WHAT DO HEAD LICE, VOLUNTEER PAINTERS, AND MALAWI AFRICA HAVE IN COMMON?

In addition to a football game, parent-teacher conferences, mountains of homework, violin lessons, guitar lessons, therapy for Charlie, a son running for Freshman Class President, and a State Senate Campaign to run.....

What do head lice, volunteer painters, and Malawi Africa have in common? The Hollis family week.

The Hollis family has had its first case, ever, of head

lice.....and it was a doozy! Natalie later reported she had heard people at school talking about lice, but did not know what it was until it found her. And boy, did it find her. After two days of picking through her hair with a fine toothed comb, washing everyone's hair in lice shampoo, and then washing every stitch of bed linens, towels, and clothing in the hottest water available on our machine, the nasty little critters are officially gone.

You would think head lice would be enough to deal with in a week, but Charlie didn't seem to get the memo. He awoke on Thursday morning with snot plastered from the tip top of his red hair clear down to his belly button. It was like green glue. I placed him, screaming, into a warm tub full of bubbles....the stuff would not budge. I had to use my fingernails to scrape off every square inch of the stuff while he wailed and cried, producing more and more of the goopy substance....not a pretty picture.

Not to be outdone by Charlie and Natalie, Lydia wandered into my room in the early morning hours Friday, leaned over my body, shook me and announced she didn't feel good through a very stuffed up nose that sounded a bit too much like Donald Duck. Before rolling over, telling her to get back into bed, and falling back asleep....I happened to look up at her face (which was right over mine) and notice her eyes looked funny. I willed myself to get out of the bed to take her temperature: 102.8.

In three days, Lydia somehow managed to go through 5 boxes of tissue and an entire case of orange Gatorade while Charlie painted my couch, floors and walls with the green goo that continued to flow from his nose. As of the writing of this post, it is still flowing, however a bit less.

Saturday morning, Chappy, Caleb, and Natalie packed up to do some volunteer work for Best Buddies of TN. Along with other volunteers, some disabled and others not, they painted the hallways of a high school in Antioch while I stayed home to manage the sick ward. They came home with the funniest stories and several new "special" friends. They got the biggest kick out of a guy named "Phillip" who continually marched the halls telling everyone how to paint while being fussed at by a female friend who would tell him to "get back to work"....following her orders, he would rush back to paint for a few minutes, but then put his paint brush down to "boss" again....it happened over and over and over again. Caleb has laughed and laughed about it.

Last on the list, Chappy and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. We went to dinner at a favorite restaurant (Sperry's) and then caught a Michael McDonald concert while the big kids did some babysitting. McDonald performed some of his favorites with the Nashville Symphony, and it was fantastic! After all these years, he's still got it!

To top off the week, Chappy and I gathered the kids together and announced what our anniversary gift was going to be to one another. To celebrate 14 years of marriage, we have joined some close friends in building an orphanage/school on land that will be used to grow sugar cane in Malawi Africa (the sugar cane will be sold and used to help sustain the orphange). The orphange will house 50 homeless children, and the construction will begin early in November!!! I wish I could bottle up and send my joy to each of you. Our family is absolutely beside ourselves about this ongoing project, called "Project Pure Religion"....and cannot wait until our first journey to Malawi.

Head lice? High fevers? Snotty-nosed babies? Cleaning house like a wild woman? Yep, that was my week....there couldn't be a better week, however, to end with a HUGE surprise! Plenty of details about "Project Pure Religion" will definitely follow....

James 1:27:

"Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the Godless world."

(The Message)