home

Well, after a long day, or two, of travel, I made it home.  Tired and increasingly short with my wild kids, I crawled in bed and my husband who's been amazing, put them to bed by himself for one more night.  Thanks love. 

 

This morning, I took the first warm shower in 10 days.  It was too warm.  Is it possible to miss the cold showers of Ethiopia?  I guess so.  I don't speak of the warm showers to put my friends in Ethiopia down.  It's just a difference, that's all.  I also shaved, tweezed my eyebrows, used face wash, face cream and did my hair.  Each for the first time in 10 days too.  Not that I couldn't do those things in Ethiopia, but I had promised myself to leave my vanity at home.  And even when I desperately wanted to tweeze my eyebrows, I could find the tweezers.  They magically appeared this morning.  Imagine that.

 

In between playing with my kids, I mostly unpacked my stuff.  Still need to put it all away and vacuum out my suitcases.  Yes, I brought home a million tiny little pieces of grass seed.  Don't worry customs, I will promptly compost it where it will get up to 140 degrees and kill anything that might be in there.  On the plane, I began editing photos.  Mine combined with Farmer Joe's, aka Yosef's, and a few of Lory's, I have over  2500 pics.  I need to finish that in the next few days so I can share some at a presentation to my bible study group on Thursday night.  I guess I know what I'll be doing each night after my kids go to bed.

 

In the coming week or so, I'll get some more specific posts up.  But to summarize a few things real quickly, our crops project was mostly successful.  Implementation will be key.  And follow up and building examples on the FOVC campus is crucial.  Which means, I will continue to go back as my hubby and finances continue to allow.  Starvation is absolutely REAL and sickening.  One of my crops widows was near death due to  a lack of food.  Education of food is important too.  More on that later.  There's 38 new kids on the FOVC campus.  I wonder if that's due, in part, to the closure of so many orphanages in the Southern area.  All the kiddos received their sponsor gifts that made it through customs with ease.  It was amazing to see how much the kids had grown since 4 1/2 months ago.  I enjoyed Ethiopian food more than other times I'd been there.  The FOVC staff was loving and helpful.  Each of them were so protective.

 

I came home last night ready to curl up in my husbands arms.  Unfortunately I was asleep in the van before we ever got home.  I'm so thankful for how he loves me.  For how he allows me to use my gifts to serve God through serving others.  We just had lunch together and what a treat that was.  I love that husband of mine.  He's awesome.

 

Thank you to everyone who made the trip possible for me.  By the financial support, prayer support, encouragement to go, asking me to go, going with me.  And to those who helped Ryan on the home front while I was away.  Thank you!  And for anyone who wants to participate with FOVC in the future, please let me know.