At a Loss for Words

Our Team

One of the infant rooms at Hannah's Hope

Girl's room at Hannah's Hope

Boy's room at Hannah's Hope

Lisa painting at Hannah's Hope

View from second story of Hannah's Hope

Hannah's Hope child - we did a craft
relating to Daniel and the lion's den
(and I can't show you his sweet face!)

The market

Children living across from our hotel

New Bethzatha orphanage

Mural we painted at Bethzatha orphanage

Several of our team feverishly painting

Another beautiful mural at Bethzatha orphanage

Traditional Ethiopian dinner

Our hotel - pretty nice

View from my hotel room

Women sitting on the street -
not sure why they are there?

Common street scene

Homes

Boys at detention center

Beautiful girl at detention center

Boy at detention center -
definitely needing new clothes

Girls at detention center dancing for us

Bedroom at detention center

Bath/Shower room at detention center

Kitchen at detention center

Trying on his new shoes -
now he needs new pants

So, I guess I've got some explaining to do. After going on and on about how excited I was to travel to Ethiopia and how I promised to tell you all about it, you get - NOTHING. And to be honest, my decision to stay silent about my trip has been quite intentional. You see, I just don't know where to start. I've sat down several times over the last 6 days, looked over my pictures and even logged into my blog. But nothing has come to me. This is an entirely new predicament for someone who is rarely at a loss for words, but it's the truth. I think my experience in Ethiopia was just too immense... too monumental for me to put into words.

I'm not a particularly emotional person. Although most of my teammates broke down at least once or twice during our trip, I didn't shed a tear. I did, however, work at taking the whole experience in so that I would never forget one moment. The poverty in Ethiopia is immeasurable. I just can not explain (in even a minute way) how desperate the country's situation is. Because of this, I was prepared to serve orphans in unspeakably deplorable conditions. What I found were children who were well fed, well clothed, and quite remarkable. Many of the orphans spoke both Ethiopian and English (and several spoke a third language also.) They were smart, loving and happy children. At Kai's orphanage in China, the babies did not cry. From what I've read, infants lose their instinct to cry when crying doesn't get the expected results. For example, if your diaper is changed on a strict schedule instead of when you're dirty, you stop crying to get your diaper changed (it doesn't work so why do it?) I was pleasantly surprised to see that the babies in the orphanages we visited in Ethiopia cried. I could truly tell that the nannies wanted to take care of the babies, even if the ratios were not always in their favor.

We spent time working at two orphanages in Addis - Hannah's Hope and Bethzatha. Hannah's Hope is a transition home run by All God's Children (the organization who arranged our trip.) Most of the children at Hannah's Hope have already been matched with a family in the U.S. and have come to live there from a state-run orphanage. Hannah's Hope is a beautiful, miraculous place. My guess is that families traveling to meet their little one's there have no idea how lovingly their children are being cared for.

Bethzatha is a state-run orphanage led by a Christian man named Samuel. Samuel was incredibly grateful that we had come to work there. The only time I "almost" cried in Ethiopia was when Samuel thanked our team and we had to say goodbye. There was so much more work we could have done if we had only had more time. It was obvious that Bethzatha does not have the funds that Hannah's Hope does. But with little support and far less staff, the orphanage was doing a really great job with the kids. I actually fell in love with a 9 year old little girl who had only been at Bethzatha for 2 days. She was scared and in isolation (as all new children to the orphanage are) but she and I really hit it off. Over the course of 2 or 3 days, our team painted approximately 15 rooms at Bethzatha.

Unfortunately, Ethiopia has very strict guidelines against publicly sharing pictures of their orphans. I truly have some breath-taking photos of the kids, but I can't post them on my blog. What I can show you, is pictures from a children's detention center that we visited twice. We brought the detention center 100 new blankets, several new soccer and basketballs, new soccer goals, and fitted most of the kids with new shoes. In contrast to the orphanages we visited, the conditions at the detention center were appalling. I guess juvenile delinquents fall pretty low in the pecking order when there's so little money to go around.

Overall, this trip left me hungry to serve again. It doesn't really matter where - Africa, Asia, Central America - where ever there is a need. On my next trip, I would love to bring David or J.D. There were so many times in Ethiopia that I wish they had been with me. Piper truly has the heart of an angel, but I think she lacks the maturity to serve in a developing country (at least right now.) Of course, I'm not planning to jet off anytime soon. With four kids who need their mommy at home, it'll definitely be some time before we prepare for our next endeavor.

Safe Travels

I'm sitting in the airport in Addis Ababa about to leave Ethiopia. This is only the second time during my trip that I've had access to a computer so I wanted to say hello. I just saw that David posted to my blog earlier this week (thank you Honey!) I had no idea that he was going to do that, and if I had known, I would have tried to make my description of this amazing country a little less juvenile. The work my team has done this week has been incredible - not that we're particularly incredible people, but God had truly worked through us to bless many orphans (not to mention that we were also amazingly blessed in the process.)

My $5 time limit in the airport internet cafe is up. Wish me safe travels and I'll update soon.

***I wrote the post above about 14 hours ago (if my calculations are correct.) Speedy internet connections are definitely lacking in Ethiopia and I couldn't publish what I wrote. So here I am in Amsterdam, a day later - still traveling, in what seems to be the most expensive airport in the world. I just paid $13 for a McDonald's cheeseburger meal. I think I pay $2.99 for the same thing at home. Note to future travelers: the US dollar does not hold up well against the Euro. I really wanted to buy the kids some European chocolate bars but I didn't think it was worth taking out a second mortgage on the house. I truly can not wait to get home. Every time I close my eyes I dream of kissing my husband, hugging my kids and sleeping in my cozy bed. Thank God I've only got 13 more hours to go!

Update on Heather

Hi All! I wanted to give you an update on Heather's trip to Ethiopia. I received an e-mail from her this morning and she arrived safe and sound in Addis Ababa late last night. Here are some excerpts from her e-mail:

"I got to the hotel about 11:00pm last night after several uneventful flights. My roommate, Shannon is super-sweet and our room is as nice as can be expected. We went to "You Go City Church" this morning. The music was awesome (they had a full band and around 25 singers.) The only problem was that the service lasted over 3 hours and it was completely in Amharic. I will never complain about long church services again!"

"The people of Ethiopia are gorgeous. They are very slim, have great facial features, and are happy to see us here. The city is extremely poor. It kind of reminds me of the buildings we see on CNN about Pakistan or Iraq. It looks as though a bomb has hit and rubble is everywhere. Last night we saw people sitting around fires on the rubble. It was sad. "

"We get to meet the kids tomorrow and I can't wait. We are building a soccer field, basketball court, painting 10 rooms and we have brought somewhere around 200 pairs of shoes, formula, diapers and other supplies."

There is more in the e-mail, but most of it is just too steamy to post on this blog. It's not that kind of web site.

But I did want y'all to know that she is doing well and trying to keep in touch as much as possible!

- Dave

60 Hours

A flyer from Hannah's Hope -
One of the orphanages I will be working with

"I'm leaving on a jet plane.
Don't know when I'll get back again.
Oh baby, I hate to go."

Quick, who am I quoting? Yeah of course, it's the unforgettable John Denver. I just can't get this song out of my head. I guess it's because I AM leaving on a jet plane very, very soon. Like in 60 hours! And in case you were wondering, I do have a excellent excuse for not blogging lately. The group I am going to Ethiopia with, All God's Children, has encouraged me to journal my thoughts, feelings, and prayers for the trip on real paper! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Paper. It's often white in color and always flat. You know, like a pancake. You can write on it but unfortunately, there's no automatic spell check. It's really a quite amazing little invention. Maybe it'll catch on one day and make someone a load of money.

So I've been writing and praying about the next two weeks and hope that you will join me. If you are so inclined, I would love for you to pray for me and my team and for the countless orphaned children in the world. Specifically, I need prayers for safety, health, a servant's heart, and my family back home. I don't think I'll have access to a computer in Ethiopia, but there's no doubt I'll fill you in as soon as I get home. Bon Voyage!

We Are Just So Classy

Today in Alabama the kids were out of school for MLK Jr. Day.... and Robert E. Lee's Birthday. I kid you not. What decade is this? Can the south still not give Martin Luther King his due? I mean, truly, this is embarrassing.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled story. I took all 4 kiddos out to get a birthday present for one of Piper's friends. I don't particularly love toy stores, and I absolutely detest them when Kai and Ash are with me. There was grabbing and snatching and an endless onslaught of "I want this.. I want that." I tried to get the kids out of the store about 5 times before we finally made it to the front door. Once outside, we made a huddle to decide (aka. vote on) where we were going to have lunch.

JD: I want Chinese.

Piper: No way, I want Subway.

JD: But we had Subway this weekend!

Ash: I want whatever Piper wants.

Me: Thank you, Ash, for being cooperative.

JD: There's a Chinese restaurant right over there.

Piper: What's that noise?

JD: Mom, look over there!

Me: (mumbling under breath) #*(#!$&($#!*&^!

Yes, my blogger-mommy friends, I had left Kai inside the toy store. Since this was a small, mom and pop store instead of a giant box store, Kai had noticed that we were gone and made his way to the front door (where he could see the rest us discussing our lunch plans.) Unfortunately, little Kai was either too short or too weak to open the door. So instead of quietly walking outside, Kai ended up beating on the glass door until we noticed him. I'm sure this little incident will put me in the running for Mom of the Year. What do you think? Have you ever done anything nearly this awful?

But I digress... After catching my breath and giving Kai a huge hug, we walked over to the Chinese restaurant. We eat Chinese all the time, but this is a new restaurant for us. Needless to say, Wan's was a really bad choice. The restaurant was pretty busy but completely silent (or at least it was until we walked in.) You honestly could have heard a cricket chirp in there. This meant that you could hear every. single. word that Kai and Ash said (they have yet to learn about "inside voices".) Ash said "I want noodles" about every 10 seconds until the food came - which was a good 15 minutes. Kai said "I don't want Pizza" about 30 times until JD and I convinced him that there was no Pizza on the menu. To make our lunch even more interesting, the owner of the restaurant, who speaks very little English, was either enamored with or confused about the little boys. She truthfully stood directly beside our table for over half of our meal. It was totally creepy. She did ask once if all the kids were mine and then wanted to know if Kai and Ash were Chinese. Other than that, she just stood over us, watching, and smiling every so often. If I had a rude bone in my body, I would have said something to her. But, I honestly didn't know what to say and my momma taught me not to say anything if you can't say something nice. Thanks mom. We topped off our meal with Ash yelling at me from across the restaurant (I was paying the bill while he was still at our table.) Of course, in line with the rest of my day, Ash just had to scream, "Momma, I gotta go pee-pee!" We are so classy I can't get over it.

No One Gets Left Behind

Never leave your brother, or your underwear, behind.

We took the kids out to dinner last night to a crowed restaurant. Before we had even ordered our drinks, Ash exclaimed that he had "an accident in my pants." Oh, goody. Since Dave was exhausted from a night of very little sleep and a terrible day at work, I took the little guy to the bathroom. It didn't take long to discover that Ash's underpants were not salvageable. I threw them away and by the grace of God, found one ancient Pull-Up in my purse. We headed back to the table, scrubbed clean, and resumed our dinner out. About an hour later, as were we grabbing our coats and leaving, Ash realized that he was missing something very important. He blurted out, "Daddy, where's my underwear?" Dave, naively assuming that Ash would hush if he ignored him, did not respond. So Ash asked louder, "Where IS my UNDERWEAR?" I believe Dave grabbed Ash and carted him outside somewhere between the third and forth time he asked the question. As we were walking out to the car, we all lost it - with deep, snort-inducing laughter.

I guess a boy's underwear is kind of like a good buddy. You don't leave either behind.

Catching Up

Getting ready for Christmas Eve service

Ash favorite toy - plastic violin

JD's favorite - his 1st cell phone

Piper's favorite - DSi

Kai's Favorite - cheap remote control car

Another favorite - dress up's

It's officially been a long time since I've sat down and visited my blog. No, nothing's wrong. Quite the opposite, actually. David has only been away from home 2 nights over the last month. J.D. and Piper both got straight "A's" on the their report cards. Kai is continuing to be our little angel and it even appears that he may be ready for kindergarten in the fall (which was truly doubtful just a few months ago!) Ash, although still a handful, is melting our hearts more every day. His verbal skills are really impressive, especially if you take into account that as of tomorrow, he has been home exactly 6 months.

Christmas was fabulous. I can't explain how wonderful it felt to be with my entire family, staying up late, eating junk food, and playing games. It's as close to heaven as it gets.

The favorite gifts this year were as follows:

JD - his first cell phone (his quote after opening it - "Finally, I won't be the laughing stock of middle school.")

Piper - Nintendo DSi

Kai - Policeman dress up costume and remote control car

Ash - Knight dress up costume and violin

And I can't close this post without saying a big ROLL TIDE! Alabama won the National Championship this week and we've been on cloud 9 ever since. David and I were offered free tickets and lodging to the game but with airfare running around $700 (per ticket) we decided to stay home and watch the Tide on tv. It was an amazing night that we'll never forget.