Projects

I finished it! And he likes it! This quilt took WAY too long and it's my fault. But it has a history that Josh appreciates. It began as a block of the month project at Hancock's in Tulsa in 2005. I started it for Josh because the theme is Lewis & Clark and in our home school, that was one of his favorite topics of study. I didn't even get to finish all twelve months in the club because we moved halfway through the year, so a friend had to mail each month's block kit and instructions to me. Since I began it, we have moved to Florida, Missouri, Canada, back to Missouri, Idaho, and Africa; went back to school, became missionaries with MAF, raised ministry support, driven all over the U.S., "learned French", and adjusted to new cultures. Emily owns the very first quilt I made. Daniel gets the next one. I told him he could choose the pattern and colors but I'm tired of appliqué!
Josh also finished a project this week. He built a fort for Daniel. He cut the bamboo himself with a machete. Our guard Jacques showed Josh how to split the bamboo with the machete and helped with the digging. He (Jacques) told me that in his village people place sticks in the ground like Josh's bamboo, then pack the walls with mud to build their homes, or they make their own bricks out of mud. The roofs are thatched, whereas Josh recycled a piece of plywood from the crate David built for our shipment over here.

Birthdays, Babies and Bubbles

This week has been busy. A few days ago a friend invited us to spend the day with her. We went to the "thieves market", to the old downtown cemetery, and to a place called "tin tin" by the riverfront. I hope to get some photos later of our outing. Yesterday was Joshua's 18th birthday. I will be taking Josh back to the U.S. for college soon. We are leaving early so that I can also take care of my feet. I've had bunionettes, or tailors bunions, on the pinky sides of my feet for over 15 years. In fact I can't really remember NOT having them. They never bothered me until we moved to the Congo. Here I am on my feet a lot. The floors are all cement or ceramic tile. There are few sidewalks so we walk on rocky, uneven dirt roads. My feet started hurting a few months after we got here, and have gotten steadily worse. I'm not sure why someone decided to name them "bunionettes". That name sounds way too cute, and having painful swollen feet is not cute. Daniel will have his birthday while we are gone, so he and Josh decided they wanted to have a joint birthday party while the whole family was still together. Yesterday was also our three year anniversary with Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF has their own blog and they just honored me by posting something that I wrote. If you haven't checked out the MAF blog, you really should. You can see my post here. We also went to the orphanage again today. I bought some bubbles from a departing missionary and we took them with us today. The little kids loved it. We will have to make some more for the next trip. I finally remembered how to link to other sites, so here are links to our photos from the orphanage and a short video, about a minute, of the kids with the bubbles.

Kimbondo Orphanage

A few weeks ago a missionary friend here invited us to visit Kimbondo Hospital/Orphanage with her. We went on a Friday and by Monday I was pretty sick, so we didn't get to go back again until last week. There are hundreds of children there, many with serious health issues or disabilities. As soon as we approached the building that houses the babies and preschoolers, they came running with their arms up, begging to be held. It's impossible to hold them all, but we sure tried. The kids were almost all barefoot, most of the babies were laying in wet bedding, flies were everywhere. The older girls wanted to talk, to braid my hair, to hold my hand. They imitated us. If we held babies, so would they. The little ones all wanted to be on our laps at once, and they would fight about it. This place has more need than I could ever hope to meet, but for a little while we played with kids and watched them smile, heard them laugh, sang to babies, tickled toddlers, and maybe brightened their day a little. I have a couple of photos here, but there are lots more on my facebook page. I've tried multiple times to insert a link here to my photos but I can't figure out how to make it work. I do have a link on this page to my facebook though.

Emily's birthday

Tuesday was Emily's 16th birthday! She and her friend Lydia realized some time ago that since they both have summer birthdays,nearly all of their friends would be on furlough or vacation, so they had a joint birthday party two months ago! It is pretty quiet here with nearly all of the MAF families with teenagers on furlough. We had a calm, but special evening with just the family and Sam, a friend of both Josh and Emily. Emily requested "lasagna with no tomato chunks or onions" for her birthday dinner, which to me is not lasagna at all, but it was her dinner so she got what she wanted. I can hardly wait to enjoy one of her gifts with her - Fiddler on the Roof in dvd. The guys don't like it, so we'll have to plan a girl's night.

Graduation

Josh graduated from high school a few weeks ago and I thought I had already posted photos of it. Oops. Here are a few of my favorites. The ceremony was very nice, including a special by the high school choir. There were bittersweet moments. TASOK is a school of students from many countries and cultures, and the seniors are spreading out all across the world instead of across the country. Josh has had to say a lot of goodbyes. The next few posts will be short ones because now that we have electricity part of each day again, I am working feverishly on a quilt for Josh that I began back in the dark ages - 2005. It has spent more time in storage than it has on my sewing table, but I hope to be able to send it back to the U.S. with him when he goes.