Today…5 weeks into our life in Soddo…I’m sitting in the bright sunlight of the morning (every morning here in Ethiopia!!) and watching my kids outside the window–in our mountains of red dirt, creating a fort around our water tower, planting seeds and enjoying this simple life. I’m so thankful…
I am sick today, so taking the day as a day to write, re-connect with all of you and rest a bit…Reflecting on the past 5 weeks is pretty amazing. God has been so sweet to us..this was certainly a move like no other! And we’ve moved a lot!! But we are so at peace now and so thankful to be in our new place of LIFE and MINISTRY in Soddo…
So here’s the quick re-cap and I may post the “Real Deal” –more extensive story later…we’ll see!!
Week 1…
all of those chunks on our floor were clay/mud balls from the move in crew!!
living in two homes…our new (still being constructed home) and the guest house here (which was a little troublesome while we lived there!) our home was a major construction zone, painting the inside, plumbing being completed, roofing being finished, the retaining wall outside was being constructed, dirt moved… But here we were so…we set up appliances, cut metal curtain rods, put furniture in rooms (destroyed some doorways getting beds in J), had a major leak in the ceiling of our downstairs bathroom…no flushing toilet…hmmm, move in ready?!?!? The kids and I did move in, though, as the power and water in the guest house were troublesome…Dave left for 2 nights to Addis…the kids and I “camped” out in the living room because of too many paint fumes upstairs!!
Week 2…
watch out…disaster zone, and yes, that is a deep freezer!!
My baby shower from my Lake City Sisters…thank you, friends, I AM SO LOVED!!!
Somehow, with my amazing 5, we managed to get the bedrooms set up and some flowers in vases around the house 🙂 Mark and Kelsey (our sweet worship pastor and his wife—one of my favorite people in this world) came for a visit! SWEET blessing and provision. We thought we were sort of settled in, but only had one working shower with only cold water…men in and out of our home from 8 am until 5 pm, painting, chiseling cement, men on our roof sawing cement and putting on roofing…we were using other’s toilets and showers around the compound!! THEN came the toilet overflow…not just a small overflow, but gallons and gallons for nearly an hour and a half was pouring out of our toilet.!! 4 of us battled the sewer water and tried to keep it from entering the living room!! Then ran next door to the other duplex and found 2 inches of water across the entire downstairs!! It was kind of from one mini-crisis to the next, but Kels and Mark were TROOPERS and such servants! While our plumbing was down, 4 of us got the flu, enough said…it was a tough week!!
The sweetest part of the whole week was that Mark and Kels led a time of worship and dedication for our home and ministry here..I felt God’s presence powerfully meet us and indwell this place.
Let praise always fill these walls…
Week 3…
In the Helicopter with another sweet patient.
These beautiful faces met Dave!!
Our new “DisneyLand” experience is going to a great Veggie stand that is 2 hours away :)!! You have to appreciate GREEN VEGGIES!!!
Happy for FRESH VEGGIES!!
Mark and Kels left…and Dave left the next morning for a one day trip into the Tribes. This week we worked to get the dirt out, life organized, home school materials out. Dave started shadowing an Ethiopian pediatrician at the government hospital here in Soddo…I tried to look at our children and take a deep breath. We hired our first house helper, Rebecca..and an amazing gardener, Markos…I am overwhelmed with gratitude for these two that God provided…they are precious, quiet, hard working servants that I know will quickly become part of our family. I finally began feeling like I wasn’t just keeping my head above water!! We decided to take a quick day trip up to Lake Awassa with some friends here…it was BEAUTIFUL to rest and breath (and buy some yummy veggies) for a day out of Soddo!!
So thankful for a day to BE in creation, with family and friends…Awassa may quickly become our place of refreshment…we loved the lake, friends, and meeting some hippos!!
Week 4…
Dave started at SCH!!! After 4 years of preparing, we’re here and HE IS HAPPY!! The kids and I jumped back into trying to review and regain some rhythm and routine in our home…it was a very blessed week. Dave is at peace and already loves his work here. The kids were awesome this week in attitudes and diligence and I was able to have a good pace and focus. I’m at 26 weeks of this pregnancy and looking like it now :)!! Now that we’re in a home and were SHOWERED with blessings from my HOME CHURCH SISTERS, we are starting to anticipate this baby girl with SUCH JOY!!
I wish I would have been better about journaling and posting pictures as we went through this journey, but I sensed I could only do so much and mostly just fell into bed at the end of our days. So thank you for your faithful prayers and concern…Thank you for loving our family through this last and final move (WE PRAY for a very long time!!) We love it here…and thank God for His faithfulness in calling us and making a way for us to minister His love here in Soddo…we love the community of missionaries he has planted us among and we love the precious people of this country. Thank you all for praying us here, for supporting us, encouraging us and helping us to keep our eyes on the ETERNAL…
Pure JOY!!
These precious 5 have pretty much handled the last 5 weeks in this fashion…thank you for praying. I truly see it all as GRACE. God has poured into these kids a rare resiliency, strength and JOY. They have been full of life and taken every day as a gift. They have been patient and hard-working!! They have LOVED and shown so much of Jesus to Dave and I…Thank you, Jesus for creating these children and equipping them to serve you here.