So what does ten weeks in Ethiopia look
like for our boys? We definitely
understand this question because we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it
ourselves! Although we know there will
be surprises in store, here is the best answer we can give now.
In many ways, our boys’ day to day
activities in Ethiopia will be pretty similar to their daily activities
here. We home school and the boys have
always stayed home with me other than time spent in church activities. So, they’re used to working around the house,
going grocery shopping with me, playing outside, and playing together. They will spend a significant part of their
day in Ethiopia doing these same things, just in a different environment. We’ll still have school most days and will
also travel out to villages with teams to work during the day. They will have no shortage of children to
play with anywhere we go! We’ll help
them work on learning the Oromiffa language too…or more likely, they’ll help
us! They will worship with us in the
Bantu church on Sundays, and they can join the children in their Sunday morning
worship activities.
A big concern for us is how we will
maintain communication back home with grandparents. We will go into the capital city of Addis
Ababa every couple of weeks to replenish supplies, do laundry, and attend
worship services in English at an international church. While in the city, we’ll have access to internet
service and Skype/FaceTime. However, we
don’t want to just see family every two weeks!
Cell service and internet service in the village is one item Larry will
work on when he goes to Ethiopia in a couple of weeks. We know it’s possible because we email and
Facebook with our rural pastors; we just have to figure out how to make it work
for us!
One of our highest priorities with
taking our children to Ethiopia was to figure out what to do when we need
medical care. While we travel and are in
country, we will be covered by global insurance that provides medical care,
evacuation to the closest First World hospital (if necessary), and even
political evacuation. Addis Ababa has a
very nice hospital that employs an American pediatrician; Larry will visit the
hospital at the end of March. We are
thankful and relieved to know we have good options in the event of an illness
requiring medical care. We will always
have a vehicle in Bantu that we can drive back to the city if we need to. I will be taking a basic first aid and CPR
course at our local hospital before we go.
Of course, we will also take plenty of medications that we are able to
give on our own when necessary.
Some people may wonder how we will be
able to effectively engage in ministry and serve the Ethiopian people with the
children along. Actually, we believe the
boys are going to be our greatest ministry tool! Have you ever noticed how children create
commonality where there previously may be none?
Fellow mothers can always find common ground in parenting and their
children. Our first year in Ethiopia, we
were surrounded by children with their mothers on the fringes. I was struck by how very similar these mothers
were to me. We were both trying to be
the best mothers we could and provide our children with the best opportunities
available, even though we were doing it in very different settings. I kept looking at each mother thinking, “She
is me, I am her.” I can’t wait to get to
know these women past our surface-level differences and find all the ways we
are truly the same.
When we go to Ethiopia on short-term
trips without our children, we are not living our real lives. Yes, we have additional freedom to engage in
ministry on these trips than we will this summer, but a large part of us is
missing. Parenthood is a 24 hour role that significantly defines you and how
you live every day, even when your children are home with grandparents. This summer we will serve in Ethiopia as our
true selves, with our children by our side.
Though we will have a learning curve with children on the mission field,
we believe the children will open ministry doors for us that have previously
been closed!
We are so excited to share this
adventure with our boys and have them join us as we serve the Lord.
