Lira Orphanage

Yesterday afternoon we visited one of the local orphanages that David's batallion sponsors.  We spent the afternoon playing with the kids.

The kids live in these cottages, and looks like they each have their own room.

 

The guys played soccer with some of the older kids.

 

My kids wanted to play too, but one of the boys walked Tristan and this little girl over to me and said they couldn't play because they were too little.  Grace was the only girl on the field, so I called her over too.  There was an extra soccer ball laying around so the three little kids kicked the ball around for a while - until we could absolutely no longer take the heat (which was only about 5 minutes).

 

I thought this was a cool way to grow squash!

The little girl took us and showed us some of the animals they had there.  They were in cages so I'm not sure if they serve a purpose for the orphanage or if they are just there for the kids to look at.

 

They had a male and a female peacock

 

And these two had chicks.

After we had the tour of the grounds we headed into the cool (I use this term very loosely - it was cooler than it was outside) building and played some games with the kids.

 

This is what David looked like after playing soccer for an hour or so.  He was able to wring his shirt out even after being inside for 45 minutes!  He was nice enough to take it off when we got in the car and put it in the back so we didn't have to smell him all the way home.

 

We also had some pizza with them.

The kids there ranged in age from 5-20.

 

Our kids were the stars though with their little blonde heads.

This girl wanted to take a picture of Grace with her phone, so David took her phone and told her to get in the picture with Grace, but she wouldn't look at the camera.  She didn't want her face in the picture.

It was an interesting experience, much different than I anticipated.  I guess I had in my mind that things would be on the destitute side and that there would be lots more kids, especially younger ones.  Grace wasn't so sure she liked it, but that's mostly because she couldn't talk to the kids.  We plan to go back again and the chaplain is trying to make arrangements to have a Thanksgiving and/or Christmas meal with them. 

Convicted

I have been convicted this week to do several things:

• One: I can't share this one with you just yet, but I will at some point down the road. 
• Two: Improve my prayer life. 
• My former pastor's wife led me to this blog: Secret Keeper Girl from her blog, Off the Beaten Path.  Both are worthy of checking out.  Anyway, God has brought to my attention that my prayer life is a bit lacking - partially because I guess I don't necessarily know how to pray (I know God doesn't care how I pray, just as long as I do it, but I keep turning to that excuse - so long Satan, I'm gonna ignore you from here on out), but mostly because I don't set aside time to pray.  It seems that it's a last minute thought before I drift off to sleep.  NO MORE!!!  So, what I'm trying to get at is: I'm taking on the challenge of praying over my daughter for the next 30 days as led by Secret Keeper Girl.  If you'd like to join me on this adventure, please check out her site and let me know how things are going for you. 
• Grace has such a heart for Jesus, I figured this would be an easy place to start.  I want to continue to foster her love for Him and desire to protect her (and teach her how to protect herself with the armor of God) from the bad and hurtful things in this world.
• I must learn to set aside some quiet time to faithfully pray for my family and friends.  I have met some wonderful, wonderful ladies that I have been doing a Bible study with the last few weeks and we all pray for each other - and I know they pray for me because I can see the difference in my attitude.  So, what comes around, goes around and I need to get better of holding up my end of the bargain.
• I have spent some quiet time, alone with God, for the last few days while the kids are sleeping or playing quietly in their rooms and oh what a difference it makes!
• Three: To actually do my Bible Study every day.  Meaning - don't cram 5 days of study in on Friday night or at 6 am Saturday morning before I leave at 6:45 to get to my Bible study.  I have done several studies and never seem to get out of it what I should because I miss out on the last several lessons of the week.  Always intending to go back and do them, I never seem to do it.  well, I'm no longer going to get behind.  I will take part of my quiet time each day to complete my lesson for that day.

I don't know why I felt compelled to share all of this with you - maybe to hold myself accountable.  It's in writing which means I've gotta do it.  If any of you choose to take the 30 day challenge of praying over your daughter, please be sure to check out  the above website.  Please also leave me comments if you take the challenge and let me know how God is working in your daughters' lives.  Prayer is a powerful thing and it's never too early (or too late) to start.

The Clone Wars

Last night we watched Star Wars (no, it wasn't the Clone Wars, but since everyone seems to think David and Tristan look alike I figured it was appropriate title for this post).  This was the aftermath...

The swords and lightsaber came out...

...and David was under attack.

I think the kids decided he was Darth Vader.

Luke... er, Tristan, was kind enough to give his father a shield.

But David showed no mercy!

Tristan was killt...

...or so we thought.

I'm thinking we shouldn't watch those kid of movies before bedtime - just gets 'em riled up.

Grace

I just wanted to share this with all of you.  It happened a couple of weeks ago, but I just found the note I wrote on my desk (as I'm still trying to straighten up the office/craft room).

July 22, 2010
Today I’m working in the office, trying to get boxes unpacked and things organized, the kids are quite content on the floor painting. I say, “How about some music?” Grace replies, “Ooohh, music. Yeah – that would be entertaining!” Then my precious angel says, “Mommy, how about some Jesus songs? Can we listen to that?” (I frequently turn on K-LOVE online as we don't have any Christian radio stations here) 

Oh you gotta love that girl! She’s got such a heart for Jesus and loves to listen to songs about Him! I pray that she lets God guide her footsteps throughout her life.

Spidergirl

David went to the gym after work today so the kids and I headed out a little early to meet him there.  We've been here once before and saw this gigantic wall, but didn't learn until recently that they let the kids climb on it too.  Grace has a natural ability to climb, but she's only done kid size rock walls (and gigantic rocks in AZ) in the past.

But, she was not deterred by this monstrosity.

She headed right over and gave it a once over to see where best to start.

 

It took spidergirl just a few tries to get the hang of it and she was scaling it.

 

Mind you, I got up this high and was frightened when I looked down.

I had to climb half-way back down before I could fall back onto the mats.

I would say it's a good 8+ feet high, because at this height I can't reach her.

 

Tristan, who has no survival instinct in the water, decided it was best for him to stick to the ground and play a little basketball (until his sister came and stole the ball).

 

David came and joined us and finished up his workout - with a little help from his son.

 

Then he thought he'd to try to show his daughter up but then decided that probably wasn't a good idea "because of his back."  (I think it's cuz he was afraid Grace would show him how it's done)

So he decided to practice calf roping on his precious little boy...

We really thought about leaving him like this for a while... It would keep him out of all sorts of mischief!

 

Tristan finally decided to give the wall a go, but quickly gave into it's intimidating size...

We had fun and the kids have asked to go back, but next time I think I'll inquire whether or not they have harnesses... then Grace could climb as high as she wished and I wouldn't have a problem with it.

First Flight

David bought this airplane "for the kids".  He had seen it at the PX and thought about getting one, but then he saw our neighbor kid had one and that meant we had to have one.

 

David taking her out for a spin.

(That's our neighbor, David, and his cousin - they wrecked his plane earlier in the day)

 

Loop de loop time

 

Tristan got a couple of good flights in before we decided there was too much interest in the plane by too many little people who didn't know how to fly it correctly (i.e. nose dives by a styrofoam plane into poorly poured concrete and asphalt).

 

David labeled it well since it was a twin to a plane upstairs...

I think our next flights will be on post at a ball field that has a more forgiving landing zone.

A High Sea Adventure

The kids and I have spent the last week at Vacation Bible School.  The program was "High Seas Expedition - Exploring the Mighty Love of God".

 

We started each day with singing, and learning our Bible point for the day.

1.  God's word is true.

2.  God's word is comforting.

3.  God's word is surprising.

4.  God's word is life-changing.

5. God's word is for everyone.

 

 

We then separated into Preschool and Elementary groups and went and listened to our Bible story for the day.

I was a Preschool "Crew" leader

 

My fearless crew

Then, at some point each day we had a time of:

Games...

(They're simulating the stormy seas when God comforts Paul)

 

Pulling an anchor

 

...Chatter's Theatre...

(where they reinforced each day's Bible point)

 

...and the all important craft time.

 

My precious turtles

 

Tristan wasn't in my crew, but he did travel to the different activities with us as we were in the same larger group.  He did really well, and stayed with his own crew most of the time - except during the story time when he wanted to hang out close to me.

 

He was so into singing on this particular day that he was right up in front of the television singing and signing along with the video.

 

Tristan's crew, the Nemos

 

Grace had a great time too, but I didn't see much of her as she was with the elementary kids and we only crossed paths at the beginning and the end of the day.

Now, it's off to Egypt with our church, learning about Joseph's journey from prison to palace.

I don't know that I'll get many pictures of that as David and I are in a class and church service during their VBS time, but I'll see what I can do.