MUCH progress at Trees of Glory in Ethiopia!!

Jessica and Nick Irvin (who sponsor a child at Trees of Glory) just returned from Ethiopia and a visit to Trees of Glory care-point where we are serving 100 orphaned and destitute children by providing nutritious meals, clean water, medical care and a safe place to learn in a loving, Christian environment.  Nick had first visited Trees of Glory in September and he enthusiastically reports that there has been MUCH progress at TOG since his last visit!  (All photos provided by Jessica Irvin.)

The school and classrooms have been painted a bright green and the classrooms have chalk-boards and other basic supplies.  The playground has been expanded to include a swing-set and parallel bars in addition to the merry-go-round and slide that were already there.  A field adjacent to the playground has been cleared and goal-posts erected for a soccer field - for the TOG soccer team!

Our construction team built a kitchen when we were there in November - and that kitchen now includes a covered walk-way to the building next door which is being used as a cafeteria.

Livestock has been purchased (from the livestock fundraiser in December), and one of the cows was pregnant and has given birth to a calf.  The barn has also been completed - with a guard shack to protect the valuable cows from predators and theft.  A vegetable garden has been planted near the river, and another garden closer to the kitchen.  TOG is rapidly becoming more and more self-sufficient, and better able to care for and provide for the 100 children in their care.

Shown above:  the barn and guard shack. 

Shown above:  just behind the fence is the vegetable garden,
irrigated using water from the river.

One of the projects our team was involved with in November, was painting the interior rooms of the building that would soon become a dormitory for orphaned children - so they have a place to call home.  Our team also replaced broken windows and locks on the doors.  While Nick and Jessica were visiting, the staff showed them that this building has now been outfitted with bunk beds for the kids that live at the care-point full time.

Nick and Jessica delivered letters and photos to the children from their sponsor family!  Simret, the care-point director, is genuinely filled with joy for each child who hears from their sponsor family.  She knows how much it means to each child!  (If a child did not get a letter, Jessica had a small gift and bible verse for each child so that noone would feel left out.)

And Nick got to re-connect with the orphaned boy, Mitiku, who he first met in September.  Mitiku is now living at the care-point full time and is sponsored by Nick parents!!  (For the story about Nick and Mitiku, click HERE.)

For more updates from Jessica about their visit to Trees of Glory, please visit her blog at http://www.steadfastminds-ethiopia.blogspot.com/ or click HERE for her specific update on progress at the care-point.

It's tough to be a dad ...

Jay came in brushing the snow from his shoulders and stomping his feet to kick off the packed snow and ice from his boots.  Maea looked up from her cozy spot in front of the fireplace and offered this sage observation ...

"It's tough to be a dad," she observed.  She went on to explain ...

"You have to take care of monsters, bad guys, dead fish and snow."

They bowed their heads, and prayed for YOU!

As the sun sank low in the sky, the teachers and care-givers at Kind Hearts gathered the kids together in the schoolyard.  Moments before, the yard was full of children running and laughing, with an almost frenetic energy, like they were trying to squeeze out every ounce of fun & play possible in their last few minutes with us. 

Now - as they grouped together in a circle, 100 children fell eerily silent and hushed and still.  They knew that it was time to say good-bye. 

Tesfa, Children's Hopechest country director, asked if any of the kids wanted to say something.  I really wasn't expecting the kids to say much, let alone to stand up and share heart-felt, profound words ... but they did.

Three of the older children stood up front with Tesfa, and in soft-spoken Amharic, with Tesfa translating for them, they told us how much they loved us, and how thankful they are for their sponsor families.  They asked us "please don't forget us" and "please come back again!" 

My sponsor child, Mulunesh, was one of the children who stood up front, (she's on the far left, with her long braids freshly shaved, because of a lice outbreak at home) bravely speaking in front of her friends in her quiet voice.  She was so thankful and proud to have me and Emme there to spend time with her and her friends.

(On a side note:  The photo below has special meaning to me.  I was so busy with all of the kids and all of the coordination with the travel team and activities, but Mulunesh was always nearby, holding my hand or making sure she was in the group of kids I was working with.  And if she wasn't right next to me, she was always keeping me in her line of sight and making eye contact with me from afar.  I snapped this picture of the group of kids, and only later did I look back on this photo and see her eyes looking directly at me from the crowd of kids.)

Some of the kids settled on to an open lap (below, Michael Schaefer's sponsor child, Yikram, sat on his lap) while the rest of the kids gathered into a group.  Three of the oldest kids stood up front to say a few words and then Tesfa asked if any of the other kids wanted to add anything.  A few hands went up, and as Tesfa pointed to each child individually, they bravely stood and shared their hearts with us.

When all the words had been spoken and hearts had been shared, the kids bowed their heads together ... and they prayed.  They prayed for us, who were standing there with them and were about to fly back home to America, and they prayed for their sponsor families, who they know by name. 

This was one of those sacred moments and I quietly clicked my camera without even raising it to my eye - letting the lens auto-focus and hoping it would capture some of these precious moments when the kids prayed for their sponsor families.

ONE HUNDRED KIDS AT KIND HEARTS!!

Milestones should be made much of ... and we are now serving ONE HUNDRED children at Kind Hearts care-point in Ethiopia (through Children's Hopechest) -  and ALL of the kids are sponsored!!

The photos above were taken by Paul and Jenn Cooper when they visited Kind Hearts on January 11 to meet the children they sponsor.

100 children have come to know they can rely on nutritious food every day, loving attention and care from their teachers and care-givers, and a Christian education that will break the hold of poverty on their lives!  A team of 16 people from St. Joseph, MO will be travelling to Ethiopia in March and they will be delivering letters to the kids from their sponsor families!

There are 2 more children that will have their profiles done soon (and they already have sponsor families waiting for them!) which will bring us to 102 kids at Kind Hearts.

The final bidding process for the fresh-water well project is underway right now, and as soon as the licenses and government permits are in place, we will be breaking ground!  All of the funds for the well have been raised by St. Jo Christian School (SJCS) in St Joseph, MO who will have a team on the ground in March!!


Trees of Glory care-point is now serving 99 children and every child is sponsored!!  Nick and Jessica Irvin just returned from Ethiopia and they delivered letters to the children from their sponsor families.

Snowy Respite ...

If you've heard crickets from this blog lately, it's because we've been battling the flu (not the stomach variety - but the fever, head-ache, body-ache, coughing, congestion, can't get off the couch for 3-4 days straight variety of influenza).  Jayden and I are the only ones to have not succumbed to it ... so far.

It started last Friday when Jay came down with it, spending all day Saturday in a haze of pain and throbbing head-ache.  By Monday, Emme had it and missed 3 days of school.  By Wednesday, just as Emme was recovering, Wesley started coughing, two rivers flowing from his nose, and his eyes had that feverish stare.  Thursday night, Maea came down with it and as of last night, she has started moving again.

On Saturday night, as we ate dinner, Wesley started coughing (hard enough to gag) and he threw up his dinner right into his bowl.  Everyone immediately cleared the table - I've never seen them all move so fast.  It was like a bomb went off on the table and they all dove for cover.  And there sat me and Wesley - him looking at me with wide eyes and wondering where THAT had come from?!?!?!?  I looked at Jay and said, "WHEN DOES IT END?!?!?!?"

Evidently ... after 9 days of somebody being sick, it ended last night. :)  It seems that everyone is on the road to a full recovery.

Late last night, as the snow continued to fall and the wind picked up speed, whipping the flakes into dangerous drifts and white-outs, school (for Jay) and work (for me) were cancelled.  The kids already had a day off for President's Day - but for Jay and me, it came as a surprise. 

A snow day?  That's a first for me ... in the 7 years that I have worked for Dura Supreme (cabinetry), I can't remember a snow day.  It's pretty rare in Minnesota where it snows 8 months out of the year :)

 

Why did you let me? Why didn't you stop me?!

Once upon a time there was a girl, ...

a girl who dressed like a boy.

No pink, no ruffles, no necklaces and no silly nail polish.

Her mom tried to slip in a "girl" item here and there .. but to no avail.

The "girl" clothes were always discovered ... and the "offensive item" was rejected and returned.

And then ... something changed,

and the little girl who dressed like a boy,

started to dress and act ... like a girl.

And now she looks back at pictures of herself, and she says to me with a little pleading in her voice ... "Mom, WHY did you let me dress that way?!?!"

And I explain ... "Despite everything I said and did, Emme, you insisted on dressing that way.  You insisted that you knew what was best and you did it your way, even though I explained to you that there may be a different and better way.  It wasn't harmful in any way, so I went along with it.  A little girl, dressing like a boy, is not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all.  Believe me, when it really matters, I won't give in." 

"But mom", she pleads, her voice rising now, as she presses an old photo face down into the table, "I didn't know any better and you did, so you should have made me."

And it is at this point that I smile inside,

but I keep a very serious look on my face as I say to her ...

"You are so right Emme.  You're able to look back at that time now, and realize that you did not know best.  So let's keep that in mind when there are times when you demand to do it one way and I demand to do it another.  Maybe ... just maybe you'll look back on those times with the clarity of hindsight and realize that it saved you from asking ..."Why did you let me?  Why didn't you stop me?!?!"

There are times when this little analogy has come in very handy.  I may take a stand on a certain situation with her - and then the old bag of tricks comes out and she throws them all at me at once, with yelling and tears and temporary fury ... "but all my friends are doing it!  their parents let them do it!  you're too strict!  I wish I had different parents!  I hate this family!"

Sometimes I get angry and I meet her fire with fire of my own. 

But we always end up looking back at the time when a little girl insisted on dressing like a little boy ... and the little girl later admitted that her mom knew best.  That comes in handy right now as she traverses the tightrope of the teen years.

Happy 14th Birthday to our beautiful, head-strong, first-born daughter!  We promise to hold that tight-rope as steady as possible and never, never let go. :)

When I was shopping for Emme's birthday, I picked a beautiful, PINK sweater for her, and Maea looked at me like I was crazy and said... "It's PINK mom!  She won't wear that!"  And I smiled my knowing smile at Maea and I said, "I think she'll love it."  About 2 days before her birthday, Emme said to me ... "Mom, don't get me anything that's navy blue or gray, I want something colorful and fun!"

"What do YOU think is colorful and fun," I asked, "your definition and mine have been different in the past.  Are you thinking bright green, or yellow or orange?"

And she smiled a little sheepishly and said, "maybe even pink."

"Hmmmmm", I said, "I didn't even consider pink" as I winked at Maea.

Not so picture perfect ...

The temperature finally clawed its way above the zero mark, and we with cabin fever spent some time outside ... me with finger poised over the shutter. :)  The snow is REALLY deep and I stepped off the plowed path to take this picture and sunk to my hip in the snow.  I got the shot - and the kids thought it was funny.

I know they LOOK picture perfect ... :)  but I don't post all the eye rolls or the frowns or the yelling, "HURRY UP AND TAKE THE PICTURE!"

- or Emme stomping off down the path because she's just plain DONE!  (The joys of a dramatic teen-ager.  Everything is a crisis - ALL. THE. TIME.)

I'm not making light of it.  I think I can vaguely remember when EVERYTHING was a crisis.  ALL. THE. TIME.  But that was a long time ago and I'm sure my parents don't even remember. :)

So here's one of the photos between the "picture perfect" shots.  After I take a test shot -  I check the lighting and sometimes I zoom in on the faces to see if they are crisp and in focus.  "Oops, Wesley," I said, "I think you have some food stuck in your teeth."  The older kids, wanting to get the photo session over as quickly as possible, "helped" him clean his teeth so we could resume. :)