Emily being Emily!

 This photo shoot was taken at dinner one night. We were all at the dinner table instructing her as to which face to make. She was loving it and getting into the character of each facial expression she made. She has such a creative spirit. 

There was a hole in the floor of the bus!

 Shelbyanne and Emily and I took a trip on the daladala (public bus) to have a play date with one of her friends from school. The bus rides there and back were exciting experiences.


One of the cultural differences that I have noticed here is...when people get on a bus with kids, and there is standing room only, they will put their kids in the laps of whoever is sitting near where they are standing. Sometimes people will give up their seats, but when they don't, people sitting just take strangers' kids.


So today, when the girls and I got on the bus, that is the situation we were faced with. We got on the bus and I put shelbyanne and Emily in the laps of some older women right next to where I was standing. The girls accepted this eagerly, since they didn't want to be standing. I thanked them for doing that so well, and Emily replied, "That's so we can be safe!"


On the way home we were blessed to find two seats next to each other available for us to sit in. We walked back toward the seats as the bus started moving. Emily stopped as she was getting into the seat. When we were finally all seated I looked down to see the reason why she stopped. It was only the size of a grapefruit, but... 


There was a hole in the floor of the bus!

Shy Shelbyanne

Emily loves her brother!

A trip to the market

Today I went to the market with our house helper. It is always an adventure. I was thankful that we were able to walk there, which took about 10-15 minutes, and not be in a hurry. I had two missions today; 1. Buy meat from a butcher; 2. Look at the vegetables and fruits that are available and check out the prices. I have been to the market before, but lately I have been sending our guard to go buy the things we need. It is good for me to go to make sure I get what I want, and to check the prices for the different foods. The tomatoes were 6o cents less per sado (bucket full) this time, which is good to know. I was also able to buy ground beef at a good price. That is good to know.The walk back was a little longer since we were both carrying heavy bags of vegetables. She carried hers on her head, and I carried mine over my shoulder. I told her she needed to teach me to carry things on my head. She laughed, but I was serious! :) Everything I got today at the market and butcher cost less than $20. So thankful there is a market close to our house. Here are some photos of us lately!

  

Donovan wants something.
Can you tell what it is?...
He is saying, "Juice!"

The kids love to play in and around our pool. 

Our pet spider. Rob likes to feed it flies.

Emily's creation. I think it was a cake this time.
Rob's superior Tetris skills have been passed down
to our daughter, Emily.

The kids found a butterfly with a broken wing.
It wasn't able to fly away. :(

What a joy! This is Nice Nuru. Nuru means light and Nice is English for "nice"! I think they call her that because there is another Nuru in our small church. It makes me smile. She is a 5 month old baby of a couple in our church. They came to our house for lunch on Sunday, and was able to hold her for a while. It reminded me of when my babies were that little, although I don't remember my kids ever being that little. I know I haven't said this in a while, but I am so in love with my babies. They are three totally different yet equally amazing blessings. I am thankful to be their mom and Praise God for everyday that we are able to spend together.

 On Saturday, I went to help with the preparations for a lunch that was held before a wedding. The brother of a lady in our church was getting married. When I arrived we sat for a while and chatted. Then they started bringing out vegetables bowls and knives for us to start cutting. I had a blast hanging out with them.

Our house looks a bit different.

You can't have too many cooks in this kitchen.
These kids are so beautiful.

These are the greens and potatos for the meal.

They let me help...only for the picture. I wouldn't want to mess up their process.

This is how the men, pastor's wife, and I ate.

This is how the younger women ate.

This is how the older women ate, including the mama of the house.

Just a short walk to church

Join us for a walk to church.

 Here we are leaving our house. It is about a 5 minute walk to church.

 This is the classroom that we meet in each week for church.

 This is our friend Kathryn. She has a beautiful smile and loves to sing.

 We are heading home. Don't worry, we didn't lose Emily. She is walking in front of Rob.

 We stop here sometimes to buy bananas and oranges.
 This is a little bridge that we can cross so we don't have to walk along the main road. Watch your step.

Hope you enjoyed visiting our church with us. We loved having you join us. Come again anytime...for real! :)

We are all doing well. Rob and I are progressing well in Kiswahili. We are enjoying learning it and are both ready to have meaningful conversations in the language. We have a lot to learn before we are able to converse, but the hope of someday sharing our story and the story of our faith keeps us motivated to press on.


Shelbyanne started school 3 weeks ago and is loving it. Some of her classes are Art, Music, Computer, Kiswahili, and Swimming. I think swimming is her favorite. Today, however, she informed me that tomorrow she wants to stay home. She only said that after asking me what Emily and Donovan do while she is at school...play. She is making friends at school and was already invited to a birthday party.


Emily is so ready to go to school. She is already able to read some words and tries to do the math homework that Shelbyanne brings home. She will do great when she starts kindergarten next year. She is a hoot. She will say something funny then the conversation goes like this...Mom: (laughing) E: Stop Laughing at me. Mom: But you make me happy. You are so funny. E: I am not funny...Then later she will say, "I am funny." My other favorite E quote is, "I am so exciting about that!"


Donovan, Big D, or according to Mom...Bubba! What a character. I can't think of another 2 year old that I have known who wants to see what shirt he is going to be putting on before he wears it. "See it!" He says. He wakes up happy, and the first thing out of his mouth is, "Breakfast?" He loves to mimic people. Sometimes when Rob talks to the girls Donovan will stand beside him and in his own way repeat what Rob says. Sometimes we think he is speaking Swahili, and he probably is.

Hope all is well with you. Let us know what you are up to.
Blessings,
Amy

Things look different from inside a daladala!

The pictures above are of the city buses in the town we live in. They cost about 20cents to ride one way. Last week, Thursday was my first time to attempt a trip across town. I had a meeting for the Staff, Parent, Association (SPA) for Shelbyanne's school. I didn't want to take a taxi which costs about $33 round trip. So, I set out at 8am to catch a bus at the main road. At about 8:15am a bus that wasn't totally full(which means no standing room available) came by and stopped long enough for me to jump on. There is a driver and a guy who works the door running the bus. I stood by the door as much as I could since the door was opened frequently letting in a gust of wind. As I stood there holding on to the railing above the door I couldn't help but feel stares from some of the other passengers. I glanced around a few times throwing small smiles to those whose eye I caught.

I arrived at my destination safe and sound. I had a wonderful meeting with some other moms from the school. I had some nice food, made a few friends, and signed up to be one of the room moms for Shelbyanne's class. We live quite far away from the school, but I figured that there are definitely things I can do from home for her class. I left the meeting, full in my belly and my heart. The whole time I just kept thinking how blessed we are that Shelbyanne got a spot in that class.

I stopped by the store before boarding another city bus to come home. I made sure to only buy what I was willing to carry, which ended up being two bags of groceries. I got on another full bus, feeling thankful to be able to stand by the door again. As people got on and off the bus a seat opened up next to me. I looked around to see who was going to sit down, and a girl behind me said, "Kaa!" which means "sit". I obeyed and sat down. She was standing right behind me when I was standing, so as I sat she moved forward on the bus. She was holding the railing above her head which caused her armpit to be in my face for about 3 minutes before she got off the bus.

A few minutes later an older woman ended up standing right beside my seat. I looked up at her and asked, in Swahili, if she wanted to sit down. I think she was surprised that I spoke Swahili, because a smile turned into a big grin. She said yes. I got up, and she sat down. I enjoyed standing. There was more air flow up there. It gave me the advantage of seeing more, and also I wasn't boxed in when it came time for me to get off the bus.

I paid the door guy my 20cents again and got off the bus a few blocks from my house. Overall I would say that it was a very successful trip. I would definitely do it again, and I will since it saves us a bunch of money.

I have added two videos of Donovan as he was making a friend on Shelbyanne's first day of school. Enjoy!

Amy

Thankfulness...

We instill that characteristic as best we can into our children. "Say thank you," we tell them. However, saying "Thank you" is different than being thankful. There are so many things that we experience here that are different from where we came from. I must admit being slightly discouraged at times by my circumstances. I am reminded during those moments of where my Joy and Hope come from. There are so many thing to be thankful for here. I am trying to model for my family a heart of thankfulness.

So, what's up with us?

Shelbyanne starts 1st grade tomorrow. We will all go to take her and then she gets to ride the bus home. Excited and nervous for her. She will have about an hour ride each way to and from school. She says she is excited about seeing animals out the window as she rides. (cows, chickens, goats, cats, dogs, etc...) She will have to be at the bus at 6am every morning. We found out that the private bus company that the school has a contract with parks all their buses 1 block from our house. That is definitely something to be thankful for.

We had our first hospital experience last week. Don't worry, there was no emergency. I took Shelbyanne for her 6 year routine visit. I am so glad we didn't take all the kids at the same time. Now I know the routine and it will go smoothly when I take the others. The doctor was great. He spoke English perfectly and even asked Shelbyanne if she missed going to Chuck-E-Cheese for her birthday.

Here are some pictures of us lately. Actually I am not in any of them because I am usually the one taking all the pictures.

Shelbyanne opening birthday presents.

She is so ready for school.

Donovan and "his" stick! It's just his size.

Picnic after playing in the "pool" and playing with bubbles sent by Aunt Charlotte!

Donovan crashed after tiring himself out looking out his window at nap time. He didn't even make it out of the curtain.

Being a kid is tough.

The girls got their faces painted at the mall last weekend. Emily was a bunny and Shelbyanne was a puppy. Reminds me of Monday nights at Chick-Fil-A, except there weren't any waffle fries.