Benia

Kolby and I started sponsoring a beautiful little 9 year-old girl in Uganda through Compassion International shortly after we were married. Her name is Benia. We have been VERY impressed with Compassion and were blown away when we received the following PICTURES of her in the mail this week! For such a huge organization, it's awesome that they make time to take recent pictures of the children to mail to sponsors.

The back of this picture reads: 'Birthday gift of a pig (with her mother)' And this one reads: 'A dress she bought from her Christmas gift'

I think she may be the most beautiful girl in the world.

In her letter she wrote about how she bought a pig to keep at home with the birthday money that we had sent her in June and that she bought a dress, shoes, and fish with the Christmas money we had sent. It's so cool to think that the meager $20 we sent her for each of those occasions meant so much to her and that if we would have kept that money for ourselves we would have probably wasted it on something meaningless. I can see why Compassion places restrictions on gift-giving to keep things fair between all the sponsored children. I would send her the entire contents of my bank account in a heartbeat.

Happy Birthday Two-Five Cloth!

Yesterday, February 5th (2-5), marked the first birthday of my brother's t-shirt company! Brad and his good friend Matt Poe officially launched Two-Five Cloth a year ago with the explicit goal of changing the lives of those in need... all in the name of Christ. The name "Two-Five" comes from the following passage from Matthew chapter 25 and the t-shirts provide an opportunity to live out this call to serve others:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?'

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" -Matthew 25:34-40

Thanks to those that purchased t-shirts from Two-Five this past year, FIVE LIVES A DAY were changed! Whether it was someone in Rwanda receiving access to clean water, a child in a developing country born with club foot receiving casting materials for corrective surgery, a family in India receiving a chicken to provide eggs and a source of income, or a victim of hurricane Ike receiving provisions to begin rebuilding their shattered life... the love of Christ was shown and lives were changed.

***

Every year 15 million children die of hunger... that means a child dies of hunger every 5 seconds. This new quarter, Two-Five Cloth is partnering with Feed the Hungry to provide nourishment for the bodies and souls of malnourished children in Liberia, Africa. Each t-shirt purchased provides a child in Liberia with daily meals for two weeks. Each Feed the Hungry food distribution also provides an opportunity to touch the spirit and soul of the children in need through prayer, encouragement, and sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, go buy a shirt... give hope... and change a life!

www.25cloth.com

Mystery Solved!

I know I've mentioned before how we don't know exactly what breed(s) our dog Maya is. She was listed as "husky mix" at the shelter we adopted her from, but of course they didn't know for sure. We're VERY obsessed with our sweet Maya and have naturally developed a slight obsession with figuring out what exactly she "is". We are always on the lookout for dogs that look like Maya to offer us any clues, but our best luck was running into a dog that looked a whole lot like her, even in size and build, only to find out that it was a husky/wolf hybrid puppy that would grow to be 70 pounds. Maya tips the scales at only 33 pounds and is most definitely full grown as she is nearly three years old (or even older... we aren't totally sure). Anyways, we get questions ALL THE TIME about what she's mixed with or why she's so small.

Fast forward to this past Christmas. I was trying to think of something to get Kolby and remembered hearing about a dog DNA test that could determine the breed composition of mutts. I figured it would be super expensive but looked into it and found a "DNA Breed Identification Kit" online for $35. I realize that even $35 sounds like a stupid amount of money to spend on something like this... but whatever. So I got it for Kolby (and myself, of course) along with plenty of non-dog-related Christmas gifts. A few weeks ago we got the kit in, swabbed Maya's mouth with the included q-tips, mailed the kit back, and waited for the results.

Today we got her "Ancestry Analysis Certificate" in the mail. As expected, she is at least 75% Siberian Husky. Quite unexpected, however, was the news that she is 10-20% DALMATIAN! Isn't that awesome? I love Dalmatians. Her husky markings are so dominant that she of course doesn't look like a dalmatian, but it does explain the traits that keep her from looking 'all husky' like her straighter tail, narrower face, and thinner fur. Unfortunately, the fact that a mix of those breeds should have Maya weighing between 45-50 pounds confirms that her small size means that she likely spent all of her pre-us life on the streets and that year of malnourishment stunted her growth, which is sad. But she's healthy and happy now and we're blessed to have this little husky-dalmatian mix in our lives!

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I've updated our blog (minus the Australia trip) and there's good reason for that --- not much has been going on. Nonetheless, here's the latest news from around here... however mundane.

Kolby had to start back to work this year a week before my classes started so I was able to go on a fun mini-vacation with three of my best friends. My friend Laura is now at grad school in Colorado so Katie, Jessica and myself drove back with her and then skied for a couple days before having to get back home. We've been friends since 8th grade and there's nothing in the world like hanging out with those girls.

Jess, Laura, Me, Katie

Last Tuesday was my last first day of school and it was bittersweet. I've been in school for 19 years straight so I'll be happy to FINALLY be done, but at the same time --- I love school and I'm good at it, and the thought of entering the real world and (hopefully) starting a real job is scary because I don't know if I'll love it OR be good at it. I guess I've got to grow up sometime.

Kolby is still loving teaching and is very often commended for being great at it. The kids (or adolescents, I guess) really look up to him and it makes them so much more interested in what he has to say. His latest funny story from school was that a student came up to his desk and upon seeing the framed picture of us, commented "woah Mr. Kerr, your wife's really young... she's like 22!", implying that he had robbed the cradle. Kolby replied to her, "how do you know that I'm not 22?" and received a very puzzled look. Apparently he has them fooled into thinking he's much older than he really is.

Today I FINALLY started the write-up for my thesis. Even though I have been working steadily on my research for over a year now, I had yet to put pen to paper on the actual thing. My oral defense will be coming up in early March and it is quite likely that I will implode from the stress of trying to write a graduate thesis paper in a matter of weeks. My research is all empirical (i.e. I am doing completely new research by running statistical analyses on a dataset from Bangladesh) and it took me much longer than expected to get everything ready and output some meaningful results. The other day I received a copy of a previous student's paper and just about died when I saw that it was sixty pages long. OH. MY. WORD. In lighter thesis news, I had to write an acknowledgements page --- thanking my advisor for his guidance, thanking the econ dept for financing part of my trip to Ghana, etc. --- and I seriously debated including a shout out to Maya. OK, maybe not seriously, but I'm home alone all day long working on my research and I don't know what I would do if Maya wasn't here keeping me company. I mean, who wouldn't be grateful for this little cheerleader:

I'll end this less-than-riveting post with a quote:
Kolby, to his parents on the phone last night: "you know that sweater that you got Emily for Christmas... the blue one... well she tried it on and it was too small around her arms... do you have the receipt?"
Thanks, honey. Heaven forbid you had just said it didn't fit.

Home Alone

There is an unfamiliar voice emanating from our blog this week as I appear to be the only one left around here to do the writing. Maya is willing, but the opposable thumb dilemma persists.

Truth be told, Emily has left me. Personally I thought I could make things last at least a couple of years, but she's packed a bag and headed north. She claims that she is only going skiing in Colorado for a couple days with some of her friends, but time will tell.

After two of my five days alone, I'd say I am faring admirably. To give you a proper perspective on my current state, I will provide a few comparable movie images:

Cast Away--think scraggly beard, abandoned clothing, spear fishing, and talking to inanimate sporting equipment.

Home Alone--at first frightened and hesitant, then dancing wildly to Frank Sinatra tunes before being forced to defend the family home from bad guys using comical booby traps.

The Great Escape--think mainly of 'the cooler': a defeated, dashing Steve McQueen endlessly thumping his baseball against the wall as if to say, 'I will not let this break me.'

As you might have guessed, I've already long since passed my breaking point, else you would never have seen this post.

Graciously, Emily left me a frozen lasagna and some gift cards to various places around town, which I have bartered with the natives for beads, tobacco leaves, and maize. Unfortunately, she selfishly did not hand pack lunches for me to take to school as she usually does. In my rush today, I made it out the door with a cup of applesauce and a snack pack of pudding.

Have a great week everyone. If you don't hear from me in a while, you can assume I have been gruesomely dispatched by Emily upon her return to our now markedly untidy abode.

Kolby

Webb Family Vacation -- Australia

Our family had the most A-M-A-Z-I-N-G time on our trip to Australia. We saw wild koalas and kangaroos, went scuba-diving on the Great Barrier Reef, spent Christmas at the beach, learned how to surf on Bondi Beach, went sailing on the Sydney harbor, celebrated New Years watching the fireworks over the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge, and kicked 2009 off to a wild start by skydiving over the outback. Best of all, we spent two weeks enjoying uninterrupted time as a family!

The Webb Family

Front: Me, Mom, Remy (sister-in-law)

Back: Kolby, Russell (younger brother), Dad, Brad (older brother)

Kangaroo Island

Our trip started with a visit to Kangaroo Island, a very small island off the southern coast of Australia known for its diverse wildlife and natural beauty.

Admiral's Arch, an ancient limestone formation

Cape du Coudic, home to an active colony of New Zealand fur seal

Remarkable Rocks, natural granite formations

Once again our family's luck with finding wildlife struck again (we were very, very lucky to see all of the "big five" on our trip to Africa) and we found a mama koala and her little baby up in a eucalyptus tree. We watched them for awhile and the mama eventually decided to change trees--- take a look at the progression below--- it was awesome to watch and was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen!

A wallabie A koala bottom A male koala climbing (and then sitting in) a tree. Doesn't his fur look strange up close? A kangaroo and her (big) baby... they were very intent on keeping an eye on us.
Kolby and I getting a closer look at some wild kangaroos we happened upon.

A little joey hopping over to his mom to nurseSome pelicans

Seal Bay, home to the bulls, cows, and pups of the Australian sea-lion colony

Russell getting ready to sandboard at Little Sahara, a bizarrely huge sand dune in the middle of nowhere on the island. My mom is standing at the bottom (on the far right of the photo), just to give you some perspective. It was kind of like snowboarding (or sledding if you went down sitting on the board like I did) except you end up with sand in your ears and a sunburn. Still quite fun, though!

We went to a wildlife park (basically a really casual zoo) and Kolby fulfilled his childhood dream of hugging a koala. It was a BIG DAY for him. There were multiple times when I realized he was missing and eventually found him back in the koala habitat. One time I walked up and heard him whispering to the koala "shhh... shhh....shhh" as he stroked it back to sleep. It was a highlight of the trip for sure-- those koalas are just as cuddly and cute as they look!

We also got to pet and feed a lot of kangaroos, which was really neat. They weren't big like the wild ones we had seen, but they were fun to hang out with.
We also saw a kangaroo with her albino baby. At one point they were both standing and the baby got scared, hopped head first into the mama's pouch, and then had to wiggle its way inside. It was probably the grossest thing I'd ever seen. It was like watching a kangaroo give birth... backwards.
The whole family, overlooking the North Coast beaches.

Kolby and I at "Double Beach", a beach where one cove was nothing but big rocks and the other was nothing but white sand.

As we were driving back to the airport, Kolby spotted this guy up in a tree on the side of the road. He took this picture out of the window after we had pulled over. Unbelievably cute!