The New Year...2020...Dream Big!

 Oh the excitement of 2020!  

We had a small party on New Year's Eve, and after hanging out a little while, my two older girls joined a group of three other young ladies that were there who decided to go check out the fireworks in a certain area of town.

Long story short, they never made it because the traffic was so intense on the roads, but they got to see a lot of "interesting" people while they sat in traffic.

We like to start off the year with a two-day trip to the mountains before the kids go back to school.

It's nice to be up so high and out of the city.

The clouds rolling in in the morning are a beautiful sight, and by the time I've finished my coffee, the sun is shining and the clouds have moved on.

Sometimes it's crystal clear. 

And sometimes, you can't even see that your are on a mountain.

There isn't a ton to do while we are up on the mountain so time outside, playing games, resting, reading, and drinking coffee make it an ideal place to get rejuvenated.

January 3, 2020

Caleb was inside and missed out on our time in the snow one day, but he made up for it when the sun went down. 

He decided he would run in the snow barefoot with only his shorts on "just for fun." Keira joined in with the barefoot part while the rest of us just watched (and laughed).

The video of this "race" still makes me laugh.

Never would I ever...

And since these two sleep in the living room, we could all see in the morning that they were still worn out.

Happy birthday, Mom!

While I was Away

Doug took care of everything and everybody while I was away.

He and I always share duties, but for the days I was gone, he was the lone ranger, arranging play dates for Keira, taking everyone to their respective ballet and soccer practices, and cooking.

A sweet momma had all of these girls over to play on a week's break from school.  Keira had such a good time, and the mom sent me pictures so I could see all the fun they had.

My brother was apparently on TV while I was away, and I STILL haven't seen the episode.

Caleb was awarded defensive player of the year in soccer, but before the award ceremony took place, a little boy was playing around the awards table and broke the trophy intended for Caleb.

Caleb was given this cheap one as a stand-in until the coach could order another.

I had a great trip, and the kids had a good time while I was gone.

Thank you, Doug, for being such a Super Dad!

Ballet and the Cold

February came, and still no snow in the city.  Keira was missing the snow we had seen on the mountain, so she cut up some bubble wrap, put it in a bowl, and stuck it in the fridge to make it cold.

The other kids were good keeping warm with lots of coffee and hot chocolate.  When we first moved in, we were cooking, washing dishes, and doing school in big ski jackets, but with the heaters working in a few rooms, it made a difference in what we all wore.

Every five to six weeks, the French school that Keira attends takes a week off.  During their February break, the dance studio asked all the French school ballet students to help out with a project.  A TV station wanted to make a video for children, teaching them how to do ballet in their homes.  This was the first time they videoed, and they've done it a couple of times since.

It's a blessing to live where we live so that Keira gets opportunities like this.

It just so happens that all of the little ballet girls are Keira's best friends, so afterward they enjoyed an afternoon play time together.






Sweet girls!



February 10, 2019

The Mountains are calling, and I must go

John Muir, a mountaineer in the 1800's known as the "Father of National Parks" said, "The mountains are calling, and I must go."

This is how my family feels every year after Christmas.  Usually, we have spent an entire year in the city, and when we see the mountains in the distance with the snow on top, we feel a calling to go.

Plus we were about to finalize our move in the next week, and we were all tired of packing.

We took all of our clothes and food for meals and snacks up the teleferic to the top of the mountain.

No cars are allowed.

Each morning, I would get up to see what beauty God was creating for me to enjoy.

Being above the clouds and watching them circle around the tops of the mountains does not get old.

In this panorama view, you can see the clouds in circling motion around the top of the mountain below us.

Sunsets were also worth stopping dead in our tracks to see God's handiwork.

Snow is always a delight for my raised-in-Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Africa children.

John Muir is also credited with saying, "In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."

I concur.

First Thanksgiving in Africa

Thanksgiving...what a fun, full day. I got a call earlier in the week from a friend in Kampala. She came to Uganda at the beginning of September to adopt a little girl she had encountered a year ago who had lost both her parents. You probably saw this picture on my blog. This is Melissa, Mercy, and Cody (although, Cody is back in the States now).

Well, Mercy is hers officially, but the Embassy hasn't issued Mercy a visa because of some discrepancy of wording in a medical report vs. the court report. Anyway, she can't leave with Mercy, and I had pre-invited her to Thanksgiving in Arua 2 weeks ago. I was really hoping she could be home with her family in Kansas, but since she can't, she came to celebrate with us.

She arrived on Thursday morning at the airport here. My kids were completely taken with Mercy, and they followed her wherever she went.

I had also told the couple from New Zealand (Sam and Kim from ORA on my blog) that I would watch their 3 children on Thanksgiving while they did some last minute shopping that needed to be done before they fly home next week.

So for lunch, I was feeding my 5, the 3 New Zealand kids, Melissa, and Mercy. Don't think I'm anything special. It was not turkey and dressing, it was…grilled cheese. After the 3 left, I had to cook ONE dish (Praise Jesus!) to take to a Thanksgiving dinner at Sherry's house.

Sherry is an American lady that has lived here for 15 years. She is station manager of the Catholic radio station here, and she built a house here designed for entertaining. I love it! Whenever I'm there, I forget I'm in Africa.

These are the beautiful vineyards out her front door.

All the plants around her house are beautiful.

Her kitchen could fit 60 people in it easily. She even has a DISH WASHER! Her home is hooked up with the ever-running radio station that has enough solar panels to run a small town. She also had a beautiful set up for the adults and the children.

There were 9 Americans that weren't in town, so we were a smaller group this year. She invited an Italian priest who has lived in Arua for 20 years, and they are very good friends. Others attending were my family of 5; A lady named Vikki and her husband who is British and their 3 kids with cute British accents; a man named Jared from California who is married to a beautiful Egyptian lady and their son Enoch; our journeygirl Sandra; and Melissa and Mercy.

Anyway, I was in charge of teaching the children about the holiday and doing a craft.

I had also made a large tree out of construction paper and cut out fall colored leaves.

While the adults wrote what they were thankful for on leaves and taped them onto the tree, I told the children the story of Thanksgiving.

A friend in Baton Rouge had given me a home school activity book on Thanksgiving before I left, and it was the perfect resource.

It was so quiet while I told the story.

\

That book had 2 great points I brought out because of where we live:

1) The Indians and Pilgrims were two different cultures celebrating together, which kind of resembles our life in Arua. We teach them things and they teach us things.

2) This was not a new tradition. The English used to have feasts of Thanksgiving in their villages to thank God for His mercy.

It was perfect. At point number two, I looked at the three kids who have the British dad and said, "We may celebrate Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but it's because of your Dad's country that we have it at all."

After I finished a craft with the kids (which was also fun, because the adults actually helped us cut and glue, so everyone was involved),

Doug asked for blessing on our food and lives.

Sherry made turkey in a crock pot, and I loved it because it was juicy. She had made dressing, cranberry jelloish something, mashed potatoes and gravy. She really had the burden of cooking. I just brought broccoli casserole. The other dishes were marinated carrots and some fruit salad with marshmallows.

Speaking of broccoli casserole...we stopped at the post office on the way to her house (which was kind of weird because I kept thinking it should be closed for the holiday, but of course, no one knew it was a special day except us...) to pick up packages.

While we were stopped for the LONG time it takes to pay to pick them up and fill out papers on them, Caleb was crawling around in the back of the car.

We didn't know that.

When we got to Sherry's, Doug lifted up the towel that was over the casserole and found the towel stuck in the casserole and a small size foot print mashed into the 9x13 pyrex.

SMILE!

Oh, how I wish I had thought to take a picture.

Sherry smoothed it out, but it was obvious that bread crumbs weren't on a huge size 5 of it.

Dinner was nice. Dessert was nice. Homemade crusts, homemade everything.

Italian too-strong-for-me coffee with dessert, and the kids watched "Pocahontas" until it was time to leave.

Pretty successful Thanksgiving!

I hope our families back home adjusted well without us as we tried to adjust without them.