A very long week...

This week began with a lot of rain!!! The picture below is of Dan and I cuddled on our back "porch" watching the rain. It was so loud!!! The video is of another day, when it was actually louder and harder than the rain before! I cannot express to you how comforting it is to have thunder storms. The heat has almost become unbearable, although I realize that might have something to do with my nausea and hot flashes:)

This week, all the ABCCA teachers have been very busy with parent teacher conferences. Thankfully, mine were over with by about 1pm each day, but many of the teachers stayed until later in the afternoon. Dan and I haven't been able to see much of each other this week, and we look forward to a very low key weekend.

One praise is that my conferences went very well. There were a few that I was worried about. You never know how parents will take certain information about how their child is doing in school, but that cannot be a reason to water down the truth. The Lord blessed every single meeting that I had, and I found that it was actually quite fun spending that time with the parents. Praise the Lord!

I have been more and more sick lately. I am hoping that it comes to a peak and then trails off, quickly!!! I am about 10 weeks now, and looking forward to hearing the babies heart beat. I am still so amazed at the fact that there is a life growing inside of me. It is so good to have Dan and other friends remind me of this when I am complaining about being sick. I am so thrilled to become a mother!

We have recently hired a student to help us around the house. Her name is Christina, and she is such a blessing to me! We were very reluctant to have someone helping in our home, but since we found out about littlest, it has been very obvious to us that we would benefit from the help. As well, Christina can continue to pay off her school fees (which can be pretty hefty). I really enjoy spending time with her. She is a woman of God, and we often spend time working in the kitchen together, talking about the differences between Christianity in Africa and in the States. I have learned so much from her. She lives very far away from the school and takes 2 mini buses and a rented bike to get to and from the school each day. For outreach on Thursdays, she goes with other ladies to Maula Prison to visit the women there. I remember visiting back when I was here two years ago, and got excited about visiting again. She and I talked about the shortage of food and clothing for the women at the prison, as well as their children who live with them. Even though that is the case, these women are glad to know the Lord, and Christina says it is a blessing to know them and study God's word together. Once I am feeling better, I will hopefully begin to accompany Christina to the prison. We talked about getting sizes and then buying them clothing at the market (dresses can be as cheap as 200MKwacha which is about $1.50!). Needless to say, I am REALLY looking forward to feeling better. I can't wait to be more involved.

Dan and I also met another student who is a guard for ABC and was stationed outside of our house one night. We learned that he lives in the boys dorms during the week, and goes home to his wife and kids on the weekends. I just want to encourage you to be praying for the college students, as it is really hard to spend enough time studying for all of their classes, as well as see their families and work to pay off their school fees. As well, to all of you college folk reading :BE THANKFUL!!! Be thankful for scholarships, for being able to get easy jobs at shoes stores and Tully's. Be thankful that you can either drive or walk to school. It is very convicting to see these students. I know that I was not truly thankful enough for how easy college was for me (comparatively speaking).

Alright, moving on....this afternoon, I spent a few hours at the crisis nursery. Oh, I missed the little ones so badly. I was particularly excited to see how little Ruth was doing. Remember Ruth(below)?
Well, as I arrived, I met someone new named Sarah. She is temporarily here to assist Ministry of Hope at the nursery with getting schedules together and other things. She informed me that Ruth had died a few days ago. I am absolutely crushed by this. Apparently, she got an infection and was taken to the ABC clinic on either Tuesday or Wednesday. She was having trouble breathing and just couldn't make it through the night. One of my other friends Breanna said that she would have lived had she been in the States, but here, there just isn't enough medical care or equipment or something. I spent the rest of my time at the nursery very sad. It was hard to go into the infant room to get a baby, and not see Ruth's crib there. Please, please, please be praying for these babies. They are God's creation, and I know that He loves them. They need health, homes and support. They truly are forgotten about, except that MOH brings them into the Crisis Nursery family. As well, please pray that I will continue to love on these little ones, and that I will not harden my heart. I struggle between wanting to go and serve, and wanting to stay at home, because it is too painful to show up, only to learn that one of the babies has died. I want to connect and love them with all of my heart no matter what the outcome is. Even now, as I write, I am very upset by it all, but I know that God has a plan for each one of His children, and I trust in that.

Here are some more pictures of babies that I was able to see today. Below is a picture of Amy Louise and Nya. They live a few doors down from us on campus. Amy's husband Bob teaches at the College. They usually visit the nursery on Fridays, so it was fun to be there with them. They have a great blog. Click here to view it. Nya is holding Maggie, the only baby that was smaller than Ruth. Amy Louise is holding Manuel. He is soooo handsome and LOVES IT when you softly touch his cheeks.

This little girl is named Madalitso. She is maybe a little over a year old, and has been at the Crisis Nursery for a year. She is so adorable. She loves music and often claps when she hears anything that resembles music. She also loves to make popping sounds with her lips. She is a playful girl. Pray for her as I believe she has AIDS, and also has very weak legs. I think she has hip problems and isn't able to crawl properly.

Below is my friend Megan. She and I share a love for the babies at the nursery. I'm not sure who she is holding, as I think he is new and I haven't learned his name yet. He isn't doing it in the picture, but usually, he has the most pitiful look on his face. I think maybe he was just hungry when we saw him today.

I know this has been a rough entry, so I will end on a fun note. This week in class, we have been learning about the letter Ll. As you know, Fridays are our day for fun and so Ari and I decided to have a Luau! We made leis and had a limbo competition. Most of the kids could not understand that you have to bend backwards to go under the stick, but some of them did surprisingly well. Plus, it was a blast just watching them play and dance. It was a drizzly day today, so we had to get our wiggles out while inside. It got crazy at some points, especially having both classes in my classroom, but it was so much fun.

Here we are during the limbo competition. We got pretty low, and some of the girls were able to do it!


Even Mr. Robbins came and joined us for a bit. The kids LOVE IT when he comes down our way. All the girls think he is soooo "silly"! And he is! Just look at him!
As you can see, the kids got really into dancing. Some of them learned the Luau Hawaiian dance (well, sort of) but others just love any excuse to show us their moves. Below is a movie of such great dancers!!! You cannot hear the music very well, but that's because the kids were enjoying themselves so much! Enjoy!