Thoughts on Charity

When we first met our night watchman, Crispen Ebemba, I was a little disappointed. I had hoped for someone that spoke a little better English and was a little more mean looking. Crispen had a round face, and couldn't be more than 5'5", so he wasn't the bouncer that I had expected.

We quickly learned that he was a very hard worker and desperately wanted our approval. Every night, we would take him a meal and share the leftovers with his family. One night, I realized that we had always expected him to eat outside and never invited him in. I told him to come in and pulled up a chair at our table.

Totally shocked that we would invite him in to eat, he bowed down to his knees at our table to thank us. He said thank you repeatedly, and I began to wonder how long he would stay down on his knees. We again told him to come sit down. He very nervously ate his meal, not being able to say anything other than "You are a good boss." He didn't feel like he deserved a place at our table.

I was reminded of the story in scripture where Lazarus longed for the scraps from his masters table, and the rich man gave nothing. Abraham tells the rich man, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony."

The humility of Crispen challenged my pride and my understanding of caring for the poor. If charity only involves hand outs, then humanity is only surviving and not being restored. We could have continued to take Crispen a meal each night and he would have continued to feel like he wasn't worthy to sit at our table. Our work should be one of restoring humanity. Helping people understand their worth in God's Kingdom restores a piece of humanity stolen away by sin. It is in these moments that we too are humbled to realize our worthlessness without a Saviour.

Anna's Story

From time to time, we will post some of the stories of the one million orphans of Malawi. Today, Baby Anna is in our care so it is only fitting that we start with her.


When Anna's mother went into labor, she was a great distance from the hospital. Not having any transportation, she was forced to walk the 15 kilometers. Once at the hospital, she had already lost a great amount of blood. She delivered Anna, healthy and beautiful, but mom was still in great pain. One of the nurses realized that she still had another baby to deliver, and Anna's twin brother was born. Unfortunately, due to the great stress of being in labor for so long and losing so much blood, the baby boy died shortly after delivery.

Attention was focused on mom, trying to get the bleeding stopped. She needed blood but there was no one from her family with her that could donate. Apparently, the policy of the local hospital requires that someone from your family donate blood before you can be given any blood from the reserve. Her family members were unable to make it in time, and she passed away.

The hospital called late that night to let Pastor Phiri know that no one in the extended family could care for the baby, and so she came to Esther's House.

As we have cared for her the past 24 hours, it has felt a bit like baby sitting. Then it hits you. She isn't going home to her family when our time with her is over. While we are grateful for a place like Esther's House, we still can't comprehend the cruelty of her situation. It just isn't right and doesn't make sense. For now, she will be loved and cared for, and maybe even adopted into a family of her own at some point down the road. Until then, we will show her the love of a family and give her the best start possible.

We love you Anna, and believe God has great things in store for you.

Baby Anna

After some confusion from the last post, we feel it necessary to clarify something. The nets over the bed are not for decoration. They are mosquito nets to keep our family from getting Malaria. They are also the most frustrating things on the planet. I tuck them in so tight every night because I am afraid a spider will crawl into the kids bed, and at least once a day someone pulls their net down and Zach has to rehang it.

Today, it was Addis. He was pretty proud of himself.


Right now, there is only one caregiver at the orphanage, and she hasn't seen her own kids in almost two months. We offered to take care of the baby a few nights a week so she could go see her family. The twin boys are staying with Kapalassa, the administrative assistant at the orphanage. Here is Anna in her new bed at our house. If it looks like a suitcase, it is because it is a suitcase.

Unfortunately, Anna is not the happiest baby in the world. She has spent most of her night screaming, and we are hoping that she might be done for a few hours. We gave her a good bath with soap, something that she has never had before! We had to pick the dreadlocks out of her hair, it was so matted together. Next up on the agenda, a cleanliness schedule for the care givers!

The remaining construction on Esther's House is coming along. It is very quiet there right now, but I have a feeling it won't be that way for long.


Tomorrow, we are taking Patrick, one of the local orphans in our non-residential care program, to the hospital. He has sores all over his body, and we fear he might be HIV positive. The good news is the hospital in Ntcheu gives free HIV drugs. We hope that the child sponsorship program will be able to pay for the transportation each week to receive the treatment. That is another thing that is on our agenda over the next few weeks. Lots of interviews with kids are ahead!

We hope to share some of their stories on this blog. Hearing the hardships that these kids have faced will make us all more appreciative of the life we have been given and stir us to do something to bring about change in theirs.

Good night from Malawi.

Our African Home

We are finally settled here and feel like we know where to get what. The Peoples grocery store (think 7-11) has most of what we need, but the prices are a bit high. McConnell is the local Sam's Club. You get everything in bulk, and it is pretty cheap. Again, it is about twice the size of a convenient store. Then, there is the Sana grocery store. They have the best bread and cheapest prices on other items, but they don't give receipts. You get chicken and eggs at the same place, oddly enough. Literally a chicken house with a freezer on the back of it. People pay extra for that kind of a thing in America! Organic, free range chicken we call it.

Our home really is nice. Especially now that we have hot water! We have a big wall around us to protect us at night, and a great night watchmen named Crispen Ebemba. Here are a few pictures of our place.

This is the master bedroom:

Our living room/dining room/school room:

The Kitchen:

The kids room:


And, the Laundry Room:


The kids are having a blast playing in the dirt. We gave up on keeping them clean a few days into this journey. Tomorrow, we are going to sort through all of the donations that the American team brought and take inventory.

Also, since we only have one caregiver at the orphanage right now, Erin is going to care for the baby two nights a week starting this Tuesday. This will give the current caregiver a break two nights a week so she can go and see her own family.

That is all for now. Good night from Malawi!

Malawi Time

Some things just take forever around here. The electrician came on
Thursday around 1:00 in the afternoon to fix our hot water heater. He
never actually made it into our house, though. He told me that he
would be here on Sunday to fix it. I asked him, why not tomorrow? He
said it was Saturday and it was his Sabbath. I asked, why not right
now? He explained that he had just come in on a bus from Lilongwe and
was tired, so he would see us on Sunday morning at 8:00.

On Sunday, he worked for about 30 minutes before realizing he would
need parts from Blantyre. "See you tomorrow!" he said as he walked
away from our gate a second time. To my surprise, Sunday evening he
returned with the part around 4:30 in the afternoon. I told him to
come in thinking we might get to take a warm shower. Nope. He was
tired and would be back tomorrow.

Hopefully, when he returns this morning, he will be able to fix the
hot water heater (geezer.) Cold showers are really getting old.
However, we are very thankful to have running water, as this is
certainly a luxury around here. The water tank and solar pump are
supposed to be installed at Esther's House soon, so the workers there
will soon get to experience what this luxury is like.

PICTURES:
Yesterday we attended church at Esther's House. It was a wonderful
service where many of the choirs from local villages sang for us. The
kids lasted for the first hour, but Erin took them outside before the
message started. Some of the orphans from the local village, Madzangi,
were outside the gates. They came in and our kids started trying to
teach them English. Easton enjoyed playing with Precious, one of the
boys staying at the orphanage.

Addis is sitting next to Hope, a little girl that Pastor Phiri adopted
two years ago. Her parents died in a car accident, so the local
village headman was going to kill the baby because no one in the
family wanted her. This is a common practice, unfortunately. Hope is a
perfect example of why we need Esther's House.

From Ntcheu

We are finally here and in our new home. Once this is posted, we will
have only spent two nights there. In our last post, we mentioned that
we would be staying in Pastor Phiris home since ours was given away.

A man from Ncheu saw Thokazani, Pastor's wife, moving her kids back
into their old home. He told her that she could not, because it wasn't
safe for her children. She explained to him that we were coming and
they wanted to give us their home. The man asked, "what about the
house down the street? It is for rent." She told him that they had
inquired and the rent was too high for us to pay. He said, "I will
negotiate a good price so that you can move your family back into your
home." All that to say, we are now living in one of the nicest houses
in town. 3 bedrooms. 2 bathrooms. Walled and gated. Broken glass
around the top of the wall for extra protection.

Of course, it is not like an American home. It is concrete everything.
No hot water. (Might get fixed on Sunday.) Power goes out regularly.

Most of our days have been filled with survival. We managed to stock
our fridge with milk, eggs, juice, and some Coca-Cola Classic. We are
ready to get out of this mode and into the real work of preparing the
orphanage for more children. We did get to visit the facility today
and I was suprised at how much work there is left to be done. The team
that is here this week has a lot of work ahead of them.

The Photos:
The bus broke down on the way here. There is a picture of us stranded
on the side of the road. Today, our car ran out of gas on the side of
the road. Our driver got on the back of a bicycle to get more
"petrol." And, the Esther's House truck broke down in Lilongwe today
and left a few people stuck there until tomorrow. Seems to be normal.

Erin got to strap Addis on to her back today. Thokazani asked, "how
do you get anything done without your baby on your back?" He hates it,
but will be needing to get used to it.

Catherine finally got to hold the baby. She was in heaven. The baby
needs a bath, and we will be working out the details of a cleanliness
schedule over the coming weeks. The orphanage is so far away from any
large city, village mentality rules. Bathing is done infrequently
because water is so precious and difficult to acquire.

True Giving

After a very long and tiring two days of travel, we have finally
arrived in Malawi. When I say long, I mean the longest day ever.
Ever. Really, not anything longer. We got in this afternoon around
noon. After getting through the craziness of immigration, we loaded
up all 14 of our bags to head to our hotel. If it hadn't been for all
of the great people on the trip with us, we would have never made it.

Our car is quite suitable. It is an suv-ish sort of thing with teal
and pink racing stripes. I will send a picture when we have a chance.
Tonight we are staying in a hotel/guest house sort of place, and
tomorrow we move on to our home in Ntcheu.

There are a few things I am having to let go of:
1) Kids Naps: Probably won't happen very regularly
2) Detailed Schedule: for an OCD like me, that one is tough
3) Cleanliness: My kids played on a playground tonight that was not
covered in nice wood chips. Instead, it was dusty red clay. They were
covered in dirt. The bath water proved it. Having to let go.

Now, the lesson of the day:
We had a home lined up in Ntcheu for our family to rent during our
stay in Malawi. We found out this morning that the owner decided to
rent it to someone else. When the local baptist pastor in Ntcheu,
Pastor Phiri, discovered that we would not have a place to stay, he
moved his entire family (8 kids) out of their very new, very nice
home. They will be staying in their old home, about 800 square feet of
concrete with 2 bedrooms, during the duration of our stay. They
wouldn't have it any other way. They were honored for us to be able to
stay at their home. God had blessed them with it, so they want to
bless us.

They are teaching us what it means to really give.

Half Way

Everyone did great on the first two airplanes. The kids slept through
most of the long flight. Erin had Sophie and I had addis, so neither
one of us really got to sleep much. Addis was in my arms most of the
night.

As much as we moaned about the flight schedule, it turned out pretty
convenient to have a long layover here in London. We are hanging out
at a hotel and the kids are coloring and will soon be in the tub.

We plan on enjoying a good lunch then napping this afternoon. We fly
out at 8 pm London time. Two more flights and we are there!

Thank you for all of the comments and encouraging emails. They mean a
lot to us. Continue to pray for our travel. It has been very evident
that we were covered in prayer through the first part of our journey.
Don't stop now.

Next stop, Africa.

The Final Morning

We enjoyed our last decent shower, drank water out of the faucet, and shaved with hot water. It will be a while before we are able to do these things again, so we are enjoying the ordinary things we take for granted.

The kids are more than excited. They are jumping around talking about Africa and babies and playing in the mud. I think they are most excited about getting on the airplane. 42 hours later, I don't think they will be as pumped up.

To all of our friends and family, we love you and will see you again soon.

I am sure before the day is over, there will be another update. And, while we are away, there will be many more. This update is to say, we love you and will miss you.

Drawing Near

We are only a few days away from the start of our crazy adventure. We have all but three of our bags packed and it looks like we might be able to make it all fit. Mostly, we are loaded down with food.

Now, there is now way we could ever take enough food for our entire trip. However, it will be nice if twice a week we can have something that at least resembles American food.

Most days, it will be chicken and rice. And no, you can't buy frozen chicken in Ncheu, Malawi. It will be of the live variety. When my sweet Catherine discovers that "chicky" from the yard is now on the table, there will be a major meltdown. Hopefully, we can shelter her from ever figuring that out.

And before we go, a funny picture of Sophia to send you on your way. She dressed herself this day, and shockingly enough, Erin let her leave the house. Dirty shirt and all. Notice, she NEVER gets the shoes on the right feet. That one is going to be a fireball in Africa!

Crazy Town

Getting a family of 6 ready to leave the country for two months is harder than anyone thought. Besides packing 12 suitcases at no more than 50 lbs. to avoid getting robbed at the ticket counter by greedy airlines, there is all of the other stuff.

Bills have to be set up on auto draft, mail has to be held, grass has to be mowed, stuff can't get stolen, etc. The list seems to continue to grow. Every time we check off one thing, we add three more. It is a good thing Erin is a list maker, or we might make it there without the essentials.

On top of all of that is the fact that we still haven't seen a picture of the vehicle we have rented for the duration of our stay. I asked for a picture. All I got in response was "It will be suitable for seven people with room to carry all of your laggages." No, I did not misspell laggages. It is a direct quote from the email. Suitable sounds adventurous.

And then the flight schedule. It is poor. No, it is wretched. The worst one ever. Twelve hour layover in London. 8 am to 8 pm. 42 total hours of traveling. Then, 4-6 hour drive to our home once we arrive in Malawi.

So, to some it all up. Crazy town.

Now, for the pictures. Here are some of our favorites from our recent family photo shoot.

This job might kill us

This weekend, a one day old baby boy was brought to Esther's House Orphanage. His mother died in childbirth delivering twins. His twin sister passed away at birth also.


When I see pictures like this, it makes me wonder why. Why are some kids born in a world with excellent health care while others are not? The lack of fairness kills me.

And then to think that we will care for this baby boy for two months, then leave him in Malawi to be raised in the orphanage rips my heart out. Like I said, this job may kill us.

Bottom line is, he is our responsibility if we believe what the Bible says is true, whether we live in Malawi or in the comfort of the United States. Since Esther's House is brand new, there is no stockpile of formula or bottles or diapers. This is the first baby.

There is currently very little in the pantry, and it will be our job to fill it up during our two month stay. If you would like to contribute to Esther's House Orphanage, click the donate button on the left hand side of the page. 100% of your contribution will go to the orphanage to help the kids of Malawi.

For those of you that have already given, we want to say thank you. You are amazing and your gift will not be wasted. We will post regularly during our stay and update you on the items that are purchased with your gifts.

Moving to Africa

As if having four kids five and under isn’t adventurous enough, we will soon begin a new journey that will test us like never before. Our hearts have always been heavy for the orphaned children of Africa. This led our family to adopt Addis Zachary Yeabsera Kennedy this past year from the nation of Ethiopia. Yet, the burden did not go away. It only grew stronger, leading us to our next big adventure.

This August, we will move our family to the country of Malawi, Africa to become the interim directors of the recently opened Esther’s House Orphanage in the small town of Ncheu. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world. With a population of 11 million people, one million children are orphans. The aids pandemic has reduced the life expectancy to 37 years. For two months we will immerse ourselves in the culture of the Malawian people.

While in country, we will work on completing the structure of Esther’s House, accept the first children, hire staff, and develop curriculum. Here is a picture of our home.


All along our journey, a television camera will document every moment. In fact, shooting has already begun, and much more will be shot before we even get on an airplane. At the end of our time in Africa, the footage will be edited into a reality television series to be aired in the Spring of 2010. It is our goal to produce a television program that will stir hearts and encourage the involvement of the television audience. We want to tell the story for those who can't speak up for themselves.

Thanks to the incredible vision of First Baptist Church of Springdale and The Church at Pinnacle Hills along with the support of Bigger Than Life Foundation, all of our travel, living, and production expenses are covered. This was a major investment in a project that we all believe has great potential.

We would love for you to be a part of this project. Since all of our expenses are covered, we are in the process of raising money that will go 100% to the orphans of Malawi. Due to the unexpected increase in construction costs, many projects at Esther’s House were left unfinished. The money you donate will go to purchase beds, cooking equipment, school uniforms and fees, furnishings, food, as well as cover the general operating expense of the orphanage.

It is our goal to raise $15,000 before we leave for Malawi on August 23rd. All gifts are tax deductible.

Just click the yellow donate button on the left hand side of the page and enter a donation of any amount. Again, all gifts are tax deductible.

While donations are important, the most valuable thing you can contribute is prayer. It is is our first line of defense against any hardship that may come our way. There will no doubt be tough times during our stay, and your prayer and encouragement will sustain us. 


Please pray specifically for:

• Safety in travel with four kids
• Protection from illness
• Favor with local authorities
• The children of Esther’s House
• The success of the television program

In conjunction with donations, we have also created a line of T-shirts that can be purchased online. All of the proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go to Esther’s House orphanage.

And to the blog world. Please consider posting about our project or putting the t-shirt information on your blog. We know the strength of this community and the impact that you can make.

Here is a picture of the first two children that were recently brought to Esther's House. They are 5-year-old twin boys.

A New T-Shirt Design

I created a new T-Shirt design this week for Esther's House Orphanage. It is in Malawi Africa, a country with over 1 million orphaned children. All of the profits from the shirt go to Esther's House. Buy yours here and pass it along to your friends.

Sophia turns 3

Here she is, sporting her birthday presents.

First T-Ball Game

We had our first T-Ball game yesterday. It was crazy hot, but Easton really seemed to dig it. He played catcher, which in T-Ball, means you get to stand closest to the dugout while you kick the dirt around. He is the smallest dude on the team, but he makes up for it with his attitude.

He was also last in the batting order, so that meant all the other team had to do to get him out was put the ball on the tee. That didn't stop him from running all the bases EVERY time he got up to bat though. Rarely was there any one left on the field when he crossed home plate. Three illegitimate in-the-park home runs makes a dad proud. He had the biggest smile every time he came home, which made sitting in the sun worth it.



Here he is coming into home. Notice that no one is left in the field and the ball is sitting squarely on the tee. He ran hard all the way to the end.

And... the smile.

Court Finally

We finally got on the ball and got the final documentation for Addis today. Well, mostly all of it. We still have to wait on a birth certificate and social security number, but we are very close. I freaked everyone out on Facebook by saying that we had to "readopt" Addis. It has a much more technical term, but I didn't feel like sending out all the details with twitter. You only get 140 characters.

To be honest, we waited this long because we had no clue what we were supposed to do. If you don't live in Texas, Gladney doesn't have much for you. We found a great adoption lawyer in town for all of you NWA families that are in process. His name is Keith Morrison, and he was very helpful and has five adopted kids himself, so he knows the process first hand.

Here are all the kids waiting patiently in the hallway before our appointment.


Keith took Addis back to see Judge Mashburn first. Thankfully, Addis has never met a stranger so he was happy to go along.


Judge Mashburn has a picture with every adoptive family he has ever been able to approve in his career. He was a great man and was proud to be a part of our story.



As of today, he is officially Addis Zachary Yeabsera Kennedy.
(This morning, he was legally Yeabsera Zachary Kennedy.)

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

Ok, so my husband is completely annoyed with me for this post. I wanted to catch everyone up with pictures and in his opinion I picked a few too many for one post. I decided I like to look at other peoples pictures more than I like to read stuff so maybe you all will agree with me and enjoy the pictures! (This is for you Mo!)

This is Catherine's dance recital...She was so excited everyone came to watch her.



This is part of our trip to Hot Springs...

Can you believe my kids jump off of this? Sophie did it last year before she was even 2!





Rainy day...


Easton started T-ball and LOVES it!


This is swim lessons week. I love that our kids love the water!

For any of you who have read our blog before you have seen the Kennedy family water slide. They have so much fun on this thing!

I loved this picture...

And of course this one...