Turning 150 million into 1

"The orphan care statistics are tremendously large and often times overwhelming - and if we're honest, hard to grasp and therefore far too easy to dismiss. Perhaps that's why only 2% of the population has adopted. We must learn to scale it down into proportions people can understand and wrap their minds, their hearts and ultimately their hands around. The call to care for orphans doesn't mean you have to save them ALL; it does, however, mean you can change the life of at least ONE. Start with coming alongside one, loving one, caring for one and making sure that at least one knows they are valued and treasured and that everything is going to be ok. Start with one. Turn 700 into 1. Turn 150 million into 1. Turn 31,000 into 1. When you know the story of one, it becomes much more difficult to discard the truth of the whole.*"-Jason Johnson

one. Amie.

I have had the immense privilege since moving to Burkina of learning the stories of many "ones". It's amazing how quickly statistics can become personal when you put a face to them. It's amazing how quickly the statistics break your heart because you now know children that make up those numbers.

Before moving to the other side of the world, I thought I cared about orphans. But I had no idea. I'd sit in church and hear about the need for orphan care around the world and nod my head in agreement, I'd watch Compassion commercials and see the need for sponsors because children were dying in the streets and feel sadness and pity, I'd listen to stories of friends who brought children home from other countries and think that I cared. 

But I had no idea what it meant to truly care about orphans. Not in the way that breaks you.

God cleared that up real quick, let me tell ya.

I care now. And I'm not talking about the kind of care that compelled me to do something special a couple times a year on behalf of someone else so that I could ultimately feel good about myself and say, "hey, look what I did! Way to go me!"and then go back to my regular life and not give a second thought to those living outside of my circle until next time a cool project came up. 

I am talking about the kind of caring that makes you physically shake with grief and pain when you see another person hurting. The level of caring that makes you weep in the middle of the night over the conditions that orphans and millions of others less fortunate have to endure. I'm talking about the kind of caring that keeps you up at night, that crowds your thoughts during the day, that follows you everywhere you go.

I'd seen people, known people, read about people who cared for others on this level. And I was jealous for what they felt....because I knew I didn't have it. 

But I wanted to. I wanted to be broken. I wanted to care in a way that transformed my heart. I wanted to care in a way that transformed the way I saw. I wanted to care in a way that transformed the way I acted, the way I thought....the way I loved.

And I have been. It was messy and painfully hard but I have been broken and transformed and continue to be, by the relentless pursuit of One God, and the lives of every one I meet. 

One. Rosalee.

It's because I know the story of this one that I care about her life as if she were my own. It's because I know the story of this one that I can shout and jump and celebrate praising God because Rosalees finally learned how to walk!! After almost a year....she has discovered the will to move!

Hallelujah for a God who doesn't keep us where we're at. Hallelujah to a God who plants in our hearts the will to move...to move closer to Him, to move away from a life of comfort, to move away from a life of selfish pursuits, to move away from a life indifference. May my family and I forever continue taking steps in the direction of the One, who gives us a love to care for other ones. 

"When you know the story of one, it becomes much more difficult to discard the truth of the whole." -Jason Johnson

Move. Learn the story of one.  

An aneurism in the making.

After thirteen years of being married and cooking on my own, I'd like to think that I am finally a decent cook.  But I certainly didn't start out as such. In the beginning of our marriage me and Isaak lived on a steady diet of beans and rice, shells and cheese macaroni, and boiled chicken. When I exhausted my three go-to recipes for the week we filled the remaining days meals with Digornio pizzas and cereal.

Ahhh, those were the days. I coulda ate that way forever.

Even though I was perfectly content with this food arrangement, being the die hard Digornio, cereal, and shells and cheese lover that I am....Isaak was needing a bit more variety after three years.

Sadly, I just couldn't make him see the benefits of eating cereal for dinner so often. Even after many exhausted arguments of trying to make him see that you can have variety with cereal! You can have corn, rice, oats, whole wheat, cinnamon, marshmallow, and chocolate. Endless variety I say! But, for all my efforts, the man actually holds the belief that his life doesn't revolve around cereal.

I can't fathom where such a notion comes from.

So, being the good wife that I am, I started branching out and trying new recipes. And after a while I started to get more competent in the cooking and baking department-or, at least I could follow a decent recipe, and was able to offer up something more interesting than boxed macaroni or cereal.

However, despite all my years of progress in the kitchen there has been one thing that I simply cannot master cooking.....

.....the lasagna noodle.

I've never, not. once, in my adult life been successful at cooking them.

It's sad really. To be beaten by a noodle.

I should have just sworn off lasagna making years ago after so many failed attempts, and let the lasagna noodle win. But I am stubborn, and I have these moments where I go temporarily insane at least twice a year and for some reason lasagna sounds really good and I think to myself, "hey, I'll attempt to make lasagna again," perhaps subconsciously thinking that my success as a chef and a homemaker is somehow dependent on my ability to make it....kinda like meatloaf (which I can proudly say I have conquered).

Except every time I attempt to make lasagna, I think the end result will be different. But of course it never is. I don't know if that's insanity, but it definitely be stupidity, that's for sure!

And what is the end result? THIS! This, is what always happens to me when I attempt to cook lasagna! The noodles get stuck together, and then I have to rip them apart and I end up with strips and bits of noodles! (and this is a picture of the good pieces! I've got a whole pot to the left that I couldn't even salvage)

I just don't get it. What the heck is up with these noodles? It all seems easy enough. I mean, I can cook spaghetti noodles with some amount of competency. You boil the water. Put in the noodles. Drain them. Continue with the recipe. That's how noodles work. Every noodle on the planet except for these blasted mutant ones that I'm pretty sure were invented by Satan himself ( after all, he is the master deceiver, and what is more deceiving than these seemingly innocent noodles!) I really don't see another explanation for them. They are evil.

I don't understand what I keep doing wrong! I've tried everything!

Or, maybe it's not me. Maybe it's them. Maybe the noodles are conspiring against me. They want me to fail. Maybe, the lasagna noodle is friends with my cereal and they have determined to teach me a lesson by being impossible to make so that the only option left to me at the end of the night is to eat cereal for supper! This is why I shoulda stuck my ground all those years ago and brainwashed Isaak until he loved cereal as much as me.

Or maybe it is me. Seen as how everyone else can seem to make these aneurisms in the making just fine. All I know is that I got so stinkin' mad at those blasted noodles the other night I was thiiis close to chuckin' them across the room. But I knew that would be wrong, so I mustered up maybe the greatest effort of self restraint known to man and I simply envisioned myself throwing the noodles against the wall.

So this time, I am sticking my ground, and I have sworn off making lasagna ever again. It's just not worth the impending aneurism that is sure to explode if I attempt such a ludicrous and raging inducing meal again. And, I don't want to scare the children when I am forced to throw the pot of noodles through the window.

Therefore from this day forward....lasagna noodles are dead to me.

Santa vs. Disney

A very earnest conversation me and the girls had a few weeks ago........ =)


On the last day of school for Christmas break Sydaleigh came home from school and shared with me a pivotal conversation she had on the bus earlier that day.

She told me that she was talking to a girl friend about Christmas and during their conversation she had mentioned that she did not believe in Santa Claus and it was her parents (us) who brought her gifts, not Santa. (I may have forgotten to tell her to tread lightly in this area to not dash the hopes of other kids....whoopsy.)

Upon hearing this news, her friend got quite offended, being the avid Santa believe that she is, and went on to inform Sydaleigh that she did not have Christmas joy because she did not believe in Santa Claus.

As Sydaleigh said this last sentence she got quite angry and offended and started to cry, saying, "She said I don't have Christmas joy!" Seriously, the nerve!

I went on to tell her that the next time she has a conversation like this to tell the girl, or whoever it may be, that your Christmas joy comes from Jesus, not Santa. And that He is the reason we celebrate Christmas and the one we choose to believe in.

I also attempted to explain that some parents just teach their kids about Santa as a fun Christmas tradition, buuuut....she took just as great offense to that saying, "But their parents are LYING to them!!! They are lying to their kids! He isn't real!!"

Truuuue. Yes. But I said it's kinda the same as you believing in fairies. (Here's where I almost had a heart attack).....she said, "I know fairies aren't real."

WHAT?!!?! 

W. hat did you say?! 

Fairies aren't real?! Excuse me?! Don't you know what it says in Peter Pan?! That every time you say a fairy isn't real a fairy falls down dead! Quick! Clap your hands! CLAP YOUR HANDS I SAY!!!!! 

The girls just erupt in laughter.

What about when we went to Disney world and Tinkerbell flew during the fireworks? Huh, huh?!

Mom, Tinkerbell wasn't there that night. 

Oh yeah, well, that's because her wings were tired and she needed to take a night off silly! I suppose you are going to tell me you don't believe in mermaids either?! And what about princesses? Or talking fish?! Or Peter Pan? (I am not to be grouped into that group of parents Sydaleigh was referring to who "lies" to their kids, because I am still under the impression that all things Disney related are totally real, and I refuse to believe otherwise =) )


Marvelly had joined us at this time, and both girls just looked at each other with these amusing smiles on their faces, and they said, laughing, "okay mom, we still believe in fairies and mermaids."

Dang right you do!!! (thank goodness for kids who humor me!)

Disney wins again. Take THAT Santa!

What is the difference you say? Well, for starters, Santa is a creepy fat man who stalks into your house while you're sleeping. Um, that's enough right there. Invader danger y'all.

While Disney on the other hand is magical and beautiful with good triumphing over evil and there are adventures and a thousand ways to suspend disbelief and use your imagination to enter into creative and fantastical worlds.

I never want my kids to forget how to suspend disbelief and be silly and whimsical and use their imaginations no matter how much they "know" somethings not real. I always want them to treasure the kid in them always. 

And then Sydaleigh and Marvelly went on to build a fairy house out of cardboard and decorate it with leaves and flower petals. It had a little door and window and all their fairies could sit inside.

So, the moral of this conversation....joy comes from Jesus, and Disney trumps Santa. 

Good life lessons right there. =)

Clean water for Burkina

Here is a touching video of Burkina Faso, made to raise awareness for the need for clean water.

 http://weareenvision.com/semester-campaign/envision-water/

It is beautifully made and so aptly depicts a great need facing this country. It highlights the work of dear friends of ours who have committed their lives to live and work here all in the hope of bringing clean water to those who don't have any. The well drilling organization is Friends in Action, and they are having a life changing impact on people in this country.

Watch. And see through the lens the land we now call home, and check out the links on the page if you feel led to help.

This is one nasty virus

This is day four that both me and Marvelly are still battling fevers from some monster virus. We feel terrible. I have never had a fever for so long before. Thankfully Sydaleigh recovered this weekend and was able to go back to school on Monday, whereas me and Marvi girl have been laid up at home.

Marvelly is going major stir crazy. She loves school so much I think it's hurting her more to stay away from her friends than this sickness is.

As for me, it feels like my skin has been rubbed down with sand paper. It hurts to move, to not move, to breathe. My skin just hurts.

We also have nasty coughs, but I'd take a cough over this fever and skin pain any day.

I'm very ready for us to not be sick with the plague anymore.

I'm going to lay down for a bit, and then I'm going to muster up the strength to make some fudge. Because I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that fudge makes fevers go away. =)

Random life stuff lately

-Isaak recently started making beef jerky with his dehydrator. It's been a raging hit here among our friends. Apparently people from all countries like beef jerky....not just Americans. =) He's been super into it, experimenting with different flavors and bringing his batches to church to hand out for "testing", to which all the men give grunts of approval.

-Me and Isaak had a date night last Friday. First time in a while! The girls went home with some friends after school and I was told to pick them up late...so we went to a new Turkish restaurant that opened up recently. And it was fantastic! You felt that you were in another country. This is easily the nicest restaurant we have been to here. We sat around eating and talking for two hours before we left. We got to talk and dream and make fun future plans that may or may not ever happen, but it's always fun to dream together!

And then on Sunday we went to another new restaurant that opened with Mike and Amy called Chic, which was also very nice and the workers were all wearing hot dog hats! I felt like I walked into a Mr. Hot Dog, or Waffle House, even though they don't wear hot dog hats at Waffle House, it still reminded me of that somehow. And not that I really care about this, being the vegetarian that I am...but they had "American" fried chicken on the menu (as the waiter said) which some with us said was pretty good!

-This week we received the first bit of encouraging news concerning our adoption in six months! A tiny bit of progress was made and we are rejoicing over it. Still a ways to go...but this bit of news has given us some much needed encouragement. Glory!

-It is currently strawberry season again in Burkina. I bought my first two kilos a couple weeks ago and we have all been relishing the joy of eating such a short lived food here. Even Sydaleigh has come to enjoy strawberries. They are quite expensive but after they've been on the market for a few weeks, the prices are much more reasonable, well, reasonable for us. I paid $6 for a kilo this week, down from $10 the week before. After we wash, bleach, rewash, and cut each one open to make sure no worms are present we freeze half for later and use the rest to eat. I hope to freeze a bit to hold us over for a little while after the season is done. Because, once they're gone, they're gone, and you have to wait another year before you see them again. So we make sure to freeze as much as we can.

-It rained today. I woke up at 6am to the sound of thunder and then rain shortly following. For much of the day it has rained. It is very out of the ordinary to have rain this time of year and when it happens the people call it "Mango rains". It was such a welcome relief. All the doors and windows have been opened today and the house is currently filled with one of my favorite things....humidity. Ah, I love humidity, it feels so good. I might be the only person in the world who feels this way, and that's okay!

-The harmattan season this year has been particularly bad. This time of year in Burkina is called Harmattan. The harmattan is a very dry warm wind that blows down from the Sahara Desert from December through February. In December the wind is cool, but it gradually gets warmer and warmer as the hot season creeps closer. But always, always, during the harmattan season it is horribly dusty.

(They nickname this time of year meningitis season, because meningitis blows in on the wind here too, and this is the time of year that people contract that sickness. In the U.S. we have flu season, here they have meningitis season. Both pas bon.)

Anyways, the harmattan makes it incredibly dusty because it hasn't rained in months, so everything is dry and because there are very few paved roads here there is a lot of dust that gets blown around. I go outside and instantly inhale dust. I can't go out without sunglasses because the wind is blowing so much and picking up so much dust, it can make it hard to see. We were driving back from Yako before Christmas and drove past a couple dust tornadoes. We could see all the people in the little villages running away from them, to no avail. I will be grateful when this season passes, even if it does mean that the hot season is here instead. I'd rather deal with the intense heat than the dust.

And this is why the rains are such a welcome relief....they help bring the dust down from the sky and everything it's sitting on to clean the air for a bit. 

-I started going to women's bible study again. I wasn't able to go last semester because we were visiting the States when the groups started meeting and I didn't want to start a study late. But, I'm back in it now. My group is doing B.M.'s Patriarch study, and I LOVE it. I love this time period in scripture, it's one of my favorites. But I particularly love the ladies I get to study with. They are some very godly women that I respect and look up to very much.

And out from our first meeting, two women (one new to living in Burkina and the other has lived here almost 20 years) inquired about serving in orphanages, and they were put in touch with me.

-I dented my toe nail. Kinda big too. I'm not sure how one goes about denting their toe nail and not remember how it happened, but since I have major toe issues, I'm not that surprised.

And the reason that my toes are even painted is because I had some friends over for a girl's morning last week.

And we did our nails....in mixing bowls, buckets and pots. =) A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!


I could keep going, but the girls just went to bed and a bowl of ice cream is calling my name along with the movie The Butler that we downloaded for this weekend. Ready to sit down with Isaak and relax....even though that's pretty much what we've been doing all day.

Dropping like flies.....

Yesterday when Sydaleigh came home from school, I took her temperature and saw that she had a fever. This morning upon waking up I noticed Marvelly looked a little off, and discovered that she too has a fever. One hour after that I started feeling bad and the thermometer indicated I had a fever as well.

Now all three of us ladies are sick.

This latest bit of sickness is keeping our record strong of someone in the house being sick at least every three weeks since moving here.

Oye.

That's a lot of time spent being sick.

I'm especially bummed it fell on this weekend since this morning we were suppose to attend the formal opening of a hospital that was built by some missionary friends of ours here. We even had special clothes made for the event, which will have to be worn at a later time I guess.

Sickness is never convenient, that's for sure. At least Isaak is still going strong, praying he doesn't catch whatever we all have.

New Years Eve getaway to Banfora

For New Years Eve we took to the road and headed to the southwest corner of Burkina Faso to two little towns, Orodara and Banfora, near the Mali border, for three nights and two days of fun.

Every year a number of families from the missionary community head out there after Christmas for a little getaway and youth retreat. And since Isaak has been working with the youth group this year we went along to share in the festivities.

And we had a GREAT time! We had a lot of fun. The girls had a lot of fun. There were so many people there that we truly love and enjoy spending time with, and the girls had friends there to play with as well.

We went with 50 other people (there were 54 of us in all) and stayed at a Mennonite compound in Orodara. I have learned so much since moving here, and one of those things is that there is a decent sized Mennonite community out here. Really, who'd a thought?!

Well, this Mennonite property had three buildings, two for sleeping and another with a kitchen and common area. The youth stayed in one building with some leaders, and the other building had rooms for the rest of us.

It was a crazy amount of people in a small area, but no one seemed to mind. It reminded me of my Grandma O'Brien's house when all the family would get together there for Thanksgiving, you just found a spot, on the floor or outside, wherever there was room. It was great. I love a room filled with a booming chorus of voices and people scurrying about in varying activities. 

There was even a playground.....Burkina style of course. =) Really, what is better than a bunch of massive tires stacked on each other for climbing?! The kids played here pretty much non-stop.

The rest of their time was spent climbing trees and playing with the chickens....because everywhere we go there are chickens. The girls would wake up at sunrise and run out of our room in their pj's to go and play...you really don't need a lot for entertainment here.....

We left early Sunday morning caravaning it with three other cars, and drove straight there, which was around a seven hour drive.

*let me pause for a little ditty to further document the fall of my pride*

It's inevitable that you are going to have to stop and pee at some point on your journey. There are no toilets to stop at on the side of the road, so if you've got to pee, you need to make like the locals and pee in the bush. Which we do. No biggie. Except (this is very important), you need to keep in mind that while using the bathroom in the bush, you are ne.ver as alone as you think you are, even when you're in the middle of what appears to be no where.

Case in point....there was a large group of us traveling together so to make sure that I got out of eye's view of everyone, I walked over to what appeared to be a remote area behind some concealing bushes. I was in squat mode (keepin' it real here, I could be lady like and withhold that tidbit but, that is the only way to pee and everyone knows it)....when out of no where I hear this very loud and familiar banging sound coming up right behind me and I turn around, with a look on my face that can only be described as sheer panic and mortification, and out of no where a donkey cart filled with people comes driving up next to me! Oh. my. gawsh!!! BAAAH!!!!!! I tried to scramble and cover myself back up real quick, but it was to no avail. There's nothing like knowing you bared your back side to a bunch of unsuspecting Africans out for a nice drive on their donkey cart to bring your pride right back down again. Just when I was starting to regain some of that lost dignity, Africa struck again! Oh, the situations we find ourselves in here. Good times. Goooood times.

This will not be the last laugh Burkina has on our behalf while on this trip.....

For the first day in a half in Orodara we spent most of our time just relaxing and hanging out. There was a volleyball net set up for the kids to play, while the adults sat around talking, reading, napping, cooking.

We spent a lot of time playing games with the teens. And may I just say, I mopped the floor with everyone winning 7 Wonders! Whoop! We love that game...new favorite! 

Chilling with some of my favorite ladies! Oh how I love these gals! We were trying to eliminate some of our paleness, also to no avail.

Then bright and early on the morning of New Year's Eve, which is known in our house first and foremost as Sydaleigh's birthday, a very special surprise was in store. We have a birthday tradition in our home where on the morning of the kids birthday we wake them up to breakfast in bed, along with balloons and signs and cards for them to read before they start their day. But, not being at home, I tried to plan for everything to celebrate Syd's birthday on the road by bringing a frozen pre-baked cake that I made before we left along with frozen frosting and all of her gifts-pre wrapped. But I forgot to bring paper and craft supplies to make her some signs and little love notes to wake up to.

Well, apparently the night before, after I went to bed, (and I went to bed at midnight mind you) Isaak enlisted the help of Lydia (the girls favorite favorite babysitter who sadly moved to Germany this year for school but her family's still here so she was back in town for Christmas break!) and many of the other teens to decorate the dining room with sign and notes for Sydaleigh's birthday the next morning. So when my newly minted 8 year old woke up....she had a trail of love notes waiting for her after all......

The main door and three walls were adorned with notes, pictures and bible verses celebrating Sydaleigh's life and blessing her on another year ahead. I can't even describe what this does to an 8 year old's heart, shoot, what it did to my heart!! It is significant. =)

She was thrilled. And shocked. And I was too. I had no idea Isaak had the kids do this for her. What a great man! Every time I look at these pictures I just cry. It was an incredible gift. =)

After breakfast all fifty of us packed up and hit the road down to Banfora which is about a 45 minute drive south. This was our view for most of the way. It's like fog, but not. =) Just lots, and lots, of dust. Man it's really dusty here.

Eventually we could see again, and as always, it was a beautiful. Maybe not beautiful in a way that many people would deem beautiful, but I have come to deeply love the landscape here. Driving through the countryside and seeing this railroad track extending through the middle of the great savannah, I couldn't help but think of the movie The Ghost and the Darkness. I felt like I was back on this continent in the late 1800's during the big railroad boom. Seems like so very little has changed since then.

The Domes de Fabedougou. A cluster of random rock formations. Isaak is standing at the top in the middle. They look steep, and they are as you can see from the kids climbing with their bare hands along the side, but in many parts there are natural steps leading up to the tops so both girls were able to climb on their own in most places.

Marvelly still managed to hitchhike a ride on Isaak's back in some of the higher steeper parts.

Me and my girl.

Beautiful scenery.

Standing tall!!

My little adventurers.

After climbing for a while we stopped to eat some lunch. There sure were a lot of girlfriends along on the trip. There never seems to be a shortage of girls no matter where we live!

After lunch at the domes we set out to the cascades. Our route? This pipe.

Above is a picture of the pipe from the top of the domes looking out across the savannah. We started on it here and followed it way way way out there, a very long way.

Here is a view looking back to the domes where we started walking....this is about 1/3 of the way....still a long way to walk....

Me, Isaak and Marvi were the last ones. We fell behind as Marvelly walks at a slower pace, but we made it there in about an hour. =) Sydaleigh barreled on down ahead with the other kids and parents and left us in her dust. That girl just runs to adventure. Whereas Marvelly more walks to it, at her own leisurely pace. Both ways are perfectly acceptable. =)

Once you get to the end of the pipeline going straight, it turns left and continues running past as far as the eye can see. We were so far behind everyone else we couldn't see anyone anymore!

Eventually we arrived at the cascades (thankfully Abby came back for us and showed us the off-pipe hike we then needed to take through the bush to find the falls!), and we arrived just in time to see Sydaleigh take her first jump off the little waterfall with Lydia! Isaak quickly swam across the little river to the other side to follow suit! The water was chilly, but everyone at least dipped their toes in. The girls had their swim suits under their clothes, but I just went in the water in my clothes. It felt good just to sit along the banks int he water with Marvelly after that hike! We did end up getting cold so we sat out on the rocks until we dried and warmed back up again....it took about five minutes. =)

To my surprise, this was not our last stop, we had to finish hiking to the main falls, The Karfiguela Waterfalls. You can't swim in these as the water plummets off the cliffs to more rocks below. But we again climbed down a steep rocky ledge to take our pictures by the falls.

(The rock ledge directly in front of me in the picture below on the left was full of bats. You could hear them flying around and squeaking loudly. Bleh.) 

Eeeeek!!! Creeping closer to the ledge so I can see down below. I have never liked the expression, "don't look down!" I have discovered that when standing from great heights, "looking down" is one of the best parts.

It was quite a beautiful vista. I wish I had thought of it at the time, I totally would have started singing Circle of Life and had me a Lion King moment up on the rock ledge. Pretty amazing. There are many images in my head that I think of when thinking about Africa...and looking out over this ledge, I just couldn't help but smile and think, "this is Africa". This wild beautiful untamed expanse of land stretched out before me.

After staying here for a while, we set out for our journey back to the domes. Thankfully, someone drove a car to the Falls (as close as you could get) and we sent Marvelly back with a car full of some of the older people who came along. And the rest of us hiked it.

Upon arriving back in Orodara I had to set to work on Sydaleigh's cake. Before we left I baked and froze five layers, divided them with saran wrap, and stacked them in a tall dutch oven, and then put the whole thing in the freezer again when we arrived. I also made and froze frosting, so that way all I'd have to do is assemble and decorate!

 
Some sweet girls, Holly and Esmarie helped Sydaleigh decorate it, so I didn't even have to do that! And by a miracle that I can only compare to the feeding of the 5000, this cake fed every person!

Before dinner as we were all gathered in the dining room, we dimmed the lights and sang Happy Birthday to Sydaleigh.

And then we went back to our room to open up her gifts. And a bonfire and marshmallow roasting capped off the evening.

Sydaleigh even sent up a floating lantern, right around 7:30pm, when she officially turned 8. It was pretty magical (right up until we saw the lantern fall and we worried it might catch a hut on fire and burn a village down! But before that....totally magical!)

It was a great way to spend New Year's Eve.....

And a great way to spend turning eight. My special birthday girl.

It was a truly special couple of days, filled with so many new memories and adventures with so many great people.

We had a marvelous time. Even though....(here comes the rest of the story, the in between, that last laughs Burkina had....) there were multiple power cuts during the trip, and, there was NO water! The whole town of Orodara had water cuts from about 6am until 9pm every day! That meant NO water all day and evening long to wash hands or flush the toilets. For 54 people!! That's 54 people not being able to flush the toilet after usage. Not being able to wash their hands. When the water did come back on at night we all rushed to take showers, cold showers. The first night the girls screamed like banshees from the cold, but after that, they were fine and took it in stride. You will never know what you can adjust to doing, tolerate, and live without until you don't have a choice. I did remember to bring wipes along, so thankfully I had something to smear the dirt with before we ate. =) Ah, it's all a part of the experience! 

And for the final laugh, no journey here in Burkina would be complete without breaking down on the side of the road! Which we did. =) And after our battery died and we discovered our jumper cables were also duds, Isaak did a little operation and got us running again. I am married to quite the mechanic....which sure comes in handy here!

It was three days well spent. We loved getting to explore more of the country and feel blessed to have been able to spend this time with such wonderful people. This trip was definitely a highlight of our time here!