I Did NOT Sign Up For This!

No, no, no, no, NO! This is not what was in my plan, saying goodbye...NOPE too hard!
This will probably be my last blog before I head off for the States! Tonight Anna and I stopped by My Father's Houses 7 & 8 to say goodbye! Nope this wasn't easy...we hungout for about an hour before telling them that we had to go. The looks we received when we told them we were going back home to America were not easy. The kids that we met the first week we were here and fell in love with, we are now having to leave behind...with no return in the schedule yet! All I know is that I am leaving them in the loving hands of my Zambian family...how their lives will twist and turn, I no longer have control!
Tomorrow the schedule consists of some last minute shopping, packing, Zambian Night and then more goodbyes...I am not sure how I will hold up with that! I have to say goodbye to the MFH kids that I have gotten closest too and also most of my Zambian Family! Please pray for Anna and I both as we have to leave a home that we found here and return to our old lives...which we are excited to go back to, BUT at the same time are having a hard time leaving this life behind!
Thank you for all of your prayers so far I am so excited to tell everyone about life in Lusaka, Zambia and bring back a love that I have found for this place!
SEE YOU in less than a week! LOVE and THANKS to all of you!

*Flight leaves 2 AM (Central America Time) 9 AM here in Zambia on Wednesday morning - Oct 15th. We will be in the air on and off until around 12:30 PM on Thursday Oct. 16th.
*Goodbyes...not going to be easy!
*Family - Grandma! I LOVE YOU ALL!

In One Week!

Wow...can you believe it? My trip here is coming to a close. In the course of the next week I will be leaving my dream! The place I dreamed of going since I was 12 to come home! Saddness, excitement, and question lies in my future!
Sad to go, sad to not see these faces everyday, sad to get on a 18 hour plane ride accross the ocean, sad for the ending!
Excited to see my family and friends, excited to sleep in my own bed, excited to have that shower in my basement back (sad I know that I'm missing that shower), excited to see my Grandma!
Questioning where I will go from here, how I will respond to seeing eveyone, how well I will come back and adjust to the US time frame, and where God will send me next!

Today Gary, founder and president of EOH, headed home! :( Anna and I both are sad to see him go! We really enjoyed his Starbucks coffee in the morning...what a treat when you have had FAKE coffee for 5 weeks! It was really nice to have him there explaining things to us that we knew we experienced but didn't put it together! Also just to have another American to chat with and joke around with was nice!

This past week we have been helping everyone out as they went through what this next year is going to look like for EOH! Wow is it going to be amazing, I pray that the developments that are planned will be carried out to compleation! They are growing into an amazing organization and I am so happy to see that and be a part of that!

Tonight, Anna and I will be having a sleepover with the girls from MFH 4 & 5! All my friends and my sisters know how much I like sleepovers! I am so excited to hang out with the girls away from home and school, just treat them! No worries I will definatly have pictures!

LOVE YOU ALL AND SEE MOST OF YOU IN LESS THAN A WEEK!!

* Gary's traveling mercies back to the States!
* Anna and my last few days here in our DREAM land!
* My family and their tears...

Musonda Falls

I haven't had to much down time lately...they are keeping me busy! Last week Thursday we(Anna, Cypheen and myself) headed off to Musonda Falls; which is an estimated TWELVE hour bus ride! Anna and I got to know Cypheen quite well, I'm sure he would say the same about us! :) We got there at around 5ish in the morning...when I got there I either had sympathy puffiness (for Lindsey) or it was just from the long trip but I had SWOLLEN feet!

The people up there are amazing! I fell in love with the area! It was a little more like home because it is a very small town, nothing like Lusaka which is the capital of Zambia. We stayed with a young man whose wife is actually in Lusaka preparing for the birth of their first born. It was an amazing home...with a super nice shower I might add! When we woke in the morning you look out the living room window to the river coming from the falls, you can hear the falls in the distance...it was breathtaking! Pastor Mwansa was a treat to meet...he has such a heart for the orphans in that area and is involved in most of their lives. We had a little over 40 updates to get done on Friday and Saturday. At the end of the first day we had only 7 left to do! Anna and I were pretty excited about that because that meant that we would have a better chance of going down to the falls and seeing where some of the kids live.

On Saturday we went over to the church and spent a lot of time singing being as the kids had all the time in the world to come in so they came in sporadically leaving us time for Cypheen to practice his guitar skills and also write a song! BUT we got them all DONE!! How amazing is that, thanks to the Pastor and his devoted helpers we got them all done...that is a first! God really helped us out on that one! So that afternoon we were able to go down to the falls on our way down there we had a mob of kids that came with! It was so beautiful, reminded me of home! That night we hung out with the Pastor and our Host and played some card tricks on them...it was a good time!

The next day was Orphan Sunday...and it was crAzY Amazing! I didn't understand any of the message that was being preached but the praise and worship was awesome! The majority of the church was kids...most of the sponsor kids that we updated came which resulted in both arms being filled along with my lap, which is fine by me! I was touched by one little girl who must have been an angel in disguise...she is sick and nothing but bones; but when that little girl smiles it lights up the world! She was incredibly shy, spoke only Bemba and hid away in the corner but that wasn't going to keep me from her! I greeted her and gave her a hug hoping that half of the love she shown me with just her smile would be reciprocated in that hug! I fell in LOVE with that little girl and even though I don't know her name she is forever engraved in my heart! Please be praying for these kids! Some of them don't have sponsors, some are sick, and some have just lost both their parents...they have gone through more trials in their lives than most people EVER have to go through. I praise God for the JOY that still comes from them!

I want to thank you for all of your prayers for my family and I as we go through this time of loss! I really don't think there is anyway I would still have Joy if it weren't for God sustaining me right now! Really words could not express the amount of thanks that is due!

* Praise God for my Grandpa Slagter's LIFE and that he no longer has pain!

* Pray that my Grandma will be uplifted by God's hand!

* The rest of my family in this time!

* My cousin Dusty as he took off back to Iraq last Wednesday!

* Little baby Sir...boy or girl?!?

* Every little child who finds JOY in their troubled lives and even more so those who don't!

* Thank God the rain held off...it is comming! :) Which means cooler weather! I was able to wear jeans today without sweating like a pig!

* Pray for Gary, president of EOH and founder, as he is out until Friday trying to get things ready for the coming year!