Sponsors going once, twice, SOLD!!

Little Alemetzi! She is so tiny! This picture doesn't do her thinness justice, because the shirt covers her up pretty well. When we were at the Doctor's her arm is about as thick as one of the twins'.
Washing the village children! Craziness I tell you, craziness!!
Emuti and Mariama got into the chalk the other day! You can't help but just laugh and be happy with these kids!
The youth group plowing the onion field!

So something quite amazing happened the other day. Steff had been meaning to go visit an orphan in the village that someone in America recently decided to sponsor. When we went to the house to visit her this little scrawny girl came out of the house. Her name is Alemetzi and she is nine years old and probably weighs about 35 pounds. It is quite scary to see her. I immediately became concerned with her weight, and the grandmother told us that she has been vomiting the last two days. We took her and her grandmother to the doctor the next day and she is now getting injections to stop the vomiting because she is loosing so much water. Her sponsor in reality saved her life, whether they know it or not. Because they decided to sponsor this girl her medical bills are covered and she will be going to school this coming year. She really is the sweetest little girl and it's just proof to me that God works in mysterious ways!

If anyone reading this would like to be a sponsor to the local village children, we are currently working on individual children's forms where you can pick a child to sponsor. It should be up on the website within the next month and I'll keep everyone posted. But basically you can sponsor a child for $50 a month which covers food, education and basic health expenses. You can look at the website right now if you like at http://www.villageofhope-ethiopia.org/!!

We also have more new about the new child coming that Lon found. It is actually a little baby girl and it is quite a sad story. The baby's mother was approached by a farenji some time ago and was offered 200 birr if she would have sex with him. Later she got pregnant but thought it was her boyfriend's baby. However, when the child was born it had white skin. The baby is considered an "evil eye" by the Muslim people there and the fact that the baby won't breastfeed is only further proof to them that the child is possessed. If Lon hadn't agreed to take the baby, it would most likely be killed by the village people. She should be with us this next week and we are so excited to have four babies (yes, there is a little sarcasm there, but in all honesty, we're happy).

On Thursday the youth group got together to do a service project for some selected families in the village. We went out to this man's onion field and the youth plowed the field! It was so great to see them get together for a great cause! They are all such amazing young people and they are really going to make a difference in this village! Steff is so excited about them and the group's future and we cannot wait to get the shirts that my mom bought for the group! They will look so sharp when they all have matching shirts with the group's logo on them!

Helen, Kidist and Calli also decided that they would have the local village mothers bring their children to VOH to show them how to properly bathe their children. The only problem is that word spreads like wildfire and while the girls were only predicting about 30 mother showing up, we had about 100 mothers and children show up. We actually had to have the guard shut the front gate because there were about 50 more outside waiting. It was a complete fiasco! I helped for about an hour but then had to take Dibabe and Benjamin into Negelle to get the last set of Benji's shots. I happily left! Steff and Abu got upset by the whole event because they're afraid that now VOH is going to be accused of unfairly giving away clothes and soap to the village children, when certain mothers and children did not receive the same thing! We also had mothers cutting in line to get their children in there and get a new set of clothes. I also caught mothers stripping their children of the new clothes we already gave them and putting them back into the line to get washed and changed into a new set of clothes again. I can't blame them for being dishonest, because hey, if you're poor and you can get an additional set of clothes for your kids, a bar of soap, washcloth, etc. why not be dishonest? I'm not condoning this behavior, but I just can't say it would be fair for me to get upset about it!

Yesterday I made all the kids "going-away" bracelets with some nice glass beads and string that were left behind by Sarah and Nicki. The kids go so excited to pick their own beads. I think they got a little too excited because they got quite possessive over their bracelets and were trying to rub it in each other's face how nice theirs was! Kids are kids the world around!!

We are headed out today to take the kids to Lake Longano as a final trip before they head home to see their families for three weeks this coming Monday! It should be so much fun and hopefully we don't have any drownings, stubbed toes or contagious diseases to come home with!

P.S. Benjamin is looking much better! Hopefully all the kids that go home for three weeks won't come back with diseases and illnesses as well! We are going for 100% healthy kids here!!