Saying Goodbye

 Yes. We did it. We gave Calvin away. He was a good dog. He just didn't have quite the right temperament for our kids. There would be days where they wouldn't go outside unless we were taking Calvin for a walk because Calvin would chase them and try to nip at them. Being inside all day is not good for the kids or for Mommy. The kids just wanted to run around and be loud and Calvin thought they were trying to play so he would try to grab hold of them. It just wasn't a good combo at this stage in our kids lives. Maybe when they get older and can help take care of the dog we'll try again. But for now, Calvin is going upcountry to live on a shamba. He will have lots more room to run and other dogs to play with. We're hoping it's a good situation. I offered him to the guy that runs the duka in our estate and he was happy to take us up on our offer. He picked Calvin up tonight and will take him upcountry to his farm out of the city tomorrow morning. He's a nice guy and said he will give us updates on how he's doing. So...bye, bye, Calvin!

Magic Bullet

A few months ago, Nathan bought a new blender for me. It was a nice one and he paid about $70 for it. Well, a few weeks ago, I was trying to blend up some pumpkin and I guess I didn't have enough liquid in it. And well, I blew it up. The kids and I have been missing our daily lunch time smoothie. So last night, Nathan so generously bought us another one. This time we found a Magic Bullet at Nakumatt for about $37. I thought it was a deal! Usually American things are way more expensive. All the other blenders were twice the price of this one! Hopefully it will hold up a little longer than the last one and I definitely won't be putting pumpkin in it!!

Love This!

 

I love that our kids love books and that they have an awesome Daddy to read to them!

Water

Anybody thirsty??

Flipping

The kids love to climb to on this chair and flip out of it. Here's a progression of Ruth climbing in the chair and flipping out. Although she hasn't figured out how to flip out yet. :)

A Package! A Package!

Tuesday Nathan brought home a package bungee tied to the back of his bicycle. The kids spotted it right off the bat. And of course, we had to come in and open it right away.

 John and his funny glasses. He really likes these. 

 Ruth's very own baby bottles! She didn't have any of her own yet. She really liked them despite the look on her face. :)

 Dinah found the pink squishy light up ball thingy. 

 A cool green dress for Dinah.

 And a pink and brown one.

 Then we found the note that said the pink squishy thingy was for John. He was excited.

 John even found the blue bracelets which ended up being Dinah's.

 A connect the dots book. She hasn't done these before, but is really enjoying it. I think she may have done the whole book already.

Ruth trying on Dinah's dresses. If you notice, the green coming out from under the pink one. She managed to get both of them on all by herself! 

Thanks Nana and Poppy for a great package! The kids loved all their things, and Mommy and Daddy are enjoying lots of new magazines! Can you tell we love getting mail?!

The Countdown

The kids and I made this countdown chain to help them see how many more days until Mimi and Papa arrived. I meant to take a picture when we had more links on it, but I just didn't. We are now down to 7 days!! Next week this time, we will be getting ready to pick Mimi and Papa up from the airport! Yay! We can't wait to see them!

Adoption Update

Well, I meant to get this posted last week, but since I was on a blogging hiatus, I didn't get it done.

Two weeks ago tomorrow we learned that our home study would have to be notarized by an American notary and then go through the process of authentication. Again. Our original home study was authenticated with the rest of our dossier back in February. But since it was updated, it has to go through the process again. That meant that the Kenyan notary we paid to notarize the home study just the week before was no good. So, we called up our home study agency here, explained the situation, arranged a time for us to pick up our social worker and his boss, and go to the US Embassy for them to sign before the notary. That time turned out to be this morning. We picked them up at their office at 7:30am and began the trek to the Embassy. This morning it took just over an hour. There was a five car wreck on one of the roads. Don't ask me which one, I'm not good with road names. But we finally made it. It's so nice to be American citizens and be able to walk to the front of the line! We didn't have to wait too long once we got to the line of American citizens. We were able to pay our whooping $50 for one notarization and be on our way in almost record time. We dropped our friends off and made our way back home. Now to get it sent back with Mom and Dad although I'm not wishing their time here away.

The other thing we found out around that same time a couple weeks ago is that we are going to have to go through the process of re-adoption. There is nothing that says we have to re-adopt, but in the best interest of our son, it seems like the best route to take. Since our adoption is finalized in Ethiopia, it is not considered an American adoption. For him to be legally recognized as our son in the US, we have to go through the process of re-adoption. We are still trying to figure out what all this means for us. There are several things that we have no idea how they will pan out. But we are trusting the Lord in all this. We know He knows how things are going to work out, and that's good enough for us right now.

So, that's where we are on the adoption front. We're almost to 8 months waiting. We are inching closer. In His time.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Treats

I did a horrible job of blogging last week. I was sick Sunday night and all day Monday, and it just threw our week all off. I'm trying to get back on track this week. So, here we go with Tuesday Treats...

Nathan stayed home from work last Monday since I was sick all through the night and then Monday, too. He did an awesome job taking care of me and cleaning up my messes! He fed me crackers and went and bought Sprite for me. What a great picture of his commitment to me!

He is the mosquito killer! When we climb in bed at night, we check the ceiling for mosquitoes. They love to bite me during the night! When we spot one, he climbs out of bed and kills it. What a sweet Hubby!

I love you, Honey! Thanks for taking such great care of me! You're the best!

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Once again, we have more paperwork to do for the adoption. We need to get this taken care of this week and next week so we don't have to worry about it while Mimi and Papa are here and they can take what we need back to the US. I will go into more detail on Thursday, but please pray we can get things worked out.

Please pray we can stay strong and healthy these next few weeks as we wait for Mimi and Papa, and then are super busy while they are here. There seems to be a lot of sickness going around right now.

John is having a hard time sleeping at night. There are several dogs in our neighborhood that bark quite a bit at night. He wakes up when they bark and cries for Nathan. Some nights it's only a couple of times and other's it seems to go on all night. Please pray for John not to be scared or whatever it is that is causing him to cry.

Praise~

This tummy bug finally seems to be done with our family. Praise the Lord!

Mimi and Papa will be here in 11 days! We can not wait to see them!

The lump in Calvin's tummy went away on it's own! PTL we didn't have to go to the vet!

We got our van back and it's working great!

Spinach Alfredo Pizza

Wednesday we were discussing what we should have for dinner while the kids were playing at the indoor play area. Nathan mentioned pizza and I had the idea to make a spinach alfredo pizza like the frozen kind we liked in the US. I have a great recipe for alfredo sauce and we had spinach and mushrooms, so we gave it a shot.

 The precooked picture.

The cooked picture.
It turned out pretty good although we thought it could use some more garlic and maybe some salt. I made the dough, grated the cheese, cooked fresh spinach, and made the alfredo sauce. So it was homemade all the way. We'll definitely be trying it again! The kids even had their black olive pizza with "white" sauce and really liked it, too.

Alfredo Sauce

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 stick butter

1 c. milk

1 c. cream

1 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

Put all ingredients in medium saucepan and heat over medium low heat until well blended. Stir occasionally. Serve over your choice of pasta.

recipe by Gwen Gottfried

Pizza Crust

1 T. dry yeast

1/4 c. water

2 T. cooking oil

2 to 3 T. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 c. warm water

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 c. flour (I use half brown and half white.)

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 c. water until foamy. Combine cooking oil, sugar, salt, and warm water separately and add to yeast mixture. Add flour and knead until no longer sticky. Pat dough to 1/4 inch thickness on lightly greased baking sheet. Press up around edges to make rim. Bake at 425 for about 12 minutes.

recipe by Ginna Killoren

Pumpkin Shaped Cookies

Angie gave me her awesome pumpkin cookie cutter last week, and I've been itching to make pumpkin cookies. Even though it doesn't quite feel like fall here in Nairobi, it's fun to pretend! :) The kids and I had fun making them and then I iced them when they went to bed. Needless to say, we have lots of pumpkin shaped cookies around here.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

6 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Mix well. Chill for 1 to 2 hours. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes or just until beginning to turn brown around the edges. My pumpkins took about 18 minutes.

recipe from Jill Boyd's blog

White Frosting

4 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. margarine
dash of salt
2 to 4 T. milk

Mix all ingredients with mixer.

recipe by Angie Neuenschwander

Green Beans

 The kids love to break green beans after I've strung them. They each had their chair at the counter Friday night breaking beans while we waited for Daddy to get home from work.

 I guess they're really more like French beans. Or at least that's what they call them here.

 They're a bit skinnier than the green beans we are used to.

I'm so thankful for children who are learning to be helpers.