Giving your life for what you believe in.

At one point in time, we made a choice to give our lives for what believe in... somehow we still face that choice each and every day. Yes, we beleive and live for Jesus. But in that, our hearts were ravished and broken for what breaks His. Children who once lived a life worth living, abruptly found themselves orphaned, afraid, hungry and abused. They went from security to inconsistency and a life of suffering. Every natural human right, stripped away. At this point, you ask yourselves - who will fight for them, when they've lost the fight within?

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Being with our kids here, it never gets old - that is, the joy and appreciation of their redemption; that God so graciously gives us. There are so many more, just like them. Crying out saying "I'm suffering, I have no solution for I am but a small child, who will plead my cause"? We can only pray and believe that God will touch the hearts of many more, even so the locals to respond to the cries of a child.

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Our little boy, Malaki is 20 months today and I have the greatest joy knowing that he is experiencing this journey alongside us. The Lord has something BIG in store for him, and we are so grateful to God that he has had a healthy and strong childhood in the midst of having few possibilities for any kind of adequate healthcare. He's growing more independent and loves to say "ohhh noo"... In about 6 months we will be welcoming another little one to our family, thankfully I had made it over the hump and have been feeling great and getting alot of necessary work done. We are back into the work of things - Isai continuing with his team building the children's village and myself continuing to work side by side with our Director, Audrey with the children's homes. On weekends we try to have free time with the kids or head out to the city to catch up with friends (and try to make it to the beach... :o)!

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At the end of the day, a life worth lived is fighting and standing for what one believes in - whatever that may be and whereever that may lead. All our love...

Bambino.

O.k. so these pictures are from November, when Isai was gone... however, they are absolutely cute and I had to post them! The little bambino is going on 20 months and is such a character. Literally. He loves to laugh, he's great with meeting new people (not shy at all), stubborn to the T with some things, easy going with others... loves to say hello, no (while squishing his lips together), koko which is short for "agakoko" meaning bug in Kirundi (he loves, loves bugs!), he recently realized that solo he can walk up the stairs and up the mountain on his own "exploring" - got to keep a close eye on that one, he's picked up this organized neatness and stern time schedulle thing great from his mami (I don't know if that's a good thing or not!), he still loves to go on my back, really loves to swim (and tans great with a nice bronze!) and alot more of the usual normal things one experiencing with an approaching 2 year old! I'm am now 16 weeks pregnant and feeling great - time has been flying by! More updates to come in time... just wanted to share our little one (who's not so little, anymore) with you all! All our love...

Christmas time is here...

Christmas Eve, and here I find myself writing a blog while Malaki sleeps; it's been nearly 2 months of not writing... (I know, it's bad!) I purposed to do this blog to keep our family and friends posted on our family life.. I hope to this a little better in the coming time. We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and a fulfilling new year, to our family and friends we love you and deeply appreciate our relationships we have together.

The last months have been a time of growth, pruneing and beauty to say the least. For one, we are pregnant and expecting our next child in June (which is amazing!). I'm just getting past all the morning sickness and thankful to see my "feeling good days" approaching. If there is no complications in the pregnancy I will give birth here in Burundi again.

Isai just returned from the USA for one month and it feels great to to have him back...! Was is hard, absolutley! Mix morning sickness, with my sweet 19 month son, with loads of work and traveling often... I was definutly able to test many personal limits! Many miracles and amazing testimonies took place as Isai traveled sharing the heart of God for His broken and hurting children here in Burundi. Isai raised his voice for the voiceless and we were awe to see the Lord move upon so many hearts to respond and take the choice to help change lives. We have new team members in the US, new partners and an amazing team, truly we are honored to labor beside them. Over the month that Isai was gone, I had some huge perspective changes about life... things I can say I wouldn't of seen as clearly had I not had so much time to ponder on them. As hard as it was being apart as a family I know we are stronger and wiser for it, and it feels undescriable to reunite with man your in love with after a month... it was beautiful.

As soon as Isai arrived back there was a million things to do from visits from possible partner organizations to Christmas trees and decorating to gifts and orgnanizing the 4 - 50 pounder bags he brought back! I was so touched to see that every material need we expressed for the kids, people made it happen. Our family was extremely blessed with so much and I could never thank all of you enough for giving. To all of you who sent gifts, thank you for spoiling us... we greatly appreicate it :o)

Today, I sit back and can't stop thinking of how blessed our family is... and for this we have this inner joy bursting out from within us. Yesterday, we had a visit from the city of 50 youth to celebrate Christmas, it was a blast! Today, we are doing Christmas with the kids and staff and tomorrow we are welcoming some of the responsibles and siblings of our children to join us for a small lunch in the afternoon. And finally the 26th, the kids are off for a week to visit their villages... A full few days ahead of us, I can't wait to see the joy inexpressable on our kids face when many of them "celebrate" Christmas for the first time.

Merry Christmas to all! All our love...