Merry Christmas!

We Did It!

The Water Walk in Clovis was an amazing, astounding, unbelievable success!  Here's a story that the Clovis News Journal ran about us: h2o article.

The day of the walk dawned bright and beautiful!  After months of worrying about wind, rain, or snow --- we could not have asked for more perfect weather.  We had almost 100 people show up for the event.  My original goal was 40, but Justin said all along that he believed it would be closer to 100.  So glad I was wrong!  Participants ranged in age from little babies to mature people in their 80's.

I was glad to hear many people talking about how impacted they were by the experience.  For us here in America, clean water is something so easy to take for granted.  I hope that everyone will remember the walk, the brown water, the sore muscles, and the people across the world who face that reality every.single.day.  Here's what my friend Gwyn had to say about the experience:

If, like me, you take fresh water for granted and don't give turning the tap on a second thought, then I challenge you to take part in your own water walk. I just joined others in walking 3/4 of a mile to collect water from Greene Acres Lake and then back to the church I grew up in. We filtered our water through t-shirt-like material and then put it in a stock tank. The walked symbolized what thousands of others do EVERY day, multiple times a day to get water for their families. The sad part is, the water they collect is dirtier than that found in Greene Acres. Those sent to collect the water are often children who are walking more than 2 miles a day, and the water is being used for cooking, cleaning, bathing and drinking. Imagine using water from Greene Acres to bathe in, to clean your dishes with, to cook your meals in and to drink for hydration. Become aware, as I have, to the need and the simplicity in which you can make a difference.

We raised $3000 at the walk.  I'm super excited to announce that generous donations came from other places, as well, and the well is now fully funded!  We never imagined that this journey would be so quick!  We were hoping to have the money by next summer.  We never dreamed it would be raised in 2 1/2 months!  THANK YOU to everyone who supported us with prayers and monetary gifts!

Our friend and partner in Kenya, Tom Abungu, just told the people of the village in Kenya about our project.  He told me:

I just got back from the village and I broke the news to them that a new well was coming to them and it was an imaginable joy on the faces of the people. Songs of praises to God was being sung. What a blessings!

We have decided to keep this ball rolling!  We are now working on well#2.  Stay tuned for details!  Below is a video of some of the fun at the water walk.

Six Months

Golly, golly!  How can it be that we've had our sweet Eyob for six months already?  I can still so clearly remember the relief as we touched down on American soil.  The disappointment and exhaustion as we barely missed our next flight and had to overnight in Atlanta.  The sheer joy and overwhelming awesomeness of being united as a family of seven, in front of our closest family and friends!


So half a year in, I can say that we're finally, really finding our groove as a family.  Looking back, it's hard to believe that we've come so far in such a short amount of time.  This is one tough and brave boy!

I'm so grateful for the journey that we're on and for the change that Eyob has brought to our lives.  We are praying for boldness to change the world.  We can't fix everything.  We can't give a home to every orphan.  We can't feed them all or provide them with medical care.  We can't do everything, but we can do something.  We can sponsor a child.  We can provide a well for clean drinking water.  We can travel back to Africa to serve the people there.  We can be His hands and feet.  What can you do?  

Our pastor says to identify your burden, which will uncover your passion.  Great starting place!  What burdens you?

Five Months Home

Last week, we celebrated five months as a family of seven.  For writing, Tatum and Kierstyn chose to use Eyob as a subject.  I love what they came up with.  Here's their paragraph:

     Eyob Masebo Robbs is a konjo, four year old little boy.  He has cute hair and beautiful skin.  He is compassionate and caring when someone gets hurt.  Eyob was adopted from Ethiopia five months ago.  He is different and unique with a great personality.

He's just a part of our family now.  It feels like we're starting to gel together as a unit and I fantasize at least once a day cannot even remember what life was like with only one little.  Our littles, Eyob and Maci, are quite a rambunctious pair.  I'm working some preschool into our school days and two and a half weeks in they both recognize A, B, and C, write the three letters, and tell what they 'say'. 

The other kids are having an excellent school year so far, too.  I skipped Tatum up a grade, so she went from 4th to 6th and is doing awesome!  Cade is bopping along with all his eighth grade stuff - Algebra II being what I was most apprehensive about, but he's doing great so far.  Kierstyn is blowing third grade right out of the water.  What a smarty pants!  We're also learning Greek, which has actually been really fun so far.

Sports start full force this week, with games and practices and the constant juggling of schedules and eating dinner on the go.  As stressful as that is sometimes, we love it and praise God every day for the joy he has given us.

Over the weekend, we de-stressed with a rock star birthday party for Tatum and some of her friends.  We had lots of fun and Justin and I looked like has been 80's rock stars incredibly hot.

Help Us Celebrate Eyob's Birthday and Make a Difference in Kenya

Superhero birthday party

Our sweet boy celebrates his fourth birthday today!  Melkam Lidet, Eyob Masebo!  We celebrated on Sunday with his closest friends.  

He opened gifts!

He loved the cake!

Justin and me with Little E

Please keep reading to see how you can help us celebrate and honor him!

After visiting Ethiopia twice, we became passionate about helping provide clean water to people there.  Everywhere you look, people are carrying or otherwise hauling large yellow jugs for clean water.  

Here are some water facts:

• 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people.

• 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.

• Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.

• At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

For months, we've been trying to make arrangements to put a well in the community that Eyob is from.  We've talked to many organizations and hit dead end after dead end.  We had two requirements.  #1 - the organization had to spread God's word to the community in the process of placing the well.  #2 - it had to be close to a specific location.  Unfortunately, no one that we could find is drilling wells in that area right now.  We waited the whole summer for a site survey to come back from one organization and in the end, they could not accommodate our request.  So we decided to just fundraise for an Ethiopian well in an unspecified location, but God had other plans.

We have a friend, Tom Abungu, who runs a school and orphanage in Kenya.  He spent most of the summer staying with some of our good friends and was able to travel to the church I grew up in to give a presentation.  During that service, he talked about another part of his ministry, which is helping to put wells into needy communities in Kenya.  Tom gave examples of being able to spread The Gospel during past projects.  *Ding*  A light went on for Justin and myself!  It resonated so deeply with us that we immediately knew this was where we should focus our energy.

Drum roll please.... I'm excited to announce that we are now working toward a goal of raising $10,000 for a well in an area of Kenya called Urimba, Siaya Village!  People in this area have no close source for water and must walk two hours to obtain it.  Tom says a well will bring great hope to this community.

We have several awesome fundraisers planned for this fall, so stay tuned for that.  Right now, though, you can help us kick off our project by celebrating Eyob's fourth birthday.  In honor of him, please consider making a donation to our well fund.  Any amount will help $4, $40, $400 or whatever you feel led to give.  You can click the donate button on the right side of this page to make a contribution through Paypal.  If you'd like to make a tax deductible donation, please contact me directly and I will get the information to you.

Thank you for helping us to help others! 

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. John 7:38