Going to see the hospital in REAL LIFE!

Here we go!  It looks like it is going to be a long flight!

It has been about a month since we posted anything because life has been pretty busy!  We are so thankful that we got to go to Nyankunde in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Samaritan's Purse for the dedication of the new maternity ward!  Even now, it almost seems like a dream!  The whole time Livvy & I were raising the money for the hospital, we would talk about what we thought it would look like or we would talk about it as though it was already helping people.  Little did we know, it was already helping people!  The problem is that it was in really bad shape and there were many things that were needed.  There was only one sink in the whole maternity ward and it didn't even work that great.  The roof was in terrible shape and in some places the ceiling was caving in.  There had been a lot of damage from the war.  But this is all they have in the DRC.  Even now, some of the remaining wards are still in pretty rough shape! 

The tiny brick building to the left is the old outhouse

They had to take the roof off and then redo all the walls

With some of the money we raised, they were able to add on to the hospital!

The old maternity ward had only one sink that wasn't in great shape so they dug up the floor and added plumbing

The old walls were in rough shape

When they took off the roof and gutted the building, you could see from one end to the other

This is the outside wall of the old maternity ward in Nyankunde

Dr. Cooper started to send us some pictures of the hospital being worked on in late June of this year, (2015).  It was so exciting to see that there was a real building and that it was starting to change!  At that time, we thought the pictures were all we would ever see of the hospital and we were very happy with that.  In fact, it was really hard to look at the pictures and not share them with everyone because we were so excited to just see it!  It was so amazing seeing a building getting worked on!  When we got the email from Samaritan's Purse telling us that the building was going to be finished in October and asking if we would like to go for the dedication ceremony we were so excited!  It seemed like Christmas and your birthday and every other wonderful day all rolled into one moment!

We immediately started getting things like passports, (which actually became a huge trial for getting mine!  It came right at the very last possible moment, but God did get it to us on time!)  We got a million shots to be able to travel out of the country and we started to get ready for a huge adventure!

I will write another blog post about going to the Samaritan's Purse organization in Boone, NC before we flew out to Nyankunde, but right now, let's keep going on talking about the Congo!  We took four planes to get to the DRC.  When I write about Boone, I will also try to write a little bit about Uganda.  That was also a stop on our way to the DRC.

When we landed in Nyankunde we were so excited to go see the new maternity ward!  We stopped in a missionary house to eat some food, but Livvy & I were very anxious to just go see the maternity ward!  It really was beautiful!  Compared to the other buildings, it is stunning because it is freshly painted and has a bright blue roof with solar panels on it.  There are now some private rooms, as well as 30 beds for moms who have just had babies.  There is electricity in the whole building at night now.  The doctors used to have to do deliveries by the light of their cell phone! There is a new outhouse and it has showers that work!  The old one was really run down and dilapidated because of the war and the showers in it didn't work.  There is a new operating room and the delivery room has been updated.  There are now sinks in every patient care area, which will make an enormous difference for how the doctors can care for the moms and babies because it is much easier to wash their hands between each patient!

This is the sign at the bottom of the hill that leads up to the hospital complex

This is part of the new addition to the maternity ward.  There are two private rooms for moms now

This is the new delivery room.  They can do two deliveries in here at the same time

This is the new operating room in the maternity ward!  The very first baby born in the new ward was born by emergency C-section in this room!

This is the back of the maternity ward.  There are 4 new washing sinks in the back for caregivers to wash clothes.

There are extra large sidewalks so the caregivers have a place to sit.This is me and Livvy in front of it!

Here is a better view of the hospital with the new outhouse to the left.

This is the new outhouse and shower building at the Nyankunde hospital.

That is a new sink in a little room that was renovated to become a medication room.

This is a new sink in the room where the doctors take care of the new moms.

This is one of the moms in labor

This was one of the new babies that was born while we were there.  We prayed with his mom.

We gave out cupcakes to all the new moms

This little baby was named after me.  Her name is Gabriella

Meet Gabriella.  She was the first baby born in the new maternity ward!

I am holding Gabriella and Livvy is holding a little boy named Micheli. 

This was the very best part of going to the Congo!  Livvy and I LOVED holding the new babies!  Every time we went to the ward we would hold as many of the babies as the moms would let us hold!  As we look at these pictures now, it is almost like we are a little bit homesick or something.  To think that God is saving the lives of moms and babies every day now, and that these babies will grow up to become people who could also make a difference in the world is a very exciting thought!  We love it that the missionary doctors in the DRC get to talk to the new moms about Jesus every day!  We are just very, very thankful!

Woodland Baptist Craft Bazaar TODAY 10/18 from 9-1 809 Pope Lick

Livvy & I are are SO EXCITED to announce that we now have The Chick-fil-a cow coming to the Bazaar, Cheezy the Clown, several crafters - including our own Grandma, some great vendors and Livvy's American Heritage Girls group!  WE are selling concessions and now there are some AMAZING RAFFLE BASKETS!  The tickets are $1 each or 6 tickets for $5.  We have a basket from Mark's Feed Store, 4 certificates from Safari Versatile Services for pest control and termite inspections, a shopping cart cover from Gram (hers are super nice and so great for this time of year for a Christmas present for someone that just had a baby!) Avon gift basket of My Little Pony items and many other items that I haven't even seen yet but I am told are super nice!

If you still wish you had gotten a table to sell things or tell about your business we still have some great slots open!  The Woodland Baptist Church youth group students are going to do a car wash and have things to sell also.

We sure hope you will stop by to see us and give hugs because we are still so excited about having gone past our goal!  We are hoping that the sale of the concessions and raffle will help us get some medical equipment for the hospital now!

Here's the info:

Gabe The Cake Man & Livvy Have Gone Over $20,000!

Today was an amazing day!  The donations from the children that were at summer camp went into our fundraising account with Samaritan's Purse and we have now officially gone over $20,000!  GOD IS DOING BIG THINGS!  We give Him all the glory and praise because as Livvy says all the time, "We couldn't be doing any of this without God's help!"  Thank you to everyone that has donated and helped us!  We can't wait until we get to say that we have raised all the money...so keep donating!  It's working!

We have officially gone over $20,000!!!

Gabe The Cake Man vs. Wild...Bear Grylls-style explanation of our hospital building Project filmed at Kosair Children's Hospital

Hey Everybody,
Here it is...our latest video and was it ever fun to make!  We filmed it at Kosair Children's Hospital and they helped us film and edit it!  The children in the waiting room scene are all children that have helped us with our project!  Thank you, Dr. Stucker for helping us ask if we could film it at Kosair!  You are an awesome pediatrician!  (She was even written up in the Samaritan's Purse Bible for saving a baby's life while she was on a mission trip with them once!)  Thank you, everyone that has been going out of your way to help!  We really appreciate it!

Thank you, Kurt and Mrs. Witt from Big Idea Media Group for making the cover photo!

Click HERE to watch the video!

Muhammad Ali Center Congo14, Bruno Mars, Gabe The Cake Man & Livvy-Bug Will Make a Great TEAM

Two weeks ago we had an amazing turn of events in our project!  It hasn't really gotten us many new donations, but we got to do some super cool things!  First, we were called by the Food Network Channel to see if we wanted to try out for a kid cooking challenge contest show.  (We said, "No".)  This was an honor for us to realize that they saw our WAVE3 news spot from when we made Abbey's wedding cake, but the opportunity didn't really seem to fit with our project and we don't really want to do things for fame.  We are trying really hard to just keep doing what we are doing so that God gets all the glory.

But on that SAME DAY, we were called by the Muhammad Ali Center because they wanted to ask us if we wanted to be a part of their upcoming press release they were having to tell the press about who their A-List singer is going to be in September for their Congo14 event. (It is Bruno Mars) It was pretty cool how this is working out that the Muhammad Ali Center is going to be doing this event in Louisville and the Congo at the same time to celebrate the anniversary of when Muhammad Ali fought George Forman in Zaire (which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) 40 years ago, and we are trying to get enough money to build a hospital there!  The Ali Center wanted to know if we would speak at the Press Conference and tell about what we are doing to help the people in the Congo!  We said, "Yes", not because we wanted to speak, that was actually super scary, but because it seems like we have some shared goals. WDRB News included us just a tiny bit in their story about the press conference on the news that night.  You can see that here:  WDRB News Clip

In the end, it was scary but also kind-of fun!  We got to tour the Ali Center for free and we got to go back to Sullivan University to learn two more super cool things!  Chef Richardson taught us how to print out an edible image (which our wonderful friend, actually my mom's best friend, Denise who owns Big Idea Media Group, made for us with the Congo14 logo and an image of the Rumble in the Jungle on it) and put it on a cake.  We also learned how to do rainbow piping around the cake!  Here is a video of us learning this stuff at Sullivan: Click Here.

Here are a few pictures of the cake:

We gave our speeches but they were not on the news or anything.  Many of the people at the press conference came up and talked to us after it was over and took our card with the link to our blog, but nothing has really come from that.  My dad thinks this is because God wants to prove that it is only HIM doing this project with us!  God is using children like us to bring in the donations so God wants to show He can do this big thing through the least likely source.  Livvy & I think this is true.  So far, it is really children doing their 1% or people donating their 1% that have gotten us to 37%!  Anyway, if you would like to see our speeches, click this and go to the 8:34 minute mark.  We are super excited that the Ali Center people have told us we can come to the Congo14 celebration and even meet the ambassador of the Congo and Bruno Mars.  We are hoping this means we will meet Muhammad Ali too.  :)  

Thanks for reading about it and most of all, keep praying for us!  (And by the way, everyone really seemed to like the cake.  We had made it a surprise by making the cake batter into a tie-dye pattern with red, blue, purple and black!)

Blaise-the-Batman-Boy-Hero and Sweet Efrata are Helping Build The Hospital

Meet our little friend, Blaise...we think he is about the cutest child on the planet!  Blaise just turned 5 and he loves all things related to Batman!  We think he is a SUPER HERO because he asked his family and friends to just give donations to the hospital project instead of getting him presents.  What five year old does this???  Blaise is pretty special because he was born deaf but he has a cochlear implant and can hear now.  His family adopted a little boy from another country with the same problem and he had not heard anything for the first 4 years of his life.  Thankfully, they got him a cochlear implant too and he has been hearing for a year.  What a wonderful family Blaise has!  Anyway, we decided to to make a Batman cake for Blaise because he is definitely on our #1 team for his unselfish ways!  His efforts made $170. in donations!

 Now meet our friend Efrata.  She used to live in Ethiopia but has been adopted and lives here in the United States.  She heard Livvy & I talk at the Block at Southeast Christian Church and she also decided to ask for donations to the project instead of birthday presents!  She just turned 12 and was so sweet and excited to be a  part of the Number 1 Team!  She didn't want a cake so we gave her one of our aprons.  Her efforts raised $345!  We feel so incredibly blessed to become friends with such amazing children!

Teen bakes cakes to help build hospital in the Congo - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports

Abbey & Taylor living happily ever after

Teen bakes cakes to help build hospital in the Congo - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports



For any of you that missed the Wave 3 story about me and Livvy, you can still see it on their website.  :)

Sullivan University is on the NUMBER 1 TEAM!

Chef Dodd has been so nice to me and Livvy!  My mom called him to ask his advice on how I should work on Abbey's (our sister's) wedding cake and he said that we could come to Sullivan University and make her cake there!  About 4 or 5 weeks ago we went and met with Chef Richardson, Chef Lamb and Chef Dodd to let Abbey show us what she wants for her cake.

Yesterday, Livvy and I went to Sullivan and started making the cake.  It was so fun to be at Sullivan!  I really want to go there when I grow up!  There were so many cool things to work with and they showed us some great tricks of how to make our cakes better!  

The oven at Sullivan is the coolest oven!  It has 6 racks that rotate around.  I really loved using it!  The cakes came out perfect!

Today we got to frost the cakes, put the fondant on and then we started the process of stenciling.  The humidity was really high today so we are going to work on that more tomorrow.  One of the most amazing things about today was that WAVE 3 News was there and they filmed us working with the chefs!  This will be on tonight at 6pm.  We will try to put up the news clip when it is available.  We are so grateful that the Lord is giving us so many wonderful opportunities to tell people about the project!  We are also so grateful to Chef Dodd at Sullivan for giving us this privilege of working on the cake there!