cool, until

I was standing on the steps today talking on the phone when my eye caught something on one of the plants in the flower bed I’ve been working on. (That tells you that it was something if I saw a green-on-green something from about 3 meters away.) I walked closer to take a good look. I was amazed at what I saw. I ran in the house to get my cousin who is here visiting (halleluiah!).

Nede, Jessica and I then stood awestruck by this miraculous creation for sometime. I was thinking it was really cool until, I realized it wasn’t just ONE! There were MANY!

And then, once my eyes took their focus off this interesting creation, I realized in a matter of just a few hours they had eaten my ENTIRE plant! :(

Where did they come from? When will it stop eating and excreting (note the black spots on the ledge) my plant? And, WHAT IS IT!??!

AND…the other day when the cover fell off this electricity box this is what I found…

A couple geckos got a little too toasty and never made it out! SICK!
If you ever think I am brave, it’s not true! It took me a number of days to get on the chair to find out how to scrape these suckers down. Yuck!
My philosophy is confirmed-- everything is bigger, weirder and worse here!

because God loves me

Conversation with Nede this morning:

Me: “Nede, why do you like to take a bath with your underwear on?”

Nede: “Because God loves me, then I take a bath with my underwear on.” (In all seriousness of course)

Me: “Oh?!”

Pure sweetness.

a flood

There’s never a dull moment here and if I ever complained that there was nothing to do, shame on me! Monday evening we found plenty to do. A nasty thunderstorm rolled in at about 515pm as Nede and I were preparing to go to our friend Stina’s house for dinner. Nede is terrified of thunder so, as usual, she practically glues herself to me and nestles her head so tight into my chest I fear her respiratory status. We were sitting at the desk chair when I finally thought, “why don’t we move to where there aren’t so many windows where we can’t see and hear the severity of this storm?” In an attempt to console Nede, I was singing any and every song I could think of (am really wishing I had been blessed with a better singing voice for Nede’s sake!). We went to sit in the hallway and after sometime and Nede was actually dozing off, I started to think that that floor looked really shiny. My first thought was that Mirriam really polished the floors well last week. I finally got up to see and, much to my surprise my feet were walking through inches of water! The ceiling in one of the spare bedrooms had a torrential rain coming through it! And so did the second bedroom! I had no idea what to do. Nede was screaming concern as to where Brother Marc and Uncle George are going to sleep when they arrive in a week, followed by a bazillion other questions as she continued to refuse stand on her own. Without choice I had to put her on my back and start mopping. To make a long evening short, I called my friends and before I knew it there were 5 of us sweeping and mopping massive amounts of water out of the house, followed by the dinner that they brought with them!

Nede clearly enjoyed it far more than any of the rest of us:

Upon my assessment on the top of the roof (thanks to my friends leading up the tree and onto the roof) I think this is a problem that will only occur with crazy storms like we had. There are definitely a couple of issues that need to be dealt with. It’s no fun waking to every rain fall wondering if it’s going to happen again. So, if anyone knows some dependable, honest, hardworking cement workers in the Chimoio area, I would love to have their number!

 

I sure love this face

growth

It’s been incredible to be a part of watching Nede grow and progress. From the first day when she stayed with me and she had a worm infested belly, a head of ring worm, just healed burn wounds on her feet, open sores, underweight, malaria and pneumonia. She has gained 3 kg (2 in the first weeks, as you’ll see) and grown about 2 inches in the 6 months.

June 17th, Nede’s first day with me

June 22

July 10

July 24

Aug 24

Nov 2

Dec 18

But, more importantly than seeing her grow physically was the gift that she gave me on Christmas eve. She had no idea what was happening or what Christmas eve is, but, as we sat under our tiny Christmas tree lights reading the Christmas story and answering her questions, I was touch by her growth. Before heading to bed we were saying our usual prayers and as Nede prayed I knew what really has mattered in these 6 months. Nede, a 5 year old, prayed for several minutes for about 20 people that she KNOWS love her. Many she hasn’t met, but through SKYPE, phone conversations and stories she KNOWS that she is loved. She knows I love her. She knows Jesus loves her. She knows that our expatriate friends here all LOVE her. She knows that there are MANY at Hands at Work who LOVE her. She knows "Vovo, Papa, Uncle Trevor, Auntie Disa, Taylor, Micah, Oliver, Addilyn, Seth” LOVE her. She KNOWS that all my friends and family that we pray for LOVE her. She has known LOVE for 6 solid months now. And, if all this stops tomorrow. She has received LOVE.

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

merry christmas

It’s my prayer that knowing our story, seeing this face and hearing the voice, speaks the Christmas story. Say a prayer, take a moment, and listen to JOY coupled with HOPE…

For unto you is born this

day in the city of David a

Savior, who is Christ the

Lord. Luke 2:11

For the Son of Man came

to seek and to save the lost.

Luke 19:10

All we need to do is love.
Very Merry Christmas to you.
xoxo

10 reasons not to do holiday baking in africa

1. Butter’s too expensive to have this many flops (like $6 a pound)

2. The price of eggs tripled last week. What is going on?

3. The humidity and heat makes rolling out anything unsuccessful

4. It already feels like it’s a bazillion degrees in the kitchen, who thinks it’s a good idea to turn on the oven?

5. The oven heats outside itself more than inside

6. No microwave

7. Apparently it does make a difference to do conversions from the recipes in cups to grams. Approximations don’t work.

8. Things don’t taste the same when you can’t buy half the required ingredients and apparently I don’t know the right substitutions

9. Just another thing to give Nede a reason to ask, “why, Sistah Dara?”

10.  Makes me only dream of a white Christmas

(Okay, look at that face. It hasn’t been all bad:)

Helping us, help one

On3design 

Please read the following and support my dear friends Al and Lyndsey. A brief summary of their story is below. If they raise enough money with this fundraiser they may be able to come to Mozambique to visit Nede and me, that is our hope! Their story and mine has been intertwined for years now, the Lord has used them to encourage and support me and it’s because of how God has used them in my life that I have developed into the person I am today. Please, allow yourself to be moved by their story as well.

FROM AL AND LYNZ:

** Update on the expanding Johnson family! ***

We have something for you…that will help us.

When this is all finalized we will have been pregnant for about 27 long months.  However, this October when Ethiopia sent the first pictures of a little girl, the last 2 years melted away instantly and a new excitement arose.  We can go get her now, we can pray for someone by face and name, we can plan and visualize our first meeting.  Though we have never heard her laugh or held her little fingers, her pictures and our hearts tell us it seems so right that we get to share life with her…and the beginning is finally in view.

Out of respect for Ethiopia and the adoption process we have not been able to “publicize” our new little joy.  Lyndsey, Signe and I tell everyone we meet about our new “baby sister”, we have Mazzy screen savers and pictures on family refrigerators.  If we were allowed, we would have made Facebook announcements and photo albums that would make even the burliest manly-man go “OH, FOR CUTE!”

What we can tell everyone is this; we have been so blessed to be partnered with a little girl, who, when she gets “home” will be somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 yrs old.  Her name is Mazzy, with little round cheeks and big beautiful eyes.  And, from what we can tell, she is NOT prepared for the mass of uncontrolled smoochies she will receive once the Johnsons get a hold of her.

But we have something for you, and just in time for Christmas shopping.

Starting in mid January, Lyndsey, Signe and I will all fly across the world to meet Mazzy.  The “usual” series of events follows with going to court, telling them we want her as a part of our family, fly home, wait….and wait…and wait, 6 to 8 weeks later we fly back to Ethiopia and bring her home once the paperwork is final and Mazzy gets to begin her life of tickles, being a princess, and probably the continued daily dose of smoochies.  With individual plane tickets costing the same as the average college student’s car – we ask for help.

We want to present to you a t-shirt, hopefully something you would value in its statement.  For us, the Johnsons, we are learning, more and more the deep truth behind “Each One Matters.”  From the view of adoption it is clear our intentions – to opt to value someone’s life as important enough to make them a daughter and a sibling.  From the view of life, we are learning about God’s view of us, of the people at work, of the strangers at the store, of you.  I will never fully understand it, but for some reason YOU are His favorite, I am His favorite…Each One of us Matters to Him, and probably more than we will ever know. Growing in this understanding has prompted us to brainstorm of ways our family could stay in Africa for those 8 weeks and try to be “life-bringers” in more ways than just adopting.  The t-shirt is a token for you – to keep in mind and proclaim that, yes, you did take part in an adoption process, bringing Mazzy home, but more importantly that you want to live knowing YOU matter, the dude at the bus stop matters, the kid that lives on the exact opposite end of the world from where you are standing matters…matters to a God who’s love is so amazingly big we are ALL his favorite…and He most likely has a bucket load of smoochies for each one.

You can order these sweet tee’s right here! (designed by the lovely and talented Jordan of Tin Cup Designs) If the website’s wording sounds weird it’s because this site is created for ordering photos…

So, to complete your Christmas list in one shot with t-shirts for everyone:

Click HERE.

Passcode: Adoption

Click “Enter Gallery”

Orders will be taken until Tuesday Dec 14th!

If you have not heard “the story” of how adoption was placed into our lives I strongly encourage you to read the note 3+1 on my (Al’s)  Facebook…OR ask, we love telling it.  The story of us being given the opportunity to adopt, reveals much about how God LOVES creating “beauty from ashes.”

Thank you for your prayers, for asking “how’s the adoption going,” and for any help in all the different ways.

Smoochies -

Al, Lyndsey and Signe Johnson….and Mazzy too.

PLEASE GO CRAZY AND ORDER! YOU’LL BE TOUCHING AL, LYNDSEY, SIGNE AND MAZZY’S LIFE, AS WELL AS NEDE AND ME!!!!

people magazine

Remember last year when I was part of planning the HIV/AIDS event in Minneapolis? One of the speakers was Carloyn Twietmeyer, mother of 13 (6 of which are adopted) and founder of Project HOPEFUL- helping adoptive parents adopt children who are positive with HIV. She and her family are featured in the December 6th issue of People Magazine. Since I can’t go out and buy one will someone do so and tell me all about it? Carolyn has been a HUGE encouragement and inspiration to me through my time here in Moz. They were also recently on Katie Couric!

HIV/AIDS is destroying the continent of Africa and still shaming all those who are infected globally! An entire generation is being wiped out here leaving millions of kids alone- broken, wounded, unloved- with few to help them make any sense of it, as if there is even any sense to be made. Please, search your heart on how you are being called to care, because, you are! And, I promise, even through the struggle, there is joy in the battle! I love you Nede and all your little African brothers and sisters who are hurting.


Truth Pandemic Click on this link to see a great video and share it!

and this CBS NEWS

this week

It’s interesting what seems to be wired into Nede’s DNA- She loves working in her “mashamba” (field). We planted some tomatoes and potatoes the other day. We managed not to lose any toes, too, which was a good thing;)

Thank you Vovo for our new dresses!

My mom sent a package with homemade matching dresses for Nede and her doll. Nede was thrilled and thought the pocket was perfect for 3 lychees!