I'm home

So as many, or most of you may know I'm home.
I arrived home last Wednesday night.
It's an adjustment for sure.
One full of mixed emotions.

Leaving wasn't easy, but it was time.

What I remember most are mornings with the babies and afternoons with the boys and praying before bed.
And I realize that all sounds very vague...and it is. It was just living life with my kids. The little things that end up meaning the most. Like Alfonsine finding me no matter where I am on the terrace and putting her little hand on my leg and pointing and "talking". And Aristide coming to my window during sieste just to chat with me. And Aristide praying for candy at night.

Thank you for being apart of my experience by reading my stories and praying for me...if you ever want to see pictures, I have a lot. I don't mind sharing them.

For now my plans are to move to St. Louis in the next month or so. I'll be living with Nichole. Neither of us know what we are going to do. Just taking it one day, one step at a time trusting Jesus to lead us.

Homeward Bound...

Yes, it's true... Ami is heading home! Again, Ami may post this herself in which case this post may disappear.

After much prayer and consideration, Ami has determined that it's the right time for her to return home. She has struggled over this decision for quite a while, doing her very best to make sure she is really hearing from God. When Lori and I visited her we spent a fair bit of time with her to help her process through all her thoughts and possibilities. We left her with a clearer sense of the choices in front of her and a plan on how to come to a decision. After her time in Ouaga, she had decided to go back to Yako, take it a day at a time, and see what God would have for her there. It became clear after just a couple days there that she truly felt Jesus saying it is time. Time to come home. Time to see what He would have for her here. That's about all she knows. Ami recognizes that she must trust him in his leading her home, just as she has had to trust him in leading her to Burkina Faso.

It's very difficult for Ami to know that she will have to leave behind the people, the kids, her babies, that she loves so much. But she does trust Jesus that he loves them more than she ever could and that they will be safe in his hands.

Ami is a bit nervous about her transition back into life here in the States. I am sure she would appreciate our giving her space and time to acclimate back into the culture she has been away from for the last 8 months. She is nervous about all the questions that many of us have, and her ability to answer, or not answer, all those questions. It would be really great if we could all afford her that space and time and that we would be gracious and not rush to greet her, to "hang out", to do lunch, etc. She will be home. She is looking forward to seeing each of us, just not all at once, or as soon as she walks in the door. If you try to contact her and there is not a response, or she declines an invitation, please do not take it personally. She can only do what she can do.

Once she is home, feel free to express your greetings in an email or here on her blog. Again, please do not be offended if she does not respond to your correspondence. She does appreciate the kindness, but sometimes a pressure to reply is more than she can handle.

As Ami gets more and more acclimated she will be more available to meet with people. You may be in touch with Lori and I to determine her status as we will be helping to regulate her guests. HERE is my email address, and HERE is Lori's.

From the Dad...

Greetings all!

Just wanted to give you a short update. Ami may do this herself, in which case this post will be deleted [OK, Meem!? :)]

Ami has come to a crossroads in her life in Burkina and has decided to take a couple weeks in Ouaga and spend some time relaxing and seeking God as to what he has next for her in Burkina Faso.

She is doing much better in the area of health. When Lori and I arrived in Ouaga, we were able to see her doctor and ask some questions and get a better understanding of what's really wrong with her. This is a wonderful man who really cares for the people he sees and has a heart for the people of Burkina...and Ami as well! He is quite certain that Ami has a para-typhoid virus, similar to Mono, and that time and rest (and I throw in the hand of God) will bring her back to health. He did put her on antibiotics, just in case. If she doesn't feel better in a few weeks the only course of action is to medi-vac her home. But he's sure this won't be necessary. As our stay went along we could definitely see improvement in her appearance and strength. She still tires easily, but over all she's doing much better.

Speaking on behalf of Lori as well, we would like to thank all of you who have held Ami before the Father and asked for his hand to act on her behalf. It was amazing to see the hand of God at work in her, not only in the area of healing her health but to watch her minister to those he has put in her life. She truly in a vessel used for His purposes.


I will let Ami fill you all in on our stay there. I know you would rather hear from her than from me...this is her blog after all! :) Blessings to each of you. Happy New Year!!
Marc and Lori

Catch up News

It's been a while since I last wrote. There's a lot to catch up on. I guess that's part of the reason I haven't written. We've been busy. Since Nazinga we have had two of our kids leave with their French adoptive parents, had a friend come visit for a few days, we currently have a drill team here drilling a deep deep clean water well for us(called a forage), I got sick, and we had a surprise party for Nichole because she leaves tomorrow for the States. Her time here is up. These are just the big things that have been happening...not to mention all the little day to day things that make life here interesting. For example, Alfonsine (or Sina for short), an eighteen month oldish who is not yet able to walk, is now able to find me no matter where I am. When she sees me, she crawls and scoots over workers, babies, toys, and any number of other obstacles that might be in the way to get to me. And when she gets to me she, sits near me with her hand on my leg, very possessive like, and screams when other kids try to touch me. If I don't have a baby in my arms already, she will most likely try to crawl into my arms, which sometimes I let her and sometimes I don't. You have to be careful with Sina because if you pick her up and then put her down, she screams. And its not a typical baby cry. It's a bloody murder scream. It's horrible. We pray for her because of it.

The big things: Mathieu and Mariam are in France or on their way there with their new families. The moms and dads came last week to pick them up. They were kind and M & M were ready for them. We had talked and talked about their parents coming. They were as ready as two three year olds can be for a new life in a new country with new people. It was pretty amazing to see them with their families. Things are pretty quiet without those two...especially Mathieu. It's going to take some getting used to. Our Peace Corp friend, Corey, just came for a short visit. He went with us on our camel-riding adventure in Gorom-Gorom. He was on his way to Ouaga to catch a plane to the States for Christmas and had a few extra days and decided to visit. It was good to see him. It's encouraging to see how God is using him in his village while he is here with this government organization. Friends In Action is here drilling a well for us. We have a well, but it's not clean water and it dries up during the dry season. We have city water currently but it's expensive when you use as much water as we do(45 kids!!) so with this new well that is so deep the water is clean, we won't ever have to pay for water again because the well won't run dry!!It's pretty loud and dusty but the kids are having a good time watching the drilling.

I GOT SICK! For the past three weeks or so I have been feeling flu-like off and on. Some days I would feel horrible and then I would be fine. Sometimes it was with in hours that I would feel bad and then good again. And I was often tired. Tuesday Dec. 11 was Independence Day here in Burkina. The whole Northern Region celebrated here in Yako. The governor came and there was a big parade....and I was about to faint before Lynn caught me and sat me down in a chair. It was decided that I needed to go to the doctor. There is a Belgian doctor in Ouaga who works with some of the missionaries that we know, so we decided to go see him. He found that I had really low blood pressure (One doctor said "Was she in a wheelchair?!!" I wasn't...I was walking!) He ran some blood work and found I had some weird lymphocytes or something and also something with my liver. He said these were indicative of a viral infection like Mono or CMV. He didn't know about the BP. So he had me stay over night in Ouaga and drink Cokes to get my BP back up and he let me go home the next day, telling me I needed to rest. So that's what I'm trying to do now. Which is kind of hard because sometimes I feel fine, and sometimes I feel not fine.

MY FAMILY IS COMING IN TWO DAYS!!!! So I really hope I'm feeling more fine than not by then. But you never know because these viral things can last for while. I'm so excited to see my family. It will be good to have them here and see what I've been doing. They are also planning on helping me set up some things in my new house...I'm renting a house! We decided it was probably the best decision seeing as we have visitors all the time and it is tiring to have visitors in your house and space all the time. I'm glad they come, but it would be nice to have my own space as well, and having my own house will hopefully allow for that.

Nichole is leaving for the States tomorrow night. We had a surprise party for her with the big kids last night. It was a lot of fun. I made a slideshow of pictures from her year here, the kids made her cards, and Lynn made cookies and had games and hosted the party! She was surprised and the kids had a great time. I'm really going to miss her. She's become like a sister to me and things won't be the same without her. I'll start crying if I say anymore.

That's just a brief update on all that's going on over here...hope the snow and ice and cold weather is treating you all well!! :) Merry Christmas!

Elephants, monkeys, and more...

I've just arrived back in Ouaga after a two day trek to South Burkina, a 200-acre national park called Nazinga. This national park is home to approximately 500 elephants, and lots of baboons, monkeys, antelope and other such looking creatures, crocodiles, lions (that are never seen, only carcasses are come upon every so often), wart hogs...everything you would want to see in Africa except for giraffes. There aren't any giraffes in Burkina.

Nichole, Lynn, and I left Friday morning and arrived sometime around three. Its about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Ouaga. It's only about 30 km north of Ghana.

The first afternoon we were tired and wanted to rest before heading out on a "ballad" (a trip through the park to see animals....like a safari). We dropped our stuff off in our bungalows (very simple one room with bathroom) and went outside to look around. Nichole was the first to see any wildlife...monkeys running across the road. About fifteen of them. It was incredible. They just kept jumping off of the tree next to the road and sprinting across. We walked down the road and took a lot of pictures, although they didn't turn out the best because they blended in so well with the trees and dry grass. Southern Burkina looks a little more like Missouri in the fall than it does Africa. Except for the trees are quite a bit more spectacular than anything we have in Missouri. It smelled like fall. It was a lovely smell.

After watching the monkeys for awhile we headed over to the observatory. A little outdoor "room" next to a lake making looking for and watching animals easy. As we surveyed our surrounds we found our first elephants. They were across the lake and we couldn't see them very well except for when they moved...but it was so amazing to see! We weren't at a zoo. These elephants are free to go wherever they want whenever they want. They are not fenced in or kept on the park grounds in any way. There is a small village nearby that has trouble cultivating their fields because of the elephants...I can't imagine saying "My crop got ruined again this year because of the elephants." How bizarre!!

The next morning we had a 6:30 AM appointment with a guide who took us around the park. We had not been on the road for more than five minutes when we spotted elephants. Probably 100 feet from our car. They were RIGHT there. Just eating. About five of them. One of them started walking towards us and so we back up and he turned around and kept walking with the others.

Our guide later told us that there is one elephant in particular that all the guides know. If he sees them coming he deliberately blocks the road forcing them to find another path and has been known to charge vehicles. But mostly they leave humans alone.

We continued and saw a lot of deer/antelope animals running and sitting and eating. They are beautiful. Some have black faces and black legs and crazy horns that are striped. Its beautiful.

We saw some baby warthogs.

We came upon a family of elephants and we stopped and watched as they made their way across the road. The last one started to make his way towards us just as we were starting to move again. All of a sudden he raised his truck and trumpeted us. It was so scary!! He was huge and we thought he was going to charge us, but it was more like a warning to get away from his family. He was nice enough to let us watch and take pictures but now it was time to move on.

When we got back to our bungalows Nichole was looking down the road again and this time saw baboons!!! We hadn't known to be looking for them! When we first heard about Nazinga we thought it was just all elephants...no idea that we would be seeing so many animals.

We spent some time at the observatory and saw a lot of elephants bathing....the little ones playing, pulling each other under water with their trunks. It was like watching National Geographic in real life....because of the terrain I kind of felt like I was just sitting on the edge of the Lake until I looked across the water and saw an elephant! It was so surreal and amazing.

Lynn saw a crocodile. That was a little freaky. I saw the nose of one as he swam across the lake...that was scary enough. Apparently they've eaten a guides dog.

We went out again on a "ballad" and saw a lot of baboons...I think their red butts are redder out in the wild than they are in the zoo.

I think that was the craziest thing the whole time was that these animals are wild...this is where they live...and we are allowed a little glimpse into that.

The closest town to Nazinga is called Po. It's a fun city. Pretty. As we were driving down the road through the town all three of us thought and then later said that when we thought of Africa this is what we thought it would look like. Not that Yako doesn't "look" like Africa...but Po had something about it that fit our imaginations of Africa better than Yako.

I'm missing the kids...Deborah is home from the hospital!! Looking like a real baby. Beautiful. But it was good to get away and spend some time with Lynn and Nichole (who is leaving in 25 days!! It will be a sad sad day!!!)

My family will be here in less than a month and I can't wait to see them!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a note to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone!!!!!!
I hope you eat a lot of turkey and enjoy your families and friends and take a good nap; and I hope that the football games are good and eat some pumpkin pie (with whip cream!) for me!!
I'll be at an American missionary's home with some Americans that I have yet to meet, and for dessert we are going to the American Embassy. In between we have a lot of work to get done (Deborah is coming home from the hospital!!) and so I don't think it will feel much like Thanksgiving...which maybe is a good thing....

Baby News

About three weeks ago we received a new baby, Deborah. She was six days old and premature. She was tiny. She wasn't eating a whole lot and not gaining weight. While we were in Gorom she was treated for thrush (which I'm not really sure about, but it's a bacterial thing in the mouth and babies who have it have a hard time eating) and they (our nurses) put a feeding tube in her. The feeding tube was removed shortly after we returned, but she still wasn't eating a whole lot. There are six other babies in that room and she wasn't getting the attention that she needed. As we talked about our concerns for her we realized that if she was at home she would be in the NICU and have individual attention 24/7. I weighed her the other day and she weighed 3 1/2 pounds. She is TINY. I decided that I would take her in. That I would be her "mom" and she would sleep with me and go with me wherever I went because she needed it. That was Thursday. I spent the afternoon feeding her every hour or so and changing diapers. There wasn't much time for anything else. Thursday night came and I was up most of the night feeding her, changing her diapers and cleaning up after she threw up twice. Once was all over my bed and so I had to sleep on the floor...It was a long night. But there was grace. I prayed a lot. For myself and for her. She is just so small and weak. Her little cry sounds just like a cat meowing. In the morning, Lynn came over and said that in the middle of the night she remembered that there is a hospital for premature babies in Ouaga. We called, and while they can't take her for a long time (they only take babies who are less than a month old and she is a month), they did say that we could bring her up for a few days. We took her and one of our caretakers, Pauline, to the hospital yesterday. It was clean!! And the nurses were kind and there were pictures on the walls...all good signs that they will do what they can for her. I feel relieved that she is there with people who actually know what to do with premature babies. None of us had any idea what to do. I'm still a little unsure...a little unsettled. We probably should have brought her there before now. Like when she first came. So I'm praying for Jesus to show His faithfulness in her life. We had another new baby, her name is Safi...something. I can't ever remember it. She came while we were in Gorom and had all sorts of things wrong with her. She had a cut in her mouth and down her throat so she couldn't eat, and she had sores all over her head. She couldn't close her mouth all the way (not because her cheeks were too fat which is the case with one of our other babies, Perpetue). Her family told us she wasn't sick, but it was obvious that she was. While we were gone, they took her to Dr. Zala (I think I've mentioned him before. He is an amazing man who loves Jesus and children which is a rare thing to find in a doctor here). He did what he could and sent her home. Yesterday Nichole spent a lot of time with her because she was starting to become more and more worried about her, but we didn't know what else to do since she had already seen Dr. Zala. I slept in a little bit this morning (seeing as I didn't sleep well the night before and I spent all day yesterday running around in Ouaga) and as I was waking up and still lying in bed Nichole came in and told me that the worker in Safi....'s room and our night guard came and woke herup (by tapping on the window) at six this morning because she had died. It doesn't make a lot of sense because she didn't seem like she was dying-sick. And the worker said that she had eaten during the night(which, I know just because someone is dying it doesn't mean they can't eat...) it all just seems weird and surreal. Babies die so easily here and it's hard...it always seems like we should have done more....but being here in Africa there's not much more we could do in any of these situations.
On a lighter note, five of our kids got baptized today! It was held at this lake-type thing on the outskirts of town. A lot of churches were involved, and so we got to watch about thirty or so baptisms. It was beautiful. Our kids were really excited (Pauline, Ange, Lazar, Michel,Marcel).
Everything is brown again. It turns brown just as fast as it all turned green. And the weather is finally cooling off. We laughed the other day because Nichole and I were wearing T-shirts (with sleeves...normally it's too hot for sleeves) and feeling very comfortable...almost a little chilly. Our visitor was saying how she was so hot and she was sweating.We looked at a thermometer that she had brought (ours is broken) and it was 82ish degrees!! hahaha!! I guess my body has acclimated to the heat when I think that 82 degrees is almost chilly. I have a blanket on my bed now (just a thin fleece) and I usually wear socks to bed. Our kids are actually wearing clothes now and they all look adorable. Its so fun to see them in clothes (most of the time they just run around in their diapers because its too hot.
I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two weeks!! We are going to go into Ouaga and eat with some American missionaries and then head over to the American Embassy for dessert....Not quite like home, but we will still get to celebrate and that's exciting. I don't know if I said this before or not...but Ruth has gone home for the next few months. So it's Nichole and I here. Lynn helps us out a lot in making decisions...but mostly it's Nichole and me. Its not an easy job....it's only been a week so I'm thinking that it will get easier...