Omot Family Adventures

  Shameless pictures up top and not bottom.  Hakuna matata means, ‘no worries’, and if you’ve seen Lion King, youve heard Swahili and this phrase. Funny thing is, no Kenyan says it. If you hear it, you know someone is a tourist. Well, we just got back from our first real vacation , and when we arrived at the ocean hotel, Hakuna Matata was the first thing we heard. I cried. Then I cried some more.  ‘Hakuna shida’ is what is said, which means no problem. I had to train my head to learn this, along with a million other things I had to and have to and still am learning. Learning and living in a world where everywhere you go is cross cultural thinking is exhausting. Even your home is set up, run, and lived in such a way that it’s not “my normal”. Yes, it’s slowly getting more and more natural, and for that I’m grateful. Your brain never gets a break, we’re even woken up by the call to prayer in Borana.  Being greeted by Hakuna Matata meant I could turn off my brain. I did...

When the best of me is barely breathing. Hold onto me.  When I'm not somebody, I believe in. Hold onto me.  When I don't feel like I'm worth defending. Hold onto me.  When I start to break in desperation. Hold onto me. Hold onto me when I forget I need you. When I let go, hold me again.  I could rest here in your arms forever, cus I know nobody loves me better. Hold onto me. Lauren Daigle- Lines from Hold onto Me. I heard my new friend Waisy singing this song this morning. I hadn't heard it before. I've now heard it about 100 times. I'm still walking through the day feeling like quite the failure. Exhausted. Crabby and not gracious towards my kids. BUT Music. not just Music. Worship.  I have found myself in the past couple weeks singing kids music when I'm overwhelmed, when Judah's crying, when life is hard. Worship doesn't have to be big perfect songs. It doesn't need a band. It doesn't need to be the whole song. It just needs your heart. Yo...

I feel like through these past couple months, I’ve held on. I’ve worked through the sad and joy and the unknown and the packing and weighing and purchasing and selling and goodbyes and future hello’s. I have ridden the roller coaster. Tonight when we packed our kids up to stay at a friends house in town, I let go. Yaaa we need to clean our house, get rid of all the random extras that some call trash, I call treasure, and make sure we leave it well. But it hit me not having a home.  No physical home. No safe place for my kids to sleep every night and make memories and remember memories. No place to go at the end of a long day and just beeee. Just hide amongst all the blankets and pillows and the old couch. My oldest is one of routine. He loves the same thing. Boring. He loves the consistent, the known. So when we showed up to our friends and on his comfy blown up air mattress was his same pillow, blanket, sound machine, and sister, he seemed reassured. Ohhhh how I wish I was that si...

I grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. It was and is a Christian home. I have 3 sisters who are all now married with kids. Growing up I learned about Jesus all the time. Feeling like the cliché boring story, yet blessed that my story is my own.   My mom is a prayer warrior, so we prayed about everything, from losing her keys (multiple times a day) to each person we saw who we didn’t know, for them to know Jesus. My dad wasn’t as out loud vocal about his faith, but lived it. My favorite memory of him is sitting in his chair every morning, drinking coffee and reading his Bible. He had it balanced on his knee with the worn pages open. Even when we were on trips, he would get up early and sit in the bathroom on the floor to read, so as not to wake us up. I’m blessed with a special family. I worked at a ranch camp in middle school, of which I had attended since I was 6. It was hard work; a functioning ranch that allowed campers in on the everyday work, horses, watering trees with buck...

 So we did a thing. We starred in our first video as a fam.  Before you can watch, you gotta pray for us :) kidding, but really.  Christmas morning at Auntie Mimi's! We are so grateful to be surrounded by people who love us and lift us up in so many ways. The Body of Christ is a pretty big deal. As we continue to transition back to a new normal with Friday going part-time at church, me back in school, and a lot of steps to take towards moving our family overseas, we are so appreciative of your prayers and encouragement.  Friday is home with kids a little more and balancing how to "do ministry" part-time. There is grace and we are grateful to have an amazing church body and leadership to walk with us through this journey. Could NOT imagine doing it with anyone else.      -Prayers for routines with kiddos      - Prayers for monthly financial partners     -Prayers for rest     -Prayers for our Church as they transition t...

‘the act of mourning in advance, outcomes that are not guaranteed ' I heard this word for the first time at our training in Georgia. They shared it simultaneously with post grieving. You could tend towards one or the other or both. I didn’t apply it to myself. I was living the excited train of adventure that this enneagram 7 loves to ride: new places, new things, new people, unpredictable. I don’t mourn things or places, I just keep going, believing that mourning means I don’t trust the Lord or the outcome is not the right one. Yet, the past few months, I’ve been mourning everything! Loving on my work students, my friends, last time doing this, or last fall for a while, raking leaves, walks with mittens, our only too regular walks to Starbucks for cake-pops and coffee. I’ve learned that the one  outcome is guaranteed for us in this upcoming season, it’s change.    Change isn’t really new. It’s something that is required in order to grow and learn and be a better human, a ...