At Home in the Mountains

Yellow Elephant cake made by Tammy. When I asked Maddy what color of birthday cake she wanted she said, "Yellow birthday cake." She said this every time I asked over several days so this is what we came up with. That is what we did this weekend. This weekend we had Maddy's birthday party. Aaron surprised me, Tammy, and Maddy by getting my mom and dad, Cindy and Bethany, and Mema to all come for the birthday celebration. I really can't think of a time I've been more surprised in my life. Aaron had told me he was going to pick up pizza for supper on Thursday night because it had been a busy week. Thinking nothing more of this than he was getting much more thoughtful about helping with meal planning I agreed. We were getting really hungry waiting for pizza and I was on the floor entertaining Maddy with some games on my phone. Aaron walked in with the pizza and said, "Happy Birthday!" in a really loud voice. I looked up, kind of annoyed that he was making...

Yesterday we went to Scottish Rite for Maddy's 6 month follow up appointment. Two big things came out of her check up. The first thing is that she will be having surgery on her legs soon to lengthen the tendons behind her knees. The surgery is called bilateral hamstring release. Depending on how things go they may only do the right knee and go back to do the left knee later. After her surgery she will be in casts for 6-8 weeks. Then she will get a new kind of KAFO with hinges that will allow her more mobility in walking. So of course were are asking everyone to be in prayer over her surgery as well as the recovery time afterwards. I don't think she's going to enjoy having big, bulky casts on her legs that make it hard to move around. The second thing that happened is that Maddy got a K walker. I am ridiculously pumped about this thing, but it seriously is great. The best part is that Maddy loved it right away. The therapist brought it in for her to try out. I didn't p...

A picture Tam took of Maddy at DBU yesterday. Today is the big day! Aaron comes home! We are all so ready. Maddy finally slept like normal last night. I did not sleep well from excitement I think. Aaron called from the Detroit airport. They made it through customs and were eating at Chili's. So he is back in the states and waiting to catch the plane back to Dallas in a couple hours. I am so excited to see him, the pictures, souvenirs, for Maddy to see him. It is going to be great. I did the big group grading thing at DBU today. Actually it wasn't too bad. I felt like a total newbie but I think that I was pretty fair in how I assessed the papers I read. I had about 3 students that didn't pass. :( Fortunately I think their problems can be easily fixed and that if they do what I tell them, they will do well on the final. I'm glad I started in the Spring semester and had a light introduction to grading day. This afternoon, we are going to try to hit the Grapevine Mills...

Actually this is what he said: Happy birthday wishes from Kenya !!!!! I'm in the Kenyan airport now.  We go to Detroit fist and then to Dallas .  I will call once in Detroit . So Aaron is on the plane as I type this. The Kenya adventure is coming to a close. It still blows my mind that he is on his way back...left at 3ish our time...but will not be home until 5:30 p.m. tomorrow. Last night Rachel and Tammy helped me finish painting. I rented an 8 foot ladder to do the areas next to the ceiling. I got it at Home Depot. They guy that rented it to me thought I was a crazy person I think. I made him help me shove it in the Rodeo. It barely fit but we got it in there. It was almost not tall enough to get the job done but we made it work. On the really high places, Tammy did the painting since she is a bit taller than I am and it worked out great. It looks so good. It was a lot of work but I'm glad that I did it. Here are some pics of the final results: Living room. I think...

  From Aaron: We are at Sweetwater and went on the safari.  I was able to see lots of stuff.  We even went on a nature trail to see hippos...that was really cool.  We also were able to stop at place where they have a half blind Black Rhino...I was able to feed him!!!  It was really really cool.   I did get to talk with Geof today so it looks like we are going to meet him tomorrow in Nirobi.  I am looking forward to that and hope it works out! It won't be long until I am on the 18 hour flight back home! Okay, so it doesn't trump a safari, but March Madness is here! I've got my bracket filled out and I'm ready to go. I love that March Madness coincides with my birthday. It makes it a little more exciting. Hopefully I can catch some of the games between chores this afternoon.  This morning Maddy went and played with her friend Camryn. We haven't seen Camryn and her mom, Sarah, in a long time so it was nice to catch up with them. Camryn had ...

 Here is what Aaron did today:   We saw our last community.  This is a coffee producing community and we were able to see how they process the coffee...it is out of season right now so we only saw the place but it was very interesting.  We also spent a lot of time at schools (2 primary and one high school).   I played soccer at the HS and I am dead!!  Frank and I were the only two that played.  I really enjoy Frank, he is a great and very funny guy. I sent Geof a FB message and he sent me his phone number.  It looks like I might get to see him on Friday!!!!  I am so excited if that happens.  It will be so awesome to see my Kenyan Brother.  Tomorrow we leave for Sweetwater, Kenya.  This is were we do our safari and I think you could probably google it on the internet.  I hear it is suppose to be pretty amazing. HEre is the link to the place we were at tonight.  http://www.410bridge.org/change-kenya/where-we-se...

  The latest from Aaron: We are now at a new place and new hotel.  It is much more the htel I would expect...very small rooms and oldish...sort of Mexico-ish. Today was very interesting.  We got to see how a water project has transformed a certain community.  They use to walk this crazy hill 8-10 per day!!!!  We went down to the river and they brought pales and I carried one back to the top.  They then led me to a hutforherwater.  She was very weak bc she was HIV positive....had been raped and had a kid from it.  I was able to go into the hut and they wanted me to take a pic and send it back.  Chuck said they would work it out, so remind me to send it!!! We finally slept well last night. Maddy had a terrible time getting to bed but once she did, we slept like rocks. The funny thing is that I feel more tired than I have all week. ha! Thanks time change + not sleeping kid + husband being gone.  I got the living room wall painted last...

Maddy in front of the hippo area.   The latest from Aaron: Wow today was amazing!!!  Kwembekenya is up in the mountains....I felt like I was at the Grand Mesa....it was awesome.  We saw the clinic that was recently built....we would think it was a dump in America but there it is really amazing!   We then went to the school.  There was another school from another community visiting and some of those kids were actually scared of us b/c they hadn't seen a white person before.  The kids from Kwembekenya were very friendly b/c they are use to whites from 410 missions in the past.  Brent Meredith was called "Fat Ghost"   it was hilarious...the kids were brutally honest calling glenn and chuck fat to!  Too funny. This is a video of the clinic we saw and the area we were in. http://www.410bridge.org/change-kenya/where-we-serve/kwambekenya/ We got back a little early, so instead of just sitting in our room we went to the lake and did a...

News from Aaron. I was not expecting anymore but the hotel he is staying at tonight and tomorrow night apparently has internet. The world wide web truly is world wide I guess: I get to send you an email again....not via wifi though so I can't send a pic.  We are staying in a hotel called Panaroma Hotel in Naivasha, Kenya .  It is a beutiful hotel with an amazing view of Rift Valley....I actually feel bad b/c it is so nice.  We are here tonight and tomorrow night. Church was great....made Glenn's sermon look short :-)    I was really impressed with the message though.  We then went to a Havilla, which is an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya .  It was amazing!!  One couple had a vision to help kids without parents...they now have 48!!!!!!!  It was wild, but very very good kids.  They sang for us and everything.  We then broke up and each took a few and just talked.  that was really neat.  http://www.410bridge.org/change-ke...

 Most important news first. Aaron made it to Kenya okay. He was able to send me an email from the Amsterdam airport and his hotel in Nairobi. The following is from him: I'm in kenya!!!  It is. Great to be back, it is 1045 local time so it was dark when driving to the hotel, but I loved the dry cool air...we were all buring up so we opened the windows and soaked it up. I also loved seeing the keenya trees, can't remember there real name, starts with an A I think.  I hardly slept all in flight sor some reason.  Hopefully I sleep well tonight and jag lag is not a problem.  Man talk about catching up on movies.  On the second leg I watched red and repunsal (sp?).  I think u an mm and tammpy should watch it.  I think maddy would really like it. He sent a picture of the hotel they are staying in. It looks nice. The room has four beds so guess they pack you in. I think he will probably send a couple of pictures when it gets light there. After tomo...

Aaron's Kenya trek has begun. I dropped him off at the airport a little after 12:30. His flight leaves at 3:30 but we just wanted to be on the safe side since it's an international flight. Everything went fine getting through security though. He was at his terminal before I got home from dropping him off and he'd already found three of the other five team members who are going with him. They will fly to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. They arrive in Nairobi sometime tomorrow. On my end I will be finding out what it's like to live the life of a single parent. I have a very large list of projects that I want to do during spring break. I plan to paint a couple of walls in the dining/living room area, wash curtains, clean baseboards, clean out the cars, mow the lawn, and clean out the flowerbeds I haven't gotten to yet. It seems like a huge list but I think I can get it all done with no school an minimal grading to take care of during the break. Tam is taking Wednesday ...

Maddy went to the developmental pediatrician this morning. She is now at 12-13 months for gross motor skills. Her fine motor and cognitive tested at 24 months and her language skills tested at 27-30 MONTHS!! This is so impressive since she has hearing loss. God has definitely blessed her and our family. The doctor brought up the idea of maybe getting her a K walker. This would most likely not be something that she would use the rest of her life but something she could use to practice walking more and develop her walking muscles. We see her doctor at Scottish Rite in a couple of weeks so we'll check into this. Anyway, she is doing great. We are also working with ECI right now to get her some therapists for speech and eating. We don't know that she really needs speech but they are going to send someone to evaluate her and check everything out. So we have a lot of opportunities for her therapy wise right now. Spring Break is almost here! I give my students their midterm this we...

 I can't believe it is the first day of March. If the year keeps going by this fast, Christmas will be here again when I wake up tomorrow. In one month I will have a two year old. Hard to believe. A couple of weeks ago, we had a dog who was "sick as a dog" in our house. Houdini started acting strange on a Friday morning--meaning he didn't eat his dog treat. I thought this odd so kept watching him through the day. As the weekend went on, he wouldn't eat and got worse and worse until finally he couldn't even walk up the stairs. We thought maybe he got into some poison, although I still can't figure where or what the poison would have been. We dosed him with activated charcoal but that didn't seem to help much. Finally, we ended up going to the emergency vet since he couldn't even walk up the stairs (and of course this happened on a Sunday). The vet did a bunch of tests that cost a lot of money and determined nothing. Houdini had a fever so they ende...