Day with the Brays: Our daughter's first home

Here are some pictures of where are little girl is currently living. A friend of mine was able to travel to DRC right before we found out about our little gal. We didn't know till after the fact, but it was still nice to know she visited the foster home our little gal is staying in. She said it was really nice - for Congo. It was outside the city so there was actually nice grassy areas for kids to play. It's so good to know she is living here instead of inside the city...you'll understand why once you see more pictures at the end. I don't have any to share of the inside because they all have kids in them that other people are adopting...

There are several foster families that live in this area so they all get together a lot. Good to know there is a big supportive community there.

About 2 weeks ago we met up with several other families around here that are also adopting or have adopted from the DRC to listen to the Lind family http://lindfamily.org/ talk about their time spent in Congo the past year. He worked with MAF and she was a big support to many adoptive families that came through. It was so nice hear their experience and appreciation for the country. They raised their 2 young bio children there, and plan to return as soon as they raise more funds to go back. It made Zac feel more comfortable with the idea of us being over there for a couple weeks. I on the other hand am not nervous at all. But I'm also the same gal that hooked up and shared a room with 2 random Americans while traveling by myself one weekend to see ancient ruins when I was in Honduras (I went and worked at an orphanage in Honduras for 2 months after college). I was engaged to Zac at the time, and he was less than thrilled when I told him - after I got back of course!

Anyway, some of the interesting things about the country Matthew and Lisa mentioned...

*Kinsasha (capital) has most lightening strikes in the world
*The "police" are bad, but the Congelese people are very kind - especially to mothers and families. She said the people will try to get you to give them money, but that's only because they literally have nothing.
*I was shocked to hear that 95% of the population has heard "the gospel". They know something about Jesus based on what had been taught to them years ago, but much of the population hasn't been changed by it...just look at the high rates of rape, witch craft, etc. This couple said that the churches there are working to really educate the people on what the Bible teaches. One example she gave was that a church leader often goes to a witch doctor regularly - or something like that. Lisa mentioned Islam is one of the fastest growing religions there. When they moved there they would see someone in the Muslim dress a couple times a week. By the time they left (1 year later) they saw people in the dress several times a day. She attributes their growth to the fact that they are opening lots of schools and offering free education. Which is a big deal since there isn't free education and only the wealthy go to school. Kind of makes me want to go and open a Christian school there...
*DRC has the 3rd highest cost of living in the world (they are also one of the poorest countries in the world) One cup of dry beans is equivalent to $1 which is a lot since those that work make about $3 a day.
*70% of population is unemployed so they will creatively come up with ways to make money. She said one guy got a large piece of timber so he took it to a creek near a village. He would basically collect a toll for the people to cross to the other side. The church they went to was right on the other side so he wouldn't charge them to go to church.
*Simple acts of kindness go a long way. Lisa passed out water to these men working across the street to bury the power lines (crazy to think the power lines run underground). Several days later the same men (farther down the road) allowed her to pass through a closed road when everyone else was made to go around because they recognized her as the "water lady".
*Something I read that some may not realize is how rich the country is in natural resources. They have a large amount of cobalt, gold, diamonds, and copper (estimated about $24 trillion worth) which is why there has been so much conflict on the east side of the country.

Here are a few more pictures I got from our agency group on facebook that people traveled and taken there. It is really hard to take pictures over there because it is illegal. Some most are taken while driving in a car. It is ok to take them inside homes and such just not around city. I'm not posting any that have pictures of kids in them for privacy of their adopting families.

Here are some pictures around the city.