Simply Love

I have been back in Indiana for a little over a week now after being in Uganda and Kenya for 2 weeks. By my other post you can see that this was my second trip to Africa. This one was such an amazing trip and is till hard to put into word what I experienced and how I feel. It has been a hard adjustment for me to come back. My life in Indiana is well I guess you could say crazy and busy, but I love it. Between teaching preschool 3 days a week in the mornings and nannying for 2 families and helping out a 3rd occasionally my life gets pretty busy. But I simply love the children that I have filled my life with everyday and enjoy getting to watch them grow.

On another note I have also fallen in love with many children in Africa that I have gotten close to over my past two trips. People ask if I will move there or go back again. The truth is I truly do not know what God has in store for my future and that is one thing I have struggled with is not knowing what I will be doing for the next few years. But this past year and more so while I was in Africa I have worked on completely handing over " my" plans for my life to God. I do not know where I'll be or what I will be doing in the years to come...will I be teaching in a preschool? Will I be a nanny still? Will I be married? Will I be starting a family? Will I be living in a different country or in a different state? Will I be coleading short term trips to Africa through Visiting Orphans? I do not know and I am content with that and I know God will open doors and show me what he has for my life in His timing. Half way through our trip we stayed at a place called The Haven to rejuvenate and debrief. It sat right on the Nile River. What a breathtaking sight it was to be there and marvel at God glorious creation and sit there as I pray and soak it all in and just hand God my future to know that whatever it is I will be doing I will be doing it to glorify Him and not me and simply loving life.

I look foward to sharing with you things I experienced on my trip, I will try to write more as I continue to process the trip. I am excited to see what will unfold in my life from this trip and what God is doing through this experience.

Here are a couple pics of me at The Nile.

Who am I?

This past summer I have played many roles so I decided to make a list of the roles I've played.

• I'm a nanny
• A taxi driver
• A fill in "mom" for a week or weekend
• A hair dresser
• A lifeguard 
• Taking kids to and from school
• A baker
• A chief 
• A driver of a car with 5 car seats (and I don't have kids) 
• A seamstress 
• A quilt maker
• A new fear of bats! They have gotten in our house several times
• A baby holder :)
• A grocery shopper for a new mom
• A homework helper
• A children's church teacher

And now for my newest role/job.....

A preschool teacher to 3 year olds!  I have been at the job a couple weeks now and getting settled in and I love it! I have 12 fun kids to teach and work with some great women! I am still nannying for both families! I like to keep busy! 

Going Back

Well I am excited to announce that I am going back to Africa with Visiting Orphans in December!! I will be going back to Uganda and then going to Kenya as well!  I look forward to seeing what God has done in the lives of the ones I meet last year in Uganda and meet new people in Kenya.  God has truly given me a heart to love on orphans and his children!  Please pray for my team and the trip this coming December and January. 

Ethiopia

I am going to try to get Ethiopia all in one blog post so hear we go.... ;)

In Ethiopia we worked with a few ministries; Project 61, an orphanage, an Transition Home, and visited the Fistula Hospital.

Project 61 is a ministry that works with the families and children in a community called Korah.  Korah is located by and in the city of Adsis Ababa's dump.  The community started out as a lepercy community.   The ministry works with the children and families there as a resorse of food formula and providing sponsoring for schooling for the children.  While we split up in to groups with the children with music, crafts, and stories.  Then we got to help serve the children in the feeding program lunch.  We also broke up into groups into the community and went on home visits.  We got to go into the families homes hear their stories and pray with them. 

The orphanage we got to go to just spend time with the children there.  I pretty much stayed in the baby room and held sweet babies and played with toddlers.  I can not post any pictures because the children are being adopted or up for adoption.  Or last time there as we were leaving we got to witness and couple coming to pick up their baby that they were adopting.  It was so wonderful to get to witness that happen. 

Another place we went was a transition home where children go who are in the process of being adopted and waiting for their parents to get to come bring them home.  We played with the children and painted a mural in their playground.

The Fistula hospital we brought gifts for the women who were there and toured the hospital as well.  If you want to learn more about the Fistula hospital there is a movie documentary of it called A Walk To Beautiful. 

Some beautiful faces of the people and children of Korah

Ethiopian Dining

A trip in the mountains to a Greek Orthodox Church

Return Ministries

Hello everyone,  I am a horrible at keeping up with a blog.  My life gets pretty crazy and busy a lot but I love every minute of it and the children I get to take care of everyday and adding a wonderful family with two wonderful little girls that I enjoy spending time with.  I have also started up a small business called Frilly N Pink I making adorable little outfits for little girls and dresses and trying to add more to the mix!

I'm sure your wondering what my title is "Return Ministries".  Well this is a continue of my trip to Africa that has almost been a year ago now.  Return Ministries is a ministry that I visited in Kampala, Uganda.  It is a place that reaches out to the community and the children. 

We spent 2 days with the children there.  The first day was a bit overwhelming and a whole lot of fun!  At times I felt claustrophobic as I was surrounded by children who wanted their faces painted on day one.  We spend the day doing activities of crafts and face paintings with the children then after lunch was pretty much a big dance party!  It was full of them teaching us some of their dance moves and us teaching some to them.  The women who worked there to serve the children were just filled with joy and danced while serving the children.  I loved seeing their energy and their overflow of the Father's love coming out of them.  One young woman there Dorthy was filled with so much joy and I enjoyed spending time with her dancing with the children and singing with the children.  Also got a little attached to a little 2 1/2 year old girl Sophia.  Her mom was so sweet and was there helping with the children.  When it came time to go and give Sophia back to her mom she cried and did not want to me to leave and tried to run after me I heard her mom saying "Auntie has to go"  Broke my heart!

Day 2 we did a activity with them where we gave them a piece of paper and crayons or markers and had them write their name on the paper and decorate it however they wanted.  We shared with them on how God knows their names and they are loved and not forgotten.  I will share some pictures with you below...

 Face Painting :)

 Dancing

 Listening and watching them sing wonderful songs for the Lord!

 Mercy with her name project

 A sweet young girl Alice with her paper

 Of course more dancing!

 Working hard on their art projects...

 Me with Dorthy! I loved this sweet woman!

Me with little Sophia and her mommy.....Then a picture of sweet Alice who didn't speak much but could tell was glad to just have someone love on her!

Pictures

Here is a video my friend Brittany help me put together of pictures from my trip to Africa.  It was 16 min. but for some reason it said my limit was 15 min so I had to cut a min out to get it on here for you...

Amazima

Amazima is a feeding program in Uganda that a girl by the name of Katie Davis started.  She is such an amazing woman of God.  There is a link on the side of my blog to the website for you to learn more about Amazima Ministries.  Katie's Amazima Ministries is the reason I decided to go to Uganda so I was so excited to get to see the ministry first hand.  After signing up for the trip God had laid it on my heart to start sponsoring a child.  There are so many ministries out there that have sponsoring programs.  After reading more about Amazima and what they do I decided last May I was going to sponsor a child through them.  I got the paper work for my child on my birthday in April, what a wonderful birthday present to see the face a read about who I was going to sponsor.  I am sponsoring a sweet young girl Dina who is 13 years old! I am so excited that I am able to help her get food and go to school. 
When we were preparing to go to Amazima on a Saturday morning to spend time, play, and feed the children I was a little nervous and excited.  I was not for sure if Dina would be there and was preparing myself for if she was not there. But I so deeply wanted to see her face to face hug her and tell her that I loved her.  Well we got there and played with some of the kids, I was a little nervous to start looking for her.  At one point they gathered all the children up for a bible story and as we sat there I looked around seeing if I could recognize her face but did not see her.  Once this was over we were getting things ready for the children to get lunch.  At this time I went up to Katie and asked if she knew if she was there, she asked some of the kids but it turned out Dina was at school.  I was so sad.  But right before we left I asked if the school girls had returned and was told they should be back soon.  Finally I saw a group of girls show up, while I was about to load the bus to leave.  I heard the other girls yell and point at me, "Dina! Dina! Sponsor!"  I grabbed my friend Jessica and gave her my camera.  We went and there she was oh I was so thrilled I asked if she was Dina and showed her the letter she wrote me and she said that it was her! I told her I was her sponsor and gave her a big hug and told her I was so glad to get to meet her and that I loved her.  I also had a letter ready and a picture of me to give to her.  Then I got my picture with her.  I was sad that it was a short little visit but so thankful I can say I sponsor a girl in Uganda and I have meet her in person!! I am so thankful God gave me that opportunity!  I will be sending Dina the picture of the 2 of us so she has the memory as well.

Me with Dina

Me with Katie Davis 

Our group with Katie

Getting my hair braided by some of the kids. 

Me with a few kids

One of my favorite pictures! 

Katie Davis just wrote a book and comes out I think October 4th.  I pre-orderd mine! Here is a promo for the book.