My sick baby

Vienna had a low fever pretty much all weekend and on Monday morning I noticed her one ear was red and had a little leakage. Colson has never had an ear infection so I immediately went online to do a little research. Thank you, WebMD!

Anyway, it definitely seemed that Vienna had an ear infection and I read that they can go away on their own (I'm not all about giving our kids antibiotics), but Joel thought we should go to the doctor and have him check it out. It is free here, so why not!

We asked our amazing neighbor and friend to go with us to translate. We are getting better at communicating, but when it comes to medical terms, we are totally lost!

She was sweet enough to drop everything she was doing and go along with us to translate. Of course the doctor prescribed some antibiotics and said to bring her back in 10 days to check on her ear. He also reprimanded us because Vienna has never had her 12-month vaccinations. We told him we are delaying them until she is a little older and also will not be giving her more than one at a time anymore, but he didn't like that.

The doctor and nurse were so concerned, it was sweet to see how much they cared about Vienna! They actually called us about a week after her first birthday to let us know she was late in getting her vaccinations! How many doctors do you know that will call YOU?

Anyway, since Vienna has been sick she has wanted to be held all.the.time! I was just loving it! Of course I didn't like that she was sick and in pain, but I loved being able to hold her and snuggle her all day long. Not too much got done around the house, but that's okay, because snuggling with my sick baby was so worth it!

Today Vienna is feeling a lot better and seems to be back to her normal, active self!

This is how we spent most of the weekend

Colson wanted to be babied too. Yes, we have two thumb-sucking kids :)

Do kids need toys?

I've been thinking a lot lately about what we really need to live. We've been going through our stuff and getting rid of a lot of the things that we don't need.

Last weekend we also went through the kids toys and got rid of about half their toys. Do our kids really need to have so much stuff? We didn't come to Turkey with a lot of toys, we only had 10 suitcases to fill, so toys were not a top priority. But somehow, over the past year we have accumulated pretty many toys.

I have two big white bins full of the kids toys, but it seems like what they normally do is empty the toys all over the floor and make a huge mess. They don't really play with any of their toys besides some matchbox cars and a few balls.

I find that my kids have the most fun when they are playing imaginary games, or running around the house playing hide and seek, or singing and dancing, or being outside playing ball, or making drums out of empty yogurt containers.

(Our kids eat A LOT of plain yogurt. It's a staple food in Turkey)

They don't really play with their toys that much and, in fact, I think that having so many toys makes them use their imaginations less. If they wouldn't have so many toys, they would be forced to be more creative! And is having so much stuff for our kids just teaching them to be materialistic and to find their value in their possessions?

Joel and I spent a lot of time talking about his trip to Africa and especially about the children. The kids there don't have clothing to wear, let alone toys to play with! So what do they do for fun? How do they play? Joel said in Uganda he saw a bunch of little boys make a car out of an empty milk jug with some wheels made out of cardboard, and then they stuck a stick through it to pull it along. They had a blast!

I want my kids to learn to be creative and resourceful. I don't want them to learn that our satisfaction is in possessions but in Jesus! He needs to be the one who satisfies us, not the stuff that we have!

Kenya and Egypt

Joel and Adam spent the last 3 days of their trip in Kenya. They got to check out an organization that's doing some really cool stuff there to empower the poor, believing that it's not just about giving money to alleviate poverty, but about developing self-sustaining people and communities. We are excited about the possibility to partner with them in the future! I don't have a lot of pictures I can share from Kenya yet, but I will let you know as soon as the Get Bridged website is live so you can check it out for yourself!

Here's the cute little plane that took them from Nairobi to Kitale



This is the cute little Kitale airport

Joel and Adam had a 7-hour layover in Cairo on their way home, so they decided to go see the pyramids. The pyramids are on the outskirts of Cairo, about an hour taxi ride away. How can you be so close and not go?

So here's some pictures from their quick visit.

























So that was their trip in a nutshell. Now we can can continue with your regular-scheduled program :)

Shea butter

While in the village in northern Uganda, Joel and Adam got to see the process of how Shea butter is made and even got to help out a little! It was so cool that I thought I would share some pictures, you know, since everyone has a burning desire to learn how to make Shea butter ;)


Here are all the shea nuts. After they fall from the tree they are collected and put into these bags.




The shea nuts are cleaned and then poured into this grinder and made into a fine powder.




Here is the powder coming out the bottom




A closer look




Then hot water is poured into the powder





Then it is mixed together until it becomes kind of like a paste.




Next the paste is put into a bunch of these white bags




And then flattened and rolled up




Here's a picture of the press




The white bags are put into the bucket 3 at a time, with a plate in between each layer.






Then two people work together to turn the press. Joel and Adam even got to take a turn.




Here is the shea oil coming out of the bottom and being collected in a bucket.






It is then poured into a pitcher





Next the oil is mixed with water in a bowl





And then it is boiled until the water, oil and dirt separate



The oil comes to the top so you can just scoop the pure oil off the top. Then it is boiled again to get rid of the rest of the water, making it completely pure shea oil.



Here's the purified shea oil. It is then left to cool and harden.



And here is the finished product!




Pretty cool, huh?


Shea butter is great for dry skin and hair. In Africa it is even used as cooking oil. What is so neat is that by buying this product you help an entire community of people who basically have nothing. I love how this whole village is working together to produce the shea butter. So cool!

Joel and Adam had an incredible time in Uganda and are excited about the opportunities for Get Bridged to help the people there!

More on their trip to come . . .

Uganda

After spending 3 days in Ethiopia, Joel and Adam flew to Kampala, Uganda. Right after getting off the plane, they met up with a friend and drove 10 hours to a small village in northern Uganda.

The people here are extremely poor and are trying to recover from a 20-some year long war. The history is very sad and the war in northern Uganda has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world.

Since 1986 there has been conflict between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda (GOU). But it is the children that have suffered the most! LRA leader, Joseph Kony, has built his army mainly through violently abducting children. It is estimated that 30,000 to 66,000 children have been kidnapped and forced to terrorize others!

If hearing about this doesn't make you angry, then I don't know what will. If hearing about this doesn't break your heart, then I don't know what will. Can you imagine your own child being violently kidnapped and forced to become a child soldier!? Can you just imagine the horrible things these children have endured!?

Just because these aren't our "own" children does that mean we should care any less? Does that mean we should love them any less? Why should it be any different just because these children are half way around the world and we aren't confronted with their terrible suffering everyday? We don't see them everyday, we don't know about how much they are suffering, what they have to live through every.single.day. We can just go back to our normal every-day lives and just ignore them and pretend they don't exist. But they do exist. And God knows their suffering, and God hears their cries!

How can we possibly hear about things like this and just go back to our normal life? Why doesn't this anger us! Why doesn't this make us want to do something, to help in whatever way we can, to spend money, time, all our resources?! Why don't we care about the things that are on God's heart? Because let me tell you something, God's heart is for the orphan, the widow, the oppressed, the destitute, the sick, the lost, the dying, the poor! If we aren't caring about the things on His heart then do we really even know Jesus?

Ethiopia

The first part of Joel and Adam's trip was spent in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They stayed at the AHOPE for Children guest house. AHOPE has two children's homes that care exclusively for orphans who are HIV+ and have no extended family to care for them. What AHOPE is doing there is amazing because many orphanages in Ethiopia are overcrowded and most don't accept children that are HIV positive.

Joel and Adam also got to visit AHOPE's Child Development Center. This is a community outreach program that meets the basic needs to enable extended families to keep their orphaned children at home. The children are provided with food, clothing, schooling and medical care so they can thrive despite their family circumstances.

We absolutely LOVE what AHOPE is doing! They are doing all that they can to keep families together, with the last resort being an orphanage. Joel and Adam got to take pictures and interview a lot of the AHOPE staff because we want to highlight their cause on our Get Bridged website once it's up and running.

Would you please considering sponsoring a child at AHOPE and making a difference? Check out their website, it will only take a few minutes of your time.

I can't wait until I can experience my child's birth country for myself! But for now, here's a few pictures from Joel and Adam's time in Ethiopia (for security reasons there are no pictures of the children in AHOPE's orphanages).