Who are the shots hurting?

We took Keira to the clinic to get her six month shots the last time we were in Kampala. This is the second time the kids have gone with us, but this time seemed to be a little different, especially for her big brother.

The lift

The placement

Add a twist

Executed perfectly

Watch the love of a brother.

Comfort time

Nine years

 Karis is officially 9.

When three of my kids got up the other morning, and they all planned to dress alike, they were just "asking" for a picture to be made, so I gave them no choice but to have a small photo session.

Bet they'll never do that again.

Kylie missed the memo, and Caleb is showing you his "smolder."

On second thought, they don't seemed to have mind posing at all...

A few baptisms to mention

Kylie and Karis got baptized in April.

Some friends came to encourage them.

Betty and her mother were also baptized.

 Richard came to be a witness

So did James

Keira was there, too.

And so was this strange creature in the pool :)

There were 3 other families there, but unfortunately, the camera didn't get pointed in that direction.

Doug, Kylie, Karis, Pastor David, Florence, Eric, and Betty

 

Eric, who is part of Doug's story group, was also baptized.

 

And, two weeks later, we all went out to see his sister Dorah take her next step in obedience.

These are days of rejoicing.

Procrastination

It's amazing the time I can find to blog and post pictures when I'm supposed to be packing...

AND I'm selling my computer, so this seemed like a good time to put some pictures up before we erased the hard drive...

AND who doesn't like to see pictures of a cute baby every now and then...
 

Loving

Oh, the faces

All the red-heads

Keira after Caleb and Karis were done with her

Keira helping get the laundry off the line

My children always find ways to amuse themselves

Watch Out!

As we shift our thinking to living in America, there have been several discussions about what life might be like. 

When the kids left America they were 7, 5, and 3. 

Now they are 10, 9, and 7. 

Surprisingly, there is not a lot my 10 year old remembers, so I don’t expect my 7 year old to remember anything at all.

These are some things I’ve heard since January:

*What is a driveway?

*Why doesn’t anyone in America have gates to their compounds?

*Me:  “Try it.  You’ll like it.  It’s Uncle Ben’s rice from America.”

            “Who’s Uncle Ben?” (child A)

            “I don’t have an Uncle Ben.” (child B)

*Me:  “I’m sorry you won’t be able to take art lessons in Yoakum.  It’s not really a big enough town to offer all kinds of services, and…” (before I could finish)

            She said, “…they don’t want to go to war to get more land?”

*I don’t know if I have a favorite planet…It’s probably earth.”   (not really about America – but funny)

*No wonder they are the Dallas Cowboys! – They are in Dallas!  Dad, were you a Dallas Cowboy?” 

*(Still learning about American football) I like the Buccaneers because they are pirates.

* I showed them an eraser mate pen, and they were in awe.

*Me:  “You will have to carry water carefully to Doc & Doe’s table from the kitchen because they don’t have a water filter by the table.”

Child:  “Where will we get water from?!”

*Ever since I was robbed the second time, Caleb has been hypersensitive about how I hold my bag, what I leave in the car, and our car, in general.  The other day we were in Kampala, and Caleb watched our car the whole time we were eating.  He told me if anything happened, he would call 9-9-1.  Too bad it’s the wrong number AND the right number is not supported in this country.

*One of my children has a shirt from her grandmother with a longhorn head on it.  She asked the other day, “Why do we call it ‘Boo Horns?’”  (No offense Soroski’s J)

Doug’s been trying to explain the rules of American football to Caleb.  He’s never seen a game played, so it’s a little difficult.  Thankfully, Xbox has helped.  My kids only know “football” as soccer, and since we don’t have television access, they haven’t seen much of that either.

Our kids don’t know the rules to baseball, basketball, or pretty much any other kind of organized sport. 

Our kids don’t know many team names for any sport except the Texas Aggies and the Yoakum Bulldogs.

Our kids have been using shillings as money for three years.  We’ve been working on the coin amounts in the United States, but sometimes we get confused.  Whereas your kids may know easily that 3 quarters can buy a soda, my kids won’t quickly know how to make $.75.

In the culture we have been living in, picking your nose in public and staring at complete strangers are completely acceptable actions.  Unfortunately, we may or may not have been known to do this on occasion. 

Our kids are not used to wearing shoes.  We have been known to show up at a restaurant, only to find that one or more children had forgotten their shoes at home.

A couple of our kids aren’t great at saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” or singing the “Star Spangled Banner,” but they are learning.

We’ve also lived for three years under the metric system.  Miles and kilometers are now blurred together.  All of their sodas have been in liters and milliliters, and we buy flour and sugar by the kilo. 

Another scary thing is “toilet flushing.”  We never know when the town is going to shut off water for the day, so from the beginning, we’ve had our children only flush the toilets on the “necessary” times.  After three years, we are trying to re-train them to flush EVERY time, and the training is going slow.

I saw a sign on Teen Challenge Primary School in Malaba, Kenya, last year, and it wraps up a lot of the confusion in my kids’ heads right now.  Their school motto:

“Challenging the Challenging Challenges”

So with all this in mind (and more things I haven't thought to mention), watch out America, the Taylors are coming. :)

The Body of Christ

Are any of my fellow bloggers shocked that anyone besides their mother reads their blog?

When my blog counter says that over 20,000 people have visited my blog, and it shows it was read from different places on the globe, I start to think, "Ummm,  my mom couldn't have visited all those locations, could she have?"

There has been proof that my close friends read it because they comment on my blog or email me their comments, which I love.

But this week, I got proof that another person actually read it.

I met this man last August when he came to Arua with a few from his church to help us with our student camp.  (He is the man in the blue striped shirt in the first photo).  Or here. (He's in the first picture, leading us in the Lord's Supper).  He is a worship/missions pastor in Florida.

This week, he said he saw on my blog that I needed a battery charger for my camera, AND he said he was getting on a plane in less than 24 hours to come to Arua!  I was kind of bummed, because I knew I didn't have time to overnight a batter charger through the mail, but when I told him my concerns, he said to give him the model number of the battery, and he would go look for it.

Really?

Wow!

*humbled*

Well, no kidding...about one hour ago, he showed up at my gate, with his wife, and handed me a battery charger from Florida.  AND he said that his choir at his church, bought it for me!

I'm blown away.  (I don't have a picture to show you because it's still charging :)

I'm in awe that God loves me so much that He takes care of the smallest concerns of mine.  He wanted to bless me today, and he used the body of Christ from Florida to do that.

If you don't know my Jesus and my God, you ought to ask me about them or check them out yourself in the book of John.  He loves you, knows you, and wants to be your everything!

Goat...part 2

Our neighbors have a goat roast every year on Easter Monday, and they invite all their friends.

I blessed you last year in my newsletter with the picture of the goat we had the opportunity to eat from, and several of you were so *glad* I had done that.  None of you mentioned the fact that you lost your lunch or anything (cough, cough).

This post was from 2010, if you want to refresh your mind.

Anyway, since you appreciated it so much in the past, I had Doug take his camera to the goat roast again this year....just for you.  And he got some really great close-ups!

Now that you are feeling oh, so good, let me share the better part of the day with you.

Our family photographer...

And some of the lovely ladies who were there...

If you've noticed my lack of blogs, let me tell you the main reason... lack of pictures.

I lost my camera battery charger at Christmas, so my camera has been dead ever since. I can't get a new charger until I get to America, so I've been relying on Doug to take all the photos.

He's done a great job taking pictures where he goes, but I haven't done very good at keeping up with the writing part. Sorry.