Fun times at Kore

 Today was Saturday. And Saturday, at the Church, is Bible School for all the children.

 *So many pictures of precious little faces...some I got to know more then others

 Sweet sweet Hanna spent alot of time coloring her picture

 I wonder what his name is? And if he has parents? And if he gets to go to school? And if he eats out of the trash???

 The little boy on the right is my little buddy! He was ROTTEN (like a good rotten) but every time he saw me during the week he made a run for my legs and hung on me like he was a monkey! He also is precious because both of his parents have leprosy.

 being goofy

 sick baby but sweet nonetheless

 Rachel and I were prepared for this Bible school so we brought coloring pages and an elephant craft and a Bible story that was translated and suckers of course!.

 (some pictures are out of order BUT I will NOT redo them!!! sorry) Above picture...fun times with my special friend in the taxi! Note: Rachel (my sweet traveling companion) raised almost 2,000 dollars to give away to where it was needed most. Anyway after the Bible school we headed into town to buy baby formula and a sheep!

 Beautiful city!

 We guesstimated that they used between $700 and $900 dollars on baby formula to give to the Mothers

 *This picture was for my own personal use...yes they have normal groceries in Addis!

 filling up the cart!

 SUCH A BLESSING!

 And the sheep...you will hear more about this sheep at the week goes on but...yes it is in the back of the taxi and yes we took the taxi back to Kore and yes it was making alot of noise as we traveled down the road and yes we were horrified.

 The church in Kore that we served at all week and the cute little blue taxi

 Market day in Kore

 DARLING little boy...who is quite sick...

 ...his Mother was waiting in the church when we got back from town...her babies needed medicine

 such a special picture of Rachel...this is the life right here!

 Uncle Tesfaye and his nephew

 donkey's carrying their load

 ****continued from the Bible School**** singing songs

 Rachel reading the Bible story and Tesfaye translating (thanks again for reading it Rachel! lol)

 Darlingness

 Ok well I do not like having favorites BUT if you are friends with me on facebook then you will know I have tried to take care of these precious girls from afar! And spending the week with them was pure joy! It was so fun to see them open up and be silly!

 I will have to admit they are my favorites....I Loved all the children I came in contact with but these little girls stole my heart

 The little girls Mother

 Sweet Hanna

 Look who it is! And hes being ornery!

 Darling!

 beyond cute!

like SO adorable! I think Ethiopian children are SO cute! Oh I wish I could take them all home with me! But of course reality sets in especially after an exhausting morning teaching Bible School to 150 kids! We were a little overwhelmed when the day was done.
Every evening Tesfaye took us back to the guest house in the taxi by 6pm. It was always dark at 6:30pm. This particular night our dear friend Yonatan (He was the guest house manager in the Addis Flower guest house we had both stayed at when we adopted our kiddos) picked us up and we headed to Island Breeze for some Pizza and Cokes. It was so good to see him again!
Took hot showers and slept like babies!

HELLO Ethiopia {my favorite place in the world}

 *Dubai from the sky* Today was fairly uneventful except for the fact that we were FINALLY headed to Addis! We woke up in time to catch our 10:30 flight.

 Not a long flight like the day before....Four hours to be exact.

 Such big planes!

 The last two times I have flown to Ethiopia I have taken Turkish Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines...Emirates was also a good airline...I would recommend any of these airlines if you plan on traveling to Ethiopia

 The food on these flights are always questionable....like the cold shrimp up in the far left corner :/

We were SOOOO excited to view this beautiful city! We kept saying to each other I cant believe we are here again! We landed and got through customs and got our luggage and exchanged some money in good time! Our driver was waiting to take us to the guest house! It was such a beautiful sunny day outside.

 Rachel had stayed at this guest house when she came for Embassy less then a year ago. The guest home is called Mission Ethiopia Guest Home. They provide drivers and translators...also breakfast lunch and dinner when you need! Its was such a nice place to stay! It was fun getting to know the girls at the front desk and getting to know families and other missionaries! *The above picture is looking out of our bedroom

 IPhone quality picture... but this is the beautiful dinning room of the guest house

 Looking out from the dining room...such a beautiful courtyard

 living room where we would go in the evening and check emails and Skype and of course facebook ;)

 We had some special guests come to the guest house for supper!....SO glad and thankful to see Tesfaye again!

SO excited to finally meet Helen and learn that she is 4 months pregnant (baby will be here Lord willing in March!) We talked of our plans for the week ahead and enjoyed a wonderful supper of sheep and veges ;)
We slept HORRIBLE that night! We were talking in the middle of the night many times and it seemed like forever until the sun rose. We were smart the rest of the trip and took Tylenol pm before bed every night.

A song I had written in my notebook for the trip:
ONE THING REMAINS~by Jesus Culture

Higher then the mountains that I face
Stronger then the power of the grave
Constant through the trial and the change
One thing remains....

Your love never fails...never gives up....never runs out on me
Because on and on and on it goes
And it overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never ever have to be afraid
One thing remains....(LOVE)

In death...in life...I'm confident
And covered by the power of your great love
My debt is paid...
There's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love
YOUR LOVE never fails...and YOUR LOVE goes on and on and on!

Romans 8:38~ "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Gods love. Neither death or life, neither angels or demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries for tomorrow...not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love."

...and that's what I felt during my whole trip...the love of God...because I knew that if I died or if I got sick or if anything horrible happened to me....{nothing} could take me away from my Jesus... He was there, when I hugged a young Father cursed by the ugly disease of leprosy...He was there, when I kissed the face of a young Mother who is just like me... only she begged on the street for food to feed her children...He was there when I walked through piles of trash to visit the home of my little friends.. and He was there when I  hugged there little sick bodies tight to my chest. He was there when so many little brown hands fit into my two big white hands... He was there when some special ladies held my hands and prayed for me and my family and country. He was there when little Habesha children climbed onto my lap wanting a Mother's love and attention even if it was only for a few moments...and He was there when I sat in little mud homes filled with sick and hurting families. He was there the whole time...and when I can feel Jesus close to me? No matter the situation?...I thrive and my heart beats more strong, and I feel more alive...Some will tell you that I like Ethiopia and Kore because of the adventure and some say its because I am maybe trying to find myself or that I don't know what I want out of life...but I say its because Jesus is so much more real when you only have Him to rely on. And when you experience the feeling of Jesus up close and personal? ...you will want more and more and MORE of Him... and then... you will begin to be {crazy for Him} because you know what its like to have Him so near and then your life will become amazing! Amazing but not easy, because being up close and personal with Jesus means giving ALOT of yourself away...and not only yourself but your things and your time and sometimes your friends and family...but His promises are true...He will never leave you or forsake you...and this promise rings true for my beautiful Habesha friends I left behind...In the darkest, filthiest, sickest, dirtiest part of Kore...God is there and He is still good.

House on the Rock

* Bible story at our house the other night that struck a cord with me....

Jesus was talking about the two houses-one built on the rock and the other built on the sand. Both of the houses look alike and both of them were good houses to live in. But a storm came up and filled the river bed. One of the houses stood and the other fell and was swept away.
Everyone is building their house in one place or the other. Those who made up their minds to follow His teaching and let the love of God fill their hearts and rule their lives were like the man who dug deep and laid the foundation on a rock. Those who refused to listen to His teachings and were living the kind of life they wanted to with all the the emptiness were like the man who built his house on the sand.......

In the days ahead big storms and winds would blow on the houses. Great floods of trial would come. And in that time of testing the kind of foundation they had built their house upon would be revealed........

NOTHING will ever hurt the man who builds his life on love...for even though love cannot be seen or felt it is like a rock. It lasts. It is eternal like God Himself. The person who loves greatly, who lives NOT for himself but for others, becomes so wrapped up in Gods plans for the future that he goes on with God forever and ever.

The shallow selfish little person who only thinks of himself cannot endure trial. He goes all to pieces. He has no future for he has no love.

On what are you planning to build your house? On the sand or on the ROCK?? If you want to stand forever...dig deep...the Rock is there.

From Dayton To Dubai!!!

 *Yay! So excited to blog about my exciting adventure! First let me say this was SUCH a wonderful trip! I had the best travel companion and we had a wonderful time! I was able to skype my family every night so it made the distance seem not so far. And big kudos to my wonderful husband for taking care of everything while I was gone! Its good to know I was missed! Seriously when you put yourself out of your comfort zone...JESUS is so much closer!!! I had the best week with my children before hand treasuring moments and storing up hugs and kisses...

 Teary face at the airport...I am SO thankful for the husband God gave me! How many wives are lucky enough to go to Africa for a week and a half without their family! We have the same vision...so he let me go knowing that he himself will be going back soon...Looking forward to the day our WHOLE family can get on the plane together and go love together.

 Can I say that the flight to Dubai was FIFTEEN HOURS! Yes...so imagine, if you have never flown across the Atlantic...you probably sleep seven to eight hours in a night??? Well imagine sitting in a tight seat between strangers and they may or may not smell like B.O. and they may or may not do weird things the durance of the flight. SO thankful for the movies, my mp3 player, Tylenol pm and my neck pillow and blanket! We were so thrilled to finally be in Dubai! What a beautiful city! Burj Khalifa, known as Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest manmade structure in the world, at 829.84 m (the tower above) We didn't visit it just passed by it.

 beautiful hotel!

 So when we got into Dubai we were shuttled to our hotel. And it just so happened that we were put in the wrong hotel :/ we were a little annoyed because we had booked an Arabian tour that was picking us up in an hour at another hotel! We got everything worked out and got our rooms we had enough time to get a shower and get freshened up for our Dubai adventure. Rachel had been twice before on this adventure and she wanted me to experience it! What a fun evening!

 We had a guide that drove this jeep for the evening. We rode with a couple from Australia and a couple from Japan.

 They let the air out of the tires to go through the sand.

 The sand is SO cool!

 beautiful beautiful! We had quite the wild ride! It was fun but if you get carsick it would not be for you.

 Ahhhh so exciting to be in Dubai in the dessert! So different then anything I have ever seen! It was so quiet and peaceful.

 camels :)

 We watched this little show where the bird would  fly away and then come back

 sunset over the dessert

 there was probably 40-50 jeeps on this tour...they took us to several different places in the dessert and then we ended up at this encampment for supper.

 It was amazing! SO COOL to be out in this beautiful dessert

 Henna tattoos

 how fun! They lasted about a week

 camel rides...so fun!

 We got to hold the bird

 My beautiful friend! We sat down on pillows by little tables just like the Arabian culture...to eat our supper

 I was a little cautious of the food, but it was good! Three kinds of meat and rice...

 And then the belly dancer...she was good! It was an enchanting night! So beautiful to see the stars clear out in the REAL dessert... :)

We had some money exchanged in the airport...kind of interesting to see the different kinds of money...I never did learn about the exchange rate...probably because I was to busy trying to figure out Birr the next week. After our tour we headed back for a restless night. Our plane headed out to Addis the next morning at 10 am and I was SO excited to be finally be heading back to one of my favorite places in the world!