Hello

I know. It has been awhile. The beginning of this week we went to Nairobi. I was very excited to pick my friend Dalene and her husband. They are finally here! Hooray! Her husband, Phil, does professional filming and will do a short video for Mattaw for while we are back in the states here pretty soon. They have a street kid organization called Until Then... untilthen.org. You should check it out! We are very thankful to have them here to do a film for us. They will be back next summer to do a longer film for us. Really, I'm just happy to have them here and be a part of our everyday life for a few weeks :-). I might have to remind you who Dalene is because it's just a really cool story. I'll sum it up. She came as our intern... yes she was indeed truly an intern... we had a group of four people for a summer a few years ago (and are starting back up a volunteer program for summer 2011). Anywho, this was before we had children officially in Mattaw Children's Village so we mostly networked with other organizations for them to volunteer at and get a feel for different types of ministry on the mission field. Well, during that summer Dalene met Phil, who was on a short term trip here. And the rest is history. They are now a super awesome married couple that we love very much! After working with us they will go and help start up a water project with one of their new partners. I will definitely have to share more on this. Very cool stuff happening. It involves buying really cool hip flip flops and with one pair purchased it provides clean water for one person for a year.

While in Nairobi we got to eat some good food and see some good friends. One of them was Mercy. She moved back to Nairobi this past year and we miss her very much! She was able to hang out and watch Claire some while Bud and I went through the Masaai market.

Incredible woman she is!

This week we also grabbed some time at the pool. We usually just go for a few hours once a week. Enough time to soak in the sun and Elisha to have some fun somewhere outside our house/yard. (of course he goes out to Mattaw and has fun too) Here he is trying to copy Ian, it was so cute.

Sometimes you can see Mount Elgon clearly. Especially when it's not rainy season. Even though it is still raining occasionally and it's supposed to be dry season.

Last week was the Kitale agricultural show. I went with the kids and teachers a few years ago and one time was enough for me. :-) It's great for the kids to go though. Like the stockyard show and rodeo in Texas but way cheesier. So this year Bud took all our boys (minus the itty bitty kids). We thought about taking the girls and then the timing just didn't work out. So today we brought the girls over to our house for some quality girly time. They jumped on the trampoline, had pb&j sandwich's with potato chips and juice, watched the parent trap movie and we painted their toe nails.

Betsy painting Rose's toes

Dalene painting Mercy's toes

Uncle Phil watching a movie with Elisha. It was an interesting movie to say the least.

Some of the girls jumping...

We have less than three weeks left in Kitale! AH! We will be going back to the great republic of Texas. We will get in just in time to celebrate Eli's THIRD birthday with family on the 6th. (THIRD?! really!?) We'll then head to Cali for a wedding, then spend the holidays with family and then head to Minnesota for a New Years wedding. We'll connect the Minnesota trip with a visit to another church and friends in Minnesota. Then we'll be visiting some Texas churches all the month of January and end January with a fundraiser in Missouri. We'll finish up our trip with a few more weeks in Texas in February and then fly back here to be with a team form Missouri who will build the church at Mattaw. Whew! A bit busy? Yes. Looking forward to it? Actually, I am! We know this is God's perfect timing so we're just stepping into all the opportunities He puts before us. If you are interested in having us, please let us know as SOOON as possible. We have a bit of open time here and there but we need to know VERY soon. We will be available to speak in churches, to youth groups, Sunday school classes, small groups, and organizations. (or whoever, even just to sit and grab lunch or dinner... or coffee) Also we'll be doing house parties where we will be selling African crafts as fundraisers and sharing updates on Mattaw Children's Village.

We are completely in awe of the response to "Cows for Christmas"!!!!!! THANK YOU so much for those of you who have responded. I can not wait to share with you the results and the different ways people are coming together for moooooo-re cows. Praise Jesus!

My updates wont be so few and far between for the coming weeks. Building house three on Monday! Pray, pray pray!