Tuesday Treats

This past weekend Nathan let me sleep until 9:15 on Saturday morning. It was SO nice to sleep in! AND when I woke up, he had already gotten the dishes from the night before washed.

He is so good to help me with juicing. I get the stuff ready and he does the actual juicing. It's a hard job!

I love to hear him leading the kids in prayers at night. John has started praying with him and it's so precious to hear.

I love you, Honey!!


What has your Sweetie done for you lately??

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Please pray that the documents we got notarized at the Embassy Friday will pass in Raleigh.

Please pray for Waldo and Lynette Goossen and their three kids. They are fellow AIM AIR missionaries who are in the States for Waldo to undergo cancer treatment. We received an email today that he is starting stem cell treatment. He will be in critical condition for a couple of weeks so please remember him.



Praise~

We were able to get our documents notarized Friday without much hassle at all.

We had a great weekend together as a family.

We are getting back into the swing of things here and enjoying reconnecting with friends here.

Sunday Snack

A First

Ever since we've been back, we haven't had a good loaf of "brown" bread. So I've been thinking for about a week that I wanted to make some. For some reason or another I haven't had a chance this week until today. I guess I was a little intimidated, but it seemed to turn out great! If you notice the difference between the 2 loaves, the one on the left I didn't quit follow the instructions, I just kind of shaped it and put it in the pan. But the one on the right, I did follow the directions and it looks much nicer. Here's the recipe I used:

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

3 c. whole wheat flour
1/3 c. honey
1/4 c. shortnening
1 T. salt
2 pkgs. regular or quick active dry yeast or 4 1/2 tsp.
2 1/4 c. very warm water, 120 to 130
3 to 4 c. all purpose or bread flour
butter or stick margarine, melted, if desired

Mix whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt, and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough all purpose flour, 1 cup at a time to make dough easy to handle.  Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy (I just left it in the mixer and let it knead it for 10 minutes). Place dough in large bowl greased with shortening, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place 40 to 60 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indention remains when touched. Grease bottoms and sides of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 or 9 x 5 x 3 inches, with shortening. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough in half. Flatten each with hands or rolling pin into 18 x 9 inch rectangle on lightly floured surface. Roll dough up tightly, beginning at 9 inch side. Press with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough to roll to seal. Press each end with side of hand to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam side down in pan. Brush loaves lightly with butter. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes or until double. Move over rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 375. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire rack. Brush loaves with butter; cool.

by Dawn Williams

Thanks for a great recipe Dawn!

Bookworms

Last night after dinner, the kids and I were sitting on the couch reading books while Nathan was finishing his dinner. I think they could read 24/7. We are so thankful for the love of books in our children!

Done...Hopefully

After an hour and fifteen minutes of traveling this morning, we arrived at the US Embassy. We left a few minutes later than we normally do and traffic was pretty bad. We've been parking at a Java House and then just walking the half mile or so to the Embassy. There was a car of security guards sitting in the parking lot so we figured we better go in the Java and order a hot chocolate before heading on the Embassy. So we walked along drinking our hot chocolate, arrived at the gate, went through security and walked down the long sidewalk to the entrance. We were just walking along talking and then realized there was no one in line. You never go to the Embassy and find no one in line. There is always a line of Kenyans trying to get a visa to go to the US. We don't have to wait in that line but still. We kept walking hoping that there wasn't a reason no one was in line. We got to the door and the security guard looked at our passports and told us to go on in. We emptied our pockets, went through the metal detector, had my bag checked, and headed to the Consulate. We didn't have to wait in line there, either. We walked right in and were able to get our documents notarized. We thought that we would be able to get our documents authenticated there, too, but apparently we can't. Sometimes it's so nerve racking...like taking a test. There doesn't seem to be a set way to do things sometimes so you never seem to know if you are doing it correctly. Anyway, we did get them notarized and will send them to Poppy and he will send them back to Raleigh. Please pray everything passes this time!

Embassy

Tomorrow morning Nathan and I are going to head over to the Embassy to get the 2 documents notarized that Raleigh didn't like the notarizations on. The third one they didn't like has already been redone in the States and should be in the mail on the way to Poppy. Thanks, Pastor Chris!

Please pray we won't have any problems and will be able to send our documents back to the States next week with a family who is heading back on Thursday.

This has sure set us back a few weeks, but it's all in God's timing. So we're trying to be patient.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Treats

Last week while we were trying to get over jetlag, Nathan was so good to get up with the kids in the night. Most of the time he was the one that heard them anyway. :) I must have been totally out. Of course, he is the one that usually gets up in the night with them anyway.

He's been a great help to get the house back in order since we've gotten back.

He is an awesome dishwasher! We've gotten into a nice routine of eating dinner, playing with the kids, putting them to bed, then I clean up the table, put the food away, and he takes care of washing the dishes. It's so nice not to have to do all the work.

I love you, Nathan!

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Rich, a friend we met through Chris and Lindy last year passed away last week. He was a young newlywed working at West Nairobi School (a local Christain school that a lot of the missionary kids go to) and had a ministry in some of the slums in Nairobi. Please pray for Shauna, his widow. She was a kindergarten teacher at WNS. She will be leaving to go back to the States on Saturday. Nathan and I are going to the memorial service at 3pm today.

I am having some allergy issues when I get up in the morning. It seems to go away once it warms up a bit and we can open the doors and windows. But it is quite annoying until that point and I'm trying to stay away from meds.

Please pray for wisdom for us as we deal with people asking for money. We've already been asked.

We have to go to the Embassy sometime soon to get 2 documents notarized for our dossier. Please pray we can find the time and are able to get it done with any glitches.

Dawn and her mom are getting away this week to rest. Please pray for their trip, that they will be able to rest well and come back refreshed. Also pray for the children as they are gone.


Praise~

We are doing really well adjusting back into life here. It was nice to come back to our home and our things and know what we were getting into instead of facing the unknown like last time.

We are trying new things to eat and the kids are really adjusting well to more healthy eating...not that we weren't eating healthy, but they are doing really well trying the new things we try on them. :)

Our action packer and carseat arrived last week just as the airport said it would. And PTL there was nothing missing! We even got the lid that they had lost!

Cookbook sales seem to be doing great! Thanks to everyone in the States who are promoting and selling them for us!

Health Food Junkies...

Yesterday we went to do our grocery shopping and came home with all these treasures. We are trying to eat more healthy so our main shopping was at the fruit and vegetable store. We bought:

4 avocados

4 cucumbers

1 small head of cauliflower

2 mangos

27 apples

1 bunch small bananas

3 green peppers

1 bunch of spinach

1 large pineapple

8 lbs. carrots

2 bags of leaf lettuce

and it only cost us about $18. I found most of the prices to be cheaper than the big chain, Nakumatt, and several of the prices to be cheaper than the veggie lady that comes to our house. 

Oh, and I forgot that I got a block of tofu, too, to be included in that price. Not bad, huh?

This Afternoon

Adjusting

We are enjoying being back in Nairobi and I thought I'd share a few of the things that we are enjoying, readjusting to, and remembering are less than enjoyable.

Enjoying...

the beautiful weather
our queen size bed
tasty fruits and veggies at great prices
ethnic food
a constant breeze
having the windows and doors open all day
being back in our house with our own things
seeing friends


Readjusting to...

slow internet
low water pressure
power outages
noise of the city
communicating with the Kenyans


Less than enjoyable...

mosquitoes
jetlag
being away from family and friends

We Love You, Uncle Wes!

My brother, Wesley, works out of town and was working in TX before we were to leave. He thought he was going to be coming home with the team he works with between jobs. But he found out about a week and a half before we were to leave that they were just going from one job site in TX to another job site. So...he looked into plane tickets, but they were too expensive. Then he found another group driving back to NC and hitched a ride with them. He left TX Friday morning at 7am drove to the next work site to drop of his stuff and then hit the road for NC. They hit a detour Saturday morning on 40 in Asheville and needless to say, spent some extra time driving around. He made it to North Wilkesboro, hopped in Mom's car, and drove to the Charlotte airport to see us off. What a brother! Thanks so much for making such a long trip to see us. It really meant a lot. We love you and miss you already!

Adoption Update

Well, our dossier has come back from Raleigh. Yay! But it has some problems. Some of our documents are not from the state of NC, and they didn't like that since they can't authenticate documents that aren't from NC. Although there isn't much we can do about this problem because if we take out those documents they will say all the documents on the list aren't there. Then they said that some of the notary seals cannot be read clearly. Agghhh! So now we have to call to see exactly which documents they are referring to. Our case manager at CWA said to call the lady in Raleigh and do what she says to the letter. We keep forgetting to get phone credit so we can call, but hopefully we can get it done today. Please pray this isn't going to be too difficult for us to take care of while we are in Nairobi.