Meet Kero!

Isn't she beautiful?!!

Our family has the privilege of helping sponsor Kero through Drawn From Water . We knew DFW was coming out with a new sponsorship program, so when they announced it last week, we jumped on board right away.

Really, all the kids are amazing and beautiful but when I asked our kids whether they wanted to sponsor a girl or a boy, they all agreed a girl and they all wanted the oldest girl. That's how we found Kero. When we pulled up her file, my girls said, "Yes! Her! Let's sponsor her!"

The day after we signed up to sponsor Kero, we received an email confirmation and a little bit more information on her. We learned that she was attending her third day of school. Reading this brought me to tears because she is attending the very same school we toured with our agency in Addis one year ago. The school is Children's Home Academy. We were so impressed with this school and what they had to offer.

I think about all the schools there must in Addis - our sponsored child could be attending one of probably hundreds of schools. But she is sitting in the same classrooms that we walked through just over a year ago.

Not only that, but Kero will learn English at her new school. Eventually, we will be able to write letters back and forth to her.

Friday morning, after we received confirmation that we would be indeed sponsoring Kero, I was wearing my DFW T-shirt and as I was driving the girls to school, I looked down at my T-shirt and there I saw Kero's name. Her name is on the shirt because she was one of the first eight children rescued.

Kero is six years old. In January, 2009, she was rescued from the Hammer tribe in Ethiopia. She was suppose to be killed by the elders because she was "teeth mingi", which means her top teeth came in before her bottom teeth.

Unfortunately, like all the children at the DFW orphanage, Kero is not adoptable, which is why this sponsorship program is so important for these kids.

Would you please consider sponsoring ones of these precious children? You can help sponsor a child for as little as $25 per month. When you sponsor a child, you will get several more pictures and more information about them. DFW will send frequent updates and you may email DFW specific questions about your child any time.

As DFW stated on a recent twitter, "How often can you say that you were able to help a child who would have otherwise been killed by their tribe?"

New Child Sponsorship Program!

Drawn From Water just announced their new Child Sponsorship Program. Go here to read the details and check out these beautiful children!

In less than 5 weeks...

...Lauren and I leave for Haiti. We are going with a team of 14 other people from our community.

Making the decision to go was not an easy one because both Lauren and I have been looking forward to going back to Ethiopia, possibly next summer, possibly our entire family and possibly for more than a short time.

And although we have not let go of our vision to some day return to Ethiopia, the closer we get to next summer, the more unlikely we will be going back that soon for various reasons.

Lauren and I share the same passion and desire - to travel overseas and serve the poor. This will be our first missions trip together and we are excited to see what possibilities are out there for us.

Like I said, this decision did not come easy. In fact, I kind of feel like I'm betraying Ethiopia. Ethiopia is where are hearts are.

But when we saw this opportunity to join a team going to Haiti to serve in tent cities and help clean up rubbish,  among other things, Lauren pleaded with us to let her go. She also has a cool testimony on how she received confirmation from the Lord that she is suppose to do this trip.

Steve and I didn't want her going without one of us and we just couldn't say no to her.

So, we signed up and I asked the Lord to close a door quick if we are not to go and we trusted that He would give me some confirmation along the way.

One week after we turned in our money and registration, we received a packet of information through our leader from AIM (Adventures In Missions), the organization who will be directing us in Haiti.

In this information, it described the location where we will serve in Port au Prince and it is called FON TAMARA.

TAMARA is my birth name!

Isn't that cool?!! I will take that as a confirmation that I should be going on this trip!

Anyway, we will be staying in a compound with fence all around, a locked gate and barbwire. The temperatures will be in the 90s! We will be sleeping in tents. Our family has NEVER camped.

Please pray for our team as we prepare and train for our 1 week trip. Please pray that the Lord is paving the way for us and putting protectors in place before we arrive. Please pray that God prepares each of our hearts to be ready to respond and fulfill great needs. Pray for Steve, Lauren, Avery and Samson, that they find peace in their own hearts over us going.

I am nervous about leaving the family for this length of time, especially Samson. Our attachment is going amazingly well. So, please pray that this time away does not cause a disruption with our attachment progress.

Back to School

The girls returned to school this morning. They were all excited but a little nervous. I was not looking forward to this day because it was so nice to have them home over the summer, so I'm a little sad right now.

At one time in my life, I thrived on routine. I craved routine when school started up each fall.

But now, I am not so thrilled about routine, school, school work, signing permission forms, correcting Math homework (especially not excited about this - Math has never been my strength=-), more events on the calendar, getting all the kids up each morning at the crack of dawn, the rat race of getting ready for the school day, driving them to school, dropping them off, returning home to gather something one of the girls forgot and delivering it to school, and all the other hassles that start with the school year.

No, I was not ready to be thrown into a routine but the start of the school year comes whether we like it or not. So, I learn to adjust to a new mindset and a new schedule. I'll survive but still, this is hard...

We've accomplished it!

Potty Trained!!

Distance does make the heart grow fonder

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to accompany my daughter Lauren on a youth group trip. I was away from home for three days, the longest I've ever been apart from Samson. I don't like being apart from my kids like this and I did worry what this would mean for my relationship with Samson.

I called home a couple time to check in and talked to Steve and each of the kids. Everything seemed to be going just fine. However, Steve did mention that Samson was a little out of sorts. I knew this trip would be hard on him but it was also very hard on mom to hear this and not be able to hold and comfort my little man.

When Lauren and I arrived home, the garage door was open and Samson was standing there in a full Barney costume, stuffed with pillows. When he saw me, he began to cry and tried walking toward me but stumbled and fell, rolling around in his costume.

I went right to him, picked up my wobbly, pillow filled Barney and just held him tight.

He continued to cry as we held each other as tight as we could manage until I could free him from his costume.

I kept asking him, "Did you miss mommy?"
No answer. But I told him how much I missed him and loved him.
Then I asked him, "Do you love mommy?"
No answer. Not even eye contact. But we continued to hold each other tight and his tears eventually turned into laughter. He was then happy but still no eye contact.

Later in the day, I asked him again, "Did you miss mommy?" Still no answer. Still no eye contact.

Then on Monday, after I was home for two days, unsolicited, he turned to me with his beautiful smile and said, "I love you Mommy! (long pause)...and I missed you!"

Man do I love this boy!!

Maybe you shouldn't let a three year old

   manage a kite on his own...

unless you want to watch the kite fly through the air when he decides he's tired of hanging onto it and lets go;

unless you want some exercise running after the kite's string as the wind lifts it higher and higher in the air;

unless you want to watch the kite go through an evergreen thinking for a second that there is hope of rescuing it;

unless you want to watch the kite be carried through the evergreen to the power lines;

unless you want to watch the kite string get caught in the power line while the kite continues to fly high;

No, it's probably not a good idea to let a three year old manage a kite...

unless you want your blood pressure to go up while watching the kite fly over a very busy road as the string is still attached to the power line, praying that the kite doesn't take a nose dive right into an on coming car or motorcyclist, causing an accident;

not unless you want to call the local power company and wait impatiently until they get to the scene;

not unless you want to watch nervously the employee from the power company be raised in the bucket to untangle the kite string from the power line and whip the string across the road hoping not to hit a car;

not unless you want to watch your husband dodge traffic to fetch the kite that landed on the roof of the assistant living place.

Luckily nobody got hurt and the kite seemed to have survived as well. But enough drama for one day!

117!!!

Yeah!!!

117 Drawn From Water T-shirts sold!!

We are blown away and very encouraged by this number!

If you haven't purchased yours yet, go to their STORE and purchase your very own. I have one in each color and they have become my "uniform" for the summer.

Not only do these T-shirts strike up conversations and help spread the word about this amazing organization but hey are light weight, great for the summer but also great for layering over a long sleeve shirt in the Fall and Winter seasons.

Oh, and I'll let you in on a little known secret:  a little bird shared with me that there is another item coming to the store soon for only a limited time!

More details to follow!! I'll share once I know all the details but what I know so far, I guarantee you will love it!