So you boil milk?

Let us use the front door”, Kendra said to me on our arrival to her beautiful home at the Sterling Lakes Estate in Houston.

We walked past a well manicured garden at the front leading to a big signage that reads ” Welcome, Jesse and Kendra Adams, since 1985. As soon as the door opened, I walk into a spectacle of a home whose exterior bespoke its grand interior.

The ceilings are intimidatingly tall adorned with floating chandeliers. The walls are painted colours that match the occupants persona; calm, cool and collected.

Alot of thought has been put into the decorations and colour themes. Every corner spoke, every wall preached. They are telling of Kendra’s character, a virtous Christian woman who will fiercely protect her family with her own life. Her beauty and artistic taste speak where words fall short.

The house of a modern woman with a kitchen island the size of a boardroom surrounded with high-rise stools. The coffee brown table mats are dressed daily with white decorative linen.

The furniture is well curated to match the symphony of colours in the home, a separate dinning room is reserved for special events.

Kendra is an early riser. She must beat the sun to her own game. Challenge is the name of that game. By 4.00 a.m before the blazing Houston Sun rises in angst, she is already nourishing her body and soul, dedicating the day to prayer and intensive work” Stay fit stay young.” She says.

You think you love marriage until you meet Kendra.She lives it, breathes it, magnifies it. She is a living testimony of the Proverbs 31 woman. A holly marriage to a husband of 42 years. Jesse, the centre piece of Kendra’s existence. Photos of their milestones accentuate their home in a language of love.

If Kendra were not an EA, she would have made a great publicist. The branding of Adams allover the house speaks to her creativity and the sense of belonging to the Jesse and Kendra Adams clan. Even the door mats are branded “Welcome to the Adams”, Adams and Co. Laundry mat, “The Adams gym” dedicated to body craft. The symbolic letter A in big black patterns embellished on walls and the best of them all a study dedicated to the couple’s marriage ministry.

Inside the study, a customized standee banner, collection of photobooks, volumes of books on marriage including a book co authored by the Adams themselves tell the story properly. If what you focus on magnifies, then marriage in this home has been magnified in abundance.

How often do you go on holiday?” I asked, marveling at the volumes of travel books of Paris, London, islands, beaches, faraway lands.

“Jesse and I plan a year in advance,” she said. “Once we agree, we book and then work towards it.” We will be going to Africa next year.
“Do you always print pictures when you return?”
“Always. I make sure the albums are ordered. That way, the memories live and fills the love tank.

Marriage is hardwork.I don’t tell her but continued flipping through their photo books every page shouting commitment, every photo whispering intimacy. Their signature pose of Jesse’s arms around Kendra’s waist, her smile the smile of a woman who is loved, cherished, and well cared for.

Her husband Jesse is a man of actions and few words. Like my Steve, he has a generous spirit of a farmer. He waters their marriage with acts of service. Two different souls neatly woven by God. My friend Kendra loves talking her laughter fills the home like the summer essence in the guest bathroom. Laughing with Kendra has warmed my heart, hearty laughter, teary laughter, sister laughter, just for just laughter.

I have occasionally heardJesse’s voice listening so keenly to catch his deep American accent. He speaks with tact like wise men, few words loaded with tonnes of wisdom. His tale of life on a farm house and profound tales of his father in the country take to heart remembering my own family in Namumira and my father’s love for cows which he baptized names of humans. Nassolo, Donna and Tusubira (we hope).

Do you cook? I asked Jesse with inquisition remembering that African husbands wait in Daddy’s chair to be cooked for, and served food on special plates, a dish for soup, a plate for food and side saucer for greens and ovacado. Ego-soothing melodies chorused to them as they eat. “Taata wa baana oteseza nnyo”. You provide for this home and on the night the buy engege, emputa (fish), we give them adult land titles when children go to bed.

Yes, I love cooking,” Jesse said, warming our meal. “My parents taught me first to look after myself. Then I could look after somebody else.” He pronounced it somebadi with his deep American accent.
“Thank you,” I replied. If we were in Africa, I would have knelt down to but since we are in America, I gave a dry thanks. (not accompanied by kneeling).

Jesse’s farming spirit is written allover the flower gardens, the spaces between the plants allowing them to blossom without growing into each other, the lawn that looks like freshly shaven hair and the cascading house plants, pothos whose leaves are as dark as kale in green juice.

It goes without saying that both Jesse and Kendra are keepers. They have kept each other longer than any piece of furniture they have owned since 1985. Their jewels Jessica and Jesse Jr, the children of their youth are now grown adults with new additions to the Adams clan. ” I was 15 years old when we got pregnant with Jessica”, she shares fondly in a tale that left me in warm hearty tears. They were young and unknowing, with more innocence than means yet they have kept each other and grown together in harmony overcoming challenges that have come their way.

I Surrender All, the hymn that best describes Jesse and Kendra Adam’s marriage. The total surrender to a known God on an unknown path. He led their path and they continue to serve like returning tourists guiding new ones on the path they have known too well now.

Like mother like daughter they say, hearing Kendra and her mother sing is nostalgic. Her mother, a woman of fair complexion wears her senior years like a golden silk robe. She plays a black key board while Kendra sings her heart out, worship flowing from the depth of her core.

” You deserve the glory and the honour.
For you are great, you do miracles so great
there is no one else like youuuuuuu.”

When Kendra sings, something takes over. Her voice becomes prayer, her hands lift, her spirit soars and all else ceases.

The duo of a mother and daughter in a flavored worship is a gift from God to back to Him. Their singing is very contagious and sooner, I joined the choir and we sang the African way, praise and dance combined.

Generosity of heart speaks volumes about the clay from which Kendra was moulded. She welcomed me into her home with grace. ” Jesse and I prayed about your visit, it is a blessing to us.” I felt honored and loved. Nowonder it was important that I enter through the front door, a door reserved for special guests. Those special guests my father often told ” do not remove your shoes” on the floor I had been made to scrub before their arrival.

On the eve of my return, Kendra handed me gifts for my people in a way that suggested that “your people have become mine.” Kendra my sister in America.

I met Kendra through IAAP. She offered to guide me through the giant doors of Board leadership. She was interested in knowing who I was which hinged our friendship on common ground. Christian African Women in Leadership .It does not suprise me that Kendra a leader with purpose is at the helm of our International Association in a seat barely occupied by African American women. She is making history the best way she knows.

Intention drives Kendra. I can see it in the way she treats Bentley ( which she pronounces Benli), a new found love, a dog that she speaks to as though it were a child ” Sit down,” “your Mama is coming”, and she prays for him as though Bentli were capable of understanding the language of prayer. His food like all precious things in the Adams house hold is branded “Bentley”. Soothing ocean music plays on a computer for Benti while we were gone.

When I said to her jokingly that I took whole milk, she requested Jesse to buy whole milk which I boiled spicing it with ginger, tea leaves and turmeric. You boil milk? She asked with curiosity her round eyes widening.

She takes cold almond milk while I will give anything for hot milk. The differences in out worlds could be wide but we see them as opportunities to laugh and bond. A belly laughter at the idea of adults eating on paper plates. hehehe. You don’t say!!!

At the dawn of my departure, I rose earlier than usual. Happy that I was going to see my people, the people who carry my blood in their veins in the land of my amblicocord. The land Kendra and her people call motherland. Part of me was sad to be leaving the sanctuary of peace that 2802, the Adams Hacienda had become, swinging in silence on the balcony chair opened moments of Satori that only silence permits.

As I sat on the queen bed layered with white linen and reread the framed welcome note placed by my bedside.

” Welcome Florence,
We hope your stay is enjoyable.
Blessings”

Joy and immense gratitude filled my heart.
I was leaving Houston with a heart full of gratitude. Kendra and Jesse Adams had given me a mind expanding experiences.
My cup overflows!!!

Thank you Jesse and Kendra Adams.

Until next time.

Florence

Words are my precious gift to you.

Thank you for being part of my story.