no more history books!

Well i realize i haven't posted in a long time. School, school, school and more school. Then vacation, vacation, and more vacation. It has been a crazy last two months. School started and we had a huge family trip to France, Africa, New York, and Las Vegas! Yes, those are all very different types of places and yes it was very hard to pack for them all in only one suitcase... but i managed:) I learned so much the past month that i see no need to finish up my history book this year.

But i will start with telling you about France....

If you don't know me... i LOVE food! There was really good food and amazing deserts.

It was beautiful!! We stayed in Nice, France and went to the beaches, village tops, and did some shopping.

 It was one of the last times our family will be together so we had to take our Christmas card

And the two cutest little boys had so much fun!

More pics from other trips will be coming next post:) All i have to say and thank you Jesus for getting us around the world and back home safely.

charity water

The 2011 September Campaign. Our 5-year-anniversary video from charity: water on Vimeo.
Videos like this make me so happy yet so sad at the same time. After raising $15,000........ i am so encouraged to raise even more! I can't wait to go back to Dube Bute, make another video, and spread the word to help make awareness of   what goes on on the other side of our world.

and its finished!!!

Wow! I can't believe it has been almost 9 months since i first drove into the village to Dube Bute. I still remember driving down that long dirt road looking at the kids half naked, animals in the road, kids chasing after the car, women carrying 50 pounds of water, everyone barefoot, looking at all the beautiful faces and soooo much more.
I remember getting out of the car and the kids coming up to touch me because i am white...
Thousands of people singing to the Lord that we have come to help them...
Looking into little babies teary eyes because they are hungry, cold, thirsty...

Getting onto a horse overwhelmed with what God was doing in my life that very moment...
Seeing hope in all the peoples eyes and picking up babies off the road and just crying with them.
I didn't know what to think. It was all so much at such a young age. It honestly just ripped my heart apart. It changed me forever. I will NEVER forget that day.

With God, I was able to reach my goal of raising $15,000 for Dube Bute!!! THANK YOU everyone for all your prayers, love, and donations. Everything you have done has helped make a HUGE difference in so many peoples lives. I am more than happy to know that overall $436,060.00 was raising for Dube Bute!!! Thank You Lord!

In one month i will be back in that village. Holding hands with my little babies who i have fallen in love with the past few times i have been there. The kids who i laughed with trying to teach them English and them teach me Amharic. The people who asked me to move there and live with them. Have running races with the kids. Dance in the rain. Sing songs. Play in the mud. And see all the beautiful faces... I can't wait to see them all!

Remembering Rachael

All i have to say is read this! 

Gods Beauty

Throughout this summer i have been traveling around a little bit and God has really shown me His beauty. Everything from the country to the beach and His children of the world. 

His children and the sparkle in their eyes with the blessing they have gotten. the fish in the seas and lakes. the beauty of water and mountains.

ignore me and jack and look at the background. the mountains with snow on them and the clouds in the blue sky. 

every little detail in every little butterfly of this world is just amazing

the colors of the grass and the sky so blue with clouds that don't look real

the specials moments when you look at the children and feel blessed with what God has given you and made

the moon shinning on the lake

how much prettier can a promise that someone made be?

God is so good!!
"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:3)
"For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." (Psalm 95:3-5)
 

finishing up

As some of you know, i am trying to finish up my fund raising for Dube Bute. Over the past few months i have managed to raise an amazing $14,000. I have $1,000 to go to bring me to my $15,000 goal. I want to give a big thanks to those who have helped me in my fund raising. You have helped make a huge difference in one of the poorest villages in the world.
I am trying to come up with ways to make $1,000 dollars, but as a teenager and not having a job, it is very difficult. I babysit as much i can and give all my money i get from that to Dube Bute.  In the past i sold hand spray painted t-shirts. I also saved up all my change and got a couple hundred dollars just off that. So now i have come up with another idea. I figured out that if all my facebook friends just gave $5... i would reach my goal and even go a little over!  Just 5 dollars!!
Would you be willing to give $5 to save hundreds of lives by giving them clean, safe water drink? Think About It :)

update on life

I am a little late on posting this but... to start off summer, i was in Texas for 2 weeks with the Alexanders! I went to camp with Hill and Wick for 6 days then to San Antonio with their whole family.

YMCA camp

In San Antonio we went to the best most amazing amusement park to celebrate Hills 15th birthday but more importantly for Abe. Morgan's Wonderland is the name of the park and it is built for special needs people!!

such an inspiration

Super Abe!!

Now i am home and am enjoying my summer with friends! I went to a U2 concert and have been playing a lot of tennis.

U2 concert

Tennis

My goal this month and next is to finish up my 15,000 dollar goal for Dube Bute. I have 1,000 dollars to go! I am going to try to do a lot of babysitting and sell some more t-shirts:)
Hope you all are having a great summer!!

Ethiopia Video

Untitled from savannah thorne on Vimeo.
This video still brings me to tears. I think about these people everyday, every meal, every time i take a shower with clean water, every time i walk 10 feet to get water.... I think about what these people are doing everyday and what i am doing every day. Being 15, it can be a challenge to not go to the mall with all your friends and spend money on stuff you don't really need but my passion is to help others, not myself.

another life changing trip to ethiopia

Wow! What an amazing experience i had in Ethiopia again. There aren't words good enough to describe the moments i had with the people of Dube Bute. As we arrived, there were hundreds of people waiting for us singing, dancing, and praising the Lord. And what did i do? I got out of the car and started dancing with them and it lasted for almost two hours! These are the people who i will NEVER forget about. They are my friends, my family, and have taught me so much. I have my friends who make tally marks on rocks until the next time i come.... People asking me to move to the village and teach at the schools.... I am known as the girl with golden teeth(braces) and "tall" blond hair!

We went to Dube Bute two days in a row. By the beginning of the second day, almost the whole village of thousands of people all knew my real name. Not just "gold teeth American girl." I walked through the beautiful valleys for hours with my little(huge) fan club, we talked, giggled, and shared memorable moments with each other. They tried teaching me the Awassa language and i tried teaching them English... We both failed but shared so much laughter!
I will never forget all the beautiful faces of the people of Dube Bute. All the little babies and kids with no pants. The many with no shoes. But most importantly the love, hope, and joy they have.

When i am hanging out with my friends here, i will always be thinking about my friends in Dube Bute and how much harder they work for life yet how much more joy and happiness they all have.

The progress with the wells, schools, and all the fund raising is going very well! They are trying to finish the roads before the rainy season so they can continue to get materials through the season.

helping build the bridge

the health post or vet clinic.... i forget which one

less than 24 hours...

WOW! In less than 24 hours we will be on the plane heading for Ethiopia!!!! Making a stop in London, then going straight into Addis Ababa. From the airport, we are driving six hours to Awasa (Dube Bute). We are spending three days in Dube Bute. I am so excited! I can't wait to get back into the village and see the people who literally changed my life forever.

After Dube Bute we are flying up to Gondar. This is where my brother was from and it will be my first time ever going there. I have heard it is just beautiful and filled with beautiful people.We will be here for four days.
Then we are going back to the city, Addis Ababa. We are working in orphanages and going to love on all the kids as much as we can. I am going to see some of my favorite people....

Kolfe boys, Zalylum(if not yet adopted), and most importantly, Kingstons birth mom and biological brother. We will be meeting Kingstons(adopted brother) birth mom for the second time this trip. It is such an amazing experience that cannot be explained unless you have experienced it yourself. Again, i cannot explain how excited i am for the next two weeks and what God has planned for me and my mom.
I will try to keep you guys updated with pictures as much as i can. We will be outside of the city for the most part, so i am not sure how much internet we will have. We would love prayers for safety the next two weeks! 

back to Dube Bute!!

In less than two weeks i am going back to Ethiopia with my mom! We are going to Dube Bute, Addis, and Gondar. I am so excited to go again and see the people who changed me forever. Every time i go, i feel that those people change me more than i could ever change them. 

I will see the cows i had given to a person of the village of Dube Bute... video of cow purchase
We will sit in on the city talk about all the work that is going to happen in Dube Bute. New water wells, schools, health clinics, vet clinics, and more. You can read about that here!

We will be going back to a bunch of different orphanages and i cannot wait to see the kids again!

Our goal is to try and bring 200 pounds in humanitarian aid! Diapers, diapers, and more diapers. I must say, i am very excited for the target run we are going to make to get everything!
However, we are trying to get as many donation as we can so if you are interested in donating anything, please let me know via facebook or email.... savannah@thornemail.com 

Can't wait to see this wall again at Kolfe Boys!
Prayers that preparing and traveling of this trip will go smooth and safe:) 

Easter!

Such a beautiful, hot day we had in Hawaii on Easter. We went to sunrise service on the beach and let me tell you, it was an awesome sunrise. The beauty that God can create is just amazing.

This is a picture of our sunset we had Easter night

 The Easter Bunny, for the first time, did not come to our house this year. At first the little kids were a little confused on why the Bunny would "skip" our house, but my parents described to them why we celebrate Easter.... and NOT the Easter Bunny. After that, they didn't even ask about the Bunny again. They were so interested in what God has done for us that Caden even had a few tears because he was sad for Jesus and that He sacrificed Himself just for us. He went through all that pain... just for us.


 Life is hard. Life is full of mistakes and sin. But because of Him, we can have all of our sins forgiven, go live a place that is so amazing no one here on earth can describe, and have an ever lasting life! Thank You JESUS!!!!

Our traditional picture of us kids every Easter

One Day Without Shoes!

It is normal for a Newport Beacher to go barefoot on a daily basis, so it wasn't odd that i wasn't wearing shoes but it was still fun knowing that i was going barefoot for the people who don't have shoes around the world! All the kids joined me too.

World Water Day!

Did you know that every 20 seconds a child dies from drinking unclean water? Yes, every twenty seconds.
On average in Ethiopia, women and children walk 4 miles a day carrying 40 pounds of contaminated water to their families.
Could you imagine? Being a teenager, and all my friends who read this, could you image having to walk at least 4 miles everyday just to get this because you have no other option...

 Think if you couldn't go to school because you had walk so far everyday to get your water.

What would you do if you had to drink from this?

This is the village of Dube Bute and the women getting water from their main water point... Yes, Its a mud puddle.

We take so much for granted. Have you ever thought about how many times you have gone to your sink, turned on the water, and drank clean, refreshing water? Did you ever think about that millions of people around the world don't have a sink to get water from. They have to walk for miles to only get contaminated water. People here don't even think about it but, water is so important to have.

Today is World Water Day. I want to thank all of you who have helped me and many others build 27 water wells that has CLEAN water for the village of Dube Bute! We have helped changed so many peoples lives just by giving them clean water. Lets help spread the word!

      

legalized!!

On June 17th 2009, Kingston Leul Thorne was finalized into our family! It just so happens that Team Alexander was in California at that time and got to go to court with us. Kingston is such a HUGE blessing to our family and i don't know what i would do without him.

I just had to post this picture because of how adorable Abey is.

signing the paper!

June 17th 2009

And now, on March 16th 2011 we got legalize another blessing into our family. Yanet Jazzlyn Thorne!

March 16th 2011

In the court room right after signing the papers!

Thank you Lord for giving us these children! They have changed our hearts just as much as we have changed their lives.