Saturday, December 15, 2012

 


Hello eveyone! This is my first attempt at blogging, so forgive me from the start. We are very excited about our upcoming journey to Rwanda and working steadily on our preparations for the trip (while aso finishing exams and preparing for Christmas!).


Pictured below are Robert and Gerard, two Rwanda presidential scholars who lived with us during the summer of 2011 before starting college at Hendrix and UCA. Having them live with our family was a great experience! We are so proud of these two young men and all of their fellow Rwandan scholars. At the time that they lived with us, Gary and I already were feeling the desire to take our family to live somehwere and do something "out of the ordinary", but we weren't sure what or where that would be. Our experience with these young men was one of the things that drew our hearts to Rwanda. 

We had the opportunty to join a group from Fellowship Bible Church to go to Rwanda this past summer.  Pictured here was our incredible group while enjoying an afternoon at Lake Kivu.  It was a fun trip and a memorable experience fur us, and it helped us in our decision to make our family journey to Rwanda a reality.  Many thanks to the Rainey's for hosting us and for our incredible group leaders, Todd and Jessica Brogdon!
 
We opted to spend our first night upon arriving in Kigali at the Hotel Mille Collines (better known by westerners as the "Hotel Rwanda"), which has a wonderful view of the city.
 
I was glad to be traveling with Dr. Camille Braswell in the group!  Fortunately we were able to enjoy her companionship without needing her medical services.  Here we are on the grounds of the Mille Collines (which literally means a thousand hills, since Rwanda is frequently referred to as the land of a thousand hills, and rightly so!).
 
 
 
The capital city of Kigali.  Most of these structures are still mud-brick structures sometimes overlaid with cement, while in the background there are high-rise buildings being built with large cranes.  There are quite a lot of contrasts like this in Rwanda.
 
In case you were concerned about where we'd live, we'll be in two one-bedroom cottages similar to this one.  Though small by our stardards, these are very comfortable and sturdy homes that were built by an Austrian firm that was hired to build the major highway in this region.  They built this campus for thier staff to ocupy during the highway construction.  I'm wondering how the metal roof will sound during the rainy season??  No heat or air conditioning is necessary because they have a very temperate climate year round.
 
Gary, Lawson and Palmer relaxing in the living room.  All they would need to be more at home is a big screen TV!  You may notice the lovely arrangement of flowers and cala lillies on the table...they are so perfect and beautiful that I thought they were silk for several days...til I realized they were grown right in our own garden!
 
And, we even have real indoor plumbing!  The shower may be small, but I'm not complaining because we have HOT water!  Every time the boys showered they created quite a pond in the entire bathroom, but I think with time they'll adjust.
 
 
Back to our preparations for our 4 1/2 months of travel...it's not that long to be gone after all, but Gary and I started with a rather large and daunting "to do" list this fall.  I'm happy that we are almost done!  We have gotten shots, supplies, doctor visits, dentist visits, othodontist visits, meds prescribed and filled, more meds, more supplies, enrolled in online private school, documents gathered (passports, shot records, etc),  travel plans made, remade and confirmed! Gary has even worked with our accountant since we'll be gone during the April 15 tax deadline...so much to think ahead on!
 
This month, Bethany, who had heart surgery as an infant, got a clean bill of heart health!  Her every other year appointment was supposed to be this spring, but we asked to have it early to make sure everything looked good before our travels.  (I don't think that there's a pediatric cardiologist in Rwanda as of yet!) Here she is having an electrocardiogram, then she had an echocardiagram (like an untrasound) before seeing her cariologist, Dr. Elizabeth Frasier, who gave her the thumbs up!  Check "visit cardiologist" off the list...moving on to the next item!!
 

OK, that wasn't too hard, but I still don't have visions of becomign a blogger!  However, we will try to keep this blog updated with pics and info during our travels. 

Lastly, I thank my friends and family for their wonderful support of our journey and to God for planting it in our hearts and making it a reality.  Your prayers and encouragement have meant so much to us in this process!

2 comments:

  1. Oh, we had not heard you are doing this!! This is so cool! Tim and I are SO incredibly excited for you and your whole family getting to experience life in Rwanda like this. We have longed to take a year long sabbatical to do the same thing ever since Tim first went, but so far, God has not opened that door. I'm thrilled God has led you to this and we look forward to hearing all He does in and through each of you in this amazing journey. Tim is planning a trip over with a group from here sometime in the spring (which may get pushed into the summer), so hopefully y'all can all connect if it works out! And if you meet Sam Holcomb from Memphis, we know his family well and are great friends with his mom and dad.

    We are excited to partner with you at least in prayer! So much love!!

    Merry Christmas~
    Lea (for both!) :)

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  2. So excited for your family! You will never regret this leap of faith because it will further solidify your trust in the Lord to carry you. He carries us every day, but sometimes it takes getting out of our comfort zones to recognize it. I pray this brings your family closer together with a lifetime worth of memories! Much love to all the Joneses! Jessica

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