baby's here!

On Friday, September 21, I (Danielle) woke up at 5am with contractions (only coming every 10 minutes) and got up at 6am and showered.  I was thinking they were too far apart to amount to anything so I began making breakfast. Kevin left for the office and the kids and I did school.  I went outside with the kids after school and walked several laps around the house, hoping to pick up the contractions if things were indeed happening. Things didn't pick up so I went back inside and drank water and rested for a bit. I talked with Kevin several times throughout the day and at 3pm, he decided to come home.  He wanted to go to Nairobi and wait there.  If things happened in the middle of the night, he'd rather we were there instead of in Narok and having to drive 2.5 hours.  Little did I know that the 10 minutes apart contractions would continue until around 10:30pm.  We went got to the hospital in Nairobi at 7:30pm, thinking we'd be sent the guesthouse for the night, we were surprised to find that I was 5cm dilated.  We spent the next three hours walking, sitting in the tub, sitting on the birthing ball, and walking some more.  Kevin ate dinner while we were "waiting."  At 11:40pm, they called my doctor and she made it to our room at about 11:56pm, just in time to catch Samuel at 11:58pm.

Samuel was immediately put on my chest and was being suctioned by the pediatrician while I rubbed him off and looked to see if we had a boy or a girl.  We also thought he was really small.  I think this was probably because it was our earliest baby, but I think he probably would've been J-boy's size had he be in another two weeks.

We were moved to our recovery room around 2:00am.  Kevin and I were both pretty awake so we watched TV for a bit, got chai, ate some fruit, and waited for the nurse to bring some diapers for Samuel as he was only wrapped in a blanket.  Around 3:45am, I asked for diapers again.  Around 4:30am, we turned off the lights and tried to go to sleep.  Samuel was nursing great from the beginning.   I think we might have gotten about an hour or so of sleep.  The nurse came to bathe Samuel around 6:00am and our day began and we began our day with a new little one!

First Day of School

We started our new school year today after taking a few weeks off.  Schools here in Kenya are supposed to be back in session but there's a country-wide strike so the kids are still home.  Our teachers aren't striking though and seeing as we're supposed to head to Nairobi next week to await the arrival of our next little one, we thought getting started was a good idea.

Our students were all excited to start the new school year.  We have new curriculum (Sonlight) and lots of new books and a new schedule.  Little Bit didn't actually join us for the whole morning today as we try and figure out all the newness.

E is starting first grade and is really excited about all of our new read-aloud books.  She insisted on a pretty dress, not a play dress, for her first day of school.




J-boy is somewhere between pre-K and first grade so just say kindergarten.  He's excited about new math books and science experiments.  He also enjoys spelling and reading.







M is excited about anything involving markers, scissors, paint, or glue.  She LOVES crafts.  She'll also be starting to learn her letters and numbers.  She's great with her colors and loves being with her big sister and brother.






We're all happy to get the new year started and plan to continue school while we're "waiting" in Nairobi.  We seem to all do better with routine so it'll give us something to do.  We're also hoping to have some routine established before the little one arrives!  Less than two weeks until the due date though, so we'll see when he/she arrives!

Our "baby" is six!

**This is a bit old, but pretend it's still July 22 and we're celebrating E's 6th birthday!

E's first birthday in Kenya was celebrated w/ our team and an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet!  E was celebrated with our teammate Tim and they both like Chinese food so it worked!

E has completed kindergarten and enjoys school, for the most part.  She's a great helper and a great big sister.  She is looking forward to having another baby and tells us that she knows just want to do because she's taken care of two babies before!  We are so thankful for you, E.

How old are you? six
What's your favorite color? red
What's your favorite food? ice cream
What do want to be when you grow up? a veterinarian
What makes you really happy? when I get to watch movies
When are you sad? when I don't get to do things like if I wanted to play one of my computer games and you said no
What's your favorite movie/TV show? Ice Age and Princess Movie Daddy got for me
What's your favorite thing in school? on Mondays and we read our Bible stories
What do you like to play? with babies and to cook
What's your favorite game? races outside
What are most excited about this year?  that we're going on vacation to the coast
What's something you want to do while you're six? get a phone
What is something you think will be hard about being six?  that I'm too big to swing between Daddy's legs

E and Tim at their birthday party. E is 6 and Tim is older than that.

Closing Ceremonies

We have enjoyed watching the Olympics for the last two weeks.  Because of our location, we've had 24-hour access to the youtube Olympic channel, watching live events as well as any that have already taken place.

Especially with the kids, it was nice to be able to switch between events and watch many different things.  The kids each had their favorite sport to watch or athletes they liked to see perform.

After watching the closing ceremony, we talked about what we enjoyed most.  Here are the kids' responses:

M-  I liked red. I liked diving. I want to go swimming.

J-  I liked horse riding, biking, field hockey, and swimming.  I liked that the horses didn't knock off the bar very much.  I like the bumps where they were riding their bikes.  I like that they played hockey in a field.  I liked all the fast swimming and when they started like this (he demonstrated the breast stroke).

E- (she had to write hers) I like to watch gymnastics.  I liked the high bar.  I liked to watch swimming and Michael Phelps (which she wrote with a "MF").  I like to watch diving.  I like to watch diving when two people do the same thing at one time.

That's our family review of the Olympics.

mom??? dad???

It's always a little confusing when the kids pretend one of them are the mom or dad.  Case in point, this happened in our house today:

E: Dad, look what I found in the river?
J: (while reading a book) ummm....Dad's not in here.
E: We're playing a game and you're the dad.
J: Oh. (looking at what she found in the river) Well, that's a nice thingy.
E: Dad, it's a baby.
J: Oh, nice baby.

Kev and I were just laughing in the other room.

J-boy's 4!

**Sorry this wasn't posted on May 28...pretend it was.

Today, Jboy turns 4. He's been counting down for the last 10 days, letting us know each morning how many days until his birthday.  Today, he keeps asking everyone to tell him happy birthday and to pray for him before meals because it's his birthday.  He came downstairs this morning to find an over the door basketball hoop from Daddy and Mommy and a play tool bench from Nana and Papaw.  Daddy had also found Jboy a small Maasai knife (which I'm not sure what he will do with?!?!).  He requested biscuits for breakfast and chicken fried chicken w/ gravy and rice for dinner.  Yesterday, we had house church with our team and celebrated with cake after lunch for J. Tonight, we will have pecan pie for dessert (again, his request).

handsome boy with beautiful blue eyes

I decided it would be fun to ask J some questions on this, his fourth birthday, and record his answers to look back at later.

How old are you? four
What's your favorite color? blue and green
What's your favorite food? pizza
What do you want to be when you grow up? Spiderman or super hero
What makes you really happy? eating pizza
When are you really sad? when someone hits me
What's your favorite movie/TV show? BOZ
What's your favorite thing in school? My kindergarten workbook
What do you like to play? I like to play with E and M. I like to play with blocks. I like to play the game Aggravation. I love playing Clifford on the computer.
What's your favorite card game? UNO, actually Skipbo

Some of J's stats/tricks/special skills:

• He's really athletically talented and enjoys playing soccer (football), baseball, and basketball.
• He's reading three letter words (and sometimes longer) with no problems.
• He has a mathematical mind and does well with addition and subtraction.
• J weighs 39.7 pounds and is 42 7/8 inches tall.  He's wearing size 4 in shirts and trousers and size 10/11 in shoes.

We love you so much J boy.  You are sensitive and compassionate.  You love kisses and hugs and cuddles.  We are so thankful you're part of our family.  You are a great brother and add lots of laughs to our lives.

she's two!

Our littlest is two. This is a first for us.  When the older ones have turned two, our littlest has been a newborn.  This time, our newborn is still in the womb and will be for a few more months (hopefully!).  So for now, and for the first time, our baby is two.

I thought I'd update you on her current tricks and skills!

• She's talking about anything and everything. She often repeats things and at times surprises us with a saying all her own. She's using four-five word sentences on a regular basis and also knows how to greet and respond in Swahili.  This morning, she had fallen in her room and I went and got her and brought her back to bed with me. Kevin came upstairs to check on her since he heard her fall.  Kev talked to her for a bit and then said, "Come here and and I'll put you in her bed. " Little bit responded with, "No, I'm laying here talking to Mommy."
• She's averaging two wet diapers a week.  She sleeps in a diaper but it's usually dry and she'll wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom if she needs to.  For the first time since E was born, we're going to be diaper free for a bit.
• She's sleeping in a bed with E and does really good.  Sometimes, naps take a bit longer for the girls to fall asleep but other than that she's doing great.
• She's running very fast and likes for you to watch her. She's also jumping and likes for you to watch her do this as well.  She likes to dance and to "move it, move it."

• Some of her favorite things are her baby, playing with her tea set, watching our chickens, coloring, singing (her own made up songs but I can usually understand Jesus), reading books, and helping Mommy or Daddy with anything.
• She's started joining the big kids in school and has been doing activities to learn her colors.  Each week, she usually learns at least part of their Bible verse and sometimes, all of it.
• Her current stats are: 25.8 pounds and 33 7/8" tall. She's wearing size 2T in clothes and size 7 in shoes.  She's grown almost 2" since December and her shoe size jumped from 5 to 7, kind of skipping size 6.  We're thinking she might be tall?!?!  She's long and lanky like her sister (and her parents)!
• For her birthday, we had our teammates over for cupcakes (strawberry with green and purple icing, her pick) and ice cream.

So there's our update on little, big M.  We're so thankful for her sweet, compassionate spirit.  She's a great playmate for E and J and provides plenty of laughs for us all.

living in simplicity...by my laziness

fair warning...this post talked about blood...don't keep reading if this will freak you out in any way...we will not be held responsible for any "gross" feelings


so I cut my finger earlier today trying to open the foil seal of a can of instant coffee...  not a bad cut but enough to get my 5year old to think it was a lot of blood.  

so i first finished making my coffee, then before the blood dripped off my hand I went to the sink and washed it off.  I then wrapped up my finger in a cloth to keep the blood off my coffee cup.

the bleeding stopped with in a couple of minutes, however later in the day I kept bumping it and it would open up.  after the third or fourth time of the bleeding starting up again, Danielle suggested that I get a band-aid.  what....

my first thought was no way...that would be a waste...I'd have to go find one and then when ever we run out of the we will have to find where on narok they might sell them.  That is just too much work!

these thoughts we followed quickly by a rationalization of saying that I am just "living in simplicity"

some of what i didn't know that I didn't know...

Cross cultural living is a lot of fun..... and a lot of work.  one of the things that we get to do is to find out some of the things that we didn't know.  Even this thought goes against our cultural mindset.  in America we are basically what we know.  if you know how to change a tire, then if called upon you could be a "tire changer", if you are really good at math then often you will be seen as smart.  The basic mentality of our home culture is that if you know then you have power, so even admitting that we don't know something is bad.  which leads us to...

Who assigns "good/bad", "right/wrong", "OK/not OK"?  there is a range of normal in every culture...with most people falling within this range (and occasionally some choosing to intentionally be out of the norm).  It is very likely that the range of normal is so naturally ingrained that you don't notice when people are acting within that range, but you know when someone is operating outside of normal (even if you can't put into words "what normal is").

So I am admitting to 1) not knowing something and 2) that something is how to operate within our host culture's range of normal.  If you are still reading this blog then you are family, close friends, or bored.  so instead of continuing this boring set of revelations I'll just give some examples.

(some of the) Things that I don't know:

about food-
-playing with your food is ok ( when using it to eat other foods)
-you can and should eat every part of the chicken (including bones and organs)
-you can and should eat the kidneys of the goat raw and while it is still warm
-the soup made from the head of the goat is most flavorful
-whoever invented long-rice (spaghetti noodles) isn't from around here
-tables are for white people
-every day you should have enormous amounts of ugali (corn meal and water in cake form)
-you can not buy food more than 1-2 days in advance
-all good food tastes "sweet" even if there is nothing sweet about it.
-if you eat pork you are gross
-if you eat fish, then you must also eat snake and lizards (gross)
-any time is tea time

about cooking:
-recipes are for the white people
-measuring anything is for the white people
-cooking anything beyond the 6 dishes that everyone knows how to cook is a waste


about babies:
- it doesn't matter how much the baby is sweating it is cold and you need to put on more clothes
- feed the baby all of the time...


about kids:
-they go to school (age 3 and up), unless the is a greater family need
-they stay in school until 8th grade
-they continue school if they are smart, or you can afford for them to keep going




that is enough for now...maybe more later

he made it!

kev called last night and he made it to the top! the cell network wasn't very good where he was so we didn't get to talk long, but he said they were doing good. last night was their last night on the mountain. today, he'll come the rest of the way down and then stay at a hotel about 40 minutes from the ending gate (the same one he stayed at before the climb). tomorrow morning, they'll take a bus back to nairobi where he'll stay w/ some friends from jbu before coming home on thursday. we're excited to see him! i keep reminding myself that he's going to be really tired when he gets home.

the kids are doing well. we've still been doing school while kev's been gone but it hasn't been as intense (as intense as kindergarten and pre-school can be?!?!). we've enjoyed the continued routine to our day.

after the weekend of it just being the kids and i, it's nice to have jackline around as well. she did some grocery shopping for me this morning before coming to work. i think some people regularly have their househelper do shopping for them, but we haven't. it was so nice though to not have to figure out when i was going to get to town. cyrus, my language helper, has also decided that since my mom will be here, i won't get in as much swahili so he had me meet w/ him yesterday in addition to today and tomorrow this week. again, it's nice to have someone else around. the kids also enjoy cyrus.

yesterday, jboy told jackline about easter eggs. during lunch, she said, "so john is telling me that easter has something to do w/ eggs?" i got to explain the US commercialism of easter to jackline and cyrus. cyrus always thinks the word bunny is funny (i'm not sure why) so he really got a kick out of the easter bunny.

he called

so kev called tonight. i talked to him for less than a minute when he asked me to call him back. i tried, but it won't go through. i was hoping he'd called back but it didn't happen. however, he sounded really good and it was nice to hear his voice.

today, he had a special treat for us hidden in the wardrobe, behind his shoes. it took awhile for the kids to find all of it, but when they did, there was a chocolate bar (a fruit and nut cadbury bar!), two apple juice boxes, a bottle of strawberry fanta, and a movie (tangled). Fridays are pizza and movie nights so he said he had something special for our night. we also drink soda with dinner, well, J-boy and kev and i do (e doesn't like it) so the strawberry fanta is a new soda for us and j-boy enjoyed it. e usually drinks juice so we assumed the apple juice boxes were for her and m. the movie was a hit and one e and i had been wanting to see. so, we enjoyed our pizza and movie night and talked about how much we missed daddy.

on his climb today, kev will have gone higher than he's ever gone. tonight he will sleep at just over 14,000 feet. tomorrow is an acclimation day so he'll hike up and then sleep at the same place he is tonight. kev says hiking high and sleeping low is good for acclimating!?!?!

again, it was good to hear his voice and he seemed to be doing good (in the less than one minute we talked :) )

thanks for the prayers for the kids and i. we are doing well. tomorrow, we will go to a friends house for awhile in the morning and then have been invited over to our kenyan teammates house for dinner. it will be a busy day, but it looks like we should get naps w/ no problem!

no answer

i talked w/ kevin last night after receiving a text from our teammate katie saying "kevin's out of credit. he loves you." he can still receive texts and calls but he can't send any or make any. he said i should try and call him everyday at 7pm and he'd have his phone on. we read that some places on the mountain have coverage. i tried at 7pm...no answer, no ringing actually which means either he forgot to turn his phone on or there's no coverage where he is tonight.

he's climbing the rongai route incase anyone wants to follow along online. today, he drove from the hotel to the route gate (about 4-5 hours) and then hiked for about 3-4 hours. he should be just through the rain forest area tonight and camping at about 9,300ft. he did find a sleeping bag to rent in moshi and they're camping in tents.

tonight, i had no idea what to make for dinner (this is a frequent occurrence here in kenya). i was looking through the cabinets and saw the popcorn kernels. kev really doesn't like having popcorn for dinner; however, the kids and i do. i suggest popcorn and the kids yelled w/ delight..sweet! we had popcorn....and coke floats for dinner tonight. it was so good. i suggested maybe having it again while daddy's gone and the kids thought that sounded great! awesome! our teammates, tim and liz, are bringing dinner over tomorrow night and friday's pizza night so my next two nights are covered!

we're missing kev lots and m keeps asking where he is and if he's home. we made a countdown today and j-boy keeps referring to today as day 8...meaning we have 8 days until daddy's home. we can't wait!

the adventure continues...

kevin's in moshi, tz today, spending time in town and hoping to find the last of his needed gear. he said it is much warmer there and he had to sleep on top of the covers last night. he's hoping tonight is a bit cooler. he will leave tomorrow morning for a short drive to the entrance gate where he'll get checked in and then begin his climb.

he left a journal for the kids and i to read while he's gone and to record our daily activities for him to read when he gets back. he tells us what he'll be doing each day and then gives the kids a challenge or something to think about that has to do with what he'll be experiencing that day. he's also left "special treats" for us around the house. today, the journal said to find a package in his bottom dresser drawer. we found three small chocolate bars and one big cashew and coconut cadbury bar. these were our after lunch treats (except for mine...it's more than a one sitting treat). he also wrote something special that he's praying for each day. he was so thoughtful and took time to make this time special for us as well. regardless, we are missing him and ready for him to be home. :)

i'm not able to talk with kev on the phone but we've decided we'll text a couple times each day and see how long we can do that before kev's phone credit runs out. therefore, we send these extremely long texts and try and give as much information as possible w/o being able to ask questions. kev said he's met a lot of really neat people at the hotel where they're staying.

tonight we are going to our teammates house for dinner and then having dinner w/ other teammates on thursday night. this week, we have teammates in town; however, one family is leaving for furlough this coming weekend and the others are going on vacation, so next week, we'll be alone.

kevin's gone for an adventure

kev left today for mt. kilimanjaro. he'll get home march 22...in 11 days. he's super excited and we're super excited for him to come home, show us his pictures, and tell us all about it.

in the mean time, we will track his journey on the internet, watch the weather reports for the mountain, and read the daily journal he left for us. today, he wrote us a short note and told us to find a surprise behind the TV. we were all excited to find two bags of candies!

today marks 11 weeks pregnant with #4. i'm feeling pretty tired still and try to nap every afternoon. my nausea is pretty limited to the late afternoon and evening. i've only gotten sick a few times, thankfully. i'm also trying to continue my language while kev's gone as well as schooling with the kids.

last week, we had a bit of a break from school as e was out sick for three days. she seems to be doing better although her appetite isn't back to normal yet.

we'd appreciate prayers over the next week and a half for safety and protection for all of us. pray for good health and rest as well. pray for patience for me as i care for the kids. pray for peace between the kids and extra obedient hearts. pray for kev to connect with God as he enjoys His beautiful creation.

a little break

So Kevin went to Nairobi yesterday for a day of car shopping. He stayed the night w/ friends from college and is climbing a mountain w/ a team mate of ours and her friends today. The kids and I watched a movie last night and had pizza. We watched another short movie this morning before having a breakfast of leftover biscuits and cinnamon rolls. My goal for the day has been to stay in our pajamas and, possibly in bed, watching movies all day. After breakfast, the kids and I played Go Fish and then I laid the littlest down for a nap. The two big kids decided to play a game of Indians and Africans (???) so I got on the computer to check out for a bit. The kids have continued arguing and bickering this morning, so I have developed a new game plan for today: I will stay in my pajamas all day while letting the kids get dressed and go to our neighbor's house for a few hours. While there, the kids will likely eat sweets, drink chai, and watch cartoons. E often says I should let them go next door so I can have a little break; today, I think I'm going to do that! :)

kid updates

i thought you might like to hear a couple things about the kids and what they're up to now.

m is 20 months old now and likes to think she's as big as the other kids. she loves her baby and was super excited about a recent hand-me-down toy of a doll carseat and baby carrier. she enjoys carrying her baby around in the carrier and singing to her. her newest songs include twinkle, twinkle, little star, circle, triangle, square, and jesus loves me. she also sings rock-a-bye baby on a regular basis. she's still taking two naps a day but we usually wake her from her morning nap after 1-1 1/2 hours to insure an afternoon nap. she's still sleeping in her pea pod (LOVE this!!) and we've been contemplating moving her in with e soon. the issue is j's inability to be quiet and the fact that he gets up several times a night to go to the bathroom. right now, m sleeps through the night and i like that more than her sleeping in the same room at j and e. m is running and talking like crazy. she loves to play coffee party (no tea for her) and actually likes the real thing as well. she's still not tolerating milk so she gets soy milk. she's happy and pretty easy going. she doesn't know the difference between swahili and english so sometimes it's asanti and sometimes it's thank you....either way, she knows what she means. thankfully, she enjoys riding on my back when we go to town and greets kenyans with "jambo" although they usually don't respond.

j enjoys being outside and kicking, throwing, or hitting a ball. he and m play really well together as do he and e. j enjoys chasing the monkeys who visit our house. he is enjoying school, especially anything science related. he knows all his letters and the sounds they make and is also pretty good at math. he does most activities with e although he sometimes gets bored or frustrated at which point he can color or go outside. he continues to whine a lot and we haven't figured out how to help him stop this. he's often quiet and shy in town, refusing to greet anyone. he likes our househelper a lot and misses her on the weekends when she doesn't work. he loves his new bed and getting to sleep on the top bunk.

e is enjoying school and learning new things. she is reading new words with ease and knows all of her sight words. her favorite thing about school is reading. she enjoys spending time at our neighbor's house (they're all adults) and they've also said to others that they enjoy her company. she enjoys going to town and seeing her friends, which i think she has at every place we stop. sometimes she gets frustrated because most people don't say her name correctly. in swahili, words don't end with r so it's hard for kenyans to pronounce her name. she's figuring out how to say it though so they can understand her better. she's also started meeting with my swahili tutor once a week for swahili and is beyond excited about it. she continues to be out-going and social regardless of language. her recently request has been for chores and although that sounds like a good thing, it's kind of hard. she's always wanting to help and finding something for her to do is a little difficult. she also really enjoys our househelper and often wants to help her with things as well.

so that's our kids right now. they seem to be doing well. they're growing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. we are blessed by them and enjoy their presence in our lives.

if you listen carefully.....

...you might hear Kenya on the news in the US, or around the world on monday. We are expecting a ruling form the ICC (google it) about if anyone or everyone of the 6 people that have been "tried" in a pretrial hearing will move on to trial.

there have been increased security put into place in the areas that are most likely to be problem area...no worries there are no signs for any excitement here in narok. There does seem to be some possibility of violence because of the increased security, but even the worst will be quickly shutdown.

this does play a role in the upcoming elections as two of the accused are running for the presidency of kenya. so like everything we will just sit and wait.

culture differences

Not so long ago, I overheard E explaining Sea World to Jackline. The conversation went something like this:

E: Jackline, have you ever been to Sea World?

J: What?

E: Have you ever been to Sea World?

J: I don't get what you are saying (this is a common response from Jackline when talking to the kids).

E: Oh, you should go. They have sharks and fish and all sorts of sea animals. They have a thing where you can go in a tube and the fish are swimming all around you.

J: Ok.

Today, the conversation went something like this:

J: E, unapenda wali? (Do you like rice?) After E had requested two big spoonfuls of rice for lunch.
E: yes. Do you know about the movie Wall-E?

J: What?

E: I've seen this movie with a robot named Wall-E. He smashes up trash into squares.

J: Oh.

E: You should watch that movie sometime.

I love and laugh about how the kids have no idea about our differences. Jackline has been to Nairobi once in her life, she's obviously never been to or heard of Sea World. She probably has no idea about sea animals. She's never going to watch the movie Wall-E and I'm not even sure she knows what a robot is. Jackline has never been to America and doesn't really know much about it. Today, Jackline and I talked about the different "types" of Americans after she asked me how many tribes there are in America. I think she understood what I was saying, but, for all I know, it could've been like the conversation she had with E about Sea World.

I look forward to the other things the kids will tell Jackline about. I also look forward to the many things she will teach us as well.

MLK Day

Today we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and why he is a hero in America. When telling the kids the story of MLK's life, I nearly cried watching E's reactions and hearing her questions. Life in the 60's is so far-fetched for her, she can't imagine people being treated a certain way because of their skin color. When we got to the part where MLK was assassinated, I thought she might cried as she gasped in unbelief.

After finishing our discussion about Martin Luther King, the kids had some time to paint with watercolors. E painted a picture of a black man on a stage with lots of white people listening to him.

I'm thankful that my kids don't have to live in segregation.

Although, here, we are definitely treated differently because of the color of our skin. Interesting.

The boy who called wolf....

All morning, John has been complaining about his stomach. This is normal, not necessarily his stomach, but J-boy is a whiner and can be dramatic. E and M...not so much. They can get hurt and just brush it off. M is good at running too fast for her legs and falling on her stomach and momentum rolls her up on to her face and we get nothing from her. She just gets back up without a cry. E has broken two bones and both times we waiting at least a day to take her to the hospital because it didn't seem serious. J-boy is a different story. He's often screaming and crying. Our Swahili teacher used to say, J anapenda kulia. (J likes to cry.) So anyway, this morning, we told J is he wasn't going eat before church, he wouldn't get a snack during church and would have to wait until lunch. He insisted on not eating.

We were all ready for church and had just walked out our gate and J-boy threw up. Hmmmm....I want to say I feel bad and I do, but seriously, he whines all the time so I'm not sure how I would've known. Regardless, he's now watching BOZ and drinking Sprite. Unlike E, J-boy really likes soda. The kids had never had soda until we moved here. E doesn't like the "spicy-ness" and J loves it. So, he's watching his favorite show and getting soda...not so bad.

I'm thinking I should find the story of the boy who called wolf and read it to J-boy several times.

we are alive...

this is a post to let you know that we are alive and now that that is settled, we also wanted to let you know that we are busy. as is often the case getting onto the blog to write is one of the things that isn't a priority in the super rushing times....like now....

however we are all back in school and the kids are really enjoying it a lot. this last couple of weeks we have been studying botany. they are really advanced!! just today they planted some beans to see what happens. we will keep you posted.

danielle and I have both started up with language tutors. different tutors....in nearly every way. Kevin's is a single guy who had another job as as overseer for an investor (slum lord). and danielle's is a stay-at-home mom. Danielle really guided and directs her time and kevin just goes to town a lot (and reads stories).

.....so that is our busy lives at the moment....