"The Worst Day Ever"

Kerrington exclaimed as we were driving home from the birthday party, "This is the worst day ever!".  Drew and I have been home two days from Zimbabwe and we were shoved right back in to parenthood.

What was supposed to be an innocent 6 year old birthday party, for us, turned in to a broken arm and knocked out front tooth. Kerrington, Kellan, and I went to a gym for a gymnastic birthday party. Within the first 10 minutes of being there, Kellan was playing on the rope swing. He swung on the rope, dropped in to the foam blocks, and the rope swung back and smacked him right in the teeth. When I got to him, the front tooth was gone and the tooth to the left was, shall we say, misplaced. Honestly, K reacted worse than Kellan did. He was good to go after about 10 minutes. Kerrington was very upset and worried. About 15 minutes later, Kerrington was rolling over an octagon shape mat and she landed wrong on her left wrist. At first, I wasn't sure anything was wrong, but after observing her the rest of the day, we were pretty certain she fractured it somehow.

Thankfully, the bright side is, Kellan had a dentist appointment (scheduled 6 months ago) on Wednesday, and the dentist said that this incident couldn't have happened at a better time because his adult teeth are close to the gum and there wasn't much root left on his baby teeth.

Kerrington gets her PINK cast on Thursday. We're hoping and praying for a short arm cast so her elbow won't be in the cast. Either way, a friend told us about a DryPro cast cover. This will make it waterproof so we can still make plenty of visits to our second home (the pool) this summer. As it stands, she'll be wearing her cast up until the Thursday before school starts. 

Welcome home, mom and dad!

Mhondoro-Day 2

Today was our second day in the village. We survived our first night sleep and were back at it teaching the kids in the morning. On our second day of teaching, we taught the kids about Jesus Calming the Storm. The kids made waves out of blue streamers and helped us illustrate the story as we read it to them. 

Each day, after we taught our team gathered to paint the outside of their school buildings (I've posted before pictures below). 

It was really cool to see how the buildings came to life with some fresh coats of paint. We were also able to build relationships with some of the partners and fathers of kids in the school who came out to help us paint. 

On this day, we were waiting for the paint to be mixed. Every day when we started painting, the kids were dismissed for lunch. Often, there were many kids who didn't have 'lunch', or their lunch was a bag of popped corn. Needless to say, may of them had plenty of time on their hands during their lunch. So, the kids usually gathered around us while we were painting. As a group of kids  crowded around us, I felt let to pull them aside and talk with them. All the sudden, I started singing 'Jesus Loves Me' with them and they were singing along. It was so incredible. To hear their beautiful voices repeat after me was so special. 

After painting for a couple hours each day, we had events planned in the afternoon. A few of the days we went on home visits to people who attended the church that met at the St. Peter's School on the weekend. We visited a couple of families that day. One family had their great granddaughter visiting from Harae. Another family we visited made these beautiful metal tins as a project. The man, Sekuru (means grandfather) , was selling his metal tins for $4. 

Mhondoro-Day 1

Today was our first day out in the Village of Mhondoro. Mhondoro is a rural part of Zimbabwe. It's literally off the beaten path. We stayed 5 days and 4 nights at St. Peter's school. As a team, we split up in to 2 and each taught a class for the week. We were able to spend 1 hour with the kids and teach them a bible lesson before we painted their school each day. My friend Laura and I taught the ECD (Early Childhood Development) class which consisted of 4-5 year olds. 

The kids were very timid and weary of us the first day we arrived, but it was so neat to see their trust grow throughout the week. We planned a bible story and craft/activity for each day. The first day, we taught the kids the story of creation and then brought them outside to play with a parachute. This was the first time that I saw a smile on their faces...it was priceless. I think this is the moment we began to win them over! 

The Journey

Kerrington, Kellan and I got to be the Honey Makers this year at the Journey! It's so fun to go with these two and see them get dressed up. This year, Kerrington was so in to her role! She was the best and sweetest Honey girl around. I'm not sure how anyone could resist a taste of Honey from these two?!

Ready to hand out samples.

Would you like some Honey?

Me and my honey(s)!

Christmas Parade!

Annual Richmond Hill Christmas Parade

We found friends!

Kellan getting a sucker from a FIREMAN!

We're not sure what's the best part...seeing friends, seeing the firetrucks, or gettng the candy!?

Mrs. Mariella

This girl has a heart of gold.

Brothers

Thankful Tree

My sweet friend Laurie showed me this idea, and it's become a tradition for our family every November. We try, for the whole month, to add leaves of people/things we're thankful for as a reminder of how much God has blessed us with to our Tree. We place it somewhere we can see it daily and remember all God has poured out on us! It's so sweet to hear what the kids come up with and I pray it cultivates in them a thankful spirit and reminds us all to not take for granted our blessings!

Coloring our Tree

The most beautiful sight.

We've got a walker!

How exciting is this?!