Hello dear tribe! When I picture you on the other side of the screen, caring enough to still be reading this blog, I’m so humbled and encouraged.
Our time at the conference was sharpening spiritually and academically. The time away from our home was crucial as it gave us some processing space. I have loads more to say but a newsletter is going to drop in your inboxes within the next few days and I don’t want to ruin all the surprises. :)
Now as Jon is busy teaching a course, the toddlers and I are learning to life without big sisters around. J and A are attending an international school while we live in a borrowed house in Addis Ababa for a few weeks. The first morning of school, we were dealing with some big nerves of the girls and then Tiger and Miss T were mutinous in their rebellion to be left behind with only Mama. I didn’t realize how much J and A keep them occupied! By 10 am on the first day, we had done, ALL OF THE THINGS. It is rainy, I don’t drive here and the littles were causing me to question my sanity. Day 2 was better and in the middle of the second week, I joyfully report we are enjoying the time. I’ve missed so many of their little moments as I usually am schooling or cooking or answering the door. Here, we just explore our way through the days, making sure to get muddy enough they have at least one outfit change a day.
The girls are off, bravely learning to navigate a social world in which they’ve had little practice. This leads to sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad dinner conversations (or debriefs as Jon calls them). Thankfully, we all miss each other. And why I am glad they are liking school, they can’t wait to get back to me teaching them. Really??? This is a win for me.
And these two. now at 2 years and 17 months, I would say the officially operate as twins. It is amazing and oh my, do they cause so much trouble.
Bumper laundry baskets. We are limited on toys but anything can be a toy I guess.
Visiting neighbor dogs on the compound
Rainy season is not slowing her down but it is adding quite a bit of laundry.
Getting groceries. Thankfully, the compound we are staying in has something that resembles a sidewalk and it takes us a while but we can stroller down the street.
So much rain!
Wanting to climb a tree.
Exploring backyards on the compound.
Discarding their veggies and drinking the dip.
Rocking their babies.
Tiger is all about making friends with this giant tortoise (although the relationship doesn’t seem reciprocated).
And Miss T, who loves animals, wants nothing to do with it.
This could in part be because when I was coaxing her over, Tiger yelled, “BITE” and then giggled at his joke. It convinced her not to get any closer.
Miss T eating all the popcorn at a friend’s.
And in a moment so disheartening it is funny, in trying to encouraging the girls to branch out in friendship, we invited all the girls on the compound over to do Pizza/Movie night with us. Jon picked up the pizza on the way back from meetings, I specifically said, “It’s kids, make sure you get no veggies”. I open up the pizza and through some colossal mix up, the pizza was broccoli and olive. We laughed as one of the girls’ friends almost vomited from the smell. And when you are in Addis Ababa, there is actually no quick “Plan B” so we picked off the offending veggies and then played a game of “dare” and the kids ate a surprising amount. :)
P.S. Oh yeah, one more thing. I just heard yesterday that since we have been gone, there are rats in our house “who eat so much and make a mess”. So, there’s that. I don’t have enough emojis to express my emotion on this one.
