ryan and kristen

we love you

ryan and kristen are two of Ben's favorite people.

ryan is kurt's younger brother, married to kristen, who I've known

since I was a 3rd grader and she a kindergartener with my sister.

they've been living in nairobi for the last 3 years, and we

were lucky to be able to see them every time we went up there.

now, good for them but unfortunately for us, they have

moved to Juba, Sudan to continue their work with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).

So we will miss them.

Juba might just need to be our next vacation spot. :)

Any playgrounds there??

We love and miss you already.

papa

my dad came to mugumu for a couple of days about 2 weeks ago. He took an all night bus from Nairobi to Musoma, then hopped on three different buses to get from Musoma to Mugumu. We were impressed.

Again he impressed Ben with his golf skills. And got lots of time to hold Aaron. I just loved these pictures...


we've been trying to figure out who Aaron looks like, but this picture gave me an idea:

mzungu

my babies

birthday boy

we just had a low key celebration for aaron's birthday last week, june 4th to be exact. i had worked all week so I took the day off to be with the boys all day. made a peanut butter pie, which I've never made before, but the recipe looked too easy and delicious - and it was pretty good! But then I remembered that you're actually not supposed to give babies peanuts...hmmph...so I made a banana bread cake as well. Aaron has the nickname "Kobe" which means "turtle," not too many people use it, but it's sort of fitting since he was born with wide eyes and looked like a turtle coming out of its shell. So thus the reason why the cake is decorated as such.

With all the focus on dessert, I neglected to think about supper - so Kurt went to town and picked up samosas, and just before it started getting dark the power went out, so we took some blankets outside and had a samosa picnic in our yard and came back in when the mosquitoes started coming out. Had some birthday cake with a neighbor to the ambience of a kerosene lantern, and aaron licked up all the frosting he could, but by then he was exhausted and couldn't even bother to stay up for more.

All in all, a special day.

happy birthday little buddy.

Aaron

The squeally, delightful smiles and noises

The unique shapes of all your toeses

you are ONE

and growing and learning and being

and with every breath and cry and laugh we pray

than in HIM you might live and move and have your being
we thank Him for you

our moonshine boy

why i don't blog much:

A typical HBC day:
- A volunteer that we hired to be part-time in the office while Elibariki was away, just had a baby on Monday. She called me at 7 in the morning on Monday, asking me to come and pick her up while she was in labor (and had been all night). I called the Imara driver and we met at the office where I grabbed gloves, then we swung by and picked up a nurse midwife who does VCT at Imara, then we drove the 14 km to her village. I called her to let her know we were coming, and she said she had already had the baby. About 15 minutes later we walked into her mud hut, and a traditional birth attendant had helped her deliver the baby safely and had tied and cut the cord. A healthy baby boy. We wrapped the baby up and I got to hold him as we took them to the hospital so that they could get some medical attention and the baby could get some ARVs. We brought them to the ward and talked with the PMTCT nurses. From there I ran home, and then got ready for the HBC volunteer meeting – which meant biking and getting the keys to the church, making sure we had enough forms for the volunteers etc. Went to the office and remembered that I also had to orient 3 nursing students who would be with HBC for the week. Talked with them and then we went to the HBC meeting. After the meeting I worked in the office with volunteers and clients, giving out money for milk, and dealing with all sorts of issues. Went home to feed Aaron. While I was home, was asked to return right away as the District HIV coordinator needed a list of 200 clients from us. So went back to the office and got that ready for him, then did a medicine inventory count (which we do every month). And before I knew it it was 6:00 pm.