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Wow! Is it really June 14th already? It seems like just the other day I was getting ready to head to Africa for 2 weeks and now I've been back for 5 days already. It must be the jet lag. I can't believe the trip is over already. I was hoping to update my blog while I was gone, but that obviously wasn't the case. Lack of time, limited internet access, sometimes lack of power, and just plain exhaustion kept me from posting one single time. But I think the biggest reason that I didn't write while we were in Africa was because I just didn't know how to put anything into words. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the people, the tastes, the weather, all of it just seemed to run together and it was definite sensory overload. I decided to take a journal and just write down what happened each day. I am so glad I did because even now as I am going back and reading it just a few days later, I am amazed at just how much went on.

Anyway... it's Sunday afternoon and I thought I would take this chance to at least tell those of you who supported this trip thank you. Thank you to everyone who donated, financially supported and especially to those who prayed. I can't begin to tell you how amazingly I saw God move throughout this trip. I am convinced that it could not have gone any better (besides a few lucky ones who got to enjoy a few meals twice :)). I know that God's hand was on this trip from the beginning and that was due in no small part to everyone's prayers.

We took 19 people (mostly youth) halfway around the world, to a culture most of us could never dream about, and asked God to use us and stretch us, and He did! We played soccer with homeless kids. We fed orphans. We loved on babies who have no one. We prayed with people suffering from AIDS. We sang and danced (sort of) to incredible African praise music. We tossed thousands of bricks. We built a kitchen (which turned into a whole new house) for an orphanage. We laughed, we cried, and we saw God. It was absolutely amazing!

Not everything we experienced was easy or even fun, but it was in those tough times that I saw God move in ways that left no doubt that it was Him. One night after a particularly trying day, we were sitting around recounting some of the hard events of the day and I was talking about how it seemed that nothing was coming easy in this adoption process. One of the other members of our team looked at me and said that if it were easy, we may not need to rely on God in every step. How true.

With all that happened there is still one highlight that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. He is about 2 1/2 years old, and he is soon to be the newest member of our family. (He also happens to be the cutest kid in Africa!) More on that later.

Some of the boys at the orphanage.

















Tossing bricks. (nice catch)
















Maybe we weren't as much help as we thought.