Recent Happenings

I have some pumpkin bread in the oven and the kids are well into their nap so I thought I would update you a bit on what has been going on lately....

This was dinner by candle and headlamp light the other night during a power outage. Eli loves getting to wear that thing!

Eli is beginning to learn some Hausa phrases. The other day some men were working on our air cooler and Eli greeted them with a "Sannu," "Ina kwana" which means "Greetings," "How was your night?" which is a typical greeting to someone in the morning hours. This was completely unprompted by me since I was in the kitchen pouring some cereal for the kids. Eli just greeted him through our screen door. The shop worker got such a kick out of this! Eli also tried to greet our house worker one day with a "Sannu" "Baba ganouj." For those of you who have never eaten baba ganouj (which was us about a month ago), it is a Mediterranean appetizer dip made from eggplants. I had made this the day prior and Marc and I were trying to teach Eli how to say it since it is a funny word. He obviously assumed we were teaching him some more Hausa though. :) Eli has also finally learned his colors. We have been working on this for nearly six months. He could always group colors together but could not name them until just a few weeks ago. He also really loves counting things right now. He recently showed us that he has picked up counting to ten in Spanish from watching Dora the Explorer.

Marc is transitioning some into adult medicine this month and is working with one of the physicians here who does all of the HIV care. He really enjoys watching how this doctor incorporates medicine and faith together as he daily share stories from the Bible with each of his patients on morning rounds. This week they saw a man who, on ultrasound, was found to have a large mass in his liver and lung which is presumed to be a cancer. There is really nothing that can done for a patient like this in a country where the resources are so limited. This man was told he did not have much longer to live and was sent home after meeting with the evangelist. These situations play out literally hour by hour for Marc as he sees people that he can unfortunately not make well. Jesus is really the only one who can bring hope and healing into situations as difficult as these. Marc has been encouraged to watch the evangelists who work in the hospital each day sharing the Good News with these patients and their families.

Hailey is lots of fun these days. She is really cuddly and loves to give hugs and kisses to us and Eli. She has learned all the features of the face and loves to poke and prod on my face while she names each one. Every time she gets to "nose," she feels the need to stick her finger all the way in my nostril while saying "Nnnoooossseee." I try to stop her before she does it (it hurts!), but she thinks it is quite funny and often catches me by surprise. :) She must be getting taller now because when she leans all the way forward in the baby swing, she can drag her feet. She also thinks this is really funny though it makes pushing her quite a challenge. Now that I think about it, she thinks a lot of things are funny lately that I don't think are quite as funny. :) She has this mischievous look that she gives me when she knows she is doing something that she shouldn't. I remember Eli had the same look at this age. Nonetheless, she is a gem and we adore her.

                                                Eli reminding Hailey he is still taller than she is

As you can tell by yesterday's post, I have really been enjoying the time during the day that I have to cook. It is so fun for me and certainly the way I decompress any stress. My dad told me recently on skype that I looked like I had lost some weight so I went ahead and ate FIVE of the chocolate chip cookies I made the other night. They tasted really good and he had me convinced I needed to put back on a few pounds. :) We are starting the Beth Moore "James: Mercy Triumphs" video series with some of the ladies here this weekend. It is going to be great. I was so encouraged after doing the first week of lessons and watching this first video.

This is Hailey's favorite spot in the kitchen. She has learned if she positions herself between me and the cabinet and says "bite" enough times that I will continually feed her as I cook.

The weather in Galmi is getting hotter I assume (but we have no thermostat to know what the high is each day). However, it doesn't really feel much different from a few weeks ago. It is a dry heat so you really don't sweat that much. It has been nice having a working air cooler for the past few nights and the kids sleep much better during their naps when I turn it on. April and May will still be the hottest so we have a ways to go before we can say we have "conquered" the desert heat. :) We had several power outages last week (as you can tell in the first picture) but not very many so far this week. We feel like we have all (kids included!) adjusted very well over the past few months. This is such a testament to both of us of God's grace because there are some major differences in our day to day lives.

Well, that is a quick update but the bread is now cooling on the racks and the kids are awake and crawling all over me wanting to play. Have a great day!