Friday July 1st 2011 *Warning>LONG post!!!!

*First of all I would like to thank our friends and family who have donated over $5000 to our adoption. WOW!! What a blessing! We never asked for money but YOU felt called to help! And although we know that you were doing it unto the Lord...we still feel humbled and grateful!
*Second I want to thank all of you who have donated so far to the Korah Village. I am looking forward to keeping you all updated on this project. They will be so grateful and happy, I am sure, for the kindness you all have shown.

Today was a bittersweet/eyeopening day. Alot of information went into my brain and it left me feeling somewhat nauseous...literally. I think it was because of the jet lag, interesting food, dirty water, and ALL the poverty we saw packed into my brain and I was just sorta starting to process it all. Our CWA driver was at the guest house around 8 am to take us to court. We arrived at a 3-4 story building and our lawyer led us upstairs to a room full of Americans plus Ethiopians waiting for their turn before the judge. Because I knew that this courtroom was only for adoption related cases, tears found there way to my eyes and a lump formed in my throat as I observed all the women and men waiting for there turn to give up their parental rights. I tried to keep my tears under control as I thought about the sacrifice that these parents were giving. Love was the word that kept coming to my mind. I simply cannot write what it was like to sit in that room and observe...knowing that Gracie's Mother had been there a few weeks before. {{Love}} After at least an hour of waiting the judge called us in. It was so informal but once again tears came when she asked the questions, "Are you ready to be parents to Bereket?" "YES" I wanted to shout. We both nodded our heads to 5 or so questions and we were done. Of course our MOWA letter had not came yet so we did not pass but it was still a huge milestone. Just think...of how many thousands of miles we had traveled just to answer 5 questions...crazy!!
When we got to the guest house I was feeling so yucky. I laid down for a nap until Britton woke me up and said the pastor was waiting on us to take us to the Korah Village. I feel so bad now because I was trying to act like I wasn't sick so I know I seemed a little unfriendly.

*The above picture is our dear dear friend Tesfaye, the pastor of the small church. Let me tell you his story.
He grew up eating out of the dump. One day a dentist found him and offered to fix his teeth. The dentist went on to tell him about Jesus and help him go to school and collage. Now this dear man, Tesfaye, has a calling to tell the 75,000 people at the dump about Jesus...WOW!!! I LOVE his story! All because one man helped one boy!!! PRAISE GOD!
this is another one of the pastors...he was telling us about the church

laundry
*Those of you who are donating to the gym...here are the pictures
they melt these down from car batteries found in the dump.
Tesfaye showing us his strong muscles :)

this is the gym floor we want to replace. A group from Seattle came last summer and poured concrete for their church house floor.
we know it would mean alot to them to have a nice gym floor
The Seattle group also built these restrooms for them
We fell in LOVE with the children!
The pastors leading us down to the dump. We kept passing people coming up from the dump...I felt like I could throw up anytime...it was awful..I kept Brittons sweatshirt sleeve over my nose.Never before have I ever seen such a thing. NO ONE should ever haft to survive by eating other peoples trash. I cried this whole time.
they do have clean drinking water but this is, I assume, is what they would bathe in
One of the houses...I will never again complain about my house...ever

Some boys had found some leftover chicken in the dump and they were reheating it. Tesfaye told us a story of when he was younger he found a potato in the trash. He took a bite and realized it was a rat without any hair.
A little family
A widow and her children

inside their house
Its like looking out over the ocean but instead its trash...its endless
lots of goats
sweet boys
My little friend. She came running up to me and held my hand the whole time! She pushed the other children away when they came up to me. She also took my hair down and braided and braided it. I love her so much! I will never forget her face looking up at mine...looking for someone to love her.
We went down into some of the lepers homes. This sweet sweet man is waving to all his brothers and sisters in Christ. They were so happy!
This was unbelievable. Tesfaye started crying when he told us about all the sadness and how much he loves these people. Britton and I both were crying also. It was a moment we will never forget. People staring at the crying Americans...only they had no idea what we knew. We were so ashamed that we even live the way we do.
My favorite picture of our trip. This was so special. These children need people just to sit down and play with them.
Tesfaye and his beautiful Mother. She has leprosy so they are both considered outcast. She showed us her foot. *I tried not to cry because even though she will never be healed in this lifetime the love she had for Jesus just shinned out from her. She was so special.
Wishing later that we would have had the WHOLE week to spend here...were already planning out next trip back! ....its so addicting!
Grass to build a house
Our tour guides...Tesfaye and the youth pastors
My pjama shirt that I had to wear because I ran out of clothes. :)
Look at her face! so sweet!
precious children...I saw Jesus in them

Look how much they loved me! I was trying not to care that they were touching my whole face :)
We had a wonderful time. I soon forgot my nauseousness. When we left our face muscles hurt from smiling so much. Can you imagine? In one of the poorest places in the world...so much joy and love for Jesus. No one begged for anything. Tesfaye said all they wanted was Love. It was an eyeopening experience that had us overwhelmed for many weeks. Please Please Please remember these people in your prayers. This is truly a place where Jesus dwells.
When we got back to the guest house we took long hot showers. Then we just sat on the couch and watched this sweet lady that took such good care of us all week, do a coffee ceremony. It was a special treat even though I don't like coffee.


I took one sip and about gagged so Yonatan drank the rest for me :)
Then we packed our bags and they took us to the airport. By this time I was SOOOO ready to get home. I had a bad attitude on the way home. I was SO annoyed at the man sitting behind me in the airplane because he was going on and on about how much he disliked America. I kept reminding myself that if I didn't have love for even my enemies...everything we had felt at Korah and all the love we had for our daughter was in vain. We met this man above at the airport...He want us to come to HIS Uganda SO bad! lol! We couldn't hardly understand him but we are keeping touch through email. He is on fire for Jesus...so sweet.
Thanks for following us on our journey! If you said a prayer or thought of us during our trip...thank you so much! We felt such a peace the whole time we were there so we knew people were praying for us.
To God alone be the glory!