Our family will be in Nairobi, Kenya at Mercy House!

We now have 8 babies–all 8 of our girls have delivered healthy, beautiful babies. A true miracle!

It’s fun to imagine the house with all sixteen, plus our two live-in staff, our family of five and an intern. One big happy family. It will be crazy and we will fit in perfectly.

You can read the touching and beautiful birth story of our two newest babies born within one hour of each other (on my son’s birthday last week!)

It’s hard to believe Mercy House has been open for only one year this month. I can only say over and over, Look what God has done!

Most of my days are spent exhausted and overwhelmed, trying to discern the next step. But this makes it all worth it:

Meet Rehema and Maureen, 4 days old

We appreciate your prayers as we prepare!

Thank you (in)courage  and Dayspring for telling this God-sized story so well.

If you missed the amazing (in)RL event, you can learn more here and purchase the DVD set here.

*Updated* Everything has been spoken for. Thanks so much for loving mercy with us!

If you need sizes again, please check the chart below, but nearly ALL of these items have been spoken for. Thank you!!

Mother’s Day has taken on a whole new meaning for me in the past few years. I can’t help but think about the countless moms all over the world. The ones who long for their kids to not only survive, but thrive. We can all relate to that. Our family will be traveling to Kenya again this summer. We will be staying with our 8 girls and 8 babies (3 more due very soon)! The staff and girls have become our extended family in so many ways and we can’t wait to dig deeper in community with them. We will also be doing some staff development and vocational training. We want to bring our staff members and our young moms and babies a special gift. While all their needs are met, new clothes and shoes are a luxury and we want to bless them. We are also in the process of creating a baby stimulation room, so we are collecting small, developmental toys. Many of you support Mercy House already- and we thank you. We wanted to offer you an opportunity to be a part of this blessing. We’d like to give each girl, baby and staff member: a clothing item and a new pair of shoes. There are 54 opportunities!

-Toys-we are looking for SMALL developmental toys (space is limited)-All baby shoes, can be size 3 –first walking shoes -Clothing: shirts OR dresses (space is limited) -Shoes: sandals are fine for girls, women, tennis shoes for men -Items in NEW or LIKE NEW condition are appreciated. -You can choose more than one if you’d like.

PLEASE READ UPDATE AT BEGINNING OF THIS POST TO SEE WHAT IS STILL NEEDED:

If you’d like to participate, please  leave a comment with the name/number you’d like to purchase. Unavailable numbers will be placed in bold. There are 54 opportunities!! Mail a wrapped package with CORRESPONDING NAME/NUMBER below on the outside of the package. Please do not send gift boxes or gift bags. The Mercy House  8000 Research Forest Dr Ste. 115-110  Spring, TX 77382

Thank you for loving mercy with us!

At 6:30 pm last night, I received a one line email from Maureen that read, “Fire broke in the house.”

I screamed my hubby’s name.

He immediately tried to call Maureen in Kenya.

I paced and prayed. Fear was palpable as we waited for word.

While I called every number I had, my hubby was able to get thru on Skype and find out that everyone got out of the house and the fire had been contained to one bedroom.

One of our young moms woke up to feed her baby. The electricity was off and I know from experience, it’s pitch black in the house when this happens. She lit a candle to see, but fell asleep with it lit next to her bed. It’s very common for homes use candles when there isn’t electricity (we will be coming up with a better solution), although we don’t normally use them at night.

She awoke to flames near her back and over her head, her tiny baby snuggled up next to her body. The girls screamed and Maureen sent them downstairs and outside with their babies. She grabbed a blanket to beat the fire, but it caught on fire. Our other staff grabbed buckets of water and were able to help her get the fire put out.

Maureen, Annette (our housemother) and Zacheeus (night guard) beat the fire that had lit up the mattress, wall and curtains.

Other than some smoke inhalation and some blisters, everyone is fine. The doctor gave them inhalers. The babies were checked out. We are so thankful to God for protecting our family in Kenya. Please pray for health and that we can repair the room back to it’s original condition.

Maureen said, “We are grateful to our Almighty daddy, the protector of all creation and one who is stronger than any other God. I surely saw the hand of God, He is the most High and the only God that I know.  I am also so grateful to those who sacrificed a minute to lift us before God. We love you so much!”

She is just a child, an orphan, a victim of abuse.

She was sent to the city from a rural village to work.

She didn’t know she was pregnant. How can a child know the evil things done to her can produce life?

When her body couldn’t hold her secret any longer, her employee noticed and wanted to get rid of her.

Mercy House was notified and we began the process of recruitment, less than two weeks ago.

But she went into labor and her baby was born on Sunday, at 33 weeks. She and the baby were sent back to the employer’s just 3 hours later with a diaper and a change of clothes for the baby. No medicine, no vaccinations, no instructions for this poor child and her premature baby.

Mercy House was notified of the birth three days later.

Maureen wept at what she discovered: a deathly ill 3 pound baby girl who was being fed water by a frightened, exhausted child-mother who didn’t know what else to do. They were both filthy and when the employer gladly gave them up, Maureen took them home.

Our housemother bathed them and helped the baby girl to nurse and then Maureen took them to the hospital.

Beautiful Edith

The doctor confirmed how sick and close to death her baby was and hospitalized precious Hawi (which means favor in Swahili) with jaundice, dehydration, and a problem with her bowels, and our young mom is being treated with a pretty severe infection.

Most American preemies might not survive such a traumatic birth and first days of life. We believe God rescued these sweet children!

Would you pray for our newest Mercy House members: Edith and Hawi? They have been thru so much…

But God is never late.

*there’s much more to Edith’s story…I hope one day she can tell it. We just wanted to give you a glimpse into how so many in poverty live.

She came to us alone, with a baby she didn’t want stirring in her womb.

Orphaned at a young age, she wandered this earth unloved and unwanted.

Charity came to us broken, detached, angry.

Outwardly she pushed others away, isolating herself through pain, distancing her heart from love.

But we loved her anyway. We set firm boundaries and we loved. We prayed. We fasted. We begged God to draw her close. We shed so many tears over this child having a child.

We feared for her unborn son. How would this detached girl attach to a baby she never wanted?

He was born to an angry mother. She didn’t want him.

And we didn’t know what to do. 

We prayed harder. Loved more fiercely. Forced her to hold him, feed him. Every moment hard.

We willed her to show charity to her precious new miracle rescued from abortion.

And we reminded ourselves again and again that we aren’t the rescuers.

Only God.

Today, we catch her cooing at her chubby son. Smiling down on him. Visitors don’t know the miracle they witness. Our hearts catch in our throats with each tenderness because we remember. We know that only God can heal a barren soul.

I am broken. I am angry. I am orphaned, needing to be adopted by God.

God used Charity’s pain to heal a part of me.

“Jesus brings about my own healing by bringing me into someone else’s.” -Kisses from Katy.

There is a bit of charity in all of us.

God is here.

Our three new girls…

Updated to add: less than 24 hours after publishing this post, Cindy had a beautiful baby boy. 6 pounds, 2 ounces of perfection!

She had the focused look of concentration as she held the tightly rolled paper with one hand, glue in the other, applying. Squeezing. Creating.

We were in Africa, teaching our Mercy House girls their first skill: rolling paper. Recycled magazine paper that would become jewelry, home decor, art.

It’s surreal. The memory.

Their hard work is producing beautiful products now.

Volunteers pack my cold garage and we line up order after order to fill from the exported items. Shelves are stacked with creations from our girls. The scent of varnish is heavy. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

I was filling a few orders the other night: paper coaster sets. It was late and I was tired, but that’s when I noticed the colors.

The first couple of months, the coasters made by still-learning hands were a work of art, in progress. Constantly improving, all one thing in common: muted, dull colors. When rolling the paper that is to become a coaster, each girl chooses a piece of paper from a used magazine. Sheet after sheet, our girls chose the drab colors.

I didn’t realize this at first. I just assumed the oil-based varnish muted the colors of the paper and gave our coasters a dark tone.

I didn’t realize it because I didn’t know what hope could do.

Something deep within me began to stir. I began pulling the older coaster sets from the back of the shelf, the ones that hadn’t sold from our first couple of months.

I lined them up next to the new sets of coasters we are now receiving each month. The difference was unbelievable: The small, dark coaster sets are lovely. But compared to the larger, brighter newer coaster sets, there is no comparison.

My eyes pooled and I heard the soul-whisper: This is what hope looks like.

Staring at the shelves, I saw a rainbow of hope, a constellation of promise.

My oldest child opened the door to the garage. She found me in tears. She wasn’t surprised (what can I say? This is emotional business).

I showed her the difference in the colors.

She said, “Mom, I was just reading an article about how color affects us. It was saying that we choose colors based on how we feel and what’s happening on the inside.”

I picked up the bright yellow coaster set. I fingered the tag with Cindy’s name on it. I closed my eyes and pictured her wide smile and the baby she carries. I remember watching her eat. She had only been in the home a few weeks when I met her face-to-face. She was so tiny, malnourished. I watched her begin to gain weight with every healthy bite.

I know her story well. It’s a heartbreaking tale of being used and abused. She’s sixteen. She’s a new believer.

I imagine her sitting on the wood floor in the living room at the maternity home. Papers scattered. Glue in hand. I see her open the magazine, pass the brown and black pages and choose the bright yellow.

She is what hope looks like. 

——————————————-

Cindy is due this week! Please pray for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

Buy your own coaster set and spread the hope.

_____________________________________________________

On November 7, 2011, I will be hosting our 2nd Silent Auction to benefit Mercy House. And we need YOUR help!

How it will work: In increments of 30 minutes, all day long, we will publish a new item up for auction. If you want to bid, you will leave a comment with your bid amount. Each comment is a bid, with the last comment being the winner–just like a silent auction. The Benefit Day will end at 11 pm CST on November, 9th.

Donate an Item: This is a fabulous way to get FREE ADVERTISING for your store or product and your own post write-up with links (and support a great cause)! All the cool kids are doing it! We will limit the auction to around 30 items (25 14 spots left as of now), they must be a minimum of $75 in value. Please send your interest to mercyhousekenya@gmail.com (Once approved, you will need to send a picture(s), item description, value and mail item(s) to winner).

Highest Bidders: Will be announced in a new blog post and invoiced via Paypal.

All proceeds from the silent auction will benefit the new counseling department of The Mercy House. We recognize the need for intensive one on one therapy for each of our pregnant girls and have hired a qualified counselor to do so. Monthly cost is a minimum of $250 (goes up with each girl). We are hoping this Benefit Auction will pay for the entire 2012 year! Your non-cash donation is tax deductible if you request a receipt!

Special thanks to the two amazing friends who are heading up the Mercy Benefit Day: Eryn of Mama Hall and Jamie of Six Bricks High, my volunteer virtual assistant. You girls are a blessing to me!

Pin It

Mercy House’s first Fair Trade Show was a huge success:

Our booth:

Our product (with some amazing new items):

[Feel free to PIN IT! If these aren't pinterest-worthy, I don't know what is!]

We turned our garage into a shipping center and are so thankful for the weekly volunteers who keep this organization running! Not to mention the behind-the-scenes people (like Karen and Carol with her data-entry talent!)

{Shop} Mercy.

[free shipping on orders of $50 or more. use code:BIGSPENDER]

*photos by my friend, the amazing Suzanne Box Photography

P.S. Maureen is still sick, but on the mend. I wish I could go into details, but in an effort to protect our girl’s privacy, I can only ask you to pray for Sarah. She’s our newest girl and is in the hospital. Please pray for her and her unborn baby.

I’ve finally narrowed down the new Mercy House t-shirt choices (with some objective help from my kids strangers).

It wasn’t easy since we had so many great entries, but now it’s up to you!

What would you wear? Please cast your “vote” in the comment section and tell me your favorite shirt or two (listed in no certain order):

Even if you don’t normally leave a comment or have no plans of buying a shirt, would you please consider sharing your opinion?

Choice #1 Africa (inspired by the Rolled Art the girls make) created by Tanell. Various color shirts

Front: (women and unisex version)

[Back: mercyhousekenya.org]

Choice # 2. Gothic Love Mercy (women and unisex version), created anonymously.

(women’s version)

[back: MercyHouseKenya.Org]

2. Unisex Version

[back: MercyHouseKenya.Org]

Choice #3: Green Africa on a Navy blue shirt (v-neck women’s; round unisex), created anonymously.

Choice #4: Word Art (in various color choices), created by Randy Doleman.

[back]

Choice #5: Behold-Women’s fit created by Tanell

[front]

[back]

You can leave a description or just a number 1-5 with your choice. Thanks so much for helping us choose!

I just wanted to give y’all a quick update on the latest at Mercy House. This week, Maureen and her staff were able to rescue the fourth girl and bring her into the home. Her situation was a nightmare (I will never get used to the suffering…every story is different, yet the same). She is adjusting and “so happy to be here” according to Maureen. We will update the site with her picture soon.

Please be in prayer as the staff works to bring in a couple of other girls identified and interviewed this week. They are hoping our fifth girl will be moving in this weekend if everything goes well. It’s not an easy process! You can read about the journey to recruit girls here. In other news, the girls started (home) school two weeks ago and they are doing great. They love to learn!

We are also asking those who can to fast and pray with us every Tuesday. We will be updating the FB page with specific prayer requests each week.

____________________________

New items in the Mercy Shop, just arrived from Kenya! Including gorgeous new necklace designs! By shopping mercy, you can impact these girls and their futures with every dollar going to the maternity home/accounts for the girl’s future!

We are nearly sold out of our first edition Mercy House shirts! (grab one here-the last few now on sale!!)

They were a big hit, but it’s time to create a new design.

Since I don’t have time and have limited skills, I thought I’d have a little contest.

Send in your Mercy House t-shirt ideas (you can use your own template or something like this for free) to kristenwelch@mac.com

I’ll share the top three choices so everyone can help me choose a favorite.

Winner Receives: Cold Hard Cash. $100 or t-shirts for your whole family!

Deadline: Aug. 19th

Yesterday, our first baby was born at Mercy House via an emergency c-section.

Mom and baby are doing great. Thank you, God! We are so thankful that Quinter was rescued from her desperate life. Her birthing story might have ended much different if she was still in the slums…

Please keep this young, new mommy and baby in your prayers!

We are emerging from our travel fog. My kids have been more emotional than normal, but their resilience has amazed me, also their ability to sleep twelve hours straight and fall asleep standing. My own resilience has been lacking: exhaustion makes me snappy. I need a shirt that says, “I’m not this mean in real life.”

My youngest just curled up in my lap while I looked at photos of our trip on my  computer.

She summed it up, “Mom, I miss Africa and our people.”

Our Kenyan Compassion Children

Millicent, 16; Makenna, 8; Grace, 7 (my Mom's child); Mwaka, 6; Ephantus, 7

That just about sums up my feelings exactly.

It’s going to take some serious time and thought and probably tears to unpack the amazing experience we had our last day in Kenya yesterday.

We took 586 pictures and cried a bucket of tears if that gives you any idea.

There’s so much to share, but one story is begging to be told, so I sit on the floor of a cold London airport in the middle of the night/day depending on which time zone you’re in. I seem to be in the middle of both…

A year and a half ago, when I traveled to Kenya for the first time with the Compassion International Bloggers, I met Ephantus, one of our sponsored kids. He was quiet, timid even, only six years old and probably one of the cutest kids in Africa.

March 2010 with the backpack full of goodies I brought him:

I knew we had to reserve one day of our trip this year so my family could meet Ephantus and our three other sponsored children in Kenya. With our very hectic schedule, our last day was reserved for this “family reunion.” And much to my delight, this time we would visit Ephantus’ home.

As we left the safety of the Compassion project in the center of his slum, we followed the stench of raw sewage (a defining factor of slum life) that coursed it’s way into the heart of the homes.

My kids meeting one of our sponsored kids for the first time made my heart nearly burst. It was better than I’d imagined and so much like meeting a brother…

The first thing I noticed outside of Ephantus’ tidy one room home they’d occupied for the last twelve years, was the backpack I’d given him last year, hanging on the clothesline:

Meeting his sweet mother, Mary, was precious as we all (Maureen and two Compassion employees) crowded into the 10×10 space:

She couldn’t wait to thank us for sponsoring her child and especially for the family gift we sent last year. Please know that I don’t share this with you to boast, I simply must tell you this story because it’s powerful and has so little to do with me.

Compassion International allows you to send a family gift up to $1000 US dollars. We have 11 kids, so this is not possible, but when I received the advance for my book last year, we were able to send each of our kids around $250. Throughout the year, we’ve gotten updates of cows and roofs and food that has been bought…

I was shocked when Mary pulled out beautiful necklaces and handbags she was making to support her family. She said she’s started her small business with the money our family sent:

(a little nose picking for your enjoyment)

But nothing could have prepared me when she took me by the hand and led our family down the rutted path to her “business”:

She stocks and sales fresh fruits and vegetables, jewelry and even flip flops from her “store” that our family gift help her start a year ago.

Mary took me in her arms and said in her best English, “Your gift has changed our life.”

(the fragile bridge over sewage to Mary’s store)

Tears.

“I am able to feed my family because of you.”

Of course, we all know that my family has little to do with this –the work and integrity of Compassion International and the hand of God is to blame.

Mary hugged me tightly and said, “Thank you for changing our lives. Please pray for us.”

I said the same thing to her.

—————–

Change a life (yours included) and sponsor a child with Compassion International for just $38 a month….when you can, send a family gift, big or small it is life-changing.

P.S.

There’s not a shy bone in Ephantus now!

We finished up loose ends on Wednesday and spent the afternoon and evening at a Charity Tea with some US Embassy friends I met on Twitter (hola!) It was a wonderful day-I hope to get some pictures uploaded, but I’m lucky to have Internet right now between power outages…..

Meeting one of our prestigious board members, Uncle Sam from Compassion

Today, our last full day in Africa, we are spending the day with four of our Compassion children…two that I met last year and two that we sponsored in 2010. My kids are so excited! I can’t wait to tell you about it. I’ll be seeing this sweet little guy again, but this time we will visit his home in a slum-my kids first experience with poverty this close-up:

March 2010 Compassion Trip

We are flying back to America late tonight and won’t be home until the weekend. Say a prayer for us-we’ve run out of comfort snacks and clean clothes!

P.S. When you run out of clothes and wash them by hand, but they don’t dry enough in the sun, if you put them in the microwave for 30 seconds it will burn them. Try 15 seconds. Just fyi. You’re welcome.

Talk to y’all on Monday.

xoxo