LIfe with Ruth

Wow, what a little ball of character our Ruth is!

Life with her these days includes:

~"pettting" her brothers hair. I guess since we tell her to "pet" the dog, she associates rubbing his hair with "petting" the dog. :)
~getting attached to little random things. Like bouncy balls or marbles or a few cards or little plastic animals or a wrench or a book. Then she carries them around.
~telling us when she's going pee-pee. Yes, I believe she's ready to potty train...she's just got to wait until we get to our new house.
~talking about Baby Brother. She's heard us talking about him, but she's just now started saying "Baby Brother."
~putting 2 words together..."bouncy ball", "trash truck", "Bible story", "little ball", etc.
~sharing. She does an awesome job sharing with Dinah and John.
~saying she's sorry. Even when someone needs to say they are sorry to her, she says "sorry". It's just adorable!
~bumping her head. Seems like she just can't stop bumping that precious little knoggin.
~eating lots and lots of fruits, beans, nuts, and dates.
~drinking lots of water and carrot juice and fruit smoothies.
~saying "pole" (pronounced "pole-ay" and means "sorry" in Kiswahili) after she has gas.
~counting to 2. She knows when she has 2 of something in her hand. She has even counted with me. I will say "8" and she says "9". At first I thought it was just a fluke, but she's done it about 4 times now.
~calling syrup "shebop" and marbles "bamels". :)
~dancing to music. As I type this, she is dancing with her hands in the air in her chair while eating breakfast.
~lots of curls. Those beautiful curls just keep growing! And we love 'em!

As you can see she keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing. What a joy she is to be around! We love you, Ruth!

Tuesday Treats

Since I missed last weeks Tuesday Treats, I get to use some of last weeks goodies for this week, right?

Last Sunday, Father's Day, Nathan went over and spent the afternoon working on our new house. What better testimony of a great father than one who is willing to spend his afternoon getting a house ready for his family?!

He takes care of getting cooking gas for us! We just ran out this afternoon and all I had to do was let him know and he had the guy bring us a new gas bomb on a bicycle!

Yesterday I was out running some errands for the new house. I bumped a curb on the way home and realized when I stopped to drop the paint at the new house that the tire was leaking air. And, by the time I called Nathan, it was flat. He came home, put the spare on, took it back to the hangar and fixed it! Yay!

Thanks for always coming to my rescue, Honey! I love you!

In Paris

Poppy sent this picture to us last week. One of his friends from his prayer breakfast moved to Paris, saw this advertisement in the subway, took a picture of it, and sent it to Poppy. Cool, huh?

Speaking of Monkeys

Yep. Walk out our front door. Look up to the left. And this guy is who you would've seen about 2 hours ago. Isn't he cute? :)

Life in Nairobi

I've been thinking about my culture blog for a while now and I've come up with several things that I think are interesting here...

You can buy in very small quantities here. In the US, it's more popular to buy in bulk with stores like Sam's and Costco. But here in Kenya, you can go out to the "duka" a.k.a "a small shop" and buy in very small quantities. They will open a pack of cigarettes and you can buy one cigarette. They will open a bag of rolls and sell you a couple. You can buy as little as 20 shillings of phone credit which will buy you about 6 text messages. In the grocery store, they sell small quantities of things as well. You can buy teeny jars of peanut butter, small things of laundry detergent, and teeny quantities of flour, sugar, shortening, margarine, yogurt. We usually tend to buy in bigger quantities if it's possible. Guess that's our American tendencies coming out.

I can make a whole blender full of smoothie for under $3. I use 1 avocado, 1/2 of a papaya, 4 bananas, 1 mango, and 1 1/2 cups of strawberries. Doesn't get much better than that!

When you buy a car here, the license number stays with the car for the life of the car. Therefore, they etch the license number onto as many parts on the car as possible to deter theft. Our van, has the numbers etched onto the windows and window guards and I think that might be it. But it's not uncommon to see it on the hood of the car, down the side of the car, pretty much wherever it can be put to deter thieves from taking your car parts.

You can pretty much get anything you want here as long as you are willing to pay the price. It has changed a lot in the 2 years we have been here. We saw Crisco, yes, the real thing, the other day. It was $5.84 for the small can. You can often find Poptarts. They are about $8 a box. We found blueberries on our date last weekend. They were imported from the Netherlands. They were $6 for about a cup of berries. A jar of Ragu is almost $5. A new pair of average Adidas, Nike, or New Balance sneakers runs about $100.

Anyone have any questions about life in Nairobi?

Three Little Monkeys

Yesterday morning we had bananas for snack. John crawled under the table to eat his and his sisters followed him. They were just too cute not to take a picture. :) 

Not Much News

There is still no new news regarding the adoption. We are still just waiting.

In regards to moving to a bigger house, though, things are progressing. We've talked with the guy who will be painting and redoing the upstairs floor. He's given us a list of supplies so we'll be going to buy lots of paint soon. He will start work on Monday, and it will probably take him about 2 weeks to complete it all. It's a lot of painting. Sunday Nathan pulled up the carpet from upstairs and Monday night we took down the curtain boxes. We still have to purchase curtain rods somewhere...mostly likely will have metal ones made somewhere. We will probably be going to pick up the curtains I have ordered thus far, get the paint, and the flooring this weekend. Whew. That will be fun. :) So...we are getting things done. It's just not happening as fast as we had hoped. But then again, we do live in Africa, and things take much longer than we anticipate.

So...I guess that's it for now. Happy Thursday, Everybody!

Wordless Wednesday

Eight Years

So today was nothing like June 22, 2002. We spent the majority of the day apart. Each doing our own thing. Nathan was busy at work changing a fuel control unit on a Caravan. I spent the morning ordering curtains and looking for more fabric for a couple more windows. I played with the kids and worked on our dinner in the afternoon. We had dinner together as a family and Nathan surprised me with a gift. We don't normally do anniversary gifts, but he was sneaky this year. He picked up some place mats I wanted at Amani ya Juu when he went by himself a couple weeks ago. Thanks, Babe! We played with the kids, got them ready for bed, and then cleaned the kitchen together. We watched a movie and fell asleep together.

Eight years ago we were getting dressed up for our wedding. Each of us nervous in our own way but also sure about our decision. We did the ceremony thing, ate cake, visited with friends and family. Said goodbye to our parents. And were off on our honeymoon. A cabin in the mountains of NC. And thus began our eight years together.

We've...

Grown a lot.

Changed a lot.

Loved a lot.

Forgiven a lot.

In 8 years.

As I was thinking about our marriage today, I was overcome with how blessed we are. The Lord has brought us a long way in just 8 years. He's entrusted us with 3 beautiful, healthy children. It's neat to be 8 years down the road and know the children that we were only dreaming about 8 years ago. He sent us overseas to serve a people and culture that are foreign to us, but that we have grown to love. We knew when we got married that the Lord had called us to serve Him in another country. How amazing it is to see the Lord fulfill His calling in our life. He has provided in ways we never dreamed. We struggled financially when we got married. I had a hard time finding a job and at times there wasn't much food in the house. But the Lord was faithful. Nathan completed his undergrad and is still working on his Masters. And we are completely debt free. We talked about adoption somewhere in those first years of marriage. Here we are, 8 years later, waiting on our Ethiopian son.

I was reminded of His unfailing faithfulness and drawn to be more faithful to Him.

I love you, Nathan! I can't imagine life without you by my side. What a wonderful gift the Lord gave me when He gave me you! Happy Anniversary!

Our New House

This is our new house! After sitting here looking at the picture, I'm sure some of you are wondering where the door is. :) The layout is kind of different. The front door is around the corner in the left of the picture. That door doesn't get used very often. The back door that we will use most of the time is just round to the left of that wooden divider on the back porch. The kitchen is just under the basketball goal. John and Baby Brother's room is above the basketball goal. The other window on the bottom is in the dining room. And the other window on the top floor is the bathroom. We will try to post more pictures later. Things are really busy right now as we are trying to work on our new house, pack up our old house, and continue with some semblance of a routine for our kids. Happy Monday!

One Less Orphan

When you are in the midst of adoption and are seemingly just waiting, it's fun to watch other people's adoptions unfold. We met the Scotts when we were at SEBTS. We lived in the same housing complex as they did. They began the adoption process quite a while before we did, so it's been fun to see them ahead of us and kind of know what to expect even though they are using a different agency. They received a referral a couple of months ago, I think. And their case went to court in Ethiopia this week. They passed court on the first try! That's an amazing feat. There is only a 50/50 chance you will pass on the first try. Anyway...their son, Marek Joel, is officially a Scott! They will be traveling to pick him up in a couple weeks. You can check out their blog here. When you read their story, you will see the hand of God! What a mighty God we serve!

Life with John

Life with John today includes:

~vacuuming. He loves to vacuum. I think he takes it after his Daddy. 

~calling Grandpa and Grandma, "Grandma and Grandma." 

~screaming when a dog gets close to him. Even if it's a puppy. 

~eating salads.

~wearing rubber boots every time we give him the chance. I think he would sleep in them if he could.

~playing in the dirt.

~asking to go to America to play with his grandparents on a regular basis.

~talking to Dinah before they go to sleep at night.

~learning to share.

~reading books.

~sleeping with a stuffed snowman.

~swinging. 

~riding his bike as often as possible.

~drinking carrot juice.

Wow, I can't believe our little man is 3 already. I remember bringing him home from the hospital. Time sure does fly! The Lord has certainly blessed us with a sweet, compassionate little boy!

Tuesday Treats

My awesome Hubby helped me pack a few boxes Sunday afternoon while the kids were napping.

Then he indulged me, and we all went to the grocery store to get some canned corn. I was craving Texas Caviar!

He's such a great help with the kids! I know I mention this often, but I am so blessed to have a Hubby who shares the load of raising the kids with me.

You are the best, Honey! I love you!!

Attack

Sunday night there was an opposition rally in downtown Nairobi. A group of Christians met for a prayer meeting regarding the new constitution. Two explosive devices went off. Five have died and many more were injured. Please pray the violence doesn't escalate and for peace around voting time (beginning of August). For more information you can read here.

Texas Caviar

A few weeks ago we went over to Kurt and Angie's to have a meal. I had made bean enchiladas and Angie made this awesome salsa. I've been craving it ever since. She gave me the recipe on Friday and I decided we needed to have it Sunday night. We actually had to run to the store Sunday afternoon to pick up some canned corn that wasn't canned in Kenya (there is a warning out to Americans right now about eating Kenyan corn). Anyway...it was awesome! It's so easy and yummy!!

So, here's the recipe:

Texas Caviar

1 can black eyed peas, drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

6 tomatoes, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

jalapenos, optional

yellow hot peppers, optional

1 large onion, chopped

cilantro

1 c. italian dressing

cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and serve with tortilla chips.

by Angie Neuenschwander

I did make a few changes. I halved the recipe because I needed part of my beans and corn to feed the kids. I also didn't put in any peppers. I'm not too fond of peppers in my salsa. Wow, was it yummy! I'm sure this is a recipe I'm going to be using a lot more in the future. Nathan and I loved it!

The Artist

Yesterday morning after I came downstairs from getting ready for church Dinah showed me her very first drawing of our family! How awesome! She even drew Baby Brother. Great job, Dinah!! We are so very proud of you!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

HaPpY bIrThDaY to you!

 HaPpY bIrThDaY to you!

 HaPpY bIrThDaY dear Nana! 

HaPpY bIrThDaY to you! 

We love you and hope you have a great day! By the way, Dinah wanted to bring your present to America, but I think it's just going to get mailed. :) Sorry!

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

We are beginning to pack up our things to move. Please pray for patience as we try to get our new house worked on and pack things in our current house.

Please pray for us to be sensitive to the needs around us and for us to use the resources we have been given wisely.

Praise~

Our sinus issues have cleared up! PTL!

The exchange rate is pretty high right now so on Saturday we went out and ordered another set of bunk beds and bought 2 new mattresses! Getting ready for our little man! Yay!

We've had a great weekend as a family! Why do they have to go so fast, though?

Sunday Best

Aren't they just adorable? :)

Random Cuteness

African Daisy

We have these flowers planted in our flower beds outside our front gate. Yesterday evening we were outside playing while waiting for Nathan to get home. The kids all picked one and as I was sitting there looking at the beautiful flowers and all the teeny tiny details of the flower, I was reminded of God's faithfulness in the smallest details of life. 

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians  4:19

Culture

So I was going to let the Nairobi National Park post be my culture blog for today, but Paul's blog from yesterday tops the culture blogs. You really need to check it out. It's a great post about Kenyan culture, and it made me laugh out loud!

Nairobi National Park

Last Saturday we decided to visit the Nairobi National Park since we haven't been there since we got back. Ruth is able to say most of the animal names now and we thought she's enjoy seeing the animals. Well, we drove into the park and didn't see one animal. If we could've gotten a refund, we should have turned around right then and gone for the refund. We didn't see very many animals at all. Not even one zebra! The grass along the sides of the road was really high and that could have contributed to not being able to see many animals. We did have fun driving around and spending time as a family. We saw some small animals that we don't normally see and some pretty birds. So...enjoy the pics! Happy Friday!!