Front Wall Project

This month the front wall of the new Helping Hands Children's Home location has had a face lift. Delanee (our intern) has been busy painting and putting the logo up on one section. She has also put a scripture with a mural on another. On Saturday we spent the morning with the kids, getting them to put their hand prints all around the logo. The kids had a blast and it looks fantastic. No one will be able to miss the orphanage now!

What it looked like when we moved in

After a layer of plaster and a lick of paint

Delanee hard at work

Just about done

And the fun begins...

Marvelous (in his Sponge Bob PJ's no less)!

 Derek, Kingsley, Marvelous, and Noel

Getting their hands painted

We went through a lot of paint thinner

Jake was our step ladder

Our little Dorcas

Just about finished

Sandrine and other news

Wow, it has been well over a month since I blogged last, where does the time go? So much has been going on, hmm, where to start? Well, we do have an intern staying with us, Delanee Scone, who will be here a total of 8 weeks. It is so nice having an extra pair of hands around and she has done some awesome artwork at the orphanage. All the kids love her and we will be sad to see her go home in a couple of weeks. We have also got a rabbit farm up and running at HHCH, plus a chicken coop built. The rains have come and the farm has been turned and ready for planting next week.  I will post pictures of all this soon.

Much has been going on in the life of Sandrine too, she went for a consultation at a hospital that specializes in crooked limbs (only a 30 minute drive, amazing!). The doctors said her problem isn't serious and that her legs should straighten out just fine. They measured her for braces and then we took her back there last week. She will be at the hospital for about a month as she learns to walk with braces and has physical therapy every day. Pa is staying with her. The biggest issue was her fear of the hospital and doctors as it wasn't too pleasant for her last time when they dug 60 parasites out of her hands and feet.

We went to visit them yesterday, Sandrine ran out to meet us, she was so happy. We took Ma plus Bena and Dorcus, our two youngest, as Sandrine requested they come and visit her. She was so excited to see them and it was great to see her all smiles. It was a big relief to see her not upset or sad about being there. She had just got her braces that day, and is starting to wear them a few hours each day. Eventually she will be wearing them all day long. It is already pushing her foot forward which is great, but you can tell it is a lot of pressure for her. She can't walk independently with them yet but it won't be long. She does her exercises everyday with lots of other children that are in the same situation. Pa is doing great job of looking after her. I was hoping to take over next weekend to give him a little break but since I'm still nursing Jordan, I don't think it will be possible. I would have to do all the exercises with Sandrine which would be hard with a 9 month around. Pa said it's not a problem but hopefully we will get to give him a bit of a break somehow. Please keep Sandrine in your prayers, that her legs will straighten the way they are meant too and that the process won't be too painful for her. Once she can walk well in the braces she will come home. She could wear the braces for up to one year. 

Inside their hospital room

Sandrine showing us her new braces and shoes (she is very excited about them)

My handsome boy

And Jordan chewing on the new braces...

Happy Sandrine

With her braces on, still big smiles! It's amazing to think how far she has come in such a short time.

Our wonderful Ma and Pa

Bena, Sandrine, and Dorcus (best buddies)

Want to Come to Cameroon?

Are you  interested in coming to Cameroon to see all that is going on over here? Well now is you chance! Win Our Nations is sending a team to Bamenda on July 5th to the 19th. The team will be building a toilet block at the orphanage plus spending some quality time with the children. They will also be doing evening outreaches in the town with a laser light show. These teams are always a great time of drawing closer to the Lord plus being a huge blessing to the people of this country. I seriously believe that all Christians should go on at least one missions trip so they can see how most of the rest of the world is living and to broaden their perspectives. The team costs $3389 which includes, all travel, lodging, food, and project money (it does not include, your passport, visa, shots, or spending money). I know this can sound like a lot of money but I have found that whatever God orders, He always pay for! It you sign up soon it would give you plenty of time to raise this money. The team will be leaving from Orlando, FL, so you would have to meet the team there. Families are welcome. Click on the website below to print out a brochure:


http://winournations.com/Win_Our_Nations/Cameroon_Team.html


Please feel free to share this in your church, or with friends and family. There is limited space so first come, first serve. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email and ask me any questions (schilinskiclan@gmail.com) or call the WON office at 321-684-1062. Below are a few pictures from past teams to whet your spirit a bit :D

Jordan Connie

Our little sunshine turned eight months yesterday. She's almost been out as long as she's been in! Jordan certainly brings so much joy to the whole family, she is just so precious. Here are a few things I've noticed so far that are different between baby boys and baby girls (beside the obvious one :D )

-Girls keep you a lot cleaner when you're changing their nappy, I haven't been peed on once! I swear Seth used to wait to go till I took his nappy off.

-Jordan is timid of our dogs, she'll hold onto me a little bit tighter when they walk by. The boys were trying to bite their ears off at this age.

-Jordan gets a diaper rash in about .01 of a second. I never struggled with this with my boys... her sskin is just ssooo ssensative!

-Much more talkative (already!)

-And something else I've never realized before; crawling isn't easy when your wearing a dress.

The rain is on its way!

We had our first rain this week. It hasn't rained since November so it was very welcome. Granted, it was only a few drops, but it was still a blessing. The boys went crazy running around in the garden, hoping it was going to pour. You can see on our dusty grill how little precipitation it really was. But it has rained gently in the night a couple of times since, so the dust is down, praise the Lord! I also don't have to water my garden constantly, phew! 

See what my wonderful husband found at a second hand shop in town... it is a heavy duty meat slicer! We really are becoming quite the butchers, with our industrial meat grinder and pig processing shenanigans. This slicer is a huge blessing though, as you can only buy ham in 5KG chunks here, so obviously we never buy it. But now we can, we'll just slice it, put it into pound packages and freeze; life just became a little bit easier. And yes, I am in my PJ's. Jake came back late after bible school with it so we had to clean it all up and try it out. We slaughter a pig next week so maybe we will slice some belly bacon. 

Visiting the dentist

I spent Friday morning at the dentist with 5 kids from HHCH plus Ma (and Jordan of course). Someone has paid for all the kids to go and get a cleaning and any other work that needs to be done, PTL! It was a first time for all the kids to go (besides Godwill, who had the cancer in his cheek). Sara had already taken 11 children last week. Hardly any of the kids owned a toothbrush before coming to the home, amazingly their teeth are pretty good (they've never had a lot of sugar). They have all been very brave and Sandrine was the only one that didn't want to open her mouth. Tim is taking the last batch tomorrow.


I have been running three times a week. It is going great and I am really enjoying it. It's nice to have a little alone time and give my lungs a work out. My stamina is a lot better already. I've also lost 7 lbs this month, 9 more and I will be back to my pre Jordan weight (yay!). When I go out early in the morning there is a lot of people out running, walking,  and exercising. I love seeing the Cameroonian women in the shell suits and trainers with their african head wrappers on, awesome! I have decided that I am more like I horse than I would like to admit. If you've ever seen the movie, Sea Biscuit, he would only run fast if there was a horse for him to compete with. When someone is ahead of me I push myself a lot harder to catch up... nothing like a bit of healthy competition!


Next month we have an intern from Florida coming to stay with us. She'll be here for 2 months, we are really looking forward to it. Delanee will be working with the three little ones at HHCH in the morning and then helping out with Kids Club, library, tutoring, etc. in the afternoons. We praise the Lord for an extra pair of hands, we can sure use them! Some days I seriously wish there was more hours in a day.

Church and the New Year so far

Church went really well today, we had over 50 people, the most so far. It's great to see the new church plant growing and becoming a family. Jake preached last week and 2 people got saved, praise the Lord. This week he taught in the evening service, Josh always goes with him (too late for the little ones so I stay home). It was really cool, Josh told me everything he learnt and even the scripture verse the lesson was from. He is really growing up. Josh is doing a personal devotion every morning too, he sure knows his bible! We're so proud of him. Next weekend we have a church outreach, Jake will be speaking on Friday night, please keep it in your prayers.

Church this morning 

 Some little girls at church

We just completed week 18 of school on Friday, that means we are exactly half way! So far, so good, we are all having a lot of fun and learning lots. Next week we start on a book about the World Wars, really looking forward to that one. Jude has just started playing some educational games on the computer, so that should help keep him a bit more occupied in the mornings.

It hasn't rained here for over 2 months now, everything is parched and dusty. I cannot keep my floor clean! My flower garden is looking kind of sad, I need a sprinkler system, my hose just isn't cutting it. We usually get some light rains at Christmas but not this past year. I am so ready for the raining season to come! It is super cold here in the mornings though, about 55 degrees. I would have my heating on in the States! We just bundle up and enjoy it, once the rains come it won't be so cool. 

Jordan doing her eagle impression. She says "ahhhhg" and flaps her arms, too cute!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! It has been over a month since my last post. On January 3rd I started getting back into a schedule and have been focusing on that before getting on the web. It seemed to take a bit, especially to get back into the swing of things for homeschooling after a three week Christmas break. But I think we are back into a rhythm again. I have also been running/exercising for an hour three times a week. I've been getting up at 5:30 to feed the baby and then get out of the door by 6. It has been a fight but I think I am finally winning! It does feel great to be working out again and finally getting rid of those baby pounds (you're so worth it though Jordan :). I have also been making sure I get personal devos in everyday and not skip when things get hectic. So the year is starting out great, praise the Lord.

Here are some photos from December. My folks were here for Christmas, it was so nice. We had a lovely time together (it had been almost two years!).

Our Seth turned 8 on December 20th. He wanted a rocket cake (phew, not too hard).

Seth was poorly for his birthday. We were planning on going to the nice hotel in town to go swimming but he just wasn't up to it. At least he was all better for Christmas.

It turned out pretty good. Notice the little blemish in the sky on the left side. I balanced it on cups in a cookie sheet full of water so the ants and roaches wouldn't get to it in the night. But that was no problem for the mouse that had a little nibble on the icing. Oh well, it still tasted good :D.

We found Seth a nice bike for his birthday. He can keep up with Josh now.

We had a great Christmas party at church, it was a lot of fun and three children asked Jesus into their hearts. It was our first children's outreach at the church.

Seth was a wise man and Jude was a shepherd (the other white boy is Noah, one of our missionary friends). I was amazed that Jude went up front as he is usually really shy.

Our little shepherd!

We have a tradition of giving our kids new PJs Christmas Eve. It's lovely for them to go to bed all cosy and feeling special.

Christmas morning around the tree (lots of presents from the grandparents!). We spent the morning at the Children's Home. We waited to open presents till we got back, the boys did so well not complaining, I'm very proud of them.  

We cooked breakfast for all the kids and staff. We all had plenty to eat.

Aruna taking a mouthful

My parents bought the blow up penguin with them. The kids loved it!

All the children got a present and some new shades! It was a lovely morning.

We had our co-workers, the Borns, over for Christmas dinner. We also had another missionary family, the Hams. We all ate way too much!

We had a staff dinner at a nice hotel in town. It was great just to hang out and enjoy good food. 

And of course I had to sneak one in of Jordan. She just turned 7 months and is crawling and is into everything! She is starting to pull herself up on furniture now. She is such a sweety!