the intangibles of africa

intangible moments are things that the heart keeps forever. i want to tell you about a few moments from my last trip to africa that will stick with me always.

~the first moment is from sabbath. rose is a 20 year old girl and for the past THREE AND A HALF years, she has been hoarse. (we were told it was due to her inflamed tonsils, and in africa most people do not get their tonsils removed). but, a few months ago, she woke up and was able to speak again. listening to her talk for the first time was something i'll never forget. she told us about how grateful she was for her ability to speak loudly to where people in the back of the room could hear her. she is now able to sing and tell others about the great work God has done in her life by healing her.
~little leah is one of the sweetest and most entertaining girls i've ever met. one day, she decided to tell me her story about how she got to the orphanage 6 months ago. she told me all about the abuse she endured and how her mother almost killed her out of anger. i could see from the burn marks all over her arm that she had been through more than any child should ever go through. but she also told me about how amazing it was to finally be in a place that is safe and around people who love her and would never hurt her. another day, we (the mzungus) had the opportunity to sing a song at worship. after we finished singing, i sat back down next to leah and her eyes sparkled. she looked up at me and with the greatest sincerity said "that was amazing" with a complete awe in her voice. i could only look down at her and smile because i know that she soaked in every word of that worship song.
~sarah is my sweet girl. she has been there every year i have come and she is one that holds a very large piece of my heart. she is probably the shyest little girl there. but i loved the moments when i was holding her hand and she was singing a hymn, not realizing that i was listening to her sweet voice. every time i would look down at her when she was singing, she would stop and giggle and look away. when i had to say goodbye to her, she was one of the hardest to say goodbye to. when i hugged her, she held me tighter than she ever had and started to cry hard. all i could manage was a "see you later sweet girl" and "i love you so" before i completely lost it too.
~the "kitchen choir" is made up of lucy, emma jane, frezier, eunice, and kezzy. all of these girls cooked our meals and all of them have been serenaded by me singing "aint no mountain high enough" and "build me up buttercup." i loved getting to spend time with each of them cleaning and drying the dishes all while singing those two songs. i wrote down the lyrics to "aint no mountain high enough" for them and im pretty sure next time i see them, they will know the whole song by heart. these girls are older and so they dont get as much attention usually. but with me, they get all my attention and me singing some pretty darn good songs, too.
~my little african bean and my dennis. these two boys have my heart. they are 13 and 11 years old. i have known dennis every year and he is my shadow. my little african bean (joseph) has been there every year but this was the first year that i got to really spend time with him. i call him my african bean and he calls me his american maize. every time i would come down from breakfast to see the kids, these two were the first ones who grabbed my hands and hugged me tight. these two are crazy kiddos but theyre my boys and i couldnt love them more. theyre hilarious and their smiles make my heart melt.

these are just a few of the memories i was able to make this year. i could go on and on about all the little things and big things that made this trip amazing. but, there's not enough space or time to do that. these intangible things are what has left an imprint on my heart and life for the rest of my days.

the good in goodbye

Today was the day that everyone dreads. The day we say "goodbye" and head back to America. But, before I talk about that, I want to fill you in on the past 10 days.

Our team was focused on medical and dental check-ups. So, we managed to do check-ups on all 230+ kids and the teachers. I helped with the dental side assisting the cleanings and making sure the dentists had everything written down in each person's file. We had three sessions each day, and every day those hours were filled to the brim.

These past 10 days have been filled with love, joy, and laughter. I've gotten to see my kiddos from the past two years and meet new faces. Each child holds a special place in my heart. The new, the old, all of them took my heart for the third time.

A HUGE answered prayer that happened just last night. One of the people on our team accepted Christ as her Savior. We had been praying for her this whole trip and when we heard what had happened, laughter and tears of joy came from everyone...especially our new sister in Christ!

Today when we left, we had the hug line. The line was longer than the past years because the orphanage has gotten bigger. Each year, I find it harder to leave. The relationships get deeper and the love overflows. The kids faces light up every time I see them, and their faces are even brighter when they see people return to them after a long time. 

But, when we said goodbye today, it was hard. The kids call this day a "sweet sorrow." It's a sorrow because we're leaving, but it's sweet because of the time we did have. While you're living through it, you see no sweetness in it. But, sitting in this airport, I see the sweet part. It sounds weird, but I love seeing the kids cry because it means I made a difference in their life. If they didn't care, then there would be no tears or sorrow. So, as much as it hurts, it's worth every single tear because it shows what an impact we made to them.

So, here I am heading back to America knowing that my heart is still here in Kenya. These past 12 days have been amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. These kids, as usual, have made an imprint in my life and I hope I have done the same thing in their lives.

update from the African ground

Jambo from AFRICAA!!!!
I am soooooo beyond happy to be back with my sweet Kenyan babies! There are so many new faces here, so the whole "knowing almost everyone's name" has gone out the window. But, I have a full heart from loving on my babies from the past two years!
I am going to try to sum up the past two days in just a few short paragraphs, so here goes nothing:
On the day we arrived at the orphanage, everyone was so excited! It took what felt like forever to drive from Nairobi to here. but, once we got here it was worth EVERY second. The kids ran out to greet us and ran by the buses for a long time, yelling our names and holding our hands. Seeing their coffee-bean colored faces again almost made me tear up. I could go on and on about what it felt like seeing them again, but I'm trying to keep this short.
The focus for this year's team is to have all the kids go through a dental and medical check-up. As you know, most kids are terrified of the dentist in America...and guess what? That's a universal thing! I have been helping out with the "waiting area" (five plastic chairs in a circle) of the make-shift dental office (three chairs sat in the back of the dining/worship area). There, you see it all. Kids smiling, kids shaking from nervousness, and everything in between. But, one sweet girl stuck out to me.
She has only been at the orphanage for about two weeks and she's 7 years old. Let me tell you, she was TERRIFIED of the dentist. While we were sitting and waiting, she had already started crying just thinking about the dentist putting those sharp tools in her mouth. I tried to get her mind off of the dentist, so she sat in my lap and watched the video of the Fiwagoh kids singing at the Day of the African Child. (because we got to go this year! part 2 for me!!) After watching that video, we went through all the previous pictures I had taken and we played with the "chicken" (a blown-up medical glove). Then came the hard part, it was her turn to take a seat on the dentist's chair. We made it about halfway to the chair and then she figured out that it was her turn in the seat. so, tears started flowing. I was holding her hand and when she realized we were headed to the "dental office" she let go and refused to go further. Normally, a waiting room helper didn't stay with the kids while getting worked on, but there was an exception made for this sweet girl. By the time we reached the chair and she sat down, tears flowed and she refused to open her mouth or lay down on the table. So, we just had her check-up sitting up straight. You would think the hard part is over EXCEPT she had a cavity. And that meant she had to get a shot of anesthetic and had to lay back on the chair. After a solid 15 minutes of screaming crying and trying to hold her down to get the shot, we got it done. At that point, I thought she was going to hate me forever because I was the face she saw while all this was happening. I have to admit, it was so hard watching a child you love go through pain. But, I had to continually remind myself that this was for her benefit, no matter how much it hurt. And from there, it was a breeze. It took about 20 minutes to drill more holes on her tooth and fill them in with paste. Then, when she thought she was done, she still had to get her teeth cleaned with the toothpaste and stuff. After all that was over, she got off the chair and actually held my hand and hugged me. To add to that, she also came up to me this morning and stayed with me and played with my fingernail polish.
This is just one of the million memories I have made here and I wish it could be more in detail where you could actually visualize how it felt and what it was like. But, I don't have that kind of time or talent. This sweet girl has left an imprint on my heart and so have the other 200+ here. I just really love it here.

"An emergency on your part does not constitute for an emergency on mine"

Today's (or yesterday, I guess) the day!!! The day Shelby and I have been waiting for since January! We made it to DFW and had a 6 hour layover there earlier yesterday. Then, we boarded a HUGE British Airways plane headed for Heathrow. We sat next to this couple from Scotland their daughter, who was 9 months old. But, the best part about that baby is that she slept the WHOLE 9 HOURS to London. The airlines made a crib-like thing for her and she was out like a light. PTL for that!! I couldn't imagine a 9 hour flight with a crying baby. Thankfully I haven't had to so far! (knock on wood)

BUT, this is where the fun part starts. Three words for you: Heathrow Airport Security. We had a 45 minute layover in Heathrow, so from the beginning, we had little time to spare. It took what felt like forever to get 39 rows of people from in front of us off the plane. Then, we quickly walked to figure out where we were supposed to go to find our gate and our team. Thankfully, God sent us a Kenyan angel. This man was on the same flight as us, and he had done this many times before. So, we asked him if he could help us. I have no idea what we would've done had he not been there because Heathrow is just so very confusing. Anyway, this man got us to the "express connections" lane in security, so we wouldn't miss our flight. We got in the security line, and we were feeling confident. We had 15 minutes before we started boarding and we had no line in security. But, you know how some people say "don't count your eggs before that hatch"? Well, we counted them and that was a bad choice.

We put our stuff on the belt and walked through the metal detector with no problems. We thought we had it made in the shade sipping pink lemonade UNTIL my backpack was put on a separate belt after going through the x-rays. There were two other cartons of people's things in front of mine and I started worrying. The man who was making sure that there were no illegal things in our stuff was probably the oldest and SLOWEST TSA agent I've ever seen. He took EVERY item out of this girl's backpack that she was going to be living out of for what looked like a month. Then, he got what he needed and took the one small bottle of hand sanitizer to this machine to weigh it (and really just waste all the spare time we had.) By this time, we looked on the flight board, and it said our flight was boarding. The panic started to kick in a little more because there was still another carton before we even got to my backpack. I contemplated just grabbing the backpack and sprinting to the gate, but I feel like that wouldn't have gone over well with these security officers. The next lady had seven applesauce packets for her son (that, might I add, fit the requirements that it needed to), but old man TSA wanted to check the weight, width, height, taste, color, smell, gender, ethnicity, and every other possible thing of EACH packet before he returned it back to the woman. While he was doing an investigation on the applesauce, we looked up and saw next to our flight "gate closing." Panic was all over Shelby's face and mine as well. So, we asked the TSA agent in the next line (who is just standing there) to check out my bag. But, apparently that's illegal so we had to wait on Mr. Sloth.

FINALLY it was our turn to get searched...and Mr. Sloth decides he's going to clock out. Surprise, surprise. He told us his replacement would get to us in a little while and then he was gone. I could've thrown a punch at him, but then again I'm pretty sure that's illegal. So, an eternity later (four minutes) a little old Brit comes to check my bag. We told her the predicament (CLEARLY an emergency on our part) we were in and I told her I would just throw away all the liquids I had and we could be done, but shocker, that's against regulations. She then proceeded to take out EVERY SINGLE ITEM from my backpack while giving us a lecture about not taking the liquids out of my bag. Then, she takes my Chapstick and says that it's a liquid! Like no ma'am, it's not! We were just so done and kept telling her out plane's gate was closing, but she refused to let us leave without her putting the liquids AND Chapstick in a sealed bag. After I finally got all of my belongings back, we apologized to her for trying to make her go faster, and I threw everything into one pocket of my backpack. My backpack was half-zipped and barely on my shoulder, but Shelby and I had to do a DEAD SPRINT to get to the gate on time.

We had become those people. The people everyone makes fun of for running through the airport with pajama pants on and a backpack bulging at the seams with every step. We did the "bob-and-weave" and the "excuse me we're trying not to miss our flight" through the corridors and down the escalator. Our hearts were about to beat out of our chest due to the fact neither of us are about that sprinting life, but the panic and adrenaline kept us going to gate A18. We ran up to the desk and threw our passport and boarding passes to the woman and she just smiled and said "thank you for flying British Airways."

And now, after 29 hours of traveling, we're safe and sound on Kenyan soil and far, far away from airport security.

sweet nellie

From the first time I heard about her and her story, I knew this woman couldn't be any less than absolutely amazing. She gave her life to loving and taking care of orphans. At one point, she had 11 INFANTS. But, she still took on the challenge with a love for those kids and, most importantly, God. She loved each one of the 30 kids at Haven of Hope like a mother would love her own child. Each one of those children were hers, maybe not biologically, but in every other aspect. Nellie always had a smile on her face. She was always laughing, and her face would beam as she looked with pride on her kiddos. She trusted God fully knowing that He would provide for her every need. One time last summer, when we showed up with tons of baby formula and clothes, she just laughed and smiled saying she had just asked God to help her with those exact things. I can't believe she's no longer on this earth with her Haven kids, but I know she's in Heaven having an awesome time loving Jesus. She deserves the best, and I'm so glad she spent her life doing what she loves. That's my prayer for everyone. That they live like Nellie, doing what they love, living for God, and making an imprint on the lives of people all over the world.

Please pray for Nellie's husband, her 2 year old son Sean, and the Haven of Hope children.

leaving behind a legacy

"I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?"
 
so with it being my senior year and all, ive really been thinking what i want to leave behind at school, church, etc. we just had our last church league basketball game and although we didnt win, it was okay becuase we had such an amazing and fun year. we had girls making threes that you would never guess and we have an awful lot of memories that will never be forgotten.
but all this "last" stuff got me thinking. what do i want to leave behind? when people think of me, what do i want them to say about me? and i dont know but i thought id put these ideas into words.
the first thing i want people to think of when they think of molly dobbs is a girl who is always smiling. sometimes, lets face it, life sucksssss, but i want to be the person who knows life is sticky and sometimes not fun but chooses JOY. people like that are just really awesome and i want to be one of those people.
also, i want people to think of me as a person who makes others laugh and feel like they belong. i can assure you that i can be totally crazy and ridiculous (just ask my friends) but its because i want other people to laugh. it just makes me really happy to see other people smiling and to know that i put the smile on their face brings me a lot of joy. not only do i want them to laugh and smile, but i also want them to know that they are wanted. speaking from experience, it really sucks when youre with people and you feel like it really wouldnt matter if you were there or if you werent. when people are around me, i never want them to second guess whether they should be there or not. i want them to know they are wanted. that feeling is one that everyone on earth desires (whether they admit it or not).
lastly, i want to be the girl that follows her dreams. on all the cute picture frames and canvases it has "dream big" on them. but more than just dreaming big, i want to follow those big dreams. i want to be able to say in 20 years that i did what i loved and dreamed of. as most everyone knows, i want to be in africa 24/7. my dream is to spend a long period of time over there just helping the fatherless and showing them the love they deserve. that is my BIG dream (and at times it seems way out of reach). but still, i want to show people that following your big dreams is worth it.
i dont really know how you end a blog like this. but i guess just thanks for reading? haha no. ill leave yall with an inspirational challenge: be the person you want to be remembered as and leave an imprint on people's lives.