African Family (by: Emily)

It's my final FULL day here at Amani Baby Cottage. So much has happened in these last few weeks...more than can be expressed in a blog like this. Precious moments may have been highlighed, but things that I've learned (like JOY...) are so close to my heart I can't really express them in words here.

One heart melting moment was yesterday when we said goodbye to our African mother and family. I've come to love how welcoming and hospitable these people are. Even though we haven't known this family too long, ever since our first meeting, we loved them...they're our brothers and sisters in Christ! Saying goodbye to them was no easy thing to do. We were there for a couple hours and our African mother made us some casava (it's a root that is boiled with a LOT of salt) and African tea. She gave us so much casava that we actually couldn't finish it all, and I am not a big tea person, so my kind-hearted sister Alyssa drank what I couldn't finish. I noticed that when we got there she got a big mat for us to sit on and she brought out her best dishes for us to use even when she was using something that wasn't so nice to eat hers from. We were given the best and they just showered us with love, which was what we were trying to do to them! There was a whole lot of love in that place yesterday! We met a couple of our brothers that we did not get to meet until then...Herman and Becca (yep...that's his name!) We even went through a whole photo album of their life and got to hear lots of wonderful stories about their family (and well...ours too!) Before we left, Becca (the brother) asked to pray for us and we all held hands and it was just so beautiful. Then Alyssa prayed for them, and it was such a loving family moment that I will forever cherish. We took pictures with our African family and there were many hugs given and words of love exchanged. They really want us to come visit again, but next time they want to open their home to us instead of us staying at Amani. They are such kind-hearted, loving, hospitable, joyful people....Alyssa and I both agree that meeting them was one of the best parts of the trip. I'm going to miss my African mother and sisters and brothers.

We put the kids to bed last night...I was getting the little boys all tucked in with a bedtime story and then we prayed together again. One thing that was really precious was being in the girls room after the boys were tucked in (the girls always seem to take a bit longer...maybe they're a tad crazier at bedtime..haha..that's why I like the boys...). I started singing "Jesus Loves Me" and the whole room went quiet and the girls started to sing along. I put all of their names in the part that goes "Yes Jesus loves ___, Yes Jesus loves____...." and on and on...they loved it a lot! When we just turned the lights off and the girls were going crazy, I started to sing the song again and the girls went quiet. It was just one of those heart melting precious moments that I'm not going to forget!

Much Love,
Em