*I have gone back and added more to this post after it was initially published because I realized that I missed some key moments from this day. I guess that's to be expected when I'm trying to recall memories from 9 months ago. I am thankful for my journal to help with that!
Monday at Mattaw was a normal day full of playing with the kids, spending time with the house parents, and being there to help in any way we could. There really wasn't any planned work at this point so we enjoyed just hanging out. I will try to keep my comments to a minimum (I've been writing lots lately!) and let the pictures do most of the talking.
J lovin' on Eunice. Eunice has cerebral palsy and is the sweetest girl. She just loved to be touched and would stay by your side for as long as you would stand with her.
More cooking lessons from Grace! Again, I was super impressed with the way she shredded the greens for sukuma wiki, which we ate on multiple occasions for lunch at Mattaw.
Grace and the "Auntie" for House 3
The children at Mattaw take care of one another. These were the most well-behaved, hard-working kids I have ever been around.
How is it possible that these houses have any white linens with kids and red dirt? Amazingly, these table cloths were bright white. I truly was in awe and humbled by the way the women did laundry. They did it all by hand and scrubbed until they got all of the stains out. The pieces were cleaner than they would have been if they had used a machine.
This little guy, Johnny, came in to get some clean water. He accidentally spilled some and immediately went outside to get a mop to clean up his mess. I sat there stunned at this young one's care for their house.
One of my most favorite pictures of sweet Blessing
I loved how the kids on our team developed their own relationships with the parents and children. I was impressed by their initiative and ability to relate so well with our new friends. Here L is just sitting with Joseph (House 3 Dad) chatting and drinking tea after lunch. Precious...
Craft time!
We brought some different crafts with us to work on with the older kids on a couple of the days. We usually did crafts in the afternoon after lunch and would all gather in one of the houses to work. Most all of the kids wanted to participate and make their own creations.
This older child is working on her crafts with an adorable baby, Hope, sleeping on her back.
Hope was completely conked out at this point!
Faith and Spencer, the dynamic duo
Too much airplane fun! Another sleeping cutie...
When the houses weren't filled with kids and crafts, this is what the main living area looked like. Each of the houses were decorated differently but the basic layout was the same. The kitchen and bedroom for the parents was on the right and there were two bedrooms (one for the boys and one for the girls) on the left.
Sometime in the later afternoon, I was milling around outside and one of the older kids handed Moses to me. Moses is Emmanuel's twin and they both had been brought together to Mattaw shortly before we arrived last summer. Moses' hair was red (pictured below) because of his significant amount of malnutrition. Bud and Kim shared that both of them were very bad off at the point when they were rescued. These sweet guys seemed like babies to us but were actually 3 years old. Praise God that He saved their precious lives and gave them a home.
Unlike Emmanuel who was a happy little guy and would gladly be held by any of us (although I primarily hogged him, which is why I have so many pictures of and with E), Moses often was whimpering or sad and usually only wanted his siblings to hold him. Even though they are twins, they had very different dispositions. We did catch a few moments where Moses would be content with us, but it sure didn't happen much.
This particular day Moses was fussy but I was determined to not hand him back to one of his siblings. I wanted to hold and try to calm him. I started walking and even though he was still crying, he laid his head on me. My heart lifted every so slightly for this precious child. I started singing (and I am no singer) "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children" over and over to him. At some point, I migrated over to the swings with him where no other children happen to be playing. Swinging and singing. Swinging and singing. He then quickly calmed and fell asleep on me.
In that quiet moment when no one else was watching, God touched me deeply and I believe imprinted my heart forever. After a few minutes of processing of what had happened to this child who was now sleeping so peacefully and thinking about what life must have been like before he and his brother were rescued, the tears started pouring and falling all over his head. I was overwhelmed with pain for the suffering he must have gone through and overjoyed that God protected his life. I wanted so badly to bring him home with me (and his brother, too!). I prayed over him as we continued to swing and God gave me comfort knowing that He cares for Moses even more than I ever could and that He is with him. I was so thankful for this time with Moses when no one else was around and did not want it to end. This was a special day for me and the time on the swing is still something that stands out most about my time in Kenya.
For some reason, our 4 kiddos were wiped at the end of this day. It was hilarious that they all ended up in the back of the van together sleeping on each other as we headed back to Karibuni. What was even more amusing is that they were able to sleep on the crazy bumpy roads!
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