Last Thoughts

Well, my body is getting used to American food and the six hour time difference, I've been to Iowa to see my family, and I'm back at work at Ascension. I guess I don't have any more excuses for putting off this last entry. I've just been wondering how to end it. I can't figure out how to put into words everything I experienced the past ten weeks. Driving home from Iowa on Tuesday, I decided that I could sit down with a hundred of you over individual dinners or coffee and talk about it for hours and still feel like no one really understood it all. Sometimes I can't even comprehend it!

Someone asked me this week, "Did you have fun?" I'm sure I got a really quizzical look on my face, because fun isn't really the first word I think of. But yes, I did. The kids were great. It was so refreshing to work with kids every day for ten weeks and never hear, "This is stupid" or "Why do we have to do this?" The kids at Adullam are so thankful for everything they have and were content just to sing songs and play. I miss them tons.

Am I happy to be home? Yes, but just like I was happy to be there but wondering what was going on back home, now I'm happy to be home but wondering what's going on there. I'll look at the clock and add six hours and think, "Oh, they're having lunch now" or "I bet the babies are all getting their baths now."

Was it hard to leave? Extremely. I did a pretty good job, I think, not crying in front of the kids, but it was very hard to kiss all the babies good-bye one last time or try to explain to six-year-old Emmanuel, who I love like my own son, that I wouldn't be back tomorrow or for church on Sunday or anytime soon. Part of me thinks maybe if I hadn't stayed so long I wouldn't have gotten so attached to the kids and it wouldn't have been so hard to leave, but then I think of other options I considered in Africa, and know I made the right choice. Travelling from village to village doing AIDS education would have been important work, too, but I wouldn't have formed bonds like I did at the orphanage. And yes, I would go again. In a heartbeat.

Some of you have asked how you can help. Money, of course, is the best gift, since it can be used to buy food or pay the electric bill. You can go to www.adullamorphanage.org and click on the online donations section. If you want to have a special connection, you can sponsor an individual child for $30 a month. While I was there, I helped several of the children write letters to their sponsors, and I can assure you that they LOVE getting mail and would be very happy to have that connection with you. I know some of you would like to send packages with clothing or shoes, but the truth is that the money you would pay for postage could buy a lot of clothes or shoes in Ghana, so it would be better just to send money.

More than anything, I just want to encourage all of you to pray for the children. They are precious and full of life and faithful, and I think I gained as much as I gave. Thank you for your prayers and support during this journey. I wish you all could meet the children of Adullam yourselves, but I hope this blog has given you a taste of the blessing they all were to me.

Love,
Tiffany