Here is a quick recap of what we have been up to the past couple of weeks:

 

Brian is the campus pastor at our kid's school here in Moshi. This is Brian teaching chapel on Friday last week.

 

 

We had one of Kayden's best friends from school come stay with us Easter weekend. We had so much fun with him and were so sad when it was time for him to leave. It was so funny watching him observe things while he was with us. He kept asking me what lots of things were, for instance he brought me a package of Kleenex and when I showed him what they were for he laughed and laughed. Luka has had an extremely hard life, and yet he is one of the sweetest, most obedient, kindest little boys I have ever met. He thought dying Easter eggs was pretty great too! :)

 

 

On Easter Sunday we had a wonderful service at a church in our town here and the kids did a program that consisted of them singing songs and reciting verses they have memorized. It was so sweet!

 

 

 

 

Lots and lots of work being done getting our house move in ready!

 

 

 

Brian taught some of the youth a human drama that will be performing in school and churches starting this week. They are doing a great job, and the drama is very powerful!

 

 

Brian has preached in three different churches the past four weeks. Just this morning we went up into the mountains so he could preach. The drive up there was actually one of the scariest moments of my life. It is pretty steep in some places and it had rained the night before, so the mud was very slick. We kept sliding backwards and I kept thinking we were just going to roll right down the mountain. It didn't help that we had nine grown adults and six children all squeezed into our car. We were full to the max. Thankfully we made it though, and had a great service with our brothers and sisters in Christ

 

I do not have any pictures of us going to the orphanage we went to this weekend, but that is by far one of my favorite things about being here. I love being able to love on these children who have no parents, and pray over them, that they would feel their Heavenly Father's extreme love for them. I truly consider it such an honor.

 

We are getting ready to head up to our language school two weeks from today. We are very excited for the help with the Swahili and have heard great things about our school. We will travel about an hour to get to it and it just so happens within the three weeks we will be there Brian, Kayden, Emmersyn, and Sophee will all have their Birthdays! So we will have lots to celebrate while we are there! We plan on staying there the entire three weeks and will live on the school grounds.

 

So there is a little bit of an update on lives lately. Along with all of that we are still adjusting to life here in Moshi, and just every day life of being of family of six, with four small children. We LOVE it here, and feel so honored that this is what we get to do with our lives. Thank you all so much your support!

I woke up this morning so excited. We were taking all four kids and going with our friend and her daughter to our first orphanage since being here. One of my very top excitements about coming to Africa was to have the honor of loving on sweet orphans here. One of my dreams for our future would be to have our own baby/children's home, but I am getting ahead of myself now. :) So we woke up today, had breakfast, everyone showered, and headed off to the orphanage. The one we went to today is actually just up the road from where our new house is located. We were all really excited as we pulled in and we explained to the kids what we thought would be happening and to prepare them, as they have never been anywhere like this before. As we walk in and are being shown around my heart starts to melt already. We walk into one room and there are about eight one year olds all in a row in highchairs getting fed at the same time. I wish so badly that I could have taken pictures, but out of respect with it being our first time there we didn't. Then we got the tour of the rooms, kitchen area, and play area. The line of boys came out of their room and they all started running straight towards me, so I bent down on my knees and they ran right into my arms. It was the sweetest thing. Then they got taken to the big play area. Then it was the line of girls with the same thing happening. They see me and start running for a hug. I am a complete puddle of mush by this point. We go with the girls to play with all the kids in the play area. It was a complete mob. I wasn't really prepared for it. I was holding two kids and had about four at my feet crying because they wanted to be picked up. It is heartbreaking as you see that all they want is love and to be held. As soon as you pick them up they stop crying and start smiling and laughing or snuggle right in. I notice that many of them have wet shorts {with urine} but there is no way I can put them down and stop loving on them. I remember reading Heidi Baker's book and reading about her holding the kids with lice, scabies, urine soaked, and wondering if I would be able to do that. Well, in the moment it didn't even cross my mind that I was now covered in urine. They were just precious little kids that needed love, cuddles, and snuggles. Kayden was thrilled beyond what I could have imagined! He kept saying Mom this is so amazing! Can we take all of them home? Mom I love them all so much! Our girls though were very overwhelmed. The kids kept touching them, trying to lift up their shirts, pinching them trying to get their attention, and the girls didn't understand. So we decided it would be time to go, we knew it wasn't fair to our girls as they just couldn't understand and were so overwhelmed. So we all left, and the screaming and crying began. It was more than I could take. I just broke down and started crying. Seeing all these precious kids younger than most of my kids, screaming and crying because you were leaving and they just wanted love from you was so hard.
My friend that we went with and I plan on going back every Saturday we can, without children, to love and spend time with the kids. Brian and I got the head of the orphanage's phone number and are going to be calling her this week to get the information we need to set things up so we can start fostering some of these children if possible. It is a home for children under the age of five, so once these precious kids hit age five they have to go somewhere else, and they have a hard time finding places. Brian and I are very excited about dreams we both are starting to have for our future here, involving many children. It will be so exciting to see over time how God will allow us to pour into these kids lives.
I have so much to blog about and will be playing catch up this week. The internet has been very unreliable lately so I am hoping this week it will be good and I can update everyone on what we have been doing! We love you all so very much!