Life in the States...for now.

I know this post has been a long time coming and it has taken me several months to even write it.  I want you to know before you read it that we, the Kings, are happy and healthy!

We have been back in the states now since the last weekend in May.  When we came back stateside, it was not a planned thing (meaning months in advance).   We had about 4 days of prep to prepare to come back to the states for an amount of time that we were not sure about.  "Why did you come back?"or "What happened?" are two questions we got a lot at first and still do.  At first, these were questions that I could not answer without crying.  I could try and try to explain why we needed to leave Africa for awhile but I don't think I could describe it well to those who have never lived where we have lived.  I know my co-workers and friends in Africa can empathize but I have found it difficult to explain to others who have not lived overseas.  Sure we had a few traumatic things happen while we were in Africa that anyone could empathize with, but the everyday life in Africa was also stressful and hard to describe.

Our family dealt with a good amount of stress while overseas.  I am not saying that our family has experienced the worst.  I know others that have gone through things that make our stressors look like small, fluffy kittens.  None the less, we were stressed to the max.  Let me just say (and I am being really honest and open here) that I am pretty sure I cried everyday during our last 3 months in Africa (March, April, and May).  I am pretty sure I was depressed but could hide it pretty well from others looking from the outside in.  I had heard that a lot of missionaries struggled with depression on the field and I have no clue why I thought I would be exempt from it.  Brad was struggling too (with stress) but we both express our stressors differently....I was sad.  All to say that our stress was greatly affecting our children, especially Macy.  We did not come home for health issues, but health issues did add to our stress...make sense?  Macy, our 6 year old, did not handle stress well.  When we lived in West Africa, Macy developed esophageal ulcers and did not eat solid food for over a month.  Was it caused purely by stress?  We are not 100% sure.  The doctors in Nairobi could not pinpoint a cause.  Then in Uganda, Macy developed motor tics back in November 2012.  At first they were small and generalized to her face, but in April and May the tics got worse, involved other body parts, they were occurring daily, and causing her pain.  This made our stress worse, which made her tics worse....see the vicious cycle here?  One CRAZY day in Uganda, the "straw broke the camel's back" and we just had to get out or we were going to lose it mentally.   Thus, our trip back to the states.  

Because of our timing in coming back to the states and the time it took to set up neurologist appointments for Macy, we knew we would be here until at least Mabry was born.  When we first came back, that first week, Macy's tics were worse than ever before.  It was STRESSFUL coming back to the states.  Don't get me wrong....everything was sooooooo very clean and nice and beautiful and wonderful.  I mean, I thought the Atlanta airport was glorious and restrained myself from hugging the nice customs people!  Before I had always hated the Atlanta airport....no more my friend, no more. However, after we recovered from jet lag and began to relax Macy's tics slowly disappeared one by one and she no longer cried at night from muscle pain from the uncontrollable movements.  Now, she really only has one tic movement and it is small and not too noticeable.

From the moment we left Africa that last weekend in  May we cried out to God to please reveal to us what we needed to do as a family in regard to where to serve Him....go back to Africa or stay stateside for a while.  I guess it is evident now that we decided to stay in the states.  This was probably the hardest decision me and Brad have ever made.  It was not made lightly and much prayer and counsel were sought on our part. I went through a time where I was so embarrassed and deeply saddened that we had to leave the field.  We were "that" family that didn't make it.   I know now that those feelings of guilt and embarrassment were just lies from the enemy crippling me from being effective where the Lord had me at that time.

The Lord has been SO GOOD to our family.  He spared us so much stress for just allowing us to come back to the states when we did.  The week I had Mabry (August 22nd) I also had to have my gallbladder taken out.  I am so very thankful that I was stateside when all that happened and that family was able to help Brad and I out along the way.  Also, should we have had Mabry in Nairobi, Kenya my mom was scheduled to fly into Nairobi the week the airport there burnt down!  I could go on and on!!!!

So, what are we doing now?  Well, our resignation from the IMB was official about 2 months ago now.  When we resigned we immediately started looking for new jobs.  I am a pharmacist and really believed it would be super easy to find a job...I was wrong.  There were NO jobs available in Cleveland and I did not want to have to drive far from home to work.  However, there was a new grocery store going up in Cleveland that had a pharmacy in it and I simply prayed that if it was the Lord's will that He would give me that job.  I was proactive and reached out to this new grocery store, found the pharmacy supervisor's phone number and gave him a call.  After leaving a message and not hearing from him for 2 weeks they called me for an interview for the next day!!!  I don't really know what I expected BUT they offered me the job on the spot and I took it! What an answered prayer!  I am now working full time as a pharmacist again and Brad is getting to stay home with the girls and play Mr. Mom.  We are enjoying this season of our lives but are always prayerful about what is to come next.  Where will Brad have his next ministry job? Will we have to move again?  How long do we get to live close to family?  I don't have the answers to these questions nor do I worry about them.  I do know that the Lord is faithful and sovereign.  If I have learned anything the past 2 years that one truth stands out among the rest.

We miss our life in Africa for the most part.  Not a day goes by that I don't think about our friends there or remember what life was like there.  God graciously allowed us to live there and we are different people now because of our time there.  Our world view has changed for the better. I am honored to have served there and to have gotten to know some of the great nationals that I will forever love in both West Africa and in Uganda.  We actually stay in contact with a few of our national friends and still pray that those who don't know the Lord will soon know Him one day! What a privilege it was to take the Gospel to those places!  My heart breaks on some days that I can't be there right now.  However, I know that I can support those who are there with prayer and financial giving.  I want to give a "shout-out" to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering right now.  If it were not for this offering from Southern Baptist churches our time in Africa would not have been possible.  Our medical treatment in Africa, airplane rides, homes, food, sharing the name of Christ, you name it...the Lottie Moon makes it possible.  Please prayerfully consider donating to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering...it surely made an impact on our lives!

So for now, we will serve the Lord in Cleveland, TN. (The town that Brad and I both grew up in and where our immediate families reside.)  I will serve as a mom, wife, and community pharmacist and Brad will minister to our family. Maybe one day we will be able to return to Africa or another exotic and exciting place where the gospel is not. The possibilities are endless but for now we are here in good'ol Tennessee and loving it!  I have learned to live life to the fullest where I am and serve Jesus joyfully regardless of my circumstances.

Culture Adjustment....in the States!

We, as a family, have been back in the states now for a little over a month.  Let's just say that we needed a break from Africa and are resting and de-stressing in the states for a while.  Because of the timing of our break and some medical appointments that needed to be made, I will also deliver our new King baby girl (still have not completely decided on a name) in the states too.  I am due August 30th...so I will probably deliver via scheduled c-section the last week of August.

We had been gone from the states for almost 21 months.  I figured we would experience some culture shock, but let me tell you....the Atlanta airport was just glorious.  Everything was orderly, people were smiling and talking in a southern accent, I could see my reflection in the floors, and I had to explain what a water fountain was to the girls (and that the water was safe to drink out of it!).  We were slightly tired (we had one last airplane ride from Atlanta to Chattanooga to make) after traveling (including layovers) 25 hours.  Because our short layover in Atlanta we did not have time to sit and eat a real meal....so we bought a bag of skittles, 2 hotdogs, a cherry coke (DELICIOUS), a coke, and a mountain dew.  (Mind you...we had coke in Uganda but not cherry coke...best cherry coke I have ever drank!) The girls did great and I think Brad de-stressed a little by wearing his crazy African made suit jacket (so it would not get wrinkled in our duffels) through each airport.  He got some laughs and crazy looks so me and the girls walked about 3 feet behind him most of the walks through the airports! Ha!

One of the best things about being back is the comments from Macy and Mara or things we have had to explain to them that either they did not know or had forgotten.  Mostly for Mara it is all explaining.  Mara's earliest memories seem to be from when we moved to West Africa.  She still refers to Mali as home and only seems to have very little recollection from the states.  However, Macy remembers a lot of things but we also have to explain things to her too.

So...here are some things that Macy (will be 6 in August) has said that are just too cute that comes from her life in Africa for the past 2 years or things she just does not understand yet:

•   "Momma!!!! There is number 4!!!!"   Need an explanation....Macy had been keeping a tally of the number of brown people that she saw the first week that we were back in the states.  We were driving downtown Cleveland, TN and Macy spotted the fourth brown man she had seen in a couple of days and was so excited.  She proceeded to point at him and I told her pointing is not polite but that waving was ok.  She waved at him instead! :) 
• "Papaw, is this all your property?  Man, you sure are lucky....you can pee anywhere you want!" 
• Brad shot a muskrat in the backyard/creek area of his dad's house and Macy said, "Man, that looks delicious!"  (No, we did not eat it.)
• "Where are all the people on the side of the road, momma?"  In Uganda, there are thousands of people daily walking down the street just inches, sometimes centimeters, from our car.  While driving down the interstate one day we had to explain to Macy some of the simpler rules of the road in America.  

Mara has said some cute things too and is continuing to say/do certain things that we have to explain to people also !

• "These bathtubs are MAGICAL!"  She was amazed the water did not go down the drain without a stopper/plug jammed into the hole.  
• "I want some more of the colored circle things."  We had introduced her to Fruit Loops! 
• Mara picked up somewhat of a British accent in Uganda and still says things that may need some explaining to our southern friends:
• "It is paining me!"   (Instead of using the word "hurt" the Ugandans say "pain")
• "I need to go susu."  This equals, "I need to pee."
• She uses commands all the time instead of asking.  This is culturally appropriate in Uganda, however, I am trying to get her to implement the word "PLEASE" somewhere in her statement! :)
• She will occasionally still stand on the toilet seat when using the bathroom. (Pooping God's way is what we called it in Africa!) Hopefully this does not offend anyone....it is just the way it is done in most parts of Africa AND she was potty trained right around the time we went to do some extra training in the bush in Zambia. :)  

What have I found the most challenging since being back?  At first it was the driving.  I bet we had not gone faster (most days for the past year) than 30 to 40 miles per hour.  Getting on the interstates here in the states gave me just a little anxiety.  Also, the first week back every time we went out into our hometown of Cleveland, TN I wondered if the raptured had occurred.  I mean, where was everyone?!?!  No one was walking on the roads and no one was within a couple of inches of my car! 

Hopefully you have enjoyed a small insight into our lives the past month! Blessings! 

What a year!

Today marks the one year anniversary of our arrival in Africa.  Last year at this time I was savoring each moment that I could with my family members and close friends.  I could not even bring myself to leave my parent's home the day before we left last year because I knew it would be a while before I would see them or spend time in the house I grew up in.  I am not trying to be sappy but I guess it can't come out any other way!

We headed to a pretty stable West Africa county and lived there for 5 & 1/2 months.  We experienced trials and sicknesses but also a lot of joy and experiences I would not trade anything for.  We have made many friends in this process....some we will see again on this earth and some we will never see again this side of eternity.  My heart misses our friends and "family" in West Africa still but I rest in the knowledge that the Father has them in His hands too.  The stable country we had called home for 5 or so months became unstable very quickly and we could not go back in. We are now enjoying and getting culturally adjusted once more to life in East Africa. Different language but so many similarities in culture.

I have to be honest...there have been days when I have wanted to give up.  (I also know that more days like that will be up ahead too.)  However, I know we came here for a purpose and until we complete it our job is not done here yet.

For those of you wondering how our girls are doing here....THEY ARE DOING WONDERFUL! They are enjoying school so much, especially Macy, who I call my "little social butterfly"!  Mara is enjoying it of course too but  my little Macy is a different child now than she was a few months back.

My sweet girls before school one morning! 

We are hoping to move to our permanent house soon (in a couple of weeks) and are once again waiting for our crate to arrive.  Who knew I would get to celebrate the arrival of my crate twice during our first term in Africa!

Thank you to our friends and family for supporting us during this year long journey!  I wonder what He has in store for us this coming year!

Hakuna Matata

"Means no worries for the rest of your days....Its your problem free philosophy, Hakuna Matata!"

 I know you just sang that to the tune of the well known Disney song on the movie the Lion King.  This is what I was wanting to burst forth with in song while driving through Kenya last week.  (However, the bumpy roads, speed bumps, and scary 18-wheelers did not allow me that luxury!) I also wanted to break out in the Circle of Life song (especially when we got to watch up close and personal a dikdik being attacked by a rock python!--more details to come!).

Our drive through Uganda and Kenya was just beautiful!  I will just post some pictures and let them do the talking! 

The girls needed a Cheetos snack about 2 hrs into our drive!  

So at one point during the drive the main road was blocked off and they directed traffic onto this little bumpy, down hill road!  It was quite the adventure!  We had no clue how long we would be on it or where it would come out! HA!  TIA is something I have learned to say a lot = This Is Africa! 

During our drive to Kenya, on the second day we sighted our first zebra and gazelle on the side of the road!  I was more excited than the girls!  We stopped at one point in order to get better photographs of the magnificent animals!

On our way back to Uganda we stopped for a night at a wonderful lodge that we will be visiting again one day.  It was called Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge and it was great!

 I cannot say enough about it.  The service, for the most part, was wonderful and the food even better! The attendant in charge of your cottage came in your room while you were at supper and turned your bed down for you!  My girls were just thrilled that there was a bathtub in our room! The grounds were gorgeous and the fact that wildlife was right outside your door made it even better!

You can see the cottages that we stayed in for the night in the background.  There were 4 units in each cottage and ours was on the bottom floor. The entire backside of our room was windows that we covered at night with curtains.  You could see all of this from our room! If you had to walk from building to building at night you had to call your attendant to be escorted around the premises.  You did not want to walk up to a hippo and scare it and become its supper. (Seriously!)  On the way back from dinner, our escort shushed us and pointed his flashlight at the biggest hippo I have ever seen!  We were less than 15 feet from it! 

I loved seeing all the wildlife but some of my favorites were the monkeys!  When we first arrived we walked through what me and the girls termed "monkey jungle". 

At first we did not see all the monkeys but then......

and....

Then we found a lot of monkeys on the grass playing!  Brad and I told the girls to stand back while I got a good shot of this baby monkey.  As we are concentrating on getting the best shot, we hear the girls (not 10 feet behind us) shriek in fear!  We ran towards them because about 6 monkeys were starting to approach both of them! Needless to say, our walks through "monkey jungle"the next time consisted of each of us holding a girl! 

More monkeys...

During the day at the lodge we drove down the road a little bit and took a boat tour of Lake Naivasha.  We all got to wear the normal orange life jackets but my girls pulled them off pretty well, I think!

The first animals that we came across on the lake were a family of hippos!  The second family of hippos we came across was even better because the baby hippo yawned for us!  

We also saw a lot of beautiful birds!

After we got back from our boat ride we decided to take a guided tour of the land the lodge was on.  You could walk freely around the premises but had to have a guard go with you if you went past one certain area.  As our guard was pointing out the hippo trails and their large mounds of poop we heard some rustling in a bush down to our right.  We turned around and saw this guy...

We kinda spooked him I guess (go figure) and he turned around to head back into the bush.

We saw some of his friends running out of the bush on the other side and he darted into the bush to try to get through to join them.  However,....

his poor little life ended as a rock python jumped out and smothered the life out of him!  Imagine our surprise as we just stood there in awe!  Brad was jumping up and down from excitement and wanted to get closer to get some cool pictures.  This of course freaked our travel guide out but Brad managed to get close enough to get this close of a zoomed-in shot!  Our guide kept telling Brad that snakes can just disappear and reappear anywhere!  Bless his heart! 

Here are some random animal pictures that I don't want to leave out!

All in all, we had a blast!  I can't wait to get back to the beautiful country of Kenya and explore more of our Father's majestic creation! 

ZAMBIA: Part 2

One of the important things to do if living or doing work in an African town/village (whatever) is to meet the chief, greet him, and ask for permission to work in his area.  The men in our group had the opportunity to go and meet the head chief and the women had the opportunity to have the head chief's wife come to bush camp and have an interview with her. 

The woman in the middle, in blue, is the chief's wife. 

Our group asked her several questions and we got very short answers.  However, she was shy and could not speak a lick of English.  The woman on the far left would answer a lot of the questions for her actually.  She was like her spokeswoman. 

During the hour or two that she was there, we asked questions, sang songs for her, had a devotional, and one group even did a drama for her. While we were singing one of the songs though someone noticed a snake was crawling down the wall right behind where these women were sitting.  It was kinda funny though because we all kept singing while Suzie ran and got Bart to come and kill the slithering creature!

I was able to capture a picture of Bart in the act of snake killing! 

African culture is so very different than what you are used to in the states.  We assume things about them and they assume a lot of things about us.  One thing I found so interesting and true is how little the women in this culture know about their husbands.  We asked the chief's wife how her husband was picked as chief and she explained that to us.  However, the next question was what kind of job did her husband have before they were married and she had no clue!  It is also very common in this setting for a husband to be gone from the home for days and the wife have no idea where he is.  I thought it was crazy, but this is the norm for them. 

After going into the small town several times on the back of the flat bed truck, our assignments changed once again.  This time we got to go to surrounding villages in the area! We went to the village and asked some of the questions that we asked in the town and in the big city of Lusaka.  We focused on life cycle questions: birth, maturity, marriage, and death.  On one day we sat down with some women and I thought they were going to tell me their secrets!  When a girl reaches maturity or it is time for her to be married she is taught by the elder women in the village the "secrets" she needs to know.  The women we were talking with shooed all the young girls away from our circle and I thought I would get a little insight into their traditional teachings.  However, they were very vague about what they teach a girl and gave no specifics. Oh, well.

This is a picture of the village Brad and I went to on our daily assignments. 

Pretty cool door I loved in the village! 

I handle smells pretty well....I am talking about stinky ones.  However, in the village we went to they had mounds and mounds of rotting corn.  Before it was ruined they had it ready to sell but an unexpected rain spoiled it all.  It was the yuckiest smell...so thick smelling that it stuck in the back of your throat. ugh. I will never forget it.  How sad that this much food was ruined! 

The last 3 days of our time in bush camp we spent out in the villages with a national in their home/hut.  Every family was put in different homes but some of us were in the same villages! We packed enough stuff to get us through 3 days and off we went!  We stayed with our helper, Iwell, and his family.  He was a pastor and his church was located right beside his house!  He had 4 girls and  2 boys and a lot of different kind of animals that Macy and Mara had a blast playing with.  If I thought my girls got dirty at bush camp, you should have seen them out in the village! 

This is the family's home that we stayed at.  On the far left you can see a small building that was the long drop room. 

This is the house that we slept in for 3 nights.  Our room was one of the 3 rooms that made up the house. 

Village kids looking in at some of the family's animals....chickens, guinea pigs, bunnies, roosters....

When we arrived at the house we put our belongings in the room we were to sleep in.  The room was bare except for 2 things:  a reed mat to place our mattresses on and guess what.....AN OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOE BOX!!!!  I thought it was so neat to see one all the way out in the bush in Zambia!  I wanted to open it up and see if anything was inside (hoping that I could find the person who sent it and let them see who got it) but I felt that that would be prying and decided a picture of the box was good enough! 

After we set up our room we set out on a short walk to go to some meeting.  I found out we were headed to a certain tree where women with children under the age of 5 met monthly.  The women gather to weigh their children and a doctor comes and marks their weight on a growth chart that all the women have been given for their child.  It was scary to see the charts.  The family that we stayed with had 2 children under the age of 5 and both of their growth curves were dropping sharply.  

The women standing in line waiting to weigh their babies.

The scale was like a grocery store scale.  The woman to the right of me is holding the growth curve pamphlet in her hand. 

 After our little trip to the weighing tree we walked back to the house I found out I was getting to help Ida kill a chicken and prepare it for lunch.  This is my second experience killing a chicken and I am not so sure if I am good at it yet!

Unfortunately after these pictures, my phone decided to die!  I was disappointed because I did not even get a picture with the whole family that we stayed with!  On the last full day in the village we all went to Iwell's church and all the Mzungu's (white people) gave their testimonies followed by a sermon from Brad that Iwell translated!  It was great! 

The next morning we all got up super early, walked our luggage to the paved road, and said goodbye to our new found friends!  We had a great time in the village but we were all ready to GO AND STAY IN A HOTEL!   

We arrived at a super cute place called Ibis Gardens late that afternoon!  I headed straight to our little house and showered off the girls and took the most heavenly shower I have ever taken in my life!  I like village life, but man I LOVE RUNNING WATER THAT IS HOT! Ibis was wonderful! It had a beautiful pool that the kids loved to swim in even though it was the temperature of the north pole. We also had a buffet to eat from every meal of the day and desserts too! We thoroughly enjoyed our time here and relaxed and fellowshipped more with all of our friends!  

The pool at Ibis Gardens.

Our house at Ibis Gardens. 

My girls!

Lovin on daddy!

After 30 days of fun, it was time to head to the airport and fly back to Kenya for who knows how long! Hopefully we can visit Zambia again one day!

Waiting to board the airplane.