Birthdays!!!

Summer for us, is time for birthdays! Luke turned three a few weeks ago and has struggled to decide if he wants to be a big boy.  He often says he wants to be a baby and does not like being expected to grow up, although other days he wishes he could go to school this coming year with his brothers.  Keziah turned one year old  last week and thinks she is already three. Caleb and Eli will be five on Monday and the three of them shared a cake and a party yesterday.  For lunch we had the neighborhood kids into our compound for some american chicken nuggets and fries and in the evening we had a family over from church with two "big boys" (9 and 11), who they adore.  Keziah got her first bite of cake and Caleb and Eli got some new sports equipment and some legos so they were in heaven.

The big news this week is that Caleb and Eli start Kindergarten on Tuesday, after orientation Monday!  Full time. Yes I am going against most of the recommendations I have gotten and starting both boys five days a week, right after they turn five, in different classrooms all day without ever going to preschool!  We may do kindergarten twice but they are bright and excited to be around kids their own age and I think it will be a great way to form connections here with other English speaking families.  It will be a shock to all of our systems to have them gone all day, I am halving my kids in the house during the day!  I did not totally plan this, it is just what makes sense for our family right now.  It is a miracle we found a good international school they can attend, and they just seem ready in a way that I never felt they were ready for preschool.  The kindergartners have a whole corner of the school to themselves with three playgrounds, an art building and three huge kindergarten classrooms.  Each classroom has 16-17 students, a teacher, and a teacher's assistant.  Please pray for their teachers (Caleb has Miss Sara and Eli has Miss Vicky) and me as we transition to this new phase.  There will be so many new things they are exposed to this year, on top of moving to a new country two months ago.

The decision to send them this year also goes along with the theme that I feel God has been teaching me here so far, and was stated nicely by Sarah Young in the Jesus Calling book today...to trust God and stop trying to figure things out in order to gain a sense of mastery over my life.  I've had to trust that we will not have a major incident while Sean is out of the country and we know so few people, trust that the kids will be okay in a new environment at school, trust that we won't get malaria when I forgot to bring malaria medicine to the Lake outside of Addis, trust that God will show me what he has for me here, trust that He will continue to work things out moment by moment.  He has guided us each day to get us here over the past almost two years and since we've gotten here we've had everything we need.  Contentment is not based on what you have, it is based on trust because the Lord himself promises to continually grant us peace in every circumstance (2 Thessalonians 3:16).   So a new chapter begins next week with the start of school!

I also wanted to give you an update on Sean's work, the reason we are here with World Vision.  As most of you know, Sean is the Senior Director for World Vision's WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) program. God continues to be blessing this program, and more and more people seem to be joining the effort to bring clean water and sanitation to the poorest communities throughout the globe.  As usual Sean is right in the middle of this exciting work.  I am continually amazed watching the Lord work through Him, forming connections, inspiring leaders, and building a team of hundreds to allow this massive effort to take place.  Since Sean took the position three years ago, WV has increased their capacity 4-5 times to provide clean water in the developing world.  Now bringing clean water every 30 seconds to someone who did not have it before.  Its hard to get an exact figure from Sean, because he's always pushing to increase the numbers, but at the end of this five year campaign they will have raised at least 400 million dollars and reached 7 million people.  At the same time he seems to be able to manage close relationships with all of us and be a rock of stability when sometimes the rest of us are falling apart:)  He has started traveling again, but these trips are shorter and he is in the same time zone as the rest of us so that is very nice.  Please continue to pray for all of us to be safe and stay connected while he is gone. In past two weeks he has traveled to Malawi and Rwanda to meet with world presidents (current and former) and team members who are working so hard.   Please continue to pray for this effort to bring clean water to people, and that World Vision continues to be a light for the kingdom in all they do.  http://www.worldvision.org/our-work/clean-water/

Love

 I have the house to myself for a moment as all the children are sleeping. I just sent Mastwat home as she has finished all her work for the day and we are going out to a burger restaurant to celebrate the 4^th of July with an old friend of Sean's (from high school in Kenya) who is in town with his family tonight.  I attempted to take a shower just now but I couldn't get myself to step into the barely warm dribble of water coming down…so instead I have a moment to write, which I always love. 

A mentor of mine recommended Bob Goff’s book “Love Does” and I am enjoying it so much.  I just pick it up when I have time and the chapters are short and easy to read.   It is about embracing life, following the things God has made us to love and trusting God enough to follow those things through.  He says in his book a good father is like God who “gets down on both knees, leans over his children’s lives, and whispers, “where do you want to go?””  God loves us that much, that he plants desires in us, for his kingdom purposes, and says I’ll go with you, what do you want to do…If we listen and just respond to the needs around us there is so much to do!  I need to get better though at seeing the needs and listening to God’s voice about what to do in the moment.  I want to be less of a planner here in Africa, and more of a doer.  Less obligated and more alive to follow His kingdom purposes at any moment.

The boys have been playing outside our gate with the local children.  They beg me every afternoon, PLEASE Mommy can we go play with the big kids?  The kids that live in the small homes nearby often gather near our gate, and we come out with American sports toys; a football or baseball gloves, or the favorite a real soccer ball.  Sometimes one of the kids has a small ball to share too, usually a tightly stuffed plastic bag made into a ball. This, the new thing to my kids, is what my kids love to play with, and the other kids play with our things.  The local children are wonderful at including our little kids and really showing them some pretty amazing soccer moves and I hope exposing them to some Amharic.  The big kids love to laugh at my attempt to pronounce their names and giggle at the phrases they recognize in English.  I just smile as I watch them all play, and Caleb and Eli especially are in pure bliss getting to play with BIG KIDS.

We went over to the boys school today-Here are some photos with the tortoises that walk around their campusJ  

Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are his; we are his people the sheep of his pasture...For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100: 3, 5

On another note we have a huge praise.  Sean just came home with Luke's box that was lost!  Thank you so much for your prayers!!!  (I had totally given up the past few days!)

Getting settled

"Dad I like school, but sometimes it is hard because there are so many kids and they distract me from talking"  -Eli

"Mom at school they make me write my name and my name is longer than Eli's and it is not fair so I asked a teacher to help me and he would only help me for the first day.  The next day he wouldn't help me so I asked another teacher and she wrote it for me.  There are lots of teachers at camp".
-Caleb

I thought these quotes that the boys shared after their first week of summer camp at the international school, sum up their personalities pretty well.  Eli's worst punishment is to not talk and Caleb is in constant competition with everyone.  They have one more week of camp in the mornings which is nice as I get settled into our new home.  Luke is often enjoying playing outside in the mornings with the guard and the owner's worker Salam who has not yet moved out of the back of the house.  

There are students from 61 countries at the boys' school and we are close enough to walk from our house.  They love passing by chickens, donkeys and goats on the way.  There are fruit and vegetable stands and little stores that sell drinks along the way too so we pick those up on the way home if needed.  It will be easier once my double bob comes but from now I travel the same way as everyone else, Luke is making the walk and Kezie's on by back (the Ethiopians love my ergo, they say we got the idea of carrying babies on our backs from them).  

We have also hired a lovely lady, Mestewt to help us keep up our house, mostly doing dishes and laundry and cleaning the bathrooms.  I love her.  She is a wonderful Christian lady and works very hard.  She says we are an answer to her prayer and she is so happy that we know the Lord.  We also made an offer on a car and our things from Arlington are on the ship somewhere in the Atlantic so things continue to progress.  

Prayer requests: 

-Pray for friendships and that I don't get too isolated here without a car.  We can only afford one car here and Sean will need it to get to work.

-Everyone has been a bit sick, I think mostly just getting use to the new foods and bacteria but poor Mestewt  may have more laundry than she bargained for as the kids are having a hard time getting to the bathroom in time...

-Luke's things still haven't arrived. Trying to let this go but there are several things that make me a bit sick that we may have lost...Not just of Luke's but things that are in that box.

-Things take a lot longer, the electricity and water come and go, people say what you want to hear more than what is actually going to happen...pray for patience for us!

A little bit of Texas in Ethiopia (thanks Aunt Gail for the boots)! Kezie in our new house.

The boys helping staff at the hotel sweep up the grass

Week One in Addis Ababa

"I use to think I could shape the circumstances around me, but now I know that God uses circumstances to shape me" 

Bob Goff,  Love Does 2012

The past month has been filled with fun for us!  We left Seattle on May 17th and spent the next week with two of Sean's brother's families, and his parents on a white sand beach in Alabama.  Thanks to Kyle and Elyssa's planning, our family got a much needed break and vacation before we started our new life in Addis. Looking back this was SO wonderful because we got Sean all to ourselves without any distractions from work, or the time it takes to do the necessary tasks of moving internationally.  Also we really didn't think about all the stresses of moving, what to pack, what to bring, what to leave, etc.  All of this had been decided so we just got to play at the beach and the pool for a week and watch our kids enjoy their cousins.  We then spent a few more days at our friend's the Dixons in Atlanta who were nice enough to let us stay at their house.  They entertained our kids while we did last minute errands, as I remembered all the things I had forgotten.  There is always one more thing you can squeeze in your luggage when you are moving internationally and know that it will be a long time until you see a target or a safeway again!

Our 36 hour layover in Amsterdam

A week ago we arrived here, jet legged, tired and probably feeling a bit unsure of what we were getting ourselves into, we were greeted by World Vision staff who helped us collect our 11 of 14 bags that arrived.  Sean's diplomatic ID, allowed us to enter the country without even going through customs.  I was glad not to have to explain why I was bringing in 15 lbs of cheddar cheese:)  We were greeted by the warm smiles of the beautiful Ethiopian people and words of praise, recognizing God's faithfulness in getting us here safely.  I played redlight greenlight with the boys while Sean spoke to the airlines about our lost bags.  The boys were exhausted after not sleeping much the past three days.  We have since received two of the three bags back.  Luke's action packer has not arrived, with his favorite animals and toys, many that he's slept with since he was a baby. Also all his new toys from the birthday party we had for him before we left.  I am still praying it arrives as he is my one child who loves playing inside with his toys!

We are currently staying at a hotel where we eat most meals out as we do not have a kitchen.  There is only one twin bed but they all fight over who gets to sleep on the floor so they don't seem to mind:)  There is a ton of space for the kids to run and a playground for them to play  at outside though which is wonderful.  We haven't unpacked any toys except a football, but the kids are having just as much fun collecting rocks, bugs and pine cones, trying to catch butterflies and moths in their water bottles, and playing jump rope with vines. It has been very adequate but not something we would want to stay in for long so we knew we needed to either move into a place that had a kitchen or find a home very quickly.

Teaching Keziah the intricacies of outdoor play 

As typical of my husband he hit the ground running and with the help of the faithful World Vision staff he has already gotten his license and we have a temporary car to use from WV until we purchase one of our own.  He has gotten a new iPhone and I have 3G internet and a local number on my phone.  We loved the first house that we looked at and did not find the other 4 we looked at suitable at all for our needs so we jumped on the first house and we move in late next week!  Yesterday I went shopping for temporary basic furniture to use until our things arrive.  God is faithful and I am learning to trust him more each day.  The less I strive to control, it seems, the more peace I experience.  Things take longer than expected here and usually don't happen on the day we think they will, but we just have to trust they will happen, and eventually they do...

Caleb and Eli have noticed that there are not many people with peach skin here.  In fact the first thing Caleb (who is more sensitive to this subject) said when we arrived in Nairobi  was "Mom, that man has brown skin like me", I think he meant, all the people here have brown skin like me:)   I think they really like it, they seem somehow more confident already.  I like it too.  It feels like it is about time that they are not the only brown boys in the room.  Now Luke and Keziah are the only ones with white skin at church and most other places.  But they get lots of positive attention.  One man told me this week, "I am sorry for the stares of my children, we have never seen a baby with white skin before".

So we have a long way to go; A language to learn, relationships to build, staff to hire, learn from and love on, ministry opportunities to seek out.  But our adventure has begun well and it feels like the foundations are being set in place for us to settle here.

And We're Off!!!

Friday!  We leave Friday to begin the next chapter of adventures.  5 planes and two weeks later we expect to arrive in Addis Ababa.  We still don't know where we are going to stay when we arrive, a temporary residence somewhere, but I expect by July 6th we will move into a more permanent home in Addis and this will complete our 11th move by our 11th anniversary.  Whew, Sean warned me that MKs have a hard time staying in one place:)  Now we are raising our own MKs and they are already showing the signs of transition, some regression but amazing resilience as we are moving out of our home in Bonney Lake.

Unexpected Blessings-I had no idea how much I needed to be back "home" for these months.  As a Washington girl there was something God knew that I needed.  He blessed me with this time here.  I keep telling people "it is so EASY to be here".  Actually I say it in a dumbfounded way, like; I had no idea how easy it would be here! (Despite that it was an unexpected detour and we did not know how long it would last and we came here with only 3 suitcases for our family a year ago)...But I understand the culture without trying.  I can go to the store, or invite people over, or just be in my house without thinking much about it. When I am outside of my culture, so much more energy goes towards trying to figure out who I am, where I am going, how I am suppose to fit in... As an introvert meeting new people is like running a marathon inside and when I have to do that every day it is really hard.  DC was especially hard because I was pregnant for half of the time there, and trying to figure out the culture of motherhood at the same time.  Here I can stay in my house all day and the people I've known my whole life come to me.  I can breathe peaceful fresh air and see the mountains or the ocean without more than a stroll outside, I love it!

So WHY is God calling ME, a girl who spent her whole life until the age of 22, in Washington state, across the world?  It's easy to see why Sean is called there. He is good at it.  He is really good at meeting new people, and jumping right in to new cultures, and for goodness sake he is leading the World's largest water campaign ever attempted, to bring clean water to millions of people.  It's pretty clear why God wants him there.  He's amazing, God shines through him, and He LOVES his work.  He will always work hard and I am excited to see him working up close in a place HE loves.  I think living in Africa with Sean will let me see a whole new side of him and that is exciting in and of itself: - But me?

God also made me with the itch....Change is growth I use to say a lot in college. I studied psychology because I love figuring out people, and cultures is just another, bigger challenge. So once I started seeing new places, it was hard for me to stop.  In the 6 years before I met Sean I traveled on my own to Germany, Switzerland, France, Mexico twice, Puerto Rico, Honduras and then moved to Chicago for grad school.  So when Sean says; you want to move to Africa? Remember when we met and you said you wanted to live if Africa?  Do you think our kids would want to move to Africa? (he can be a little persistent, a bit like a wall you crash into every day) I say, right now? Where will I get the energy to figure out the culture AND raise kids?  But in the end I say yes because life is short and I want to do this too.  And I am excited.  AND mostly I have evidence that God is leading us there so clearly.  HE's got us and I can trust that it is the best place in the world for our family.

One more thing: Last month I went to a Christian Psychology conference and the theme was Cross Cultural Care and Counsel and several presenters basically suggested that one's culture, not an individual's own emotions, behaviors and cognition is at the center of understanding self.  Hmmm something to think about...Most people think of culture as an outside characteristic of who they are.  For example if you meet new people and ask them to tell you about themselves they might list of a whole gamut of characteristics, one of them being the culture they are from.  But what if it's more than our individual emotions, behaviors and cognition's, rather our culture, our worldview and ethos that we are in the midst of that determines who we are at the core...I am interested in this.  I want to think about it more and how western thought and culture is changing the world.  I am about to largely step out of this culture.  How will it change me?  How will my kids be affected?  How will Caleb and Eli feel knowing they look like the people around them, but inside they will feel American, not Ethiopian?  How will this affect the kingdom of God?  What is Christian culture, and what is following Christ?  I am leaving with more questions than answers on this journey, clinging more tightly to my savior than ever, and begging Him help me hold my children during this massive earthquake He called our family to, relocating to two of my son's beautiful birth land; the ancient land that is mentioned at least 45 times in the bible, where the queen of Sheba once reigned, Ethiopia.  .

Our next steps...

So a signing date is set...April 24th.  A moving week is set, May 26th...Yes it is not the first time for either of these dates but these are a bit more hopeful this time that this may all come together.  The office in Ethiopia has officially invited us to come in late May so once again we begin to pack our bags.

Crazy that this will be our third move in less than a year, and this one into a temporary guest home.  But how Great is God's faithfulness and I could not be more blessed.  The time in Washington has re-energized me and I continue to just want to absorb every minute around the comfort of friends and family.  When we moved back into our home in Bonney Lake (January) I had mixed feelings as we felt "ready to go" but God knew it was exactly what we needed to prepare for another long season away from our extended family and in a new culture and environment.  I'm so thankful the kids know their cousins and Grandparents so much better.  I'm so thankful for the small group of woman that I have had the privilege of meeting and praying and studying with these months, all of whom I have known for over 20 years.  I am thankful for the growth in my kids-I now only have one in diapers!!! A first ever since I've had kids:)  Keziah will be just old enough at 9 months to get her yellow fever vaccination in May and is through the early months of getting on a sleep schedule and routine.

Mostly though I am thankful for God's abundant Grace as my dependence on him has increased and I realize daily that it is He that supplies me with the strength at each moment to handle whatever happens.  It feels so much better to live the life we are living in this state of trust, than my other mode of control, over preparation and masking.  If I spend my energy on pleasing God rather than on trusting God I always loose and end up empty at the end of the day.  If I tell my children behave, try harder, you must obey we all end up spending our last dose of energy on being frustrated that we can't be better.  If I tell them though, that they are precious children of God, saints in God's kingdom and the light to the world-and sometimes their current behavior does not reflect that...then we seem to be able to get somewhere.  It's about God and what He has done for us...Not what we can offer Him.  I'm reading the gospels of John and Luke and  "The Cure" by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John S Lynch and this has been been an excellent reminder of God's Grace and our precious Lord's own humility and love for people.

My kids are up, this is another day, The Lord has made, let us Rejoice...


What a blessing this house and beautiful backyard has been during this season!