Lilongwe

The majority of our time in Malawi was spent in Lilongwe where we plan on living when we move.  We stayed with Kwacha's sisters, Jellita (Jellie) and Evelyn, along with all the girl cousins.  (Shirley had the time of her life!)  Evelyn was up north working for the first part of our trip but we stopped and saw her on our way to Mzuzu and then we enjoyed more time with her at home later on.

Shirley meeting Auntie Evelyn for the first time

Hanging out on Auntie Jellie's back

We kept pretty busy in Lilongwe.  We spent a lot of time with family and we went to two different weddings!  Kwacha's friend, Kondi, did his first wedding while we were there and his whole church was invited so we went along.  It was pretty fancy, held in Area 10 where all the diplomats live.  It took place in a beautiful garden.  

Our plans are to be involved with Kondi's church plant when we move.  Kondi and Patricia Nyanda were able to come to California for the Truth Matters conference last October and we spent a lot of time with them, so I am thankful that I already have a friendship with Patricia.  They have two sweet kids, Warren and Karen.  There is also another couple, Newton and Vanessa Chilungulo, (they were sent out from Living Hope Church in South Africa to work with the church plant), who arrived in Malawi two weeks before we came.  Newton and Vanessa were both born in Malawi and they have a sweet little girl, Aya.  We were able to spend a lot of time with them as well and I already feel like I have known Vanessa for a long time.  She was so easy to talk to.  

Sunday morning at the church plant

The Chilungulo's, Nyanda's and Simwaka's

My Malawian friendies!

Karen and Shirley :)

We also spent some time with all the missionaries in Malawi sent out from Grace Community.  We had dinner one night with the Ayre's and the Floreen's and we had dessert another night at the Biedebach's.  CAPA, Central African Preaching Academy was recently launched in Lilongwe.  This is something they have been planning for a long time, so it's exciting to see it begin.  The plans are also for Kwacha to teach there when we move, alongside Jim Ayres.  

I am so sad that somehow I didn't get a picture with all the Ayre's and Floreen's.  :(  But here's one pic of Shirley and Naomi Floreen at least.  They are two months apart.

The Biedebach's.  Anita served one of Kwacha's favorite desserts, Mulva (sp?) pudding!

Since our trip was longer this time, we also had some days where we could just hang out at home.  This was so nice.  We went shopping a few times.  Malawi has some really nice grocery stores.  And Shirley loved spending time with her Aunties and cousins.  

Hanging out on Jellie's porch (My necklace and earrings were a gift from my nieces :)

Shirley enjoyed "skating" on the polished floors

Chipiku, one of the more popular grocery stores

Chigo and Shirl

This just may be my favorite pic from the trip.  It was actually on our drive home from Mzuzu.

When we visited Malawi the first time, I fell in love with the chitenjes.  They are useful in many ways; carrying babies on your back, keeping your clothes clean from the dust or while cooking, keeping your hair out of the way, etc.  I really wanted to get some last time but I never found a place where they were selling them.  This time Patricia helped me out and we got a whole bunch!

Mom and I sporting the chitenjes.  

I'll be back with more!  ;)  

Mad About...

Kwacha!

My husband's reputation preceded him by 10,000 miles.  
Soon after we finished high school my best friend went to South Africa on a mission's trip.  While she was there she took lots of pictures and I remember sitting in her room at her parents house looking through them when she returned.  There was a short African guy in a lot of the pictures and she told me that he was really sweet and  spent a lot of time with their team.  In the mornings, she and another girl would go running and he would go along with them.  She said it was to make sure that they were safe.  
When I was first dating Kwacha I noticed that he and Christen were friends on Facebook.  When I told her that we were dating I asked her how she knew him and she told me that she had met him when she went to South Africa.  (He was there attending Christ Seminary.)  I only then realized that he was the guy in the pictures!
Who would have thought ten years later, that short African guy would be my husband?!
I didn't spend a lot of time in my teens and young 20's praying for my future husband.  But I did occasionally.  At least I hoped he was out there.  And he was.  Way out in Lilongwe, Malawi.  I don't think any of our friends would have thought to set the two of us up.  But God did!  I love that He is the ultimate matchmaker.  He knows what is best for us, and my best is definitely Kwacha.  


(The picture above is way blown out but I thought it was good at representing how out of all the people in the world, Kwacha is mine.  ;)

Why we're having a baby right away

 

I never thought my blog would completely die after getting married; if anything I thought it would thrive because I would have so much more to write about! Obviously, I was mistaken.  In reality I do have a lot to write about, just no time!  But I better get used to it because I will need to keep it updated once we move to Malawi.

Today I thought I would talk about...babies.  Most of you know I'm pregnant.  Yes.  Already.  It's kind of funny how many people act like it's scandalous to be pregnant right after your honeymoon, when I'm pretty sure that all couples...well let's just say that I'm pretty sure all honeymoons are very similar. 

With that said, I have experienced many reactions to the news:

"Already?!"
"Don't you want to enjoy some time with your husband?"
"That was fast."
"Your life is really going to change!"

Most of the time I feel like I need some really good excuses to answer all these questions.  And believe me, I have them.

"Well, we wanted my mom to experience the joy of being around while I'm pregnant."
"Kwacha's not getting younger."  (And truthfully, neither am I.)
"It would be nice to have my first baby in America."

And while all of those statements are true, the main thing is, we are just ready to have kids now.  We want them!  We both love kids and are excited to raise our own!  We are just so thankful that God was gracious to allow me to get pregnant so fast.  To be honest, before we got married I wasn't so sure I would want kids so soon, but as soon as we got married, I realized that I might actually be disappointed if I WASN'T pregnant.  Crazy as that might sound. 

Thankfully I haven't felt sick and so Kwacha and I have a full 9 months to enjoy life as just the two of us.  I think it's kind of funny actually that people bring up the whole "enjoy your husband" thing.  If I know anything of Kwacha's character, I know he's going to make an awesome dad, and I truly believe that will lead me to enjoy him even more! 

Maybe life will be challenging, but isn't the Christian life always challenging in one way or another?  Are we ever supposed to be truly comfortable here on earth? 

My husband likes to point out that in the Bible people got married and had kids.  Now I know Mary had to be a virigin, and Jesus didn't mike life hard since, you know, He never sinned.  But having Him right away sure didn't mess up her and Joseph's marriage.  What else does the Bible say?  That "children are a blessing from the Lord."  Also, nothing happens outside of God's will.  We could have tried and tried and not gotten pregnant.  Obviously, God planned to form a baby inside me now.  (Which is super mind blowing by the way.  It already has fingerprints!)

All that to say, we'er super excited to have kids.  Right away.  As long as it fits in with God's will, we're very excited to welcome a baby in January.  Just in case anyone was wondering. 

Adventure!

http://www.alicia-bock.com/search?updated-max=2012-11-07T12:31:00-05:00&max-results=10

This is from one of my favorite photographers, Alicia Bock.  You should check out her site! 
I like this because it gets me excited about life ahead of me!  God is certainly preparing an adventure.  Moving to Africa!  More thoughts on that later...

I'm getting married!!

 

We are getting married April 20th.  Craziness.

I am so happy to be marrying such a loving, caring, godly man.  I really don't know a sweeter guy.

God is so gracious to me!

 

Malawi!

As promised, here is a recap, mainly in pictures (and although there are a lot, I had to leave so many out!) of our time in Malawi. Well actually Kwacha is STILL there.

I will try to let the pictures do most of the talking.

First up, a lousy picture of downtown Lilongwe. I took it while driving through. This is very close to his sister's house whom we stayed with.

I didn't get any pictures of when we first got off the plane. I wanted to BUT....I fainted. Yes, fainted, two minutes after getting off the plane. Never fainted before in my life! I guess I was overcome by the beauty of Malawi.  Or it could have been a combo of being sick and very tired. 

Oh well, thankfully I felt much better after a shower.

The next morning we took a little trip over to ABC (African Bible College) where the Biedebach's live.  Below is the fun tree house in front of their house.

Brian and Kwacha.  :)

Brian was excited to show us his "new" old tire cover.  He traded a brand new one he had for this one with just the right acronym.

"Game" is a store from South Africa that has made it's way to Malawi.  It looks just like a Target or Walmart inside and has pretty much the same kind of products!

Spar is another store that hails from South Africa.  Kwacha's best friend, Kondi, is the one with the shopping cart.  This is, unfortuantely, the best picture I got of him.

And an outdoor market.  Yummy organic vegetables.

 

The sky is always interesting in Africa!

Another supermarket, Shop Rite, that has all the food you could want.

The next day we drove six hours north to Mzuzu to visit Kwacha's parents.  We had a beautiful drive up with many sights to see!

Below is a large brick oven.  Most villages have one of these.  They make bricks within these structures.  Apparently they will spend all night stoking the fire, then they put in the bricks and close up the holes for a week or two. (From what I remember.)

Is this really Africa?

We often found lots of men piled up in trucks.

Finally in Mzuzu!

Below is one of my favorite pictures I saw at Kwacha's parents house.  So I took a picture of a picture.  :)  It's of Kwacha and all of his siblings.  The order in age, from oldest to youngest, starts in the bottom right and moves clockwise.  Chance, Granger, Jellita, Evelynn, Kwacha, and Malumbo.

I love Kwacha's face.

I was able to meet all of his siblings, except Chance, who died about four years ago.

We spent the night at his parent's house and the next morning we took a short trip to Nkhata Bay, on the shore of Lake Malawi.  It was a breathtaking drive!

Believe it or not, our first real picture together.

Look at the fish!

When we got back to Mzuzu, we saw cars lined up at the gas station.  That meant fuel was available!  This is actually a short line.  But by the time we got to the front, it was all gone.

Kwacha's family. 

From left to right: his aunt, mom, dad, Kwacha, Jellita, and niece, Ruth.  (Or Ite, as her family calls her.)

That night, when we got back to Lilongwe, we had dinner at the Floreen's!  It was fun to see them in their nice home and enjoy sweet fellowship.  :)

The next day we took a trip to Lake Malawi.

On the way, we stopped at the Parliament building.  The Simwaka's have a cousin that works there.  ( He's on the left.) We actually sat in for a bit on a session.

Close to Parliament is a five star hotel that the Chinese built.  It's almost ready to open.

We passed a village and saw that it was market day.

We had lunch at a Sunbird resort.  Here you can see Lizard Island which is populated with large monitor lizards.

The local fish, chambo, and their staple food, nsima, at the very top.



Kwacha was a little sleepy.  Still fighting jet lag.



Monkeys!

Beautiful sunset from a beautiful Creator on the way home.





The next morning, our last morning, we visited a local village.  Kwacha and Kondi have visited there many times. 

On the way I snapped one of many pictures of a bike carrying a huge load of firewood!  I don't know how they do it.

The chief of the village.

Kwacha brought him sugar and rice.

This man was so nice!  He gave us a little tour of one of their thatched roof homes.

And now for the pictures I'm sure most of you readers have been waiting for, cute village kids!

This girl in pink made her way into many of the pictures!



The lady below specifally asked Kwacha if I could take her picture.



Beautiful!



I was trying to get a picture of the building but somehow Pinky snuck in there.  :)



As we left, the kids followed our car.  We had quite a trail running after us. 

(These really are just a smattering of the pictures I took at the village.  Most of the pictures were crowded with kids trying to get in there.  :)

And here are some pictures of Jellita's house.

The room Em and I stayed in.

The living room.

Kitchen.





Kwacha's sweet cousin, Agnes, who insisted on washing our clothes!

From left to right, me, Evelynn, Kwacha, Jellita.



We stopped by Kondi's house to say goodbye to his wife, Patricia, before we left for the airport.  They had us over for dinner one of the first night's we were there.  I really enjoyed their family!

Here is Kwacha with their oldest daughter, Karen.  This is right after we got her to say cheese.  I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch a smile.  ;)  But isn't she so cute??

And here we are with Patricia and Karen. 

The trip went by way too fast!

 

We had such a good time with Kwacha's family and all of the people we met there.  They are so kind.

Someday, you really ought to visit Malawi!  ;)