BEKAH'S IN BURKINA!!

Last night Isaak pulled off the greatest surprise e-ver when he brought Bekah home to me in Burkina!! Here's how it went down....

Yesterday Isaak told me he had an embassy worker to pick up from the airport around 9pm. Isaak is frequently picking up workers from the airport so this was totally normal to me. He also told me that some of our missionary friends were flying into Ouaga late that night and would be stopping over to spend the night before they head out the following morning. Also totally normal, as we did have good friends flying into town that night and they frequently crash at our home.

So I got the guest room all ready, made up the beds nice and tidy and made sure there were fresh towels laid out and what not.

I then settled down on the couch to finish reading my novel when Isaak left the house.

About an hour later I hear the back kitchen door start to rattle as if someone was trying to come in the house. I always keep the back door locked because we don't use it often so no one could come in. I didn't hear the gate open nor the car drive in, so I thought the guard for some weird reason might be trying to come into the house. I put my book down and went to the front door and look out, and I see Isaak come through the patio and approach me, and then behind him I notice this other person walk up who looked familiar wearing glasses. At first glance, in a split of a second, I thought it was the embassy gal Isaak was picking up and I half wondered why he brought her to our house so late instead of her hotel...and then the mysterious person squatted down real quick and tried to hide on my patio step...as if that would conceal her! And then the screaming began!!!!

I...OH MY GOSH....I THOUGHT I MIGHT DIE FROM SURPRISE AND JOY!!!

There was Bekah standing in my patio!!! My Bekah! One of my most favorite people on this entire planet was just standing in front of me!! I think I had a small undetectable heart attack when I realized who I was seeing...standing on my patio!

I was shaking. Screaming. Crying. Hugging. Laughing. It was absolutely glorious.

Still...remembering that moment just leaves me crippled with joy.

*It must be said that Isaak is the worst person in the world for keeping secrets. Until this surprise, I literally thought him incapable of keeping secrets. He always gives himself away. The suspense and excitement is just too much for him, and if he doesn't give himself away by acting weird and suspicious, he always ends up telling me. So, the fact that I had NO idea what he was planning, the fact that he was so smooth and everything happened flawlessly makes this even greater. Well, happened almost flawlessly....he tried coming in the back door hoping to surprise me with Bekah coming into the house....so I kind of ruined his big reveal. But whatev'! It didn't spoil anything! Love that he planned this to bless me!

I went to bed that night saying over and over and over again to Isaak, "I can't believe Bekah is in our house!!!!"

The girls weren't sleeping yet, and when I started screaming outside their window they rushed out of their room to see the commotion. Oh their little hearts! They were almost as overjoyed as I was! We absolutely adore Bekah! But oddly, despite the fact that I have and always will call Bekah "Bekah"...the girls immediately and unprompted started calling her "Rebekah". So sweet. Just love them.

When she came in she immediately dumped an entire Kroger's onto our floor. She brought us popsicles, Doritoes, tortillas, salsa, bottles of Ranch dressing, like a 12 pack of her favorite local beer for Isaak, Peete's coffee, boxes of Special K cereal, cans of refried beans, Krispy Kreme donuts! A new coloring book for Marvelly and a drawing pad for Sydaleigh. I mean....no words. No words!!

It was just crazy.

We are blessed. How she blesses us. She flies half way around the world after being home for less than a day because she was in PA just two days before due to the passing of her grandpa....and she shows up at my house in Burkina Faso.

God is good to bring a friend into my life like her. She blesses me beyond words. How I love that lady.

I'm just, bursting with joy!

I.CAN.NOT.BE.LIEVE.IT!!!! CAN NOT BELIEVE IT!!!

MY DEAREST BEKAH IS IN BURKINA!!!!!!

BURKINA!!!!! Still, total shock!

I just look at her and shake my head. It's too much. Bekah is here, with us, for the next twelve days!!

Oh happy day!!!!!!

A hard day.

I feel like I need to write. Another compulsive need to do something.

Maybe that will help my blood to come down to a simmer, instead of the rapid boil it's been at for the past few hours.

When I get stressed or anxious I move. I do. I busy myself. I clean or cook or organize. I do something. So as to not sit idle. Moving like this leads me to pray. It gives me a release for what is building and has no other outlet. I am a mover by nature, anyway. So typically it's hard to tell when something is wrong or I am working through something internal...because I act out in the same way that I always do. Moving. Doing. Listening to loud music. Quiet and reflective. It's how God wired me.

I already passed some of the evening baking so now I will sit and type.

But I don't really know what to say, or how to articulate the struggle and jumbled up mess of emotions and thoughts.

I need to try.....

since moving to Burkina I have been in a constant state of learning. Recognizing that life is drastically different here, I have proceeded with the grace of God to have a teachable heart. To hold off judgment. To see. Observe. Learn. Understand. I have not perfected this pursuit by any means, but with the Lord's encouragement I have made it my personal goal while living here to let grace, humility and understanding go before me, that I may come to a deeper love and understanding of God's people and culture here.

When faced with extreme pain and injustice I have been able to step back and hold off judgement. The people here are up against insurmountable odds, and who am I to cast judgment on their decisions made out of desperation and suffering? A desperation and suffering unlike I have ever known. Who am I...to throw a stone?

When mothers dump their newborn babies down pit latrines.
When families refuse the acceptance of a child born out of wedlock and the mother is forced to give up her child.
When a mother abandons her babies after birth and leaves them to die on a cement slab in an abandoned shack.

The details may be different....but every story is the same of the children who end up in orphanages here....

abandonment.

Regardless of the reasons for their abandonment....they've been abandoned. And I've heard just about every horrible and sad story of how different children have ended up in orphanages here...and each time my heart breaks a little bit more. It breaks from the Father's love. And up until today, I have been able to approach the harsh realities surrounding child abandonment with an understanding, a deep grief, and an acceptance that life is more complicated here and there are no easy answers. There is nothing easy about Burkina. If these past 11 months have taught me anything it is that there are no easy answers. Nothing is cut and dry. Human suffering is more immense and happening on a greater scale than I ever realized.

This past year has required more prayer, surrendering, and willingness to change than I knew possible...and in the face of it all I have allowed my Savior to strip me bare and teach me what it means to enter into a brokenness I have never experienced until now. To teach me to feel and hurt and cry over humanities pain..but yet withhold judgemnt and comdennation in the face of what is different and hard and painful, and offer grace and mercy in return.

Until today.

Today, grace and mercy seem impossible.
Today, I have picked up my stone and toed the line.
Today, I do not want to understand the motives or reasons behind the actions.
Today, I found that forgiveness is easy when you are detached from the ones who need it.
Today, a righteous anger burned up in me. Or, at the moment it is righteous in my own reasoning.
Today, it got personal.

Today, I want to throw my rock. 

I have known all along his history. I have been made aware of most of the factors surrounding his arrival at the orphanage. I accepted it. It's sadly no different than all the other kids I know who live there. It is never easy and always filled with grief, but I accepted the hard and painful surrounding his circumstances. I accepted what is.

Until today, when I read his official home study...and the reality of his young life hit me like a ton of bricks. And I went from empathetic and sensitive to outraged. In a blink. And the notion of accepting this and allowing myself to understand the "why's" is not such an appealing thought right now. Today, I would rather be angry.

The saying I have kept at the forefront of my brain since moving here..."it's not wrong, it's just different"....has no impact on me tonight. Tonight, I can not accept that it is merely different. Tonight....I can only see what is wrong. And tonight, I would rather throw my rock against the injustices because it holds the deluded prospect of righting what is wrong in my eyes.

Today, the realities of life here have brought me to my knees once again. My oh my this is getting to be a mighty familiar place....

Paint peeling round two.

I'm really hoping this slab 'o paint doesn't fall on me during the night tonight. Seen as how the last piece just narrowly missed me, I don't have high hopes for being spared from this much larger piece. Seen as how that's my side of the bed it's hanging over.

So in the words of Happy Gilmore, "Why didn’t you go home?! That’s your home! Are you too good for your home?! Home being the ceiling which you are suppose to stay stuck to, instead of sloffing off as if you were dead skin! Answer me you stinkin' slab of paint! Answer me!"

 

Our first 4th of July in Burkina

Friends. Food. and Fireworks. The best three ingredients for a great 4th of July! What a fun memorable night!

There was plenty of food. Along with the traditional flag cake we make every year.

 Plenty of friends.

And plenty of fireworks. No 4th of July celebration is complete for Isaak without fireworks!(that fire stick Marvi is holding is what they put on cakes here! Go big or go home apparently!)

We have learned that Burkina fireworks are....questionable. It's always a good idea to have a place to take cover.....because they can not be trusted to do what they packaging says....

case in point...the one Isaak is lighting up above was suppose to putter around on the ground and shoot into the air.

notice Isaak and Joel and currently not standing there anymore. Because granted yes, the firework did putter and go into the air...however, I would not consider jumping around and blasting forcefully around in circles 'puttering' and then...

the thing blasted off over our side wall and up onto our neighbors third story roof. And then our neighbors complained and we got a call from the security officer telling us that fireworks are illegal here because it scares people into thinking there is a riot or coup happening. Right. Well, funny in a not funny way that I live in a place where I can actually see the logic in that...

 And as a special bonus to end our night...we got a thunderstorm complete with hail!

Some of our friends who have lived here almost a decade have never witnessed hail in Burkina before. And Marvelly, finding the idea of pieces of ice falling out of the sky quite fascinating, bolted out of the patio and ran into the rain...getting drenched in the process. They had a ball!

Fun night. Great memories. Blessed by the family of friends we have here to celebrate times like this with! Happy Independence Day!

Boxes, summer movies, breaking the brakes, and other random thoughts....

-I have the most fantastic friends. They bless me. I received many care packages in the mail today....filled with everything from band aids, pony tale holders, kid magazines, colored pencils, girl scout cookies, coloring books, playdoh, saltine crackers...and little boy clothes. =) And without fail....every. single. time I receive something in the mail...I cry. It can not be helped. Not over the gifts....but over the people who send them. Jesus is good to us.

-I heard an interesting story at church on Sunday from a missionary here, he shared this with the congregation.... "I never knew this until recently when a friend shared it with me...but whenever a midget dies in Burkina their body must be buried on the land of the Mossi tribe chief. So people will travel from all over Burkina to bury these people on the Chief's land. And due to animist beliefs....they believe that it will not rain again until a midget's body has been buried in the ground. I heard this on a day when I was told that a midgets body was being transported to the capital for burial. As I drove down the road on my moto, I saw all these heavy rain clouds in the sky, but no rain. So I just began to pray out loud that God would send the rain. And all of a sudden...it started to rain!" And then another woman stood up and said, "Funny you should mention that! I felt God plague my heart that day to pray for rain too! And then some family members called and asked how they could be praying for us...and I asked them to pray for rain that day. And then it started raining!"

He sends the rain. He, sends the rain. He alone holds the power. Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus sustains all things by the power of His word. Jesus does.

Praying that as the rain came down that day it would have washed their animist beliefs away with it! Amen!

-I love living here.

-With the sheer overload my brain has been on since moving here last August, being in survival mode and culture shock for almost a year now...I decided that since we weren't going back to the States for a break this summer, that I was going to have to find a way to have little breaks while here. And being the monster movie lover that I am, I decided that every week I would download one movie to watch during summer break as a way of forcing myself to sit and be still and have some brain down time. I started making a list of movies I've never seen and wanted to watch, totally random stuff like The Scent of a Woman, Nicolas Nickleby, Faith Like Potatoes, Evelyn, I am David, An Unfinished Life, The Painted Veil, Madison, Out of Africa, Oscar and Lucinda....just a mish mash of movies. This is small, but it's been such fun! It gives me something to look forward to doing each week and a way to have a nice two hour break from reality and engage in something light!

I also have a list of books I'm hoping to get read before the end of summer time as well. So between my books and my movie list, and a much needed slightly slower paced life for the next 8 weeks, I am getting a nice little "breather" after all. So thankful to Jesus for small delights!

-I am doing a summer bible study through the book of James. I just finished week 1 and I'm loving it!

 -I think Amira is finally over 5 lbs which means we can finally get her spayed now......
Halle-feakin'-lujah! That dang kitten has gone into heat more times than I care to count already! She just walks and lays around with her back side stuck way up in the air...and I am gettin' tired of seeing that side of her!

-some of our absolute dearest friends here moved back to the States three weeks ago for a little over a year for a much needed home assignment. There are hardly words to express how much Megan and Matt came to be loved by us in such a short amount of time. It was one of those quickly deep friendships that only God could have orchestrated. We spent every nearly every weekend together and dinner nights during the week, and we sorely miss their presence already. And we are counting down the days until they come back!

-I may have driven home with my emergency brake on a few weeks ago. And as a result of what I may have possibly done our brakes are now grinding down on each other to the metal whenever I have to stop when driving. Oh my gosh, it's like listening to nails on a chalk board but worse...and louder. I'm very glad my little brother Jordan was not here this time to laugh at me. And yell at me. Because I may have done this in high school as well. Thankfully Isaak just breathed real deep when I told him what I did.

He will be replacing the brakes on Friday. I wrecked 'em good. (In all fairness though...it is so easy to forget the emergency brake is on. Really, it is. You'd think the car would have a harder time driving or something with the brakes on...but I always seem to drive on them just fine! Companies should really consider having something along the lines of a horn blast at the driver if they attempt to drive away with the brakes on...instead of some practically invisible red blinking light on the dash board. That just doesn't cut it for me...)

But whatever.

And, just for the fun of ending this post with a pic....here is a group shot of some of our gang who got together for Matt and Megan's (who are tucked way in the back right) going away party before they left. Good times, great friends!

Sydaleigh the artist and the author.

From the time Sydaleigh was just a wee toddler, she told me that she wanted to be an artist when she grew up. She had an affinity towards drawing from an early age, and over these past few years it hasn't waned. But within the past year, she has broadened her skills from drawing and started creating books as well.

She draws. And she writes. It is a passion of hers.

And when I say making books...I mean I have stacks and stacks of computer and notebook paper stapled together of all her stories. And I do mean stacks!

 Everyday she is either starting a new book, or writing in one she already started. Every. single. day.

This is her newest creation from over the weekend. She is writing a book, a true story, documenting her newest adventures learning to ride a horse. She told me that once it is completed she wants to turn it into a real book...like the one Mimi made. =)

 I told her that if she finishes all the pages she's stapled together with both words and pictures...then I will try to find a way to turn it into a real book. Her eyes got all big and bright with delight when I told her that. I guess I better start researching a way to do that now.... =)

We go through massive amounts of paper each week, but it's a small price to pay to see Sydaleigh engaged in something that she is passionate about and brings her so much joy.

I love this part about parenting. Where you get to sit back and watch God develop passions and gifts and callings in your children's lives and see how they play out over time.

And right now, in this time of Sydaleigh's life...she is convinced she is going to be both an artist, and an author. And I will do my best to encourage her in that dream....