Welcome back old friend

It’s been awhile since my body hurt so bad. Achy all over, metal taste in my mouth, pounding head ach, light sensitivity, stomach acid burps, and no energy.

I knew it would only be a matter of time until my old friend, Malaria, came for a visit. I had suspected I might have had it a few times over the last few weeks but never went to get tested. Until this morning, last night I went to be with a fever and terrible body aches and woke up the same. I knew it was time to go in.

So old friend, it’s you and me again, at battle. Just know I will win, I will survive and have energy again. Boo-yah.

A Christmas Gift

A gift for you, from God.

I realized this month what a beautiful gift we have been given. I’m not talking about the obvious one, salvation. I’m talking about a gift we all often forget about.

The gift of YOU, of ME.

“God knows your full potential, and He is guiding you towards that best version of yourself all the time.”

“Your uniqueness is God-designed”

“God wants you to be a ‘new creation’. But ‘new’ doesn’t mean completely different; instead, it is like an old piece of furniture that gets restored to its intended beauty.”

“God never grows two people the same way. God is a hand-crafter, not a mass-producer” *

Did you read those things?! God gave you the gift of you being you. He hand-made you, gave you your uniqueness.

“We are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

This Christmas remember what He gave you. Revel in the beauty of who you are, in the different things that make you, you. Look at your family and see their characters new, as people who were hand-crafted by the God of the universe. Thank Him for the gift of the people in your life. He did all of this for you.

He did ALL of this for YOU.

This sketch never gets old. You are His masterpiece.

*From John Ortberg's book The Me I Want To Be.

Christmas Eve Prayer

I will sleep here in my Tanzanian bed on Christmas Eve with a prayer on my heart.

I pray that things will continue to move forward, that our home will soon be able to fill a place in a child’s life, that our paperwork will be completed, donors hearts opened and then finally our beds will be full. That baby Jeremiah will be held in my arms and countless others will fill my heart. This Christmas I ask for the gift of a Tanzanian family. Please, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

SNOW

It snowed yesterday.

Perhaps I should clarify. It snowed here yesterday.

Perhaps I should clarify again. It snowed here in Tanzania, yesterday.

We had a crazy rain storm. I was still at church. The rain came from everywhere, it was sooo loud. It got nice and cool. Then when the rain stopped, we headed to Mr Owawa's house for lunch. That's when I saw the snow.

No, not that snow, that's in my house.

Snow on top of Mount Meru. It was magical, beautiful and a gift from God.



That's snow if you look close.

Mosquito's Log

Mosquito’s log

Bite date 12.14.2011

The troops in America have failed. They were not able to successfully complete an itch mission on battlefield Sonya. There have been countless attacks on her arms and legs in more than one state, with no itch to mark. The southern mosquitoes in Alabama, Texas and Florida were unable to render her angry and itchy.
When the Honduras division was put on the mission they too failed miserably. They were able to render her comrades from Germany into scabby, itchy messes. They were even able to distract and bother her fellow countrymen/women but nothing on battlefield Sonya.

When the mosquitoes in the mountains of California were alerted of the operative being on the move they assured all that they would be able to make her a bite worth keeping. While other battlefields have been taken out in less than 2 min flat, even when the big and small battlefields have been decked out in outdoor ammo filled with the deadly deet, she has survived.
The Tchadian company of mosquitoes were unable to cause a stir in the night air with an itch. However they were able to transfer many a valuable attack on her immune system with the deadly malaria virus. There were many a brave mosquito who earned his badge in those battles, inflicting pain seven out of the ten months of battle.

Today however I am proud to say that we Tanzanian mosquitoes have won the recent battles on battlefield Sonya. We have caused pain, annoyance, itch, swelling, sleepless nights and successful ear buzzing. The triumph has been noted, the honors handed out and the battle will continue to be taken for our victory. The only defense she might have is if a giant snowstorm came or one thousand bats swooped in. Ha. We will always win in this battle, we are the strongest mosquitoes, no body has anything on us!

Until tonight, log book.

Keep biting, dodging hands, and stay away from the bug spray.

Tangawizi

Without further delay I introduce to you: Tangawizi

His full name is Stoney Tangawizi. He was named in honor of my favorite soda here in Tanzania, ginger beer. (he’s also the colour of Tangawizi) So yummy. You have to be careful when you drink it because if you inhale, as you are about to sip you burn your throat. But it fizzes nicely on its way down. Anyway, enough about the drink let me tell you about the dog.

Tangawizi is a funny little dog. He likes to talk a lot, or perhaps I should say grumble. He’ll be laying in his bed and make all sorts of noise when he rolls over, moaning and groaning as if he were an old man and had to walk miles to church in the cold. He’s a very playful puppy, as all puppies tend to be. He enjoys chasing the rainbows on the floor and wall that my prism makes in my window. He likes to talk/grumble when I’m holding him on my lap as if he were telling me he would much rather be chewing on my hand or face. He understands when I tell him no and he usually talks back then too. He gets really excited about food and is like a crazed teenaged girl at a Justin Beber concert jumping up and down, wiggling his whole body until the plate is set down. He’s learning how to sit, and he’s working getting it, however slow it may be.

He understands when I tell him to go home or to stop biting. Not to bad for a puppy of about 2 months.

I’m praying that he is a good addition to the house and will help teach patience to the kids as well as be a companion and guard dog. He’s getting big and will soon loose his awkward sideways walking and his tumbling down the steps.

Any dog tips are welcome as are any volunteers willing to send me a dog collar with a tag on it.

Karibu Tena

Ahh, the house is quite once again. These last week and a half has been full of visiting, eating, sharing stories, cultural learning, laughter, sharing of everything and pre Christmas joy.

On December 1, our household grew to 6. Mary’s two children (Waren 3, Caren 5), her sister (Beatrice 19) and her cousin (Penda 20) came for a visit. It changed the dynamics of everything! Having two little kids around the house was a gentle foreshadowing of what is to come. Having the two other girls was a lot of fun for me to work on my cooking skills (they are good teachers) and language skills, not to mention just trying to talk to or work with the two little ones.

It was a good visit in that it helped me realize all that I need to be working on for when our children come home next year. For example what kind of house rules need to be set up, when bed time is, what to eat to be healthy, how to keep the culture yet maintain health and proper discipline. Like I said, it was good for me to start thinking about these things. Now more than ever I’m getting excited to bring home our kids! These next few weeks I’m going to be busy with planning, checking up on paperwork with our lawyers/government and visiting potential children. Not to mention Christmas prep J

So with our household of 6 we grew again this last Wednesday, December 7. Two guys from Southern Adventist University’s SM program were on a bit of a holiday driving from Lake Victoria, the site of their future orphanage with REACH International to the coast with two local friends. We had mutual friends and were put in contact with me to visit. I love having people over and told them the more the merrier. I hope they were merry. We unfortunately didn’t have much more bedding space left with Mary’s family here but we did our best. In our two-room house we had 10 people! Wowzers, is this a peak at the future or what! Mary’s room held her and the two kids, mine had Penda, Beatrice and me on my bed (that fits two comfortably) and the 4 guys bunkered down in the living room on Mary’s big mattress. I felt bad because I couldn’t give them a mosquito net and I’m afraid it might have been a bit rough for them at night!

It was great to visit with them and learn about the work they were doing. I’m hoping to visit them the first of next year to see how they made their sun oven and see if I can learn anything else from them. Plus, it’s nice to visit people from your home country especially when they live on Lake Victoria.

Over the 4 days they were here our water ran low in the well and the guys learned how to carry water long distances. The food was a mix of American and Tanzanian, the language was a cross of Kiswahili and English and our ears were always full of music.

Next up is Christmas with people visiting local SM’s who I can’t wait to have over too!

Karibu Tena

The Keeper.

I am now the keeper of the seal.

I wield the stamp of authority.

I’ve got the power.

Merry Two Months

I find myself listening to my Christmas music play list all the time. I’m trying to remind myself that it’s actually Christmas time, that Thanksgiving has come and gone and that I have been here for two full months.

Things are changing these days. We’ve got Mary’s two kids along with two of her teenage sisters here for some time. School is out for a while so it’s a family vacation. The house isn’t as quite anymore, in fact it’s not at all quite J I’m not so worried; I knew the noise would be here soon enough. And with me having my official residence visa all sorts of great things should be happening soon.

I’m blessed to have people (Sm’s from Southern, friends of friends) passing through the area and I get to visit with them. This will help keep the Christmas spirit alive. I was going to try and go somewhere for the holidays but in wanting to save money for my good buddies wedding in April (Liz Randall, from my Tchad adventures) I decided to make the most of it from here. Next year this time. . . wow.

Small Steps for Compassion has put together our official Holiday List of ways you can help support us here at our Nyumbani, home. Here’s the link for the online catalog, please feel free to buy cool things. We’ll show you pictures of what you bought as we get them. I’m excited to finish outfitting our house for lots of little people! I’ve got a few leads on children that need homes, so I’ll keep you updated on those as they come too!

I think I’ll go work on my Christmas tan while I go do my laundry. I hope we get our well started and finished soon, the well is runny really low and it’s quite muddy.