How did this Happen??

Blog Post About Summer 2020

And the day arrives that you never thought possible...

Your firstborn is leaving home for college, and all she are taking is what you gave them for the first 18 years of her life. 

What?!?

August 28, 2020

Compared to what I took to college, she really didn't have that much stuff. 

One day after we left the house, my friend Leah sent this picture of our picture from 2007 that she found. 

It twas perfect timing as I was saying goodbye, and I was so appreciative because all of my children's baby pictures are in boxes, waiting for the day we set up house in America.

2007

We took the long, slow way to Nashville so we could see people along the way.

First stop: Waco

We took the grandparents to eat Middle Eastern food.

August 28, 2020

Then we headed to Dallas where we stayed with some friends who were like grandparents to my children while we lived in Africa. Jan and Lynn are like family. We took vacations together, went on safaris together, and spent many nights eating popcorn and playing Uno.

August 29, 2020

Then next morning, early, we went to get Kylie's car inspected, and then headed towards Arkansas.

We met a family for lunch near Hot Springs, and pretty quickly a storm rolled in.

We were also meeting a family from Jonesboro for dinner, but knew we couldn't make it there and get to Memphis (where we were spending the night) in a decent amount of time, so thankfully, this sweet family agreed to meet us in Memphis for dinner.

I can't tell you how glad I am that they made time for us and that it worked out for us to see the Rainwaters on this trip! We met them in Africa, too, and they are always such great encouragers.

On October 17th, a month and a half after this picture was taken, Greg went to sleep, and he didn't wake up. He was loved by so many and changed a lot of people's lives for the better.  What a privilege it was to know him!

Memphis: August 29, 2020

His and Tammy's beautiful daughter started college just last month (August 2021), and she and her mother have been amazing testimonies of what a life hidden in Christ can be.

Needless to say, we got to our friends' house in Memphis a little late, so we didn't meet their kids until the next morning.

Jessica is a friend from our days in Mississippi, and she and her husband let us stay a couple of days while we saw some other people in Memphis, Caleb and Karis did some online school, and before we made the drive to Nashville.

This is one of her daughters greeting Doug the next morning

August 30, 2020

And getting all the scoop from Caleb while he ate his breakfast.

Her older daughter teamed up with Keira for a reading session in a fun tent.

 

 We are so blessed to know so many people from so many places! They make life a lot more fun!

We found it, Now let's Move!

There were no commercial flights arriving or departing from our country, but occasionally a charter flight would come available. When one did, Doug booked Karis, Keira, and me on it. We were going to leave June 21, 2020, so we could get Karis back in time to quarantine for two weeks before she went to ballet camp. And since the chartered flights were more expensive, only half of us flew, while Doug waited to see if the airport would open up and he could get something cheaper for the rest of them.

Two days before we left, on June 19, 2020, we found a rental that fit what we needed!

 

Perfect timing, too, because on June 20, 2020, Doug had already hired movers to come and get our belongings to take to storage.

We still went with this plan because we knew the new rental would need to be cleaned before we moved into it, and since we were going to be in America for about 6 months, we didn't want to clean it and have it sit and collect dust while we were gone.

You've heard the term, "It takes a village?"

Well, we took the village and we used them.

A friend who had been stuck in our country for quite a few months because of Covid offered to be at our house while the movers wrapped and packed everything into the truck.

Then I was on the other end of the truck, at the storage house. 

I showed the men the three rooms we were allowed to move into, and I made sure they stacked things well.

So instead of a stacking job looking like this, I would kindly ask someone to make it look like

this.  And so on.

Then, another friend was with me to translate. The movers spoke a language that I do not know.

In the meantime, our first friend stayed at the original house for most of the day while the truck went back and forth.

During all of this, Doug was at the police station in our new neighborhood, registering us to live there. There was a lot of waiting around and moving to different buildings for different pieces of paper. It was almost 4 hours before he ever made it to the storage house.

And our children had taken our need-to-live items (including all of the suitcases that would be going to America) and moved us into a guest house for the time being.

Then, at the end of the day, I took the girls back to the house we were leaving and let them take pictures in their old bedroom they had shared.

Ahhh...now to get all the luggage weight right so we some of us can get on the plane tomorrow.

Things I See (Vol 5)

Welcome to "Things I See."  If you want to see the previous four installments, you can click on Volume 1 , Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4

A man from College Station blessed me with two gifts, and he didn't even know it.

He sent a box of goodies for our family, and he wrapped them in newspaper that had crossword puzzles from "The Eagle" newspaper.  I've already cut them out, so all I have to do is flatten them out.  

I like Crossword Puzzles.

Keira is learning how to write her letters.

You never know what combination might come up.

My girls get a lot of attention when they are dressed like ballerinas.

It's like being a politician.  People just give you a baby when they want to take a picture of you.

I was laughing so hard, I almost didn't get the picture taken.

Karis didn't know what to do.

Normal Thursday night in our city (last day of the work week).  

No seat belts.  

Kids in the driver's lap. 

Kids hanging out of windows.  

Kids cruising while standing in the sunroof.

It's very important to keep your car protected from the elements.
Why bother peeling off the plastic covering?

This is where we get our passport photos done.  

The door says, "The room of taking pictures."

Older men like to find shade in the summer and sun in the winter.
They will sit and talk for hours and hours.

Wouldn't you like to be a fly nearby?

No hovering...anywhere

I have yet to see a mother in Africa hovering over her children. There probably are some, but I haven't seen them.

I talked to a woman the other day and when I asked her about the ages of her children at home, she said that they were 2 and 3.

I said, "Who stays with them?"

She said, "Oh, they are old enough to manage."

What??

I'm hoping they manage with other siblings or cousins.

That tends to be the model around here. If a girl is 4 1/2 or 5, they are old enough to start caring for younger children.

I watch a mother every Sunday leave her 5 month old with a young girl. This week, the girl looked to be about 6. The baby was naked and wrapped in a beach towel on the young girl's back.

The mother went off to get water at the bore hole. When the young girl wanted to climb a tree with the rest of the kids, another girl, who looked a bit younger, took the infant.

Think about how we operate in America with our newborn babies. We spend so much time with them, we know their habits and their cries. This newborn boy is with a different girl every time I see him. They don't know his cries and habits.

Maybe this is why African children are so tough. They grow up without this constant care from one person, and they learn to adapt and not be so whiny, like some of us probably were as children. But please know that I am aware that some mothers do spend more time with their children. This was just the instance I saw today.

At the church service (this was at the ORA base - where some orphans and foster children come to church) we attended this last Sunday, I watched this one boy for about 30 minutes do things that would have had any mother hovering, but there was no one around to take care of him.

He entered church after having peed in his pink shorts, and it was still running down his leg.

He went and sat on a drum that one of the boys was beating, getting the drum a little wet.

Then, he wanted to hold the Bible story book, and he set the spine of the book right onto his wet shorts. When the Bible study teacher took it from him, she didn't even seem to care or notice that it was a bit damp.

When we went outside to play afterward, I saw him standing with his shorts pulled down just enough to let his private parts hang out, and he was peeing down the front of his shorts...again, and down his leg, with his hand getting terribly wet.

THEN, he went and picked up a small mango off the ground to eat. He picked it up with the dry hand, but then it slipped to the ground, and he grabbed it a second time with his wet hand, and he bit into the mango.

THEN, with part of the mango innards exposed, he thought of a better idea. He would take it with him while he played.

He pried open his small, wet pocket on these little-girl shorts and stuffed it in before he ran off to swing and play in the dirt.

I'm sure you can figure I was cringing, but I was also sad.

There was no one to change his shorts.
There was no one to wash his hands.
There was no one to clean off his mango.
There was no one to teach him about the sanitary way to take care of food.

Sadly, all I did was tell him in Lugbara (as I saw the urine running down his hand, shorts, and leg), "You need to wash your hands." The water tank is dry because it is dry season, so I didn't even know where to tell him to go to wash his hands. I guess I was hoping he knew.

My children and your children are blessed to have parents who take the time to raise them not only in the admonition of the Lord, but also in the healthier ways of the world.

We Americans could probably hover a little less and teach a little more independence to our children, but I know if we are over-doing it, it's because we love them and worry about them.

A lesson for us all is that we should trust the Lord to take care of our children. That's what I'm praying for that boy I saw today.