A look back

It started with an unassuming comment.

The older kids had been admiring the bald head of a 5 month old.

"You were bald too when you were that age." I told them.

Almost immediately, Suhn asked if she was bald when she was a baby. Then she wanted to see her baby pictures.

For many adopted children, this can be a hard question. Baby pictures can be few or almost non-existent. But thanks to the amazing women at Angel House who loved on Suhn and took many, many pictures until we could bring her home, we have close to 100 pictures of Suhn as a baby.

So we sat, the two of us, and looked at the pictures one by one, exclaiming over how cute she was when she was little. She smiled and giggled and asked where we were. So we talked about adoption and how babies find their families in different ways.

It was one of many moments to come. Processing her journey together. Looking back at where she had been and giving thanks for where she is now. In this moment. Home.

Impact Lives in Zambia

One of the most exciting things about our trip to Zambia was the opportunity to see first hand the way God is working through Lifesong. In a country where unemployment is 70%, a high school education is a huge advantage. But it is expensive and very few make it to that level of education.

Lifesong hopes to build a high school someday soon, but they need funds to do that. Here is where you come in. By donating to Lifesong Zambia,  you can partner with God as he takes the most vulnerable orphaned child in Zambia and  transforms him or her into a person of influence through education and more importantly knowing Jesus. 

Read on to find out more!

Join us to IMPACT lives in Zambia...   

    

"Hi.  My name is Richard.  I am in grade 7.  I stay with my sister, Josephine.  I have three brothers and two sisters.  My other sister attends Lifesong and is in grade 5.  Her name is Emelia.  My mother stays in a village far away.  My father died in 2006.  Thank you for supporting me and may God bless you and add more days to your life.  My favorite subject is art."

Richard is just ONE of the 253 students that we are blessed to serve at Lifesong Zambia.  He is also one of the students that will be moving on to grade 8 this fall.  

Without the construction of new classrooms, Richard may join the 95% of Zambian children that are not able to attend High School. 

Will you join us in impacting the lives of children like Richard?

To add to the excitement--thanks to a generous donor, all donations will be matched up to $225,000!!

  

To join the Impact Zambia 100 team, email info@lifesongfororphans.org!

MIA

No, the title does not stand for Missing In Action, although based solely on the frequency of blog posts on this here space, you could draw that logical conclusion.

For today's purposes, however, MIA stands for Mya In Africa.

She was an amazing little travel partner. And while I can't say I loved/understood her movie choices on the plane ride over and back (she watched Rio, a movie she has already seen, 5 times), I do love her heart. She jumped right in with the kids she met, rarely complained and was generally one step ahead of us wherever we went.

My favorite Mya quote from the trip:  "Mom, the world is a lot bigger place than I thought."

She was not ready to leave Zambia, but I have a feeling she will be back someday.

Maybe she will return as an artist/teacher/missionary just like Aunt Leslie.

Below is a clip/compilation of  watching MIA (Mya In Africa).

TIA

Did I say something about blogging in Africa?

Between the jet lag, busy schedule, spotty Internet, low shower pressure and limited hot water, it just didn't happen. And while the water temp/pressure didn't have anything to do with my blogging schedule, I thought it was important to find a way to let you know.

All of this can be summed up in one little phrase, "TIA."  

Translation:  This is Africa.

We had an amazing time.

Between learning about the incredible work Lifesong is doing in Zambia, spending time with Leslie, watching Mya interact with kids from the other side of the world, making new friends and having face-to-face encounters with African wildlife, we left with grateful hearts for the experience of Africa and the work God is doing there.

Here is a snippet from ONE of my favorite moments. The women you see work for Lifesong farms, in the strawberry fields of Zambia. They all have children who attend Lifesong school. Lifesong is not only investing deeply into these families by providing income and schooling, the profits from the strawberry farm are being poured back  into the school. The dream is that one day 100% of Lifesong school's administration costs will be covered by Lifesong farms. 

I am hoping to post more. There is SO much to share!

Here we go...

The day she has long awaited is finally here.

In Mya's own words, "As the days got closer (to leaving for Zambia), I got nervouser and excited. I couldn't wait to hug Aunt Leslie and play with the things in my backpack."

She has been ready to get on the plane for weeks and the day is finally here.

Today Mya and I leave for Africa, Zambia to be specific, to visit my sister and the Lifesong school.

We are expecting to have a great adventure.

I have a few other expectations for our trip as well:

I am expecting to spend some quality time with my sister whom I miss,
to tour the Lifesong school and learn more about how God is working there,
to have lots and lots (like a 15-hour plane ride lots) of mother-daughter bonding time,
for a life-changing experience that shapes my daughter's perspective for life.

There are others, but I'll stop here.

I don't know if my expectations are too high, or too low.

Regardless, its time to set expectation aside and start living this adventure.

Here we go!

a Glorious MOMent

I had successfully navigated one Kindergarten Valentine party, Littles in tow, with only a minimal amount of pouting. This was to be expected as nap time had been cut short for one and cut out altogether for the other. I could live with minimal pouting.

The final feat of the day involved collecting the three Big Kids from the daily schools-out chaos. I had one with me, although he wasn't sticking close. This bugged me.

I spotted the second at the door. One more kid to find and we could wind our way through the maze of elementary-sized students, cross the car pool line, load up the van and get home.

I kept corralling the ones I already had. Reminding them to stay close. Telling one to get out of the rock pile. Losing one, to find him again by the flag pole.

"Stay with me! As soon as she comes out we can go. It won't be long!"

Finally, out she came. It was time to go. Almost home free.

"Let's go, but stay with me," I commanded as we made our way through the crowd towards the car pool line.

Someone didn't listen, make that someones.

Off they ran without me followed by a teacher who was quick to reprimand, "Stay with your mom."

Almost instantaneously, another one stepped in a mud puddle and started to cry because he was wet. He refused to move one step further. He was in the middle of the car pool lane.

And for one brief, glorious second, we once again became "that family."

Harried mom, herding cats, I mean kids, across the car pool lane.


Speaking of MOMents... Today is the last day to take advantage of the early registration fee for Hearts at Home. Swing on by and register today! I would LOVE to see you there!!!

The start of a list:

Things I Love (besides the obvious)

Instagram

It is probably my favorite app right now. Kind of a combination between Facebook and twitter only status updates come in the form of pictures. 

So I thought I'd share a few of this weeks Instagrams with you...

Happy Valentine's Day!