my watch. Bud had the kids at home and as far as I was concerned, I was on Kenyan time. To me it seems the further into the bush you go, the slower time gets. I love it. We did introductions and they taught me some of their tribal language. We had a good laugh. Then they were thrilled to sing to me some of their songs in their language. I about lost it. I probably don't know the half of what they've experienced but the little I know, I know that if it were me I just might not be singing as joyfully. They asked me to share, which was a bit intimidating. What could I, a young mom from a culture of plenty, share with these women who have endured SO much and have so much life experience? It was only Jesus that could bring a word of encouragement. I was willing and God was faithful. At the end they shared chai. It's very traditional to share chai with visitors. I had to drink about three cups and was so bloated by the end of it! It's a sign of respect to drink what you're given. But as I sat there I watch them do this system called a merry go round. Once a month they all put in a little money and give to someone different in the group each time. The sun was setting and children began to sneak up to the door to peek in and say hi to the white person. The whole thing was just a blessing. One of the biggest things I felt I could share and encourage is for them to keep doing what they could with what they had, our God is our provider, trust in no one else. That though it might look like small, they have an abundance with Jesus and each other. I shared how much distraction there is in America. It seems like the land of plenty which enhances your life but really all that stuff often covers the hurt and discontentment with life. Where they live you learn to appreciate the simple life and have more time for family and friends.

This time with them reminded me of the time I used to have when I lived in a remote village the first year and a half I was in Kenya. It was before kids and not that I liked it better than now, it was a season. Once I started having children I wanted to focus more on our home life and I've been very content in this season. Now that they aren't so much babies anymore, I feel I can devote a little bit more time reaching out in the village.

It's so great being back in Texas. We need this time. But I'm looking forward to going back and sitting in a mud hut and sharing chai with these precious ladies.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:26,27

Home?

2011-12-13T04:38:00.003-06:00

I thought maybe our children would grow up knowing wherever mom and dad are, they are home with us. And there's definitely some truth to that. But this trip I noticed how much Elisha's home is in Kitale and he knows it. Most of our trip back to Texas he would ask off and on to go home. Not that often but when he was sleepy, hurt or being disciplined. It's been interesting to watch his transition this go around. But I like it that home is Kitale. It's home for us all and I already miss it!

Our trip from Kitale, Kenya to San Angelo, Texas was broken down into four phases. We first drove from Kitale to Nairobi and stayed the night. We made it in 5 hours which is crazy fast these days. Thankful for semi good roads now. We let the kids run around in a few different malls then got a good nights rest at a guesthouse. The next morning we left the guesthouse about 9am. Our flight was at 12 but delayed and we flew at 1:30. We then got into London that night around 8 I think? By the time we got our bags and caught a bus, we ended up at our hotel with plenty of time to let the kids take a bath, wind down, and watch some British cartoons. We booked our hotel on hotwire.com and got a sweet deal. For $50 (plus taxes) we got a 4 star hotel that usually is $300-$400! London is crazy expensive. I'm pretty sure our dinner cost as much as our hotel for one night. I'll remember to pack stuff for dinner if we do that again. Our third leg of the trip started the next morning. We had plenty of time to wake up and get ready without making a mad dash for the airport. Our flight was at 11:40am so we were there a few hours early. We made it there with time to relax at starbucks where I had my first cup of Christmas joy! I went for a gingerbread latte. The kids ran up and down the terminal and got out their energy. The kids were wonderful on both flights. The timing was great since they had their naps on both flights. The first flight was nice since it was pretty empty and we had a bulk head with an extra seat for Claire. The last flight though was packed and we squeezed into three seats. My sweet husband took care of the kids a lot of the second flight and let me sleep. He has a hard time sleeping on planes as oppose to the kids and I. We flew in and flew through customs and picking our luggage's. Thank goodness. I felt like it was never ending, standing in one line after another. Thankfully most airlines and security is aware of the challenge it is to take that journey with two littles. They did great though. The only incident we had was the last hour of the last flight. Elisha was stir crazy and jumping on his seat causing the woman behind him to mess up writing on her entry form into the U.S. Whoops. I felt bad but also I felt like banging my head on a wall at that point. It's really crazy to think we sat in a plane for that long with a 4 and 1 year old. God's grace is sufficient! We flew into Houston where my brother and his family live. My parents were able to come pick us up at the airport and we all stayed at my brother's. It was so nice to walk into their house to a nice Texan meal they had prepared. My brother cooked out steaks and for dessert my sister in law had peach kuchen with blue bell ice cream. Hello heaven!

Our children SO enjoyed getting to play with their cousins. My brother has five boys, the two youngest being the same age as Elisha and Claire. It was really really great to be back with family after almost a year. Crazy this is the longest we've stayed in Kenya. I know, its not long in comparison to how long most missionaries wait to visit the states. I'm a big baby and given the opportunity to come home for Christmas, we took it! We were planning to not visit until the end of the summer and I had no idea what a break we needed after a pretty intense year. A lot to unpack but more than that, a lot to give Jesus praises for. I've already wrestled through the guilt of feeling like a wimpy missionary for not staying longer than we have. It was guilt though and not conviction. BIG difference. I guess having two little ones and how much we love mine and Bud's parents, its hard the longer we go not seeing them. The last time my parents saw Claire she wasn't walking. That is just nuts. But it's one of the hardest sacrifices we make to do what we do and I can't complain one bit.

We stayed one night in Houston then drove the next day to San Angelo. I think that was the hardest leg of the trip. Our kids had to sit in car seat which they hardly ever do in Kenya. They were exhausted from being tied down and in a limited amount of space. They slept half of it and we took a lunch break which helped but we spent the last hour of it listening to them scream. Claire is so content and easy ninety percent of the time but that other 10 percent is brutal. She is a drama queen when she decides to be! We finally made it though and it is so relaxing to be back in San Angelo. That evening we went over to Bud's parents and we were all thrilled to see them again. Our kids especially enjoyed playing with their Nene and Poppa again.

The day after we stayed at my brother's house, their youngest had to be hospitalized for RSV again. Please pray for him as he is still in the hospital. Our kids are now congested with runny noses so I'm praying they didn't catch it. Please pray good health for us all! We only have a short time here and the last thing we need is any winter sicky stuff.

I've got pictures to update on from the past couple weeks but they're currently on the computer that has to be fixed so in time I'll post them. For now though I plan to not post as much and focus more on our family. As nice as it is to be back in America, it's full of the commercialized Christmas. We have no problems with giving gifts, we enjoy giving gifts to friends and family. We do however have a problem with letting the gift giving consume our lives and our kids'

minds. So, we're keeping the main thing the main thing by celebrating Jesus. We're keeping Christ in Christmas. I wanted to start an advent calendar, making homemade ornaments with the kids from the website: truthinthetensel.com. With all the traveling it didn't happen this year. They'll probably understand it better next year anyways. We plan to read some stories from the bible leading up to the Christmas story. We also are starting the tradition of having a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. What are some things you're doing to keep the main thing the main thing?? Please share! And we hope you're having a wonderful season this year full of joy and thankfulness for all Jesus has done.

Thanksgiving and Sunshine(s)

2011-12-05T10:31:00.005-06:00

Time to do a little catch up.

We had a full blown American Thanksgiving at our house. This was the fourth year to do something similar to this. It was loads of fun!

I brined the big bird 24 hours in advance and woke up the morning of Thanksgiving at 4 am to stick it in the oven. The night before I was up makin some yummy pies. Can't have Thanksgiving without pies! Most of my scheduling was influened by Pioneer Woman. (www.thepioneerwoman.com) Everything turned out as I hoped! (minus the cheesy biscuits but I mainly waned them to stick the name tags into, and they served their purpose... i thought i had learned my leason not to try new recipes when hosting large groups... oh well!)

Claire helped me some...

We most certainly got our pie on...

Then after eating our feast, we had a turkey trivia. Based on the scores, it determined who was on which team. We had four teams with several different challenges. Some of them being well known games, others being games from the show "minute to win it". The boys really got into it and made it fun!

Ben, Ian, Daniel and Caleb

Sean, Elisha, and Bud... oh and Lindsay and Terri who crashed on the ground

Sandy and Caleb. They had to bounce ping pongs back and forth to get it in a bucket at the end

Claire with her Auntie Meri

Sean and Daniel

(Bud, Claire and Jordan in the back)

While I spent the morning cooking, Bud took the kids and our four boys to town to get supplies for all the games and prizes. The prizes they picked were pretty humourous. Last place got a snoopy bobble head, second to last got a bottle opener with Jesus' face on it. Second place got a 3D bird placemat. And first place.....

It was a memorable one for sure! We had about 25 people in our house at one time and loved every minute. So thankful for friends that are like family on holidays like this one.

A few days after Thanksgiving, I got out and spent the morning with Elisha and Claire in our yard. Sunny days should be everyday this time of year but they're few and far between at times. So anytime its a beautiful day, we're sure to take advantage of it!

And I'm still quite in love with taking pictures of my sunshines...

You can bet that I'll have a post up tomorrow. Elisha turns FOUR! My oh my how he seemed to turn from a toddler to little boy over night. Going to try and create some epic birthday cake with superheroes and race cars on it. That's what the birthday boy wanted and that's what I'll ensure he gets!

This week...

2011-11-30T13:20:00.007-06:00

My posts on here have become further apart. So sorry! As the Christmas season has started and the end of the year is nearing, I've started to look back on this past year. I'm astonished at all King Jesus has done in our midst. The good, bad, ugly and victorious moments. It's been a ride for sure. But I'll get more into summarizing this past year soon enough. It's growing deep inside all that He has done, is doing and will do. But remembering all the intense storms we've been through, especially since May, I can tell you that that flows into why updates have become further apart. With every battle though there is VICTORY in the name of Jesus. And I'm learning new levels of trusting God in it all. He is so trustworthy. And the good reminder is that we're invading darkness and bringing the light of Jesus. The enemy hates it and throws attacks. And so the hard times are no surprise. The exciting part is when Jesus shows up big time. And He sure surprises us how He does it. I love it. I love Jesus. And I'm loving the life he created us for.

This week we've had some of our most precious friends in the faith here. They have impacted our lives and Mattaw in ways I can't even summarize in a book. It might seem simple to them at times, the impact they have, but its always so powerful in Jesus' name that it causes a ripple effect to all we do here. I have such a full and thankful heart tonight.

This past Sunday we were in our new church building for the first time! Another piece to the vision fulfilled at Mattaw. We've really focused on our foundation at Mattaw, the house parents and first few houses of children. Growing as a family and establishing what that looks like with opening the first few houses over the past 4 years. Most importantly setting Jesus as the cornerstone and foundation of it all! Then opening house three this year. And knowing eventually God will equip us and open doors to reach out to those in the surrounding village. It's starting and I'm super pumped! I've seen it coming.

I mentioned meeting with the widows a few weeks ago and how strategic and powerful that was. I invited them to come to Dan and Linda's teaching on Tuesday morning. Almost ALL of them showed up. About 24 of them. A few were sick and couldn't make it. I had told them 10am thinking they'd probably be late or rather on "Kenyan time". We were a bit late and come to find out they started showing up early early that morning! Some of them walked 2 hours in the mud to get there. They were eager and hungry for Jesus. Linda taught and it was such a direct word for them. Here's Linda meeting baby Georgie....

What I didn't tell Linda is that when I met with these precious women a few weeks ago, I had asked them how I could pray for them. Some of them had pain and sickness. Some felt better as they left. But many of them asked for prayer for wisdom to deal with conflict in their homes. Many have children that bring much conflict and hurt around their home. Many with daughters that married alcoholics. I didn't ask Linda what she would be sharing with them beforehand. So when she began to share a message of PEACE, my heart smiled. Holy Spirit moved and gave her a direct word for these women. She also shared about Anna in the bible. Anna was a widow. Her and one other person were the first to know Jesus was the savior brought to this earth. She used her time as a widow not to be in despair but used her time to pray, worship and fast night and day in the temple. It's a beautiful life she led. One that was encouragement to these women. There's more to her life, you should read up on it some time. At the end we worshiped. Dan and Linda prayed on them. The presence of God was thick. It was heaven on earth. Our first event held in the church building at Mattaw. What a way to start!

Our house three dad's mom is part of this group. He shared how many of these women helped raise him. But he also shared that his mom was too sick to come to the teaching. We planned to go pray for her after but she ended up walking in at the end. You could see sickness on her face. She had a shortness of breath. She was hurting. She didn't even want chai and that is a big deal for them! We all laid hands on her to pray. The next morning we had the report that for the first time in several months, she was able to sleep through the night with no breathing problems and no pain!!!!! Praise Jesus!!! "God doesn't have to prove himself, but he's happy to reveal himself" -Bill Johnson

That afternoon Dan shared with those in the surrounding villages. There were about 50 people total. It was very powerful and a message none of them had heard. One of hope and equipping the body of Christ. Several shared later how impacted they were. And it just clicked with me as I write this and remember that he spoke on a message from Zechariah. It was in chapter 4 about the lamp stand with seven lights on it. It represents different characteristics of Holy Spirit and how it equips every believer. He also spoke on the temple and foundation. How we are the temple, Jesus is the corner stone and the cap stone. Of course the church building is just a building and we are the church. But this building and starting new in it represents a new season to me. And the teaching Dan taught is pretty foundational for starting this new season. The meaning... wholly cow. Ok, sorry... just one of those light bulb moments!

And with us this week is also Jim Farmer, one of our board members from Texas. He lived in Africa for 15 years with his family. He comes through here a few times a year. But mostly has ministry outside Nairobi, on Mt. Elgon and also in Lemoru, the village I lived in the first year and a half in Kenya. It's incredible how the Lord uses him door to door in villages. I imagine the ministry Jesus did on this earth being very similar to what Jim does here. Pray for him as he goes up Mt. Elgon this weekend. They're going right to the center of a village where a lot of tribal war was going on a few years ago.

The past couple days miss Lucy Lu really drew close to Jim. He's been teaching her new things. She is so smart and he's been able to draw more of that out in her. I just saw the Father's love being shown to her through Jim. So much healing from the traumatic past she came from.

Today they started out the teaching time with worship. Dan and Linda spent last week in Uganda teaching a lot on marriage in different churches, speaking in front of thousands. During one of the times they liked a song they sang where they picked up objects and walked around the room with them. They have the same song in swahili here so we sang it. It was odd until they asked what the song meant...

The song says that we're leaving Egypt, going to the promise land, taking our things with us and not looking back. So they take everything with them and off they go singing!

We are wrapping up their time at Mattaw in the morning with some time with our house parents. This morning Dan shared with just our house parents a word of encouragement on marriage and applied it to what they do. It was beautiful and another one of those teachings that was so obvious it was a word directly for them at the perfect time.

(we've also have two visitors from Minnesota. They're here about two weeks. It's the mom and aunt to Jorday, the guy that graduated high school last year and now ending his 6 months of living with us and volunteering at mattaw. we'll be sad to see him leave! they've been awesome in loving on our kids during their school break and doing things with them like making christmas gifts for sponsors and helping our nurse Elizabeth give all of them doses to get rid of worms. so fun!)

"Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty" Zechariah 4:6

dressy dress

2011-11-26T12:04:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago, Lindsay and I trekked down an ally with our two baby girls. We went to this little bitty shop where you can pick out fabric and have dresses tailor made. It was so fun! Claire was super cute getting her measurements taken. I just love watching her grow and I enjoy every stage so much. Here are the two dresses I had made for Claire. She was super excited to put them on and have her picture taken.

Their brother Caleb came over to see how stylish Claire was lookin in her African dresses.

And speaking of Caleb, he just took his SAT and did AWESOME. We're so proud of him. Just one step closer to going to college in America. Not so sure how we'll manage to let him go. Only God can help us send him off into his destiny! (i've got to get some updates on our other sons on here! (Ian and Daniel) )

I have SO much to update on! You might remember me mentioning how I've wanted to visit a group of widows in our surrounding village. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go and OH my it was a blessing. I was in heaven. We drove and drove and drove down and around many dirt roads until we came upon one of the womens little mud huts. It was a precious time. I'll share more about it later and show a few pictures. These ladies were hilarioius getting their picture taken, some for the first time ever.

Last weekend we took an overnight camping trip outside of Kitale. It was a quick trip but what a refreshing time of enjoying the outdoors and God's creation. Guava fights, s'mores, campfire stories, then hiking up to a waterfall the next morning. I'll have to share some pictures soon. Amazing the places you can find tucked away in this country. So much beauty.

And I'm thrilled about this coming week. Our friends, Dan and Linda Wilson will be here on Monday and spend a week with us. They are one of the most incredible couples I know. They've made a huge impact on our lives. They will do some teachings in our church which we've invited the surrounding villages to join. They'll also spend time with our house parents, encouraging and ministering to them. They're also Ian's sponsors and will meet him for the first time. Ian has been counting down the days! You can read more about them, their ministry and book that Dan wrote by going to: www.supernaturalmarriage.org. Looking forward to a phenomonal week! Oh and can't fogret to mention that one of our board members is in Kenya now and will also join us for next week. Jim has been a huge part of our lives and our journey in Kenya. He's been in Nairobi the past week and has stories to share about healings, salvations and lives restored. They'll all be a huge blessing to have around. Please pray for this coming week!

SIsters

2011-11-23T14:30:00.002-06:00

(been trying to post this for a week, internet and power here is so unstable!)

We're wrapping up our last week in featuring children that are in need of sponsorship. If you are not already a sponsor of one of the Mattaw Children, we hope you would take the time to consider sponsoring one of these lives and being part of rescuing a child. Today I bring to you three different sets of sisters living at Mattaw.

First is Salma Pauline and Saida Rose. They are the biological children of our house two parents, Juilius and Christabelle. But when you ask the parents how many children they have, they are quick to respond "twelve". There's a few reasons why we also get sponsors for the biological children of our house parents. When moving to Mattaw, the children of the house parents live in the same room as the other children. Our prayer and encouragement to our house parents, is for them to bring in the other children and see them all the same, regardless if they are biological or not. So we treat them all the same. Our house parents have been amazing at not playing favorites and truly loving all of their children the same. We provide the same care for the house parent's biological children as we do the children that are rescued. I can only imagine how hard it must be at times to share your parent's love and attention with a house full of other children. At times it has been a hard transition on the house parent's biological children, but overall they look at the other children they live with as their own brothers and sisters. With the sponsorship program, we give sponsors the option of communicating with their child 3-4 times a year and also sending them gifts that fit in a shoe box. Our children adore their sponsors and all keep close track on who each others sponsors are. It would be unfair for the house parent's children not to have this opportunity to have friends from accross the world love them, write to them and pray for them just as all the other children have. Sometimes we get request of wanting "an actual orphan" to sponsor. That is totally ok. But once a child is rescued and placed in Mattaw, they are no longer orphan. They are all the same, biological or adopted. Please consider sponsoring one of these precious girls. They gave up their friends, neighborhood, and school to live at Mattaw. It was a sacrifice but there are so many blessings in return.

Rose and Pauline

Next is Sheila and Violet. You can read about their rescue at the bottom of THIS post by clicking HERE. We are still waiting to open house four and place them in a permanent family. For now, they are the only two extra in house one. But everyone is so thankful to have them rescued and safely in Mattaw. Our house one parents insisted on taking them in temporarily in order to ensure their safety. Our goal is to get full sponsorship on all our children living at Mattaw now so that we can open house four which means you could help make this happen by sponsoring one of these girls!

Violet and Sheila

Last is Nelima and Gracie. Gracie is actually fully sponsored but her sister Nelima still lacks a couple of sponsors. And guess who is their little brother? The infamous baby Georie. They also have an older brother, Juma. They all have the same biological mom. Gracie and George have the same father. Nelmia and Juma have different fathers. We tried to keep them with the father of Georigie and Gracie. About 6 months after the mother died, the father went back to alcoholism and abandoned the children. Nelima was shy and timid, Gracie rough and tough. Their personalities have bloomed living at Mattaw and what precious girls they are. They are now all home in house one at Mattaw.

Nelima and Gracie

Rescue a life. Redeem a soul. Release the Kingdom.

Flower

2011-11-18T06:51:00.000-06:00

Not sure the name of this flower but it's edible. I sometimes put it in a salad and they add a peppery taste.

Claire and guava

2011-11-18T06:48:00.000-06:00

Guava fruit tree

2011-11-18T06:46:00.000-06:00

Camping this weekend and we're under a guava tree! I love this fruit. They turn yellow when ripe, you pick them off the tree, pull them open quite easily and bite the inside out. Free dessert for me tonight!

Jose and Sophia

2011-11-16T22:59:00.004-06:00

(first time to meet them)

Jose and Sophia. Brother and sister. Living in house two. We found out about them in 2007. You might not remember or even know about the post election violence in 2007. It's rarely brought up anymore. It was a bloodshed between tribes due to political unrest. Kitale was fairly peaceful but about 20 minutes outside, there were still killings happening. These two children were orphaned due to their mother being found out her tribe and loosing her life because of it.

They were left with their grandmother who tried for a year to care for them but we found the children becoming more malnourished. The grandmother struggled to care for herself and was a wanderer, going from one mud hut to another in search of food and shelter. There was no other family left to help her or the children. We stepped in at the right time and direction from God.

Jose was absolutely terrified of us when we first met them. He had never seen a white person before. He was incredibly timid and would shy away to a corner. When we brought him and Sophia into Mattaw, it took much time to convince him how loved they were and especially how safe they were. Christabell, our house two mom, was the first to greet them. I remember her telling them how happy she was to be their new mom and if they were ok with that. They both cracked a smile and instantly warmed up to her.

When meeting them today, you would never know the life they once lived. Jose is one of our biggest transformations in a child at Mattaw. Sophia is as sweet as can be and is very content with life. Both of these children are in need of sponsorship. Will you partner with us so that we can continue to provide great care, a good education and a loving home for them?

First picture taken of them at Mattaw

Jose

Sophia

Rescue a life. Redeem a soul. Release the Kingdom.

Come partner with us to accomplish the vision of Mattaw Children's Village.

House of Amani

2011-11-13T03:44:00.004-06:00

Since opening our most recent house, I still haven't snapped a group shot of the house parents with their house full of new children. House three's name is Amani, meaning peace in swahili. You walk into the house and know it is indeed a house of peace. The house parents love these childen as their own. It's been awesome to see how quickly all the house three children have transitioned. They know they are loved, no matter what.

This morning the house three parents sang a song in church for us with their four oldest girls. It was one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. Especially from them. I know they must have spent a lot of time practicing. And they sang together as a family, in harmony. I hope to get a video of it on here!

House Parents: Joseph and Grace.

Their children from left to right: Mercy, Mary, Christine, Mercy, Emmanuel, Dominic, Dan, Ayub, Angeline, Peter, Brian and Precious.

My bilingual little boy

2011-11-12T11:26:00.000-06:00

Fruit and Flower Friday

2011-11-11T05:27:00.007-06:00

The flower for this week is a poinsettia tree. Yes, a tree. We have this large one growing in our yard around some Christmas looking trees. It's about the only thing around here looking like Christmas is approaching.

(information taken from oxforddictionary.com)

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example.

As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits, such as tomatoes or bean pods, may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example.

So, the answer to the question is that a tomato is technically the fruit of the tomato plant, but it's used as a vegetable in cooking.

My Children often eat them as fruit! When ripened to perfection, the ones we get here are delicious!

Claire was chowing down on tomatoes today. She loves them with a little salt sprinkled on. (reminds me of my grandma!) Elisha will sometimes eat a whole one as well. Bud is the only outcast and thinks they are horrible by themselves. More for us!

(i was cracking up at her face in this picture)

Elisha just walked in the door from spending the afternoon with some other missionary kids around here. They had lunch, then went to the Kitale museum. Nothing too exciting but for a kid, especially our kids, it was something to be excited about. He hasn't stopped telling me about the snakes, tortoises and crocodile.

And please pray good health for all of us around here. There's a 24 hour bug that has gone around to almost everyone and we pray it is done and over with!

Don't forget to check back no the children being featured needing sponsorship. Today there will be a few featured on Elizabeth's blog: www.kenyanurse.com.

Have a good weekend ya'll!

Jennifer and Mercy

2011-11-09T23:16:00.005-06:00

Birthdays are a big deal at Mattaw Children's Village. When a child first comes into Mattaw they usually don't know exactly how old they are and for sure do not know the day they were born. In a culture of poverty, celebrating life is not desirable. And children are often looked at as a burden and extra farm hands or house help. We are very much about recapturing the essence of being a child again. We want to take back the years of childhood stolen from our children. One of those ways is giving them a new birthday. A month that is all about focusing on their life by celebrating. My daughter Claire is not even two yet and knows the happy birthday song and knows you then blow out a candle. My four year old son has been looking forward to his birthday for several months now. To think that our Mattaw children never experienced that at a young age and didn't how special they are. But what a joy to reintroduce this concept to them.

I have a birthday party for one child from each house at the end of each month. Every time the end of the month nears, they all start talking about whose birthday we will celebrate and there is much anticipation for that day.

We have twins living at Mattaw. Jennifer and Mercy are in house two and we have known about them since before Mattaw officially opened. We were sad to find out that they also had a baby brother and three year old sister but due to lack of food and sickness, they passed away. But we now can celebrate the lives of these two girls, who if they would not have been rescued and brought into Mattaw, they too might have been another statistic like their younger siblings.

Here they are at their birthday party last year....

When we found out about these two girls, we heard that Mercy was sent up to Turkana to care for her grandmother that was dying. Mercy was around 7 years old and was the primary caretaker for her sick grandmother. Jennifer was still living with her aunt and also her uncle who is an alcoholic. The place they lived was often struck with hunger and lack of food in the area. Once a child is orphaned, whoever they live with, family or not, typically sees them as the bottom of the chain and is out casted. Jennifer often went without food.

The Aunt came to us to take the girls in. They hadn't lived together in years. Eventually the grandmother was convinced the let Mercy go and be placed in a better home. It was a sweet reunion when the girls were brought in together to Mattaw. They were inseparable. We are so thankful to bring restoration to them as sisters and also as having the freedom to be a child again.

Meet Mercy, a very sweet and loving little girl, who loves to play the drums during worship at church.

Meet Jennifer, one of our best singers and dancers at Mattaw. She often leads our children in songs and dance.

Please consider sponsoring one or both of these girls. You can contact our sponsorship coordinator, Krysta, at mattawsponsorship@yahoo.com. Or go to our website: mattawchildren.com and click on the tab "sponsor" for more information.

Thank you for those who have already signed up. As a result of featuring those needing sponsorship this month, we have had 25 sign up so far!!!! God's heart is so close to the orphan. He loves his children and provides in ways we couldn't imagine!

Elisha and Claire update!

2011-11-06T10:59:00.007-06:00

It was a busy week. I was about to go nutso not getting some good quality time in with the two most important (and adorable) children to me on the planet. This weekend I got plenty of it and all of our love tanks are full and overflowing.

This post will be mostly of our day in pictures. It was an absolute beautiful morning. So crazy what a drastic change the weather made around 2pm. And now tonight it'll be around 52 degrees with rain and thunderstorms. This is Africa? Well, I'm not quite sure about that!

So about the most adorable children on the planet....

Bud has had a bug the past couple of days. So instead of having family time in the afternoon, we had it in the morning while Bud rested. He was feeling better as the day went on so we were able to finally make it to a missionary home fellowship some families around here have every Sunday afternoon. But first I chased this princess around the yard...

I spent most of the morning in awe of our children and how much they have grown. I never want to take for granted each milestone I have with these littles....

Elisha is at such a fun age. We are able to carry on more conversations with him now and the things he says keeps us laughing daily. This morning he wanted "monster hair" (gel in his hair).

I'm thinking I'll just quit my day job and snap these two cuties all day everyday. Especially after seeing these photos and realizing how much they've grown lately! Juuuust kidding. I love my day job. Well, its not a job. Oh never mind.

We played bubbles. I love how the simplest things can make them belly laugh. Elisha was sweet to help Claire blow bubbles. Lo and behold, the child is learning to share.

Our poor dogs. They are great sports at letting the kids tackle them and pull on them. Malakia was hanging around the kids until this stunt was pulled...

Little miss is all girl these days. Although I did put her in Elisha's old dinosaur pajamas the other night and she ran around the house growling. (with a loud girly shriek to follow when Elisha in turn ran after her growling) She loves her babies, her purse, shoes, tutu's, my makeup, wearing bows, and my favorite of the late is dancing and singing with me. I had no idea she knows how to sing the happy birthday song until today!

She was singing to her baby in this picture....

I tried to snap a good one of them together posing. Nope, not happening...

Ready for a new week now. Also excited for a new ministry opportunity tomorrow. I've known about a widows group in the village Mattaw is in for a long time. Almost since we started Mattaw. It just has never worked out that I could go. And I just haven't felt led to get involved but have had them on my heart for a few years now. Just been praying for the right time and tomorrow it is. Their stories heartbreaking but their strength in the Lord is unbelievable. Feeling pretty intimidated to go and share with these women, them having so much more life experience, but I'm ever willing to speak whatever the Spirit leads. (my husband being supportive and happy for me to go, the only stipulation being that there is still meatball sub Monday. ha.)

Sponsoring Sharon and Maurine

2011-11-05T12:53:00.010-05:00

We are overwhelmed with your response to sponsor one of the Mattaw Children. We will give an update each Monday on how many more sponsors needed. Please pray God's provision for these children!

Today I want to share about two precious girls, each needing a few more sponsors. Of course we don't play favorites but these two girls I've known the longest and they have a special place in my heart. They have come a long way and we're so grateful to play a small part in their rescue. Today I'm bringing my girls Sharon and Maurine to you. Before even finding the land for Mattaw, we knew these girls. It was when Mattaw was simply a dream in our hearts. Their brother is Aaron and cousin is Noah, who are both living at Mattaw and also need more sponsors but we will talk about them another day.

In 2007 we had sweet friends of ours come out for 10 weeks with their two small children. They came to help us buy land and start Mattaw Children's Village. They lived in the neighborhood and we soon all met the family of Sharon and Maurine. Almost everyday Sharon, Maurine and their cousins would make their way from the mud hut they lived in up to play with our friend's children. It was obvious from their appearance they were in need of so much, most importantly the love of Jesus but also food. Our friends would feed them snacks often, including chai. We found out that they all were living in a one room rented mud hut with their grandmother. Often the grandmother would sleep around in order to get money to feed them all. Sharon and Maurine responded differently to their circumstances. Sharon was incredibly hyper and rowdy. Maurine was timid and shy. Both so sweet though. Here is a picture of Bud and I with them at the compound our friends lived at. Sharon is in my arms and Maruine in the very front.

I remember playing often with them and Sharon still would not let anyone hold her for longer than 5 minutes. Today I sat inside house one at Mattaw, waiting for the rains to pass so we could go home. I had a chance to sit next to Sharon, holding her hand and laughing with her. She has come a loooong way since we first met her. She will often find herself around us, just waiting for someone to play with her, and her response always pretending she doesn't want to play but laughing and running off, then coming back again. I love her little raspy laugh. She laughs a lot and it's one that is contagious. Here is Sharon the first Christmas she was with us in 2007...

During 2007, Noah's mom died and went to live with Sharon and Maurine. Maurine became is primary caretaker. She was 7 years old at the time. Everytime I would see her or go and visit them, she either had Noah tied to her back or was tending to his needs. Gosh, were they ever a motivation to build the first house at Mattaw. We were eager to place them in a safe and loving family where Maurine could be a child again and Noah could have a mother and father.

You'll never guess who Maurine is holding here....

Baby Georgie. He was so tiny! I fogot those days, how sweet they were. When Maurine first came into Mattaw we really had to keep an eye out to make sure she wasn't constantly watching Noah but instead learning to be a child agian. Even with Georgie we had to look out for her holding him more than playing. Here's Maurine with Daisy, the first Christmas she was with us in 2007...

Sharon is now getting so big and is full of life and energy. She knows she is loved now and walks around Mattaw with much confidence. Would you be the one to partner with us and forever make an impact on her life?
Maurine is one of our older girls now. She is still shy at times but not in a timid way. She loves to watch movies when we are able to show them. Her favorite being the parent trap. She's learning more about who she is in Jesus and we pray she will grow up a strong woman of God. Would you consider being one of her sponsors and effecting the future of her life?

If you have any questions concerning sponsorship, please email our sponsonrship coordinator at mattawsponsorship@yahoo.com. You can sign up by emailing her or you can go to mattawchildren.com.

Thank you for partnering with us so we can rescue lives, redeem souls and release the Kingdom of God.

Friday...

2011-11-04T07:50:00.005-05:00

Hi ya'll,

Bet you wouldn't be surprised to hear we had a power outage for 16 hrs and as soon as it came back... our Internet was cut for four days. TIA. Life goes on! No complaints, I never have a problem with having an excuse for no Internet in our house for a bit... but that's just from time to time that I like :).

Ok, so here's a flower growing out at Mattaw. Our house two parents really like to landscape and have some of these around their home. We give our house parents freedom to plant as they wish, making it more their home. Just as long as it's not a jungle. And the kids don't have to push back vines to get inside their home.

I kinda have writers block but I'll just give a general update on this week. We were busy most of it. We discovered a bit of alterations in the laws concerning our children and legalities. Nothing bad, actually good. So with that, we've been running around doing a lot of administration work. I despise it. For the most part. On Tuesday I was having a bad attitude about it at one point but doing it anyways. Then I went to get Elisha from school and ended up staying to eat lunch with him and all our kiddos. Totally brought everything into perspective. Loving on our children, reminded me to endure through the paper work in order to legally rescue our babies. I was over myself and went about with our day, another meeting in a government office, and it actually was an encouraging meeting. God gave us favor with those we met with. Praying it'll stick through with admitting the kids needed in a timely order. Now THAT would be a miracle in and of itself.

Monday was Halloween but our friends had a little "fall festival, dress up party" last Friday. It was fun. Elisha was iron man, Claire was a ballerina...

Last week, you read about the two precious children we rescued, Phillip and Sharon. They are doing so great. It never gets old getting to watch a child transform from being labeled an orphan by society, to being welcomed into a family and loved. We discovered they were both sick after coming into our homes. (Phillip being with another missionary family for now and Sharon being in our home) Phillip had horrible fever and sick but after some lovin and medicine, he is doing much better. Sharon has had an untreated cough plus possible asthma. The same with her though, some lovin and medicine and she's doing great! Thank you Hollie for sending the vaporizer! She woke me up in the night not being able to breathe well and the vaporizer has helped a ton. They're both getting an overdose of love and the freedom to be a child again. I love it.

Sweet Sharon

Caleb goes tomorrow to take his first SAT test. Our nurse, Elizabeth, has been amazing to help him study and learn how to take the test. They've been through several practice tests this week and he keeps improving. Pray for Caleb and his test tomorrow!

This morning I woke up at 4am with the worst eye pain I've ever had. I couldn't shut my eyes for how painful it was and after a few hours, then I had a hard time opening them. They are improving and I'm thankful I had nurse Elizabeth around to help :). Hopeful they'll be good by tomorrow, otherwise it's off to Eldoret, a town about an hour away. There's no eye doctors here I know of that are great and/or know anything about people that wear contacts. Pray! (thank you!)

The past couple of days Bud has been taking our older kids to the Kitale Agriculture show. It's like a fair in the states, but third world country style. Our kids love it and my husband got to talk about cows and farming at a few booths. Cost a few dollars to get in. There are a few rides. I'm sure no inspections. We let our kids ride four wheelers though, a huge treat for them! Face painting, balloon hats, a lot of booths with farm animals, educational booths on farming, and a mermaid you can pay 10 shillings to see. (a lady in a booth with a mermaid painted on wood and her poking her head through the face) It's one of the biggest events in Kitale that happens every year.

We're continuing to feature children that need sponsorship from now to Thanksgiving. We couldn't be more thankful for the response so far. Be sure and check nurse Elizabeth's blog at: www.kenyanurse.com. She is featuring two of our new boys that are in need of sponsors.

I'll leave you with this short video of Dominic saying "i love you" to one of his sponsors.

Sponsorship

2011-11-01T04:21:00.005-05:00

First picture of Daisy, taken August 2008

Today we will start featuring the children at Mattaw Children's Village that are in need of sponsorship.

Over a month ago, we set a goal, trying to get 75 people to sponsor one of the lives of the precious children. Since then we have had about 15 people sign up. But also, we have opened our house three, meaning we have 12 more rescued children needing to be sponsored. Today we again are looking for 75 people to sponsor. Will you help us?

What exactly does sponsorship look like and cover? Well, I'm glad you asked! At Mattaw we desire excellence in all we do. We want to honor Jesus and uphold integrity, especially with the funds to care for these children he has entrusted to us. So we want to be as open and transparent as possible. If you are a visual person, here's a handy chart to break down what each monthly sponsorship covers...

For each child, we break it down into five sponsors. So it is $175 a month per child and divided by 5 sponsors makes $35 per month. Once a child is fully sponsored, the five main categories used to desciribe their support (as stated in the chart above). So far we have not been able to maintain full support on each child so we have not been able to save for their future education fund. (which is what we currently use the profits from our dairy cows for)

In caring for our children, we strive for excellence without opulence in every area including good nutrition, a quality education, Godly parenting and the best health care available.

One of the first children that were referred to us in 2008 were Daisy and Geoffrey. They were referred to us by a street child rehabilitation center. Daisy and Geoffrey were staying in this resue center temporarily. Both of their parents had died when they were very young. Their older brother cared for them in a one room mud hut. He would drive a bicycle taxi during the day to barely make enough for them to survive. It was harsh conditions which is why they were taken in by the rescue center until they could find a permanent solution.

I remember them being so tiny and quiet when we first met them. They were in need of a family where they would have the attention needed to become strong and healthy children. When the director of the street kid center introduced us to Daisy and told her we'd be coming back for her soon and placing her in a family, she was sure to perk up. First though she had to inquire and be sure that she would have her own bed. We were told she was the neatest child onsite and cared very carefully for the few things that were hers. Even today she is still the same. She has grown so much and is indeed a healthy and happy child. She likes to play soccer but when visitors are around she would rather sit off to the side until she warms up to someone and makes friends. I noticed throughout the summer that with each team, she would gain a friend but she did it very quietly. She is very social and likes to tell, hear and read stories. Yesterday we celebrated Daisy's 13th brithday. I can hardly believe she is now a teenager!

She is now placed in a family that loves her and calls her their own daugter. She also lives in the same house with her brother, Geoffrey, but also calls 10 other children brother and sister.

Joyce, Geoffrey, Daisy and Sylvanos

We are so grateful that Geoffrey is fully sponsored. Daisy is almost fully sponsored and in need of one more. Will you partner with us to wholistically care for Daisy's every need?

If you feel led to sponsor Daisy, you can contact our new sponsorship coordinator, Krysta. Email her at mattawsponsorship@yahoo.com.

Investing in a life, $35 per month, can change your life in return. For this is the very heartbeat of God, placing the orphaned in a family.

Rescue a life. Redeem a soul. Release the Kingdom.

We'll be featuring more children soon on some of our other staff's blogs. Find us on facebook, Mattaw Children, and you can find more updates on Mattaw Children's Village. And soon enough we'll have our new website up and running...

Meet Phillip and Sharon

2011-10-29T12:05:00.004-05:00

What a beautiful rescue we were a part of yesterday. When starting my day, I had no idea we would get to rescue two precious children that will soon live at Mattaw. And we need YOUR help and I'll share why. But first let me introduce you to these two children and give you a little info on them.

First meet Phillip....

Last week our social worker recieved a phone call from the children's department (the government office that our children go through to become legally committed to Mattaw Children's Village). One of the case workers wanted to refer a boy to Mattaw. No one knew his name, he just became known as the boy who mothered his baby sister for the past year. I then got a call from our friends at InStep baby home and heard the full story since they had just rescued the baby sister, Esther. Esther looks about the size of a 9 month old but is actually 2 years old. A year ago Phillip and Esther lived with their mother. Their mother was very sick and Phillip cared for his mother. She became worse and stayed in district hospital, Phillip still caring for his mom and his baby sister. She then died a year ago, leaving Phillip to be Esther's only hope at surviving. Phillip then walked about 20 miles out of town with baby Esther on his back, to find his grandmother. When arriving, his grandmother said they could stay there but soon after she left them. So for the past year Phillip was just "the boy who has been taking care of his sister Esther". But yesterday he became a child again. A child with many many people who love him as their own. Mattaw is at its capacity right now financially. But bed-wise, we have room. And there's a bed waiting for Phillip.

Currently we have a missionary family here in Kitale that are living here full time and fostering Phillip. The husband is a pastor and came here to advance the Kingdom of God through church planting (cell group based). But they've always had a heart for the orphaned and have offered to help however they could. The wife had emailed us and some other homes this past year expressing her heart to help however she could, not knowing how but waiting on God's leading. I had no clue at that point what that would look like and now with Phillip, it couldn't have been a more perfect fit. They have children of their own, two of them very close to Phillip's age, and they have welcomed him as a brother. If only I could explain how amazing this community of missionaries are here in Kitale. The church is not a building but group of believers working for the same purpose, and this story is just a small part of what that looks like. We're so thankful to be a small part of this.

So tonight, Phillip is a child again, loved by a mother and father, tucked into his first warm bed with clean sheets and blankets. He has a family praying with him every night before he goes to bed and tucking him in safely. He has his first toys that he can say are his that won't be stolen and he doesn't have to sell to buy food. He can go to sleep knowing his baby sister is cared for and he doesn't have to wake up and be her mom the next morning. He no longer has to wake up every morning wondering where he will find food to help him and his sister survive. He now is at peace knowing he will eat three meals tomorrow. We are thankful for all involved for this one child's life being transformed inside and out. Because stopping for just this one is worth it.

But there's another child we rescued as well.

Meet Sharon....

The children's department referred Sharon to us a few weeks ago. She was in a completely desperate situation. It was a matter of life and death. She was in a street child rehabilitation center until she could be permanently placed in a children's home. She is now home safely with us. She also has a bed waiting for her in house four at Mattaw Children's Village.

She has now been with us 24 hours and what a huge change we have seen already. Going from not smiling at all and seeming like a very shy and timid girl, to now talking non stop and cracking jokes here and there. She's so beautiful and Jesus has redeemed her life. Here is where we need YOU....

Both of these children, we need to place in their new family at Mattaw Children's Village, where they will call home. We have our house four parents trained and ready to move in any day. But we have the responsibility of caring for the current 40 children at Mattaw now. Some of them fully sponsored, many of them still lacking some sponsors. If you would like more information on how sponsoring a child at Mattaw works, CLICK HERE or go to this link: http://www.mattawchildren.com/sponsor-a-child.

And if you are already a sponsor I just want to say how very grateful we are for you. You are making an eternal impact on a child that would otherwise be hopeless. Thank you for helping to grow the vision of Mattaw Children's Village. If you are not a sponsor, consider how you might be able to sponsor one of these lives....

And with your help, literally see a change on their face...

Over a month ago we started a campaign: 75 in 75. We hope to have 75 sponsors in 75 days. The 75 days ends on Thanksgiving day. Will you be one of the 75?

This coming week we will start featuring each child living at Mattaw that is in need of sponsorship. The Mattaw Children website (www.mattawchildren.com) is currently under construction and getting a completely new look. We will be updating the website weekly. There will be a blog where you can find more updates on what is going on at Mattaw Children's Village.

Until then, between our blog and some of our other Mattaw Missionary's blogs, we will share with you stories of some precious children that will break your heart, give you hope, and let you know how you can be a part of changing their lives!

If we can reach this goal, we can open house four and welcome Phillip and Sharon into their new family. Oh and did I mention we met about 10 more children, each having their own horrific story, and each being referred to us, all needing a family? We'll share more about them as well.

Rescue a life. Redeem a soul. Release the Kingdom.

Heaven's to Betsy

2011-10-28T02:56:00.003-05:00

Changes all around... seasons, children growing, new people moving here and people moving away. We've had Betsy Davis working at Mattaw Children's Village since June 2010. One of the biggest things she did to help at Mattaw was to start up the Lima girl's discipleship program. It was fully launched this past summer and we look forward to many more to come. Due to some policy changes and God's leading, Betsy will be headed in a new direction this up coming year and no longer be with Mattaw. We are so thankful for all she did to serve Jesus, the Mattaw children and staff at Mattaw. And thankful for all she did with us, including love our own children. They'll miss their Auntie Betsy! She will be missed by many around here but we look foward to seeing where God will lead her in her next chapter in life. Praying for God to open new doors, fulfill dreams and create new ones. We love you Betsy! You can read more from Betsy on her new chapter by clicking HERE or going to www.heavenstome.wordpress.com.

Tiara, Betsy, Ann Marie and Keela

(Betsy with the some of the Lima girls this past summer)

Street Girls

2011-10-27T13:18:00.002-05:00

Check out a new update from Lindsay on her blog by clicking HERE. She tells the story of some precious street girls we hung out with for a bit the other day and how YOU can help by simply signing a petition.

Meat Ball Sub

2011-10-25T00:17:00.004-05:00

Hi y'all,

It's time for a new recipe.

I love to cook. When things around us seem a bit hectic, I cook. Cooking and baking makes sense. I can take ingredients and make sense of something (usually). Thankfully I've got four teenage boys living in our guesthouse that eat it all before I can go for seconds.

Because I love my mom. I'll share the recipe I use to make my french bread. (she's been hounding me for it since I made it while home a few years ago)

I discovered this recipe out of a baptist missionary cookbook several years ago. I grew up bapitst and let me tell you, baptist know how to cook and eat! I've been to more potlucks than I can remember. Anywho....

This french bread. It saved my life. And my marriage. Ok not really, but it could in case of emergency. The closest place to get a loaf of french bread is to drive over 6 hours. So I had to find a recipe. I was all proud of myself and did a little happy dance with my beautifully fresh baked bread when I first tried this recipe. And there's a healthy and regular version of it too. We'll start with the regular version.

Let's get to cookin...

Here are the ingredients I find here in Kenya:

You'll need:

-2 tablespoons of dry yeast (and there is such a thing as bad yeast in this country, it's actually common, I know from experience, I stick with the brand pakmaya and store it in my freezer to keep it fresh)

-1/2 cup warm water (a good test is sticking your finger in the water before adding yeast, make sure it warm but not too hot to keep your finger in it)

-1 teaspoon sugar

-2 tablespoons shortening (kimbo)

-2 tablespoons sugar

-2 teaspoons salt

-2 cups boiling water

-7 to 8 cups of flour

glaze:

- 1 egg beater

- 2 tablespoons milk

topping:

-sesame seeds or poppy seeds

First dissolve the yeast in a bowl with 1/2 cup of warm water and teaspoon of sugar. Then grab a big mixing bowl. Combine remaining ingredients, except flour, in the large mixing bowl and allow to cool. (sometimes when I'm in a rush I'll add just one cup of boiling water and make sure everything dissolves, then add another cup of cool water to cool it off quick) Next stir in yeast and enough flour to make a medium dough. I usually add one to two cups of flour at a time since I've learned once you've added too much flour, there's no going back and it has to be chunked in the trash. (do you say chunked or chucked? us Texans say chunked, we also say y'all a lot, and I rode a horse to school. not really. but i did get asked that all the time when we moved to new mexico in the 10th grade)

Ok, so when the dough is formed it's time to knead. Knead for 10 minutes.

Kneading: streatch dough, twist, pound, repeat.

When it is smooth and elastic, place it in a bowl that you've smeared with oil. Turn the dough once so that it is lightly covered in oil....

Find a place in your kitchen that is fairly warm and let the dough rise until doubled...

Punch the dough down and let it rest for 15 minutes. Now is when I usually preheat the oven to 400 degrees since the preheated heats around the area and causes the dough to rise faster. After it has had some rest, divide dough into three pieces. Take each piece and roll out into a rectangle.

Then roll it up, place on a greased baking sheet and make 4-5 slashes diagonally. You can then mix the glaze up, brush each loaf with it and sprinkle with seeds.

Wait again until they have risen. Sometimes I don't wait until they are doubled. It just doesn't fluff as much in the oven. So I'd go ahead and wait till they are doubled before sticking them in the oven.

Bake for around 20 minutes. Take a coffee break and enjoy the smell of fresh bread baking in your entire house.

Then voila!

There are several things you can do with this bread. One is to make "the bread" by pioneer woman. The only thing I do different is add garlic and parsley to the butter. Another option is to make garlic/herb butter. I fill a small bowl with butter, mince a few cloves of garlic over it, sprinkle parsley, oregano and sea salt in it then pop it in the microwave. When the bread is cooled, I slice it up, drench the bread with the garlic/herb butter, cover the bread with foil and stick it in the oven right before dinner to warm it up.

(And p.s. in case you want to go a bit healthier, there's a few things you can tweak in the recipe and it still turns out pretty darn good. When mixing the yeast, instead of sugar use the same amount of honey. when mixing the other ingredients, instead of shortening use the same amount of olive oil and instead of sugar use honey again and do everything else the same)

Another option is to make mini loaves and use them for sub sandwhiches. Which is what we did last Monday and now my husband insists on making every Monday "meatball sub Monday". This is pretty simple. I divided the dough into six instead of three. They bake quicker too.

To make meatballs I just mixed minced meat (ground beef if you are in America, but same thing) with a teaspoon of italian seasoning per pound of meat and a teaspoon of lowry's seasoning salt. I then formed meatballs, placed them on a foil lined baking sheet and popped them in a 350 preheated oven and cooked until done.

Before all that happens, you can make a marinara sauce. Since I cook for a teenage boy army, I doubled my marinara recipe. First saute a large onion with 2-3 cloves of garlic in olive oil. Pour in a 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup tomato paste and after dumping the can of tomatoes, fill it with water and add to the pot. For spaghetti sauce I add two cans of water but since this will go on a sandwhich you want it thicker so just add one can of water. Next add a teaspoon of salt and a few tablespoons of sugar. Then add a teaspoon of basil (if I had fresh basil then I'd go with that), and a teaspoon of italian seasoning (which I'm sure is just parsley, rosmary and oregano, you could google it if you don't have it) The tomato paste makes it bitter so after it simmers for 5 minutes, taste it. If it's still bitter, add more sugar. Not only is this option cheaper in Kenya, but you can monitor how much sugar you add as oppose to the stuff in the jar. If I'm really feeling in a healthy mood and have the time, I'll boil fresh tomatoes, take the skins off, dice them and use that instead of canned. But lets be honest, that doesn't happen much. Bring all this to a boil, simmer for around 30 minutes or longer. Taste as you go and add where needed. When it's the consistency you want, turn off the heat and add the meatballs. When the bread came out, I just sliced it in half length wise, scooped up some meatballs to shove inside and smeared more marinara sauce on top of the meatballs. The result was comfort food at its best....

Our mess transformed into something Beautiful

2011-10-21T19:17:00.002-05:00

We've been through quite a mess the past several days. We were consumed in it, but Jesus was consumed in us. It's a mess we can't share one bit about for privacy's sake. Although we're not fully through it, we are ever hopeful that He is turning this mess into something beautiful.

Just because that is His nature. And he loves us.

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God... to become conformed to the image of his son."

~Romans 8:28-29

Flower Friday!

2011-10-21T08:29:00.002-05:00

No fruit today, just some pretty flowers growing outside our guesthouse on our compound.....

I haven't had much to update on this week because we've been completely consumed in solving one of the toughest situations I've faced here. Heart wrenching. But we waited and kept trusting in the Lord, not taking even one step without knowing it was His wisdom and guidance. Oh I am so thankful for him leading us, bringing truth to light, and destroying the works of the devil. In a completely hopeless situation, Jesus came through and turned it for good when I couldn't imagine how. If you are in a tough place, just hold on and know you are standing from a place of victory already won. It's not your battle. Claim his promises and stand in HIS hope. Jesus truly never fails. His mercy is new everyday. The enemy wants to kill, steal and destroy but Jesus wants us to have life, and not only life but life abundantly! I went on biblegateway.com and typed in "hope" this morning to see what scriptures came up. I was completely renewed in His strength by reading over them all. May we all be slammed in our hearts by his crazy love and hope that sometimes is the only thing that makes sense in this world! Love y'all and thankful for the prayers that are so answered for us on this journey we walk out daily.

Baseball

2011-10-19T12:12:00.005-05:00

Not a lot of words, just some pictures in updates.

(since I've been trying to post this for days and when I try, the power goes out!)

Baby Georgie and my baby Claire, although they aren't looking like babies anymore :(

This past Saturday, Ben, the Erhardt's oldest son, was able to come out and teach the Mattaw kids his favorite sport: baseball! They loved it and caught on quick.

Gone fishin?

"Wasn't me!" The construction site is just too tempting for a 3 and 5 yr old.

Ol Pajeta

2011-10-18T08:07:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we took the Huckabee's luggage to the airport in Nairobi to see them off and awaited the arrival of our new family, the Erhardt's. Since the wait in between was several days, it wasn't long enough to go back home and then come back, but it was too long to be in Nairobi (at least for us). Nairobi is expensive, well just as much as any westernized city. So off we were on another adventure. This time we went to a private nature reserve called Ol Pajeto. It is at the base of Mt. Kenya. It was about a two and a half hour drive from Nairobi. The best roads I have been on in Kenya! Four lane highway with a median in the middle with trees and landscape planted in it. On the way we saw this...

I've been drooling at the thought of a pumpkin spice latte so when I saw this, I started imagining that I saw that green and white lady with the star. Too bad we almost hit a goat and I snapped out of that vision!

Ol Pajeto. We highly recommend the place. I mean, with the Mattaw safari company starting up and all, someone needs to visit these places before we recommend them right?! This is where Jane Goodall brought some of her rescued chimpanzee's from Congo and other places in Africa. There were over 30 of them here. They had every other wildlife animal that you'd find in Kenya. They also have the remaining 4 of 8 northern white rhino. They are soon to be extinct. We could have paid ten bucks to see them but we saw where they're kept and that was good enough. We did get to pet and fee a blind rhino though and didn't have to pay.

First we went on this little nature walk and saw the chimpanzee's.

We didn't get close to any of them except this one. He is the oldest and was hanging out by the fence taking a nap.

Then we drove around some of the reserve. It was a beautiful place with a river, bridges to cross, and Mt. Kenya in the background.

Some giraffe's...

At another point we got out to go feed the blind rhino. The kids were totally uncertain about him at first.

But they warmed up and helped us feed him.

Ostriches and Rhino's remind me so much of a what a dinosaur would be like. Especially feeding this big thing. His mouth was just awkward. His horn was taken off. I guess so he doesn't harm anyone? Apparently poachers are worse now because the rhino horn is worth more than smuggling drugs.

Caught this pretty thing on one of our walks...

And this pictures just made me laugh. Everything seemed out of place... a mountain, a giraffe, and a cow.

Claire and I chased this bird around for awhile...

We then came to another point where you can walk down a trail to see hippos. The guide said it was too hot in the day and they've gone to hide but offered to still go with us and look. Noooo thank you! Number one animal to kill humans and it's possibly hiding on a trail we'd go down? No thanks! We've had plenty of adventure for our day. It was a great park though. Great roads and actual signs to tell you where things are at every junction. The place we camped wasn't the greatest. It was loud at night from the nearby town. Next time, we'll know we can sleep in the park where all you hear is possible animal sounds. Every place we go, we learn so much more about this country. The town we were in, there's a British military training camp. And I'm very grateful for work permits to make these trips super cheap. Most of all though, I'm thankful for an adventurous husband that is patient enough to take us all with him on his camping ventures. Looking forward to many more....

The End!

Fruit and Flower Friday!

2011-10-14T00:14:00.006-05:00

Today's fruit is a honey dew melon.

This one was too ripe. But very juicy.

And still yummy.

She's big cheesin it to make up for last week

(excuse the hair, she just woke up from her nap)

I'm so glad this bush of flowers has come up. It's in a high traffic area next to our door where the dogs and kids run through. Finally the flowers prevailed. These are in the states too right? What are they and do the bushes get this big in the states?

And just for fun....

All the boys getting along juuuust fine...

Elisha and Collin

Alayna and Claire

Have a great weekend y'all!

10 fingers!

2011-10-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Mattaw school, pre-school class....

Our God is Good

2011-10-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

Elisha at school singing "God is so good" with his class. Yes, he isn't wearing shoes. Don't judge!

Birthday at Mattaw

2011-10-10T09:08:00.003-05:00

Guess who turned THREE....

Last week, after saying goodbye's to Austin and Brittany, we went back out to Mattaw to have September birthdays. I think I've lost my mind and got some birthdays mixed up this year, so if you are a sponsor and don't catch your kid's birthday on the right month, well, blame me. The good thing is none of them knew their birthdays before coming to Mattaw (not a celebrated event in the midst of poverty). But I just printed them all out and stuck the cute little chart in each house so no more mixing up and now everyone knows their birthday and WILL keep me accountable! All that to say, we had Georgie and Rose's birthday right, but mixed up Sophie's. So here's from our little birthday bash. Yes, Baby Georgie is now THREE! I also managed to loose some pictures. Guess we'll just have to have more cake for them so they can blow out the candles again and I can get some snaps... again.

I always have the kids pray for each kid we are celebrating for. We thank Jesus for their life, bless them, and pray for their future. I think Georgie was praying for lots of cake and good presents...

Sophia

Rose

Georgie

Fruit and Flower Friday!

2011-10-07T00:45:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was able to snap a few shots for "fruit and flower friday" as we were packing up and heading out of Nairobi to Kitale (WITH the Erhardts!). So I thought I'd follow up and write a few things to go with the pictures.

So first things first. The Erhardt family has arrived! It was such a sweet time picking them up from the airport. (well, not the waiting part, it was late, kids cranky) But as soon as they came out from getting ALL bags and such, Elisha perked up and ran to give hugs to Collin, the Erhardt's middle child. Lindsay and I freaked out and ran to each other to hug which woke up Claire. Claire was super excited to wake up and see Alayna though, their 11 months old. It's still so surreal, which I know it is even more for them. A dream Lindsay has had tucked away for so long and now here they are! I seriously was ready to cry tears of joy seeing their whole family arrive and knowing what an incredible journey it has been to make it here.

We made it to Kitale yesterday. I must say, although it was louder and the Land Cruiser was a rocking, it was great traveling with a family with small children. I'm just so grateful for them joining us here to accomplish the vision God continues to unfold for Mattaw Ministries. We're in for some exciting stuff this coming year, more than we can even think or imagine! (there's a verse that goes along with that right?!)

So today we go out to Mattaw Children's Village and officially introduce the Erhardt's as a family to the children and staff. And oh yes, we will be eating chicken pilau, a big treat, yummy rice with chicken. The 6 older Mattaw girls will come and stay the night tonight then go back out in the morning for church. We've started having them over every Saturday to stay the night and be girls together. The Erhardt's will join for dinner. Lindsay is already excited to jump in and help me prepare the meal. I'm so thankful!

Here's the pictures I put up yesterday with a few words to go with...

Claire wasn't cooperating to show the tiny mini banana's you can get here, but Alayna was sure being cute. So Claire was out of a job for this Friday.

These are common around here. They're cute and sweeter than regular banana's.

Just some random pretty flower at the guesthouse where we stayed in Nairobi. I have no clue what it is... do you?

And here's our crew all together on this side of the world now! We last went to visit them for a week up in their frozen tundra called Minnesota this past January. Our kids loved hanging out last time for a week but we can already tell they're great buds even more this time! Thankful to have kids around to be homeschool/socially awkward kids with. Ha, that's a joke. But for real, the few days we've been with them, we're lovin having our kids together. Claire goes crazy over Alayna and Elisha has Collin to wrestle with (pictures to come) and Ben to teach him stuff, Ben is one smart kiddo.

From left to right: Collin, Elisha, Ben, Alayna and Claire

Erhardts arrival

2011-10-04T22:57:00.003-05:00

I can hardly believe the day has come! As I type, the Erhardt family is on their flight to Kenya. Please pray for them as they have three children, the youngest a 6 month old. We have been dreaming and planning with them to move out here and work with Mattaw for around three years now. And today is the day all that planning is coming to be!

We can now be real missionary couples together...

(taken in September 2008)

no goodbye this time

2011-09-30T04:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the children and staff at Mattaw told Brittany and Austin "see you later". We are thankful it's not goodbye!

The Huckabee's have been volunteering at Mattaw since May. They pretty much hit the ground running. This was our first completely full summer of teams and what great timing for them to come and help in that area. They lived in the team house and hosted all guests that came through. They intended to stay a year but Jesus had other plans for them. It is obvious it is all working out in His perfect timing. They are expecting little baby Huckabee in December and now is the latest she can fly home. They will go have their baby, wait till the baby has grown some, then return in May of next year to host our teams coming through again. (but next time living in their own apartment on a different compound)

They have been servant hearted and flexible in MANY ways. We are thankful for their hearts and how much they loved the children and staff at Mattaw. We are looking forward to their return and welcoming their new addition to their family!

The children sent them off with prayers...

And rather than make a huge sad goodbye, Brittany and Austin made it not as big of a deal and assured them they would be returning next year.

I can hardly handle one more goodbye! So for now... See you later Huckabee's!

Fruit basket Friday

2011-09-29T22:35:00.004-05:00

I went to look in my basket that sits on the little island in my kitchen. I wanted to get back on track here with my one thing I update weekly. But I found I've shared everything that is in my fruit basket this week. And then there was my pumpkin....

Although we don't have four seasons here, there are two. One is rainy season, one is dry season. Rainy season is about the closest to the season fall. And right now there are tons of pumpkins showing up in the market. Bud just got me two very large green ones, both for less than $4. This one here in the picture though, I got on our way back from Nairobi at a little store in front of a big farm. It's not very common to find orange pumpkins here so I was pretty pumped. And I'm pretty sure if I was visiting the states now, all my friends had better watch their jack-o-lanterns on their porch because out of sudden impulse, I would take them. (since they are scarce here. no worries, I'd share a slice of pumpkin cheesecake in return since I would have unlimited access to Philadelphia cream cheese... oh how i miss thee... ok, rabbit trails)

So a few days ago I finally sliced the little thing up and made homemade pumpkin puree.

All you do is slice up a pumpkin, I cut mine into four parts. Place about 1/2 a stick of butter on a baking sheet and let it melt in a pre-heated oven of around 350f. Then place the sliced pumpkin on the baking sheet, cover with foil, and put in the oven for an hour, or two, or three.

I don't time my stuff often, I just keep checking ever so often. A great trait I inherited from my Toomama.

(how I miss you Toomama, especially when I cook. we are going to have a BLAST cookin in heaven together, cause i know her food is in heaven... oops, rabbit trails again)

The season right now feels about what it would in the states so it was great timing. I managed to whip up two batched of chocolate chip pumpkin bread (making 5 loaves) and now have two cups waiting so patiently in my freezer. We had friends for dinner that night and shared two loaves. The wife, who doesn't like anything pumpkin, liked it. I got my recipe from a Runners World magazine (runnersworld.com) several years ago and it's been the BEST recipe I've tried since. I'm almost certain I have shared it on here before but it's a new year now, so I'll share again.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour

3 cups granulated sugar (and remember, this is from a running magazine, its supposed to be a good pre or post workout snack... so lets not feel guilty here! this bread just might be the magical substance to make you a runner if you're not already)

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

(or if you have pumpkin pie spice, which i just so happened to have this time, you can use a few teaspoons of that instead of all the spices above)

1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips (or i sometimes chop up a bar of either cadburry baking chocolate or bournville dark chocolate, which you can find in Soy Supermarket in Kitale)

Wet Ingredients

4 eggs

1 cup canola oil (i used soy bean oil)

2/3 cup water

2 cups canned, plain pumpkin (yuck, i use fresh)

Instructions:

preheat oven to 350 (or 180c since that's what all the ovens here read)

Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips, in large mixing bowl and mix well

In a separate bowl, slightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the eggs and stir well. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir just until evenly mixed. Fold in chocolate chips.

Coat 2 bread pans evenly with cooking spray (or rub some kimbo on them) and pour half the mixture in each pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Grab a cup of coffee and a slice of bread. Enjoy!

(p.s. a word to my mama... can you please come over and make me a pumpkin pie?! waiting a year to come to you seems too long. i miss you. don't cry mom.)

Goodbyes

2011-09-29T01:43:00.004-05:00

A few days ago we wrapped up our time with the Andrus family. They were here about two weeks and what a blessing it was to have them come and pour into our children at Mattaw. They did a few special things for the children while here, I recently showed them washing all the children feet and giving out new socks. Another big treat they did (and I'm fairly certain they didn't want to be known for doing this so shhhh, dont tell) and I wanted to share, was to sponsor a little trip for all our children. There's a place in town called 'Kitale Cinema'. Don't be fooled though, it's not the type of movie theatre you are thinking of. It's in a basement of one of the main buildings in town, making it feel a bit damp and smell like moth balls and mildew. There's a place to eat and a big room where they have a projector they can shoot movies on the wall. There were velvet curtains around the room, and surprisingly some carpet on the floor. They have single chairs they pull out and line up for people to sit in. It was just the right size to fit around 45 children and 15 adults. They all loaded up and came to town to watch the movie at 10. They showed the children the new movie 'Rio'. During the movie they had popcorn and soda, a HUGE treat. Some of the children maybe only having once in their life. This was especially fun to include our new house three children since they just moved in a week ago. After the movie was finished they had chips and kuku for lunch. (aka french fries and roasted chicken) Our children are incredibly well behaved and would stand in line for their lunch so quietly then go and sit and eat neatly (for the most part). You really couldn't tell from their facial expressions how much fun they had but if you happen to catch a coversation between the children, you'd know quickly how excited and thankful they were. We went early and I tested out the camera to see what settings to use to capture all the children. Unfortunately, once they showed up, I totally forgot about my camera and was totally into taking care of everything and enjoying the movie with the kids (which is better). Of course we took Claire and Elisha too, they had just as much fun. Here's the sweet pea letting me test the camera on her...

(her favorite shoes ever, thank you Jessica)

Then on Tuesday morning we said goodbye to the Andrus family. The kids sang, shared memory verses, did some dancing games and said goodbye.

Little Emmanuel has started relaxing and feeling at home. He is the last out of the bunch in house three to show joy on his face. I was able to capture it during this time though. First I barely got one snap. I could see he has become brothers with the other Mattaw boys his age.

The boys were crackin me up with their dancing.

Dominic. Love that smile.

John.

Tammy getting her last snuggle in with Lucy.

Georgie getting his last time in spoiled by visitors.

Beautiful Pauline.

Angeline chose Amber to dance with her in one of their games.

And here's a real good smile and laugh I snapped of Emmanuel. Wayne picked Emmanuel on his turn to dance with him and he thought it was hilarious watching a white guys dance.

(we did too!)

Tammy helped me put words to people coming to visit. I'm so so very grateful for the vision God planted in our hearts and has continually provided over and over again to bring about. We usually have to correct some visitors when they come: our children are NO longer orphaned, they are part of a family now. And they know it. They are secure in a family. Of course we have to counsel some children and it takes longer for some than others to adjust, but overall, you can sense family at Mattaw. I'm thankful we can provide house parents for every 12 children so that children like Emmanuel who is very quiet and shy are not overlooked but are loved intentially until you can see it on his face like in these pictures. Anywho, what Tammy helped me put words to is that visitors are like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our kids have parents, brothers and sisters. When people from the states come to love on them, pour into them and minister in several different ways, it's like having extended family come. So then when we say goodbyes, its sad and we'll all miss each other, but our kids are grounded in a family and it's not the end of the world to see visitors come. Maybe this wouldn't make sense unless you come for yourself and become part of our extended family! We are grateful for all the Andrus family did during their time here. Some things might seem very small to them in what they did but will impact lives for eternity. Things done in the unseen realm are more of a reality that the seen.

(and p.s. please please pray for our little Geoffrey. He is sick with tuberculosis and has been in bed for the past three days. He is now on medication and Elizabeth is nursing him back to health. We need a solution to why he hasn't been growing much over the past year as well. Trusting the One who makes miracles happen.)

walking miracle Mary

2011-09-27T10:17:00.002-05:00

I just got an email with updates on sweet Mary. In case you haven't read about our recent rescue of her, click HERE. As I read her update, my eyes swelled with tears of joy. What an answer to prayer this ministry has been. The people caring for her are being the very hands and feet of Jesus in caring for Mary. Rejoice with us as you read the email I just received:

I was sitting in the Living Room office today working on the 2012 budget for one of our outreach programs when all of sudden I began to hear joyous laughter. Curious as to who was laughing and why, I walked out of the office to witness a miracle...our beautiful 16 year old, Mary, was learning how to walk again with the encouragement and assistance of two of our incredible caregivers, Flora and Lilian. I just stood and watched and took in the joy of the moment. Thank you, God, for such holy moments. May we never be too busy to miss them.

Blessings,

Allison

The ministry caring for Mary is called "Living Room". You can check them out at this website: www.livingroominternational.org. We are thankful for finding them and you'd be blessed to go read what they do. It is a very different type medical facility than any other in Kenya.

Any thank you to all who have prayed for Mary.

The Lion King

2011-09-25T23:03:00.007-05:00

I thought I'd post some of Bud's safari pictures from last week with our last team this year. It was a group of 6 men, so Bud and Austin were off on their man trip for a few days. Bonus that Bud has been friends with most of them for several years. The guys had brought over some of the new camping stuff for Mattaw's new safari business and got to try it out first...

Since this past year has been the most safari pictures we've had EVER, I was going to just have a top five pick to share. Well, the more I went through them, the more I found I liked. So here's my top 15...

Crazy lookin African lizard

Jump!

I especially liked all the lion pictures he got. And now I have the song from the lion king stuck in my head: 'oh i just can't wait to be king'.

Here are some young males learning to hunt with a herd of wildebeest...

On the prowl...

No kill today. They'd rather play. Look how cute...

Another group of babies with their mama

Oh I just can't wait to be King.

Everybody look left... Everybody look right.... everywhere you look I'm... standing in the spot light...

Can't you hear little Simba's roar on the lion king when looking at this picture?

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight....

Ok, so it wasn't technically the jungle. But I'm on a theme song kick. I'll stop now.

More updates to come on Mattaw Children later today....

The Andrus Family

2011-09-25T08:32:00.003-05:00

We have a family visiting Mattaw Children's Village this week from Corpus Christi, TX. It's been a great week with them. They just have a few more days with our children. It's the mom, dad and one of their four daughters of their family. They've been a blessing to us all to have here. This is their first trip and they had no clue what to expect, some things being way easier than they thought and some things being more difficult. Here's a few things they've done this past week...

I needed to visit a couple of girls on our waiting list to be placed in house four. When we arrived, we found the oldest, Daisy, was home sick. We ended up taking her with us to town to the Dr since Elizabeth was already taking Peter to get his knee checked out. They had eaten some food the day before but when we visited, Daisy hadn't eaten all day and said there was no food in the house. While visiting with the grandmother of the girls, some children from around the village gathered outside to see the white people. I had Tammy and Amber with me and they handed out bread to the children before we left.

Amber handing out bread

Tammy showing a little girl her picture for the first time in her camera

We took them out to our friends' baby rescue home for a few hours the other day. It made us appreciate our roads! Their road is very bumpy with potholes and speed bumps on a major road. Elisha went to school that morning and Claire went with us. I knew it'd be a super fun filled field trip for her since she loves babies and this one has over 100!

Claire holding Cindy Lou

One of the workers put Claire in a high chair at lunch time. She sat in it for longer than she ever has. She loved having so many new friends that would all give her attention.

After a few hours we left and went to our house for lunch. We then went out to Mattaw. Wayne helped Bud with car repairs and construction at Mattaw while Amber and Tammy washed all the kids feet and gave them new socks.

Amber

The Andrus family with all the Mattaw children

Hope has arrived and now you are safe

2011-09-23T23:34:00.001-05:00

Ok, here's our opening of house three, Amani House. (Amani meaning Peace in swahili)

Austin slaughtering the goats. This is a typical thing to do for a big celebration around here. In the past our night watchmen have done this but Austin is definitely Texan and has hunted deer and such so this was a simple task. Our kids and staff got a kick out of it.

We then went on our rescue mission. Here we are at the apartments where Dan and Peter were living. That is the great Aunt and Uncle by me and then of course Dan and Peter there in front...

Here's another view of the apartments. There's a lot of homemade brew going on in this area. It is a pretty rough and tough place. But now the boys are uprooted out of this place where, according to our social worker, they would more than likely become street kids. And now they are planted in a family where they are loved!

We next went to pick up Ayub and Emmanuel. I didn't get many pictures since it was raining and we were trying to get out of there fairly quick. I did snap a few of the children outside that gathered from around...

We then arrived at Mattaw and gathered inside Amani house to celebrate with a big lunch. First we introduced the new children, then said prayers and dug in!

From left to right is Elizabeth, the auntie that will assist the parents Monday through Fridays during the day, then Grace and Joseph, the new parents of this home.

I didn't get a picture of all the food beforehand but here's some goat ribs, soda and cake in the back for dessert.

Grace and Joseph labeling all the new supplies for their home

And here are all the new children...

Emmanuel and Ayub

Peter

Dominic

Dan

Ayub

Angeline and Peter, brother and sister

Precious

Mercy

Violet (she will actually be in house four with her sister Sheila)

Sheila

We still need photos of a few more. And I need a group photo of all the house three children with their new parents. They are all doing so great though. The house parents have really stepped up and shown through action how much they love these children already. Grace, the mom, was asked if it is hard to love other children that are not your own and she replied "when God puts this desire in your heart so deep, you love them as your own, it's not hard, and any challenge is not too difficult".

Ayub was the little boy absolutely terrified of us and unsure of where exactly he was going. It wasn't but a few days and we saw a completely different boy out playing soccer with his new brothers with so much laughter on his face. Dominic is also at home and we find him with a smile on his face often.

Ayub, Dominic and Peter

In the mean time...

2011-09-20T23:46:00.006-05:00

Howdy ho ranger joe,

(isn't that from full house? i'm trying to get creative on my greetings here, i know, this isn't the best)

I was on a break from bloggin and intended to come back with pictures of the grand opening of house three. Well I didn't have all the pictures I wanted to make the post so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. In the mean time, I will post some of the most adorable kids ever.

Claire got a stroller from her Nene, brought by the recent team. She LOVES it.

I know, I know, too cute for words

Around here, the only eggs we have the option of buying are fresh and from free range chickens. They're somewhere around 5-10 cents each. And they are so fresh, we don't have to refrigerate them, but keep them on our shelf.... (that would be chicken poo still on one of the eggs, ha)

Eggs are one of our staples for breakfast

We also have started the milk business out at Mattaw with our cows. This will eventually pick up and be another avenue for self-sustainability at Mattaw Children's Village. Every afternoon about 3pm, either our son Caleb or Bud will bring home milk. Jordan and Caleb measure out milk into milk containers and then they go deliver around our neighborhood. My kitchen is a temporary milk factory. We're so thankful for the missionaries and friends around here that are supporting Mattaw and buying milk! We too buy some and go through at least a couple of liters a day. Bud and Claire love drinking it plain. First we have to boil it though to make sure it's safe and disease free to drink. It then sits awhile and we scrape cream off the top (which I use later for cooking or making butter), then put it in the refrigerator.

Elisha and his teacher, Madam Winnie

She seriously gets cuter by the day. (yes I am her mom. yes I am bias.)

Cutest kids ever!

Oh and deffinitely these are some of the cutest kids ever too! This is their p.e. uniform, they wear it under their school uniform and take off their school uniform to go play.

From left to right: Georgie, Precious, Brian, Noah, Violet, Elisha, Dominic, Angeline

Bud just got back yesterday from taking our last team on safari in the Masai Mara. They had a fabulous trip and he got some rockin photos. I'll share them later but I especially liked the little cubs....

Hope I didn't ruin your breakfast.

House Three open!

2011-09-16T23:51:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we opened house three at Mattaw Children's Village. I'm in awe of how good our God is to provide a way for us to rescue more children. I was counting on pictures to tell it all because there's just been too many moments lately that I wonder how I will put it into words. Well, Bud just left this morning to take our team on safari. Meaning he took our camera to catch pictures of some awesome kill they are fasting and praying to God to see. Ha. And I was absolutely exhausted when coming home last night that it didn't occur to me to get all the pictures off our camera before Bud left at the crack of dawn today. I'm sure you cared for this much of an explanation! Moving along, here's my attempt to tell of yesterday.

We already prayed and decided which children we would be picking up. We've had overflow in house one and two due to some emergency cases so we were already full on girls. Our new house parents have three of their own children, two girls and one boy. They are already referring to themselves as a family of 14 now though! Our new house three parents' names are Grace and Joseph. They are precious and we've known them for years. They live not far from Mattaw. So, we first went out to Mattaw. Bud and the guys worked on some stuff on house five. I dug through the container to gather the remaining things to give first thing to the children that come into house three. I kinda had in mind an ENTIRE different day planned. I had this picture perfect idea of how everything would have been delivered on time to house three.... the beds, furniture, mattresses, blankets, ect. They did get all the household supplies, like kitchen supplies, basins and such all there last week. Of course nothing hardly goes according to plan here in Africa. Anywho, oh and while the guys were working, Austin was slaughtering goats for the celebration welcoming lunch for house three. Yes, he slaughtered. But not just slit the neck with a sharp knife, he hacked their necks with a dull axe. The sound was horrific! He then hung them from our now broken tree house in the woods and later we found the legs were still hanging after they had cut the body down to grill. Oh I know, this is detailed, I could go into more. I'll refrain and show pictures later! So by about 11am we all loaded up to go on our rescue mission. Humphrey, our social worker, came and is just so great to have in helping us with all of this. He really has a heart for these kids and helps the transition go so well.

We first picked up Dan and Peter. You can read about their story by clicking HERE. This past June made a year since we first met them. I'm absolutely thrilled and at peace with them being "home" in house three now. They had never been to school a year ago and were lucky if they ate a meal every day. When we found them, we put them in school which also guaranteed meals for them. They still have had a rough year given their situation where they were living, but now they are safe. We already took in Angeline, Peter's sister and Dan's cousin, due to urgency. She was crying when the boys showed up. It didn't take long AT ALL for them to jump right back into being family and laughing together. When we went to pick the boys, they saw us coming and when I got out of the car they jumped into my arms out of excitement. Of course first thing they asked for Bud. Bud stayed behind to finish up construction while we got to do the fun part of picking up kids. We went into the one and a half room apartment type home to sit and make final discussions with the great aunt and uncle of the boys. Humphrey explained more stuff, we had papers signed, took pictures, and off we went. 10 minutes into the ride and Peter was already car sick and vomiting in Chaz's lap. (one of the guys on our team who just so happens to be one of Peter's sponsors.... lets just say they had a good bonding experience). Dan on the other hand sat in the very back with Elisha and talked and giggled the entire time. He rolled back the window in the back and yelled at people, most of the time greeting them with "HOW A YOU!?". He also managed to tear out an air-conditioning piece and a few other pieces on the side. He and Peter will be a handful. We've prepared our house parents for them!

Our next pick up was Emmanuel and Ayub who I just wrote about last week. The two brothers who were living with their grandmother. I was just as excited to visit the grandmother as I was to get the boys. They welcomed us with arms wide open and we all went in to sit in her hut. It was raining by this point. I first went in and greeted the grandmother, then slowly our team all piled in. She was surprised to see how many white people kept coming in and every time she welcomed them with a chuckle and smile. Neighborhood children kept gathering at the door trying to peek in at the white people. We brought the grandmother food to bless her. She was thrilled beyond words. We followed with custom and did greetings back and forth. An uncle to the boys showed up and ended up signing papers on the boys on behalf of the grandmother because she doesn't know how to read or write, let alone have a signature. He said some nice things and how it is an answer to prayer for these boys to get to enter into a family where they now have a mother and father. Oh and Elisha was with us and came inside. When a bunch of kids were gathered at the door, he ran out with his monster growl. Most of the kids loved it and laughed... then there were those few that were terrified to see a little white person... especially one growling and coming at them. He brought out a few tears in kids! Overall though he made children laugh. Later we brought out a bag of candy and Elisha helped me hand them out. Then they all loved us. Even the adults wanted. A simple treat to us but huge to them. We then exchanged words of thanks with the grandmother and Jon on the team prayed for the grandmother and her house. Before leaving, Humphrey and I pulled aside the boys to talk with them and his grandmother. We made sure again that this was what she wanted and that the boys did too, especially Ayub since he seemed terrified. Once he got candy and talked with us, he was all excited to go. Of course he and his brother sat in the back with Elisha and Dan wondering what on earth they just got into.

Dominic and the house parent's boy will fill the other two spots. The girls are Mary, Christine, Mercy, Angeline, and the house parent's two girls, Mercy and Precious. (another Mercy! It is quite the common name here)

We got to Mattaw and all the children rushed out to the vehicle to meet their new brothers. They welcomed them and showed them to their house. We had planned for the kids to meet us at the gate and they do a big welcoming with dancing and singing from the gate to house three. It was 2pm by this time and everyone was hungry. So we went into house three. We did a quick introduction of house three kids and house three parents to all of our children, staff and team. Then we prayed and ate. It was a BIG feast! There was roasted goat, chicken, pilau, and potatoes. Everyone was full and happy. We then did a goodbye for the visitors. No fun! But I saved the cake for after we left to brighten the mood. Betsy made a few cakes and I made some, so they had five cakes to indulge in later. Right before we left, the truck pulled up that was delivering the mattresses. We were able to unload and make sure they were all there. The children from house one and two were thrilled to help the new children make their beds and fix their room. It was getting late by this point so we left the rest in our staffs hands.

The timing and welcoming didn't quite happen right but all that matters is in the end a new family has begun at Mattaw Chidlren's Village. It was such a full and joyful day. Another dream come true. I look forward to sharing pictures of our day and the many more stories to come of these children growing to be "oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His spelndor". (Isaiah 61:3)

Truly created to be part of days like this.

Elisha and Dominique go to school

2011-09-14T04:20:00.001-05:00

OH MY GOODNESS! LOOK at those adorable little boys in their school uniform.....

Dominique and School

2011-09-13T03:12:00.003-05:00

I have video and picture to share updates on sweet Dominique. Unfortunately I can't access them at this time, so you get the quick version in words.

Watching his restoration has been so sweet. He has warmed up quickly and I've noticed he is not a shy little boy. He just needed out of the environment he was in. He and Elisha get along great. I'm lovin it and would adopt him as our own if it were God's will! But we will be transitioning him into house three THIS Friday! Along with the other children that will call house three their home. Sunday morning we took Dom to church with us. Bud noticed he didn't know the words to the most basic Swahili worship music. Come to find out, it was his first time to ever go to church. He loved it though and we found him dancing in a circle of Mattaw boys, dancing and clapping. He was home.

There's been quite a bit to teach him. The basics of asking for something if he wants it, like food or toys. Saying please and thank you. Putting his plate in the sink after eating. Flushing the toilet when finished. Ha. He learns fast though. He's such a joy to be around!

In other news, Elisha will now be going to Mattaw for school 2-3 times a week! He absolutely loves it too. Monday I went out to rescue Dominique and left Elisha at Mattaw. Bud put him in school and he did amazing. We were shocked. And thrilled. After all, we do desire our children to be raised in this culture and learn the language, knowing the Mattaw kids are their brothers and sisters regardless of tribe.

A bit of my history: I've grown up around younger kids my whole life and love them, my mom was a pre-k and kinder teacher. I started out going to college to be one too. Even before having my own kids, I always desired to home school. Not thinking it's bad to send your child to public, but to each is own. I desire this scripture to be true in how we raise our children: Deut. 6:5-7 says “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Homeschooling seemed the easiest way to make it happen, to me. Luke 6:40 states “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." Which teacher would I want him to be like?

I've gotten into it here recently and love to teach Elisha. I have found and confirmed what I already knew, that I'd be a mom that enjoys it and looks forward to the next day to school my kids, challenges included. No doubt I look down this road and question how I'd get it all together, where time would come to do this, if our children will be socially awkward, and doubting my ability to teach. It's a ministry and it's really helpful to have a vision for it.

But then God began to reshape this little vision of mine. And it's still in process, I have tons of questions. And this might just be this year, who knows. As of right now though, we will put Elisha in school at Mattaw from 8-1, 2-3 times a week (we're still adjusting). He'll then eat lunch with the kids and come home. The time I would spend teaching him on those days, I'll now spend helping around the Mattaw school, implementing teaching tools that are not found in typical public schools in Kenya but that are very normal in America. For example: I have calendars coming from the states this weekend that we'll put up for them to review everyday what day it is, whats the weather like, ect. You know those charts found in EVERY kindergarten class in America? Just simple stuff to help our children get a visual and interaction. Then introduce crafts and ideas for our teachers that go with what they're teaching. Elisha already shared with me yesterday how he likes Madam Winnie. (in Kenya, children refer to their teacher as Madam, not Mrs.) And I'm so proud of him for how well he obeys her. He does so well in a classroom set up. I peeped in the other day and saw him with a ruler pointing out the alphabet on a chart while all the kids in his class yelled out the letter. So precious!

We desire Christ-centered and excellence in every aspect of Mattaw. School included. And if we wouldn't put our children in it because of lack of education or lack of Jesus, something is seriously wrong. So we're going down a new path, open to whatever God has for us!

Happy birthday Grandma!

2011-09-11T11:26:00.000-05:00

A word from iron man and sweet pea...

Dominique home.

2011-09-09T22:44:00.006-05:00

I really don't know how to put into words what happened yesterday. I've been listening to this new CD by William Matthew's called Hope's anthem. There's a song on there that describes what we've seen. Here's part of it....

You're bringing hope to the hopeless

giving your heart to the broken

sharing your home with the orphan

you are the joy

you are my joy

you are the hope of the nations

the Father's heart we're embracing

you are the song we're declaring

you are the joy

you are my joy

the hope that is around us

let hope arise!

The guys from our team have been hard at work with Bud on construction. They're finishing house five, painting house four and the Kenyan construction crew is working to finish the church. As I was downloading the pictures below I realized something. Bud is behind the scenes busting his tail on construction to enable me to go rescue kids. Which is the picture of yesterday. I mean, I knew this, but that's what the pictures tell of yesterday for our family. One of those light bulb moments.

I'll not be as wordy as I have been lately and let the pictures speak...

bricks.

house five.

feeding the hungry.

Dominiqe and his aunt.

a kid and his only toy.

I've nicknamed Dominique, "Domino", because that's what he is for these people....

I see his rescue and restoration being a domino effect for everyone in this are that wants it. Yesterday someone on the team shared the gospel with this group. A few got saved. A man delievered from demons. A woman healed from long term stomach problems. Restored joy on children's faces. The Kingdom of God showed up and advanced. This was only the beginning. We plan to follow up with this place weekly. Maybe start a backyard bible club. Invite them to church on Sundays. But if they don't come, we go to them. I'm looking forward to seeing Jesus' love spread here.

Here's our little welcoming of Dominique yesterday...

Malnourished. But now with a hope. We will give updates of his recovery.

Betsy helping clothe him.

Elizabeth, our new long-term nurse, doctoring him up.

So many more stories to come. We need your help! Who will sponsor Dominique and help make a domino effect on the rest of our village?!

Elisha

2011-09-09T00:17:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone,

Today we go to rescue Dominique. I've woke up at 4 and 5 am the past two morning with him so strong on my heart. He has to come home. Will you help us bring him in as well as the other children for house three? You can go on facebook and add Mattaw Children. Then watch a video just made to promote sponsorship posted on there.

I have to share this personal story really quick. It was one of Elisha's first. You know how you document "first tooth, first steps, first foods, first smile" and so on for your baby? Well, this one is a first I want to always remember. Not to brag but to share a memory. Betsy and I ran into town, I just happened to bring Elisha with me. We were planning to just run to Mattaw for lunch, get a few things done and be back. On the way to Mattaw though we got to talking about Dominique and how we just wanted to pick him up right then but we'd wait until tomorrow (today). Then I realized I had just bought groceries and we could at least stop and feed him lunch. So we did. I pulled up and told Elisha about Dominique, in a very simple child version. I said he is hungry and doesn't have food. Then I asked if he wanted to go give him food. Well, he was eating a snack at the time and said no thinking I meant to give his food, which I hope as he matures he'll even give that. But then I showed him food in the backseat and said he could give him that, juice and bread. He was all about it. We walked behind a building to where Dominique stays. Elisha was a bit hesitant and stood back but Betsy grabbed his hand, I told him it was ok, and he came over with us to greet people. Dominique came up and Elisha shook his hand. Then the aunt invited us in their house/room. I then went to give a muffin to Dominique but before I could Elisha stopped me and said he wanted to. Insert melted heart. Such a simple little act but to see my son see Dominique hungry and want to give my food made my YEAR. So I then handed Elisha a juice box and orange to give Dominique. We talked with the aunt while Dominique immediately sat to the dirt floor and scarfed down food and sucked down juice so quickly. He was hungry. Slowly all the neighborhood children gathered at the door to see us. At this point Elisha became comfortable. Almost too comfortable. Eli then ran to the door and ran at the kids with his monster growl but in a playful laughing way. (if you know my son, you know exactly what I'm talking about!) I'm pretty sure some babies cried. Ha. But overall he made a lot of kids laugh. He did it a few more times. We then prayed and left. I told Elisha to say bye to his new friends. He said bye and hoped in the car as if it was all not a big deal. And it's really not, but to a mother's heart, oh my goodness, what a blessing to see! Thank you Jesus for your heart and giving us ways to teach our children what it looks like in action.

Pictures and updates to come on our little rescue adventure today!

rescue.

2011-09-07T12:33:00.007-05:00

Today was SO full. Oh my heart is bubbling over with joy and breaks at the same time. This morning I went out with Betsy and Humphrey to visit children that would possibly come into Mattaw Children's Village. This is one of my absolute favorite things I do here. I love the whole rescuing and initial restoration process. It's a beautiful picture of what our Daddy God does for us. This scripture has been everywhere lately: "God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell" Psalm 68:6. And I got to share that today with those that it applies DIRECTLY to. Betsy and I had to keep reminding each other that we were going to keep each other from taking any of these children home with us. HARD I tell you. We want to take our team that is here now, through the process with us of picking them up, sharing Jesus with the family and neighbors they are coming from, and watch the whole process of the children being placed in a new family. It's beautiful, did I mention that?

We first went to visit Dominque. He is 7 years old. The hardest place we went today. You remember Mary? (which I have great updates to give on her soon) She was in this area where we visited Dominique. We drive by this place every day. It's on the side of the road before turning to Mattaw. You could easily miss it. As soon as you go behind the mud hut strip of buildings in front, it's a different world. Children everywhere, dirty, trash everywhere, drainage systems with trash and muck, mostly just women around cooking and hanging clothes, a few men but are obviously drunk, and as I said TONS of children. In this little area there are strips of mud hut buildings with several rooms that are rented out for people to live in. The rooms? About 8x10 in size. And each room one family lives, which is at least a few adults and 4 or more children. When we got there Dominique had just bathed and they turned him around to greet us while still naked. It was so sad to see his frail skinny body and that they would not put clothes on him to greet us first. Of course our reaction was not to greet him but I told them to clothe him first. They did and he shyly greeted us. I could just see trauma all over this precious boys face. Meet Dominique, a child I will joyfully claim as my own and soon to be a child of Mattaw....

Our social worker, Humphrey, shared how the aunt had heard of us a few weeks ago and came to him asking if we could take Dominique. Humphrey was able to share the gospel with her and she received Jesus and was saved! The sad part is that her husband is a drunk. He goes out everyday and does not work but drinks and comes home drunk in the evening. Dominique being one of the first he takes his anger out on and beats him. We were able to encourage her about praying for his salvation and a total change in their household. We talked with the aunt about how we were about to open house three and if we have all the paper work on him, we can come back and pick him next week. She was ready to hand him over right then. And trust me, we were more than ready to take him! I then asked if we could pray for her and she invited us in their room/home to pray. That made my stomach turn. Here is where they stay...

This picture is it. I didn't cut any of where they live out of the picture. To the right is a wall and the left is another room where people live. Only one room. In front she was cooking lunch in that small pot on an open fire. Inside was only an inch thick worn out single mattress, a bit of floor space, a pile of clothes and a pile of worn out buckets and pots. Where the aunt, uncle, their four kids AND Dominique sleep? I'm sure the drunk Uncle sleeps on the mattress while everyone else squeezes in on the dirt floor. Here's another angle of where they stay.

No furniture except that little bench. No water faucet, just this yellow jug where often Dominique is forced to go fetch water from somewhere around with his frail little self.

When I took his picture, I showed it to him and that was the first smile we saw.

He even giggled a bit and it reminded me of our boy Eric at Mattaw. Oh how I can see so much future in this child. Jesus has quite the future in store for him and what a blessing it will be to see his plan unfold over the upcoming years. I can also see that as soon as he is put in a safe and loving environment, he will begin to be a child again, un-traumatized and comforted by the love of Jesus. Would you pray for this precious little boy?

We then drove about 15 minutes away from Mattaw, towards the opposite direction of Kitale. And then drove at least another 15 minutes into the bush. We were in the thick of it. The scenery breathtaking though. Such a beautiful land with rolling hills, big trees throughout the farms, and acacia trees overshadowing the roads. We got there and the grandmother welcomed us with arms wide open. She didn't know we were coming, which I usually like to do. I want to see the children on an average day for them. The first thing she told Humphrey though was that she wished she would have known we were coming so she could have had food or chai ready for us. REALLY?! I mean, really?! What a precious woman and so very hospitable. I learned loads from her in a short time. We then were welcomed into her hut. It was a nice little compound. You can tell she has taken care of what she's been given. About a 1/2 acre of of maize. One cow with a place built out of wood scraps to put the cow in to milk. One chicken. A little barn made of sticks and mud. And her home, with a living room and two small rooms. The grandmother is around 70 or more years old. They don't keep track of their age, especially that generation. I'm sure she doesn't know her birthday. She is widowed and takes care of these two boys, her grandsons, ages 10 and 7. When the seven year old was born, the mother died three days after. This was the grandmothers daughter. The father then abandoned the children and hasn't been seen or heard of since (7 years ago). She didn't know any english at all. We didn't have to understand what she was saying to know what a precious woman she is. I had the thought of wishing we could sit around a camp fire and her tell us stories. I know she's loaded with them. We asked if she was a Christian. She said she was and goes to the Anglican church and has the certificate to prove it. She wanted to show us but I said it wasn't necessary, we believed her. We talked for awhile. I shared about Mattaw and why we do what we do. I shared about how these boys would have a mom, dad, brothers, and sisters. They would not go to an orphanage but be placed in a home and not have the label of an orphan. She lives in this house with just her two grandsons. She's raised these boys and I told her how much Jesus was pleased with her obedience to do that. We asked if she would be lonely if the boys go to Mattaw. Her answer was astounding. She said that in the bible God says to come to him and he will give rest. She said God has answered her prayer by providing a good place for these boys and how can she refuse that. She said this is her time to receive rest. You can tell that taking care of them has not been the easiest on her. They're sweet boys and obviously well behaved, but it's just not the way it should be. She is getting older and more tired and ready for more rest. I love situations like this because God's heart is so strong for the widow as much as the orphan. And not only are we rescuing orphans, but relieving a widow from distress. She no longer has to worry of their future. We will for sure stay connected with her as the boys grow. We try and stay connected with our children's extended family as much as possible and as long as it is a healthy and good thing for our kids. Meet our new friend, Janita. And her grandsons, Emanual and Ayub (swahili name for Job) that will soon be at Mattaw.

While sitting in her living room I notice Ayab cover his face. He was very shy towards us.

We went outside to take pictures and noticed Ayab was gone. We then found him hiding in a tree.

Betsy went up to get him. That got him to laugh a bit and crack a smile.

While talking with the Janita, we had several neighborhood children come to the door to get a peek at us. Janita said she had never had white people visit her. She had only seen them from a distance visiting Saiwa swamp, a little national park close by.

I went out and got a picture of them. They thought it was hilarious when I showed them their picture. Humphrey said the only thing they've ever known is people coming to take a picture and waiting at least a month to develop them. We really were blessed by this visit. We told Janita to invite her neighbors when we come back next week. We plan to share Jesus and pray for people. I don't want to just rescue children from a place and never return there. We plan to bring food but I want to leave the family and neighbors with not just bread but with something that can feed them for life, that gives them eternal life. He's my best friend and can be theirs too!

The last place we went was interesting. It was a fairly nice place. Better than most places we visit. The oldest sister is married and lives in the house we visited. It had nice furniture with a t.v. playing when they welcomed us to sit inside. The house is mud with a tin roof but the outside plastered nicely. The house had metal windows with glass. The sister has a baby and three year old girl. But her parents died in 2007, leaving behind her and her brother and sister. Her sister 12 and brother 8. Sweet children. But the older sisters' husband does not want them there and treats them as outcast. They didn't seem in a desperate situation physically compared to all the other children on our waiting list but emotionally it is desperate for them. It was so interesting to see the three different situation. So different but the same. Orphans in need of a secure home with a mother and father. We are prayerfully considering these children for house three but might wait until house four or five since there are other children in worse need. Please pray with us! Meet Mark and Lilly...

Thank y'all so much for your prayers for Mattaw and us. We are ever so grateful and are continually needing wisdom and discernment from God. We are so desperate for his love that He gives daily without measure and our hope is that it is received by those we encountered today. Pray as we will return to these places with our team here and for hearts to be open to Jesus.

Mattaw Children's Village Update

2011-09-05T09:28:00.005-05:00

I'm on this crazy picture posting kick. If you can't tell. Yesterday our whole family finally made it out to Mattaw. Gosh, I get to missing our kids so much. We ended up skipping church and spending the afternoon at Mattaw instead so that our kids could get naps and enjoy the kids in the afternoon. (because spending all morning at church makes for tired kids in the afternoon) It didn't quite work that way but we did end up out there, Elisha sleeping half the time and us getting some time in the the kids with Claire. Today is the third day in a row my plans for the day hasn't worked out. Ok maybe thats everyday but mostly the last three days. I decided tomorrow: no plans. Just start with my list and whatever happens, happens. The end.

So this past week our government helped us out! And has no idea. USAID is an American government initiative that helps around the world. Big time in Kenya. And let me brag on good 'ol George W. Bush. He started Ampath which is a part of USAID and is the program that provides free medical care and medicines to hiv patience. So a handful of our children benifit from this. You know aids is no longer a death sentence as it used to be? People can now live full lives and live regularly if they take their medicine consistently. That's bonus info for you. Now this past week USAID donated mosquito nets for all our children. Our nets were getting bad holes in them so the timing was great!

Angeline and Rose modeling them for us.

Claire and Lucy catching up on life.

She got passed around to about every girl on the compound.

I love this man of mine!

And house five prepping to be built! We have a team from Paulann Baptist Church in our home town, San Angelo, TX that will be here Wednesday. Our last team of the year! They'll finish the church, paint house four, build house five ANNNND move in furniture into house three and help us welcome our new family of children!!!! Oh I could just run outside in the rain now dancing and singing.

Which means we're going to need new sponsors. An entire house full of new kiddos needing sponsorship to give them a school to be educated in, a bed to sleep warm and tight in, a table to eat three meals a day at, more than one pair of clothes to wear, and a family to be securely in for life. Help us get funding for these kids? More details to come. We have been making some changes in the sponsorship area and I'm thrilled to share with you soon. Thank you SO much for those that have been patient with us thus far and stuck in there to support the children we have now.

All the children have little photo books where they keep pictures of their sponsors in it. It's really sweet. They adore each of you and are very grateful. Here's Lucy showing me one of her pictures.

Remember the most recent story this summer of two precious girls we rescued, Sheila and Violet? I wanted to make an update on how they're doing at Mattaw. I'm pretty sure the two pictures I got of them when I first got there shows how at home they are.

Sheila helping Kristin cut Sukumawiki for dinner.

Sharon fixing Violet's hair.

Later Austin brought out his computer and let the kids watch Monsters Inc. They loved it! Funny how they'll all crowd around one computer to watch. Reminds of when I had 50 kids around my computer in Lemoru. It works for them!

Fruit and Sweet pea... Sunday?

2011-09-03T22:38:00.010-05:00

Ok, so I'm going to shoot for next Friday getting back on schedule here with our fruit and flower Friday. I'm thinking with us starting pre-school this week, everything else will get back into a routine too. Ha, I might laugh at that statement in a month. Worth a shot though!

Yesterday I had our day all planned out. Bud was working on building the cow shed out at Mattaw while I stayed home in the morning to let the kids do stuff around the house and get their naps in so we could join their dad for lunch at Mattaw. Saturday lunches are the best out there. I miss our Mattaw kids and was ready for a day with them to do nothing but play and laugh. Didn't quite happen. Elisha desperately needed a haircut. I mean, look at his ear bangs...

Need I say more? So I was on a mission. I got out a new movie, gave him a treat and busted out the comb, scissors and clippers. Ugh, it was one loooong hour and a half. Lets just say it involved screaming, tears, and hair everywhere. (mostly me being the one crying and pulling MY hair out, ha) But we got 'er done and does he ever look like a sweet little preschooler now. Unfortunately I did not get an after shot because I was scrubbing the hair out of the carpet so long after that he fell asleep.

So by that time I knew we were staying home the rest of the day. Ok, next on the list, I have grandparents of my kids hungry for new photos! Claire woke up in good spirits, lets go play and take the camera along.

First, time to update on our sweet pea.

Claire is now an 1 and a 1/2 year old as of August 25th! Oh that is just nuts. She is such a joy to have in our life. Her personality keeps us laughing daily. She is such a girly girl one minute and then the next she is rough and tough, rolling in the dirt and catching "doo doo's" (the word for bug in Swahili). In the mornings when we get her out of bed she always wants to grab a baby, find a blanket to wrap her in, and snuggle. She loves to read books and will sit in my lap way longer than Elisha did at this age. She is quite the talker, her favorite word being babies. She'll babble a bunch of words we don't know and then blurt out loud "BABIES!". We have no clue what she is talking about but apparently a story about babies. She is on a great schedule. We put her in bed around 7:30pm and leave the room and she goes to sleep on her own. Another opposite from Elisha, thankfully! On the flip side, it's hard to get her to sleep when we travel because she likes her own room and space to fall asleep in and Elisha will fall asleep quick with us in the room. She loves her beauty rest and usually doesn't get up until around 9am. Then she'll play and get into EVERYthing and crash for a nap somewhere between 11-1. She can be quite a picky eater in a weird way. One of her favorites is still avocado with garlic salt. She's not a fan of sandwiches but loves loves spaghetti or any pasta. She likes yogurt and granola a lot. And boiled eggs are always a guarantee. Last night she ate asparagus for the first time and liked it for the most part. (found asparagus at this awesome stop from Nairobi to here, called Delamere farm) She loves to swing and walk around the yard looking at flowers and picking them. She also has learned how to keep up with Elisha and wrestle with him. They fight over toys quite often, one of those things where they don't want the toy until the other has it. But they are learning more and more how to play together. She has mastered running now. A few weeks ago she still had a leg drag when running and would mostly hop/run/walk but now she's full speed, running to everything. Her hair is growing so much which I enjoy. She on the other hand pulls out her rubber bands and bows and likes the mullet look she has going on right now. But she loves to put on shoes and change them a million times throughout the day. She also likes to take all hers and Elisha's clothes out and try them all on. She can be very independent but then at times acts like her legs are broken and must be carried and snuggled. My baby girl is very full of life and I'm soaking in this stage she is in as much as I can because (from experience) I know it won't last long!

And now for our photo shoot. It was a lovely day. Good lighting for some great photos. I could only find one bow but we're not going for perfection here. I had her "all dolled up" as my mom would say.

She played in the dirt. No big deal, just a little dirt.

We ran.

She is one determined little girl.

She practiced her princess wave.

She talked about how how she really wanted her Nene and Grandma to come visit and was reaching out for them. (pulling on heart strings?)

She didn't take it well when I told her we still had another year till we'd see them. (or was that me?)

She loved on her puppies. Another word she loves to say.

We played kitchen. She made me tea and pie.

But drank all my tea.

I read her a book, then she insisted on reading it to me. It was pretty cute!

And it was a great time of taking photos. And I just thought we were done.

Then I remembered I needed to take a picture of a fruit and Elisha was awake. We got these AMAZING strawberries at Delamere farm. Almost as big as ones in Texas. So sweet and delicious. The kids love them too.

(take note of new haircut, just don't look too close. he was in the zone of just waking up and watching t.v.)

I sliced these babies up and made an angel food cake to go with for dessert last night. And the heavens opened up and angels sang.

I did mention she always takes her hairbands and bows out? Rockin the mullet.

And then it happened. Our sweet little photo shoot continued on, but not quite as sweet anymore. I walked out to find this ragdoll.

She was confused why I was startled. But of course not enough to go throw her in the tub immediately. We must get in one more photo shoot.

And don't worry Claire, your paybacks will come when you bring home your first boy for us to meet....
She really has no problem getting down in the mud. I mean really....

"How do you like me now mom? I'll give you glamour."

Great side profile with those pretty blue eyes. Minus the mud and stringy hair.

She jumped in it.

Wiped her eyes with it.
And LICKED it! Ok, now we're getting in the tub. Photo shoot complete.

Keepin' it real. Over and out.

(and p.s... i've taken down the basketball fundraiser over there to the right since we've had a few youth groups commit to raising the funds! thank y'all! can't wait to go lace up my andone's)

Masai Mara

2011-09-02T01:20:00.016-05:00

Howdy, Jambo.

This past week we took a little safari. Ok, it was a big safari. It wasn't like I was counting down to this big trip though. I actually was wanting to stay home and just thinking how hard it would be with two little ones. My husband did a little convincing though and after getting over myself and thinking on the bright side, it ended up being one really great trip that we'll always remember. Bud had been planning it for quite awhile. He wanted to take our two Kenyan sons since they've never been before and Ian is on break from school during this month. It would also be our first time to take Elisha and Claire on safari.

We left early, like before the sun came up early, on Sunday morning. Austin and Brittany took one vehicle and we drove another. The boys split up between the two. We were making great time and the kids were doing fairly well. And then the shift happened. Rambo broke down. (the land rover that Austin and Brittany were driving) We ended up being broken down for around 3 hours. It was a Sunday but thankfully there just happened to be some Indian shop owners that stopped by their shop that morning, the same time we pulled up along the road where a strip of car shops were. They were so kind to call their mechanic, who showed up snuckered, but had the vehicle fixed and on our way we went. The kids were pretty restless and not long after we took off, I was letting Claire air out without a diaper on since she had horrible horrible diaper rash (which come to find out is an infection). Oh and so she peed ALL over me. I mean all over. All over the front of my shirt and around my back and down my pants. (sorry for the detail) There were a few other odds against me too but I wont go into that much detail.

So we end up not getting to the gate of the Masai Mara national park until it was dark. The place Bud mapped out for us to camp at was one of the nicest camp sites (meaning it had nice hot showers). Well, apparently after dark, you can't enter the park, even if you're sleeping inside. So Bud picks up a random Masai guy who knows of another campsite. It's now around 6:45pm. We pull up and go through their gate (because even though it is outside the official park, the national park has no fencing around it) to find out their pipes are broken for showers. Ok, moving along, we go further up the hill to another site. It's dark now and we need to set up our tents and start dinner. So we go with the next one. They assure us there is hot showers. So we stay. They also have tents already set up at this site for around $15 a night. Given our day, we deicde to stay in them. Jordan, Ian and Caleb could care less and want the adventure so they set up one of the tents to sleep in. Oh and did I mention we never passed through a gate so we're like really camping in the wild. Turns out it's a Eco camp site too, meaning it's Eco-friendly. So our water is from... well, we never found out... but it sometimes smelt like cow pee and was brown. They would heat it over a fire then dump some in a big container above our tent, then we would take a shower inside with water coming from an actual shower head. The conditions really weren't bad at all. Actually reminded me of living in the bush my first year in Kenya.

Oh, so back to our first night. It was well past 7pm and I had hungry babies. We got the fire started. (i say we, but it was the Masai men that would be standing guard around our tents that night) Our chicken was thawed out at that point so we had to cook it and not let it go to waste. Otherwise it would have been pb&j that we already had for lunch. About half way through cooking chicken, I realized my kids were not making it. Elisha had already fallen into the edge of the fire and scraped his foot (no burns, thank goodness) and Claire was ready to run free and explore EVERYthing after being in a car all day. It was destined for disaster so I handed over the knife for flipping the chicken to Caleb (forgot grilling utensils), grabbed my two cranky monkeys, and off to our tent we went. The tents they had were actually pretty OK. There was two twin beds set up inside with sheets and warm down comforters on them made and ready for tired people to crawl inside and rest. The toilets, well, more like wooden boxes, were interesting. They were wooden boxes with holes on top to sit on and had a lid. In the hole was a sack with chemicals. The chemicals didn't make the tent smell (though not Eco-friendly) and it was a little sectioned off room inside the tent that zipped up. The shower room being next to it and zipped off as well. No sink, just a basin with a bucket of brown water next to it. So the kids and I snugged in bed and rested. They winded down and before falling asleep, their dad brought us some yummy grilled chicken. I'm pretty sure Elisha ate an entire chicken. Good thing, he slept though the whole night with a full belly. Claire slept pretty well through the night too. Me on the other hand, well, not so much. I heard hyena's at 10 and 10:30pm. Then elephants at 12:38am. Then would wake up pretty much every hour thinking a monkey was unzipping our tent. Of course they weren't but still. I had my motherly instincts on high radar that night! Was able to get about 2-3 consistent hours of sleep. Enough to make the next day a good day. I woke up to my sweet husband handing me fresh coffee in bed. What a good man! He got up before I knew it and made coffee over the fire. Everyone was up and ready to go by 6am. Except I was dragging behind, getting two little ones up, dressed and ready. We rolled out of our campsite around 6:30ish, I think. I really don't remember. Mornings are a big blur to me. But we were ready and all in good moods. To make it better, Brittany had made cream cheese pumpkin muffins the week before and brought with her to share. So I had my coffee and muffin... almost as if we went through Starbucks. Almost. We pull up to the gate, get our tickets and onto our safari we go. Camera in hand, kids in lap, Bud driving, we were on an adventure.

First thing we see is a big herd of wildebeest. I'd say the theme of this safari was wildebeest and you'll see why from the pictures. Then the next big show we saw was two male lions that had just eaten their breakfast. Usually when you see a bunch of safari vehicles in one area, there's something big. At one point though, we saw a bunch of vehicles and thought "oh probably just more lions". There were a lot. I never got tired of them though.

The lions are so used to safari vehicles that you can drive right up and they don't bother you at all.

I was a little freaked out when they got up and left the circle of safari vehicles. It was time to go spray his scent though.

And then they usually go into the bush to sleep most of the day.

We saw some giraffes. Not as much as a few years ago. Their spots are beautiful.

And off and on through the day we'd see elephants. Mostly far off or going through trees. Before the safari Elisha told us he wanted to see crocodiles, hippopotamus, baby elephant and lions. Lions: check, baby elephant: check.

Right now is the great migration of wildebeest. One of the new seven wonders of the world. They go from Tanzania to Kenya, have babies and eat grass, then migrate back across the Masai river and on to Tanzania again. It was unbelievable how many we saw. Thousands and thousands. It got old. And they are weird looking.

Those are not specs on the hill... just tons and tons of wildebeest... kinda like ants. Yes, they got old like a bunch of ants.

After crossing the river I was shocked how many of these birds were there. Oh no, these birds weren't just hanging by the river, they were eating the hundreds of wildebeest that had not made it across the river. Not even the crocs got to feast on them, they just wasted down the river until collected at this point for vultures to peck on.

And you can only imagine the smell.

And then we saw more wildebeest...

And really really dead wildebeest...

Wildebeest crossing the road. It was like a river of them that never stopped. We eventually pushed our way through.

And then the next morning we came upon a group of lioness with their cubs feasting on a wildebeest. Pretty sweet... other than the fact I DIDN'T bring my camera!

Hippopotamus: check.

Look at the baby! I loved seeing the baby animals. But this would be why hippos kill more people than any other animal. Mama hippo is sure protective of her baby.

We saw a croc at this part of the river in the picture above, but Elisha was sleeping. He really wanted to see one. He also refers to them as dinosoars.

But later we came to another part of the river and there they were.

Crocodiles: check.

Oh and more lions...

See the baby? When coming upon this pack, they had actually gotten caught spying on cape buffalo. I think one of the males was sneaking up on a herd to spot out a good meal. When they cuaght him though, a few of them ran towards him and he ran back to his pack. We then drove out to them.

Is it a tree?
Nope, just a satelite. Found this pretty humorous.

And then we didn't see anthing for awhile so got creative...

She loved having the window down with the wind blowing in her face. She also loved seeing all the animals. She'd point them all out to me. Even the wildabeest, "mama, mama, dis" and point to them all.

That afternoon we got back to the campsite with plenty of time to prep for dinner and relax in the daylight. I was able to get my barrings for where we were staying. The kids ran around the site exploring and playing in the dirt. We only brought one little bag of toys including a little set of "safari" animals I found at the grocery store here. Well, it said safari animals on it but had a polar bear, elk and camel combined with actual safari animals. Who knows, it could have been the t.v. show Lost edition. There were a herd of goats passing by our campsite and Claire insisted on going down to see them so we did. There was a masai man and little boy herding them. We hung out with them awhile. Elisha came down with an iphone watching a movie. So the little boy came over to watch it for awhile. Who knows the stories he will go back and tell his family! Bud talked with the man a bit. He was asking him about lions. The government now replaces cows that are eaten by lions because otherwise the masai will go after the lion and kill it if it kills their cow. They love their cows and aren't afraid of lions. So rather than kill off lions, the government will replace them. But not goats according to the man Bud talked to.

We went back to the site and while I cooked, the kids started their dinner with some corn.

Bud created and built this trailer. Mostly to carry luggage for teams from Nairobi to Kitale. But then it converts to a camping trailer, which we also will use for teams that choose to camp. The top flips out to be a platform for a tent. Then the side here in the picture flips down to cook on. This is a little cooker with a propane tank inside the trailer. I made mexican beans and rice. It was supposed to be soup until I realized we didn't have bowls or spoons but only big cups and forks. So I let it thicken into more of beans and rice.

Caleb, Jordan, Ian, Brittany, Austin and Bud around the camp fire. In the background you can see one of the tents set up by the site we stayed at. There were about 6 of them. The two nights we were there, no one else stayed there. (which we kinda wondered why) But apparently people were coming in the day we left.

The next day, we took a morning drive then left for Nairobi. Brittany was feeling pretty sore from the bumps and being pregnant so her and Austin stayed back at the camp site and rested. Pray for her! She is still having morning sickness. What a strong mama though, she's now about 6 months preggers and roughed it camping really well.

So our morning drive was a success. The boys really just wanted to see a cheetah and leopard. Oh but did I mention, I did NOT bring my camera?! Of course I'd also see a whole pride of lions, 6 cubs and all! Oh well, it'll stick in my memory for awhile.

Those are lions Bud is looking at. Squint and tilt your head and you'll see them.

I assure you there is a gorgeous leopard up there! Ugh. Where's a great camera when you need it? Oh yeah, sitting in the other vehicle at the camp site doing nothing.

We were about to head back to our campsite when at the last minute we saw another safari vehicle flash it's lights. A few other vehicles caught it too and we all headed over to see he had found a cheetah. The cherry on top of our safari!

I'm so glad Bud convinced us to go. We would have surely missed out! We made it into Nairobi around 3. Got nice clean hot showers and went and ate at a very westernized mall. The contrast in going from camping and going on safari to spending a few nights in the big city was pretty extreme. While in Nairobi, we took Elisha to see Cars 2. He loved it of course and sat through the entire thing with his pop corn and drink. Claire slept through most of it. For lunch we ate at the new Kentucky fried chicken. The boys really enjoyed getting a taste of America. I never would have thought I would enjoyed it so much. I don't ever choose to eat there in the states. It was by far the nicest one I've ever been to though. I was mostly excited for the fries. We then headed out early the next morning. It was too quick in Nairobi, wished I could of seen our friends there! Next time ;-). Going out to Mattaw later. Hope to grab a few snaps of the kiddos to update you on how they're doing. They'll start back to school on Tuesday. And so will we! Oh boy, preschool here we come.