Saturday

Saturday, was a great day!  We arrived at Home of Hope to pick up Aliyah and take her for the day!  Yes, for the day!  We were so blessed to have this extended time to bond with her. The first thing we did was change her into a new little outfit.  She looks REALLY cute in purple!  She was a trooper all day long with almost NO tears at all.  She was great in the car and seemed to be up for a little outdoor adventure.  We ended up going to African Bagel Company, run by a family who trains the Rwandan women in cooking skills and disciples them at the same time.  

They serve bagels, doughnuts, hot sauce, peanut butter, tortilla chips and more.  A white persons dream when living away from home!! I was holding Aliyah in my lap while trying to take a bite of my chocolate glazed doughnut when suddenly my bite was intercepted by her now not so timid hand.  She grabbed on to that bite for dear life and got a little taste off of her finger.  She was a HAPPY girl!

We also had the privilege of going to Africa New Life's Dream Center where sponsored children come for meals and education and so much more.  Last year we began sponsoring 2 teenagers and have been writing letters back and forth.  Today we got to meet them in person.  It was a bit akward because of the language barrier, but I think by the end of our time it was clear that love does not need to be expressed in language.  I could post a whole blog on this event itself, but will keep things back to Aliyah.  Needless to say, it was a HUGE blessing to be reminded of the needs of these children and what a privilege it is to help in some small way.

Aliyah took a perfectly timed nap while we were with the other kiddos and woke up for her first bottle from us (she's happily situated in my Ergo backpack).  We had tried to feed her on several occasions at the orphanage but she may have been too occupied with studying us to be hungry.  Today, she gobbled it down easily!  We may just put some pounds on this girl after all.  We went back to the hotel and in no time she was back to sleeping again, so we all took a sweet long nap together.  

Taking her back this evening was definitely not easy, but knowing we get her again tomorrow makes it much easier.