Good Morning Blog World, from my comfy couch....

Hello sweet friends, I awoke this a.m. dying to say hello to you. So much has happened in these last 10 days so I am just going to try to start typing and see where God leads. I am on my comfy couch with my sweet puppy snuggled in tight. I awoke at 4:00 a.m. and I couldn't have been more thrilled to have some time alone. When you are rooming with two other gals and 6 others right behind the next door, alone time with Jesus is almost impossible. I didn't realize just how much I cherished my coffee/Jesus time in the a.m.'s until they were gone. So Snick and I come to you this morning thrilled to be hearing the birds chirp before the pitter patter of feet (more like romping roar) come down that hallway. A lot has happened travel wise and warfare wise in the last 2 days. Our plane left Addis Friday night (their time) and traveled 14 hours home and then landed in D.C. at 8 a.m. (our time) Saturday morning. Unfortunately Thursday night my allergies decided to go haywire, so to say I had an uncomfortable flight was an understatement. I kept saying to myself, don't complain, don't complain, but when I arrived at the ticket booth in D.C. and they said I had no ticket for my Nashville flight I broke down. I had been running a fever all night long, I had had little to no sleep, and because it was "night" yet 14 hours had gone by, I think I was starving and dehydrated as well. I started crying to the ticket lady, had to be bussed to a different airport, and then there they told me I had to pay $25 to check my bag, another devastating moment (in context of my sanity) because I had $10 to my name and no debit card. BUT all worked out, I had a glorious lunch in DC with a dear friend who I hadn't seen in years. A lunch date that made me so sad we were so far apart, but also a wonderful friend to debrief with because she is sold out to Christ and totally helping others with her American "wealth" so that was God's great gift after a long hard night. Then I hugged her neck, went back to the airport and heard the dreaded word...............delayed, oh wait, not my flight though, thank you JESUS, got on the plane, on the runway, and then let me ask you, have you ever had a plane slam on its breaks during takeoff?? NOT ENCOURAGING, so 1.5 hours later and a God appointment with a sweet girl and her adorable baby next to me, we were off. My new friend and I laughed about how we both would have had a nervous breakdown if we hadn't had each other. By this time I literally cannot hear because of my sinus' and the cabin pressure. I am also so disoriented from lack of sleep that when I saw my son, I almost didn't even know how to react. I then got to the swarm of the airport luggage claim which was chaos and I had the oddest feeling, I didn't want to be back. I walked into my house and it was literally like slow motion, like walking into a mansion. I told Jeremy (who btw IS the most godly man on earth) that I was overwhelmed and he just let me cry. He put Cross to bed for me and told me to take a bath. I laughed and thought, he probably doesn't want me in bed after visiting the dump followed by 24 hours of travel. I was so yuck. My body was in pain in so many ways. Brushing my teeth felt so good. I ended the night with 1,000 God stories (and pictures) with my man and then I finally hit the wall and went straight to sleep. I awoke this a.m. feeling so much better, thinking I really can live life here, somehow, some way, but at the same time dreading the routine of it all. I told J it was so odd, one day I am walking in the dump hugging kids and the next day I am strolling through the streets of D.C. where not even so much as a blade of grass was out of place. That is a hard transition. My blackberry seems beyond overwhelming after 10 days of being unplugged. It will still just take me a lot of time to process it all. I will say this, in the gospels, it often mentions that all the miracles of Jesus were too great to pen, well that is most certainly true. For me to get on and share the hard parts, that is totally doable, but for me to start a post with the God stories, now that is too great to pen. But don't you worry, I am going to give it my all, it just may not all be this morning. But I AM going to tell you of His great mercy and grace, of His divine appointments, and of His presence so thick when you are hugging someone who is literally starving. And then finally I am going to tell you what we can do to help. Our part is so easy! It is nothing in comparison to the miracles He has worked. I also want to "introduce" you to some of the godly men and women there who are living radical lives like we Americans have never even dreamed. I am going to give you some faces to put with some names. And WE are going to rock this world for Jesus my friends, one life at a time, and I can't wait! But as for now, I am going to get prepared for that sweet boy to awake! I am going to get prepared to go worship my Jesus this a.m. like I have never worshipped Him before. I will have to refrain myself from sprawling across the alter (at church at least) but I cannot wait to sing me some praise music (IN ENGLISH hahahaha) and beg Him to use me to change the world.

But I will ask your prayers for one thing in the mean time. I came home to some news that bothered me. Not only was satan trying to attack me physically, but he had been messing with my man as well. At the beginning of my trip J had to take the car in to be fixed and I want you to take a huge guess at how much that cost?? $1200, yes 12 HUNDRED dollars, and then at the end of my time away he came down with pneumonia, WHAT?? Yes, that is what I said, from Thursday on he has been down for the count. My precious in-laws have of course done everything for him and Cross, but it made me so mad I wanted to spit. Now I know in life "things happen" but I knew this was so much more. We better never for one second think that a war is not waging in the heavenlies when people have their eyes open to help the poor. I want you all to pray that we push through. Pray that we seek Jesus and His will for our future and pray that we obey regardless of what the checking account says or what our "poor" bodies have to endure. Neither can compare to the lives of the people I watched walk through the streets this week. I am begging you friends, pray us through. "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." May we never forget that reality! I love you dearly sweet friends and I can just about bet, you will be coming with me to Ethiopia, one way or the other!!!!!!

K