My heart is pretty sad today as my sweet “vis-tas” (my children’s pronunciation of visitors) leave. But, as in the goofy picture above, I am reminded that while I am sad when I have to kill a chicken, I am so blessed that my children are able to eat meat. While I am sad my dear friends are leaving, I have been so extremely blessed by their visit! We had an absolutely marvelous time and I am so thankful that God ordained this trip, worked out every detail, and held us all week in the palm of His hand!

I was so blessed to be able to squeeze my sweet friends and so happy to watch them taste and see and DO my life with me. They truly served me and my family, loving on my little girls, making coffee for Christine and Joanne, and always making sure that one or two of the big, strong men escorted me to the market. I’m pretty sure they also were able to reach their goal of getting me to gain ten pounds with all the power bars, peanut butter, and beef jerkey they brought us!

Just watching the Mayernick family, who have been such a huge help and support to me, touch and interact with all the children was incredible for me. Seeing my girls embrace and fall in love with these new friends was wonderful.Suzanne always uses a beautiful analogy of Nehemiah building the wall. It seemed like an impossible task, but he said YES to God and with much help from others laying their bricks, the wall was built. So often 147 million orphans seems like an impossible task, but we say YES and slowly we are breaking down that statistic. I am so thankful for eight beautiful friends who came to lay their bricks down next to mine this week.

More stories when my brain is working properly again… Did I mention we did a lot more “fellowshipping” than sleeping? Totally worth it 🙂