Because I Needed More Things To Keep Alive

As you can’t hear my spoken tone, let me just say the title is sarcastic. :) We’ve added three animals to the crew AND…

The girls are 8. 8. E.I.G.H.T.

How did this happen!?

We see in them a need for consistent friendships. They work on relationships here and have some sweet little “pasture friends”.

We are all thankful for these relationships but also recognize that it doesn’t fill them up like a friend from a more similar background would. This has so many dynamics but I’ll leave it here for today.

Enter Jon’s idea of getting animals. These sheep actually are very low work for us and managed mainly by our guards. The guards love having sheep and say this makes us “rich”. It also provides the kids with creatures to love and care for. 

Bitti and Benji and two shepherd girls. For the first week, afternoons involved a bit of this. Now I push them to get out and watch the sheep. They’ve decided it’s…boring because “the sheep don’t do anything!” We have had some good lessons on shepherding and empathizing with the neighbor kids who spend a whole day tending the flock in the pasture. 

Speaking of friends, these four are buds. 

This was a special day…dressed in their “gardening outfits” they planted flowers.

The same week we added sheep, we also added…

A Puppy! I was overwhelmed as Wendu dropped off the shivering bundle of fur. I have enough children to focus on right now. We made the puppy promise to the girls the day our dear dog died. What parents will do to alleviate grief! ;)

Tiger loves the sheep. Just not this close. 

He cracks me up.

He must feel this is a safe distance.

Miss T on the other hand is a bit more like…”Why are you putting me beside this fluffy thing and how are you going to fix it?”

These babies are reminding me of twins now!

Here’s Miss T, so happy she climbed up the wall and Tiger claps for her. He legitimately celebrates her accomplishments.

 He can’t quite handle the temptation of laying on her while she crawls by…it is like an open invitation to hug her.

Miss T has been busy, in one day, saying three words in context! “Hewwoo” (hello) while putting something to her ears, in the above photo, calculators, “Up” and “Mama”.

And there are those two teeth she had to fight for..

And then sweet Tiger, watches a process one or two times before trying it himself! My current favorite phrase of Tiger’s is used when his hands emerge from his shirt sleeves and he greets his fingers with a “Hey guys!”

Thanks for your prayers, Asmarich is still sick but can walk on her own now!