Hummingbird 4/18/09

I am holding on by the seat of my pants this week! In a good way of course. We got Eric home and he has quickly adjust to living in our house for the time being. He is quite hilarious. For sure he is from the kalenjin tribe which is convenient since Caleb is here and can talk to him in their language. Caleb is so sweet with him and takes care of him like a little brother. Yesterday was good for Eric until last night. He ate well all day. We monitored what he was eating making sure he got enough nutritional foods and not too much of a portion. Then last night Mercy made chapati's and I made beef stew. It was an AMAZING meal, which it always isn't to me. It always seems bland. But Mercy's chapati's were, I'm pretty sure, the best I've ever had! So we were eating at the table, all is well. Eric ate all his potatoes and carrots, leaving the best for last-the meat. I was glad to get some protein in him. He was about to take his last bite and then... BLAAAA.... he puked all over the floor. It was so sad! I felt horrible. We didn't give him much but I think he had already had chapati when he was in the kitchen watching Mercy cook and I didn't realize it. Poor little guy. It was painful watching him throw up. I am SO thankful Hollie was there to help clean it up. Otherwise there might of been my vomit as well. I love nurses. Otherwise he is doing great. He ate some bread and peanut butter after vomiting and felt better the rest of the night. We have to keep a close watch on him though. He likes to roam around and is very curious about everything. Here he is his last day at the hospital. Here is Bud tickling him in front of the hospital...

Thursday morning/afternoon, Elisha and I went over to the Transformed International compound. Meredith has a couple and their daughter at their house for three weeks from Canada. They had a playdate so it was Elisha's first. No wait, we went to one in the states when he was like 2 months old. Ok, but this was his first one he participated in. Crafts, snack time, playing on the playground... quite an event for a one year old!

After the playdate we went and did Mattaw stuff. Bud, me, Hollie, Humphrey and Isaac loaded up and went and visited our future house two children. We were checking on them and informing the guardians that we'd be by the next morning to get them to take them to the Dr. Isaac and Humphrey knew where they live so we had to have them come. First we went to see Sophia and Jose. It was the first time for us to meet Jose. He is adorable! SO tiny though. Sophia was all smiles as oppose to last time.
Here is Jose. The J is not silent like it is in the Hispanic culture. It is pronounced like the J in Juice.

Then we went to Daisy and Michele's house. They live in not a good area but good grief there are a TON of children around there. And a lot of teenage girls with children. They live in a small mud hut with about 9 other people. Their grandmother takes care of them but is old. They have a sister who is 16 years old that we support to go to school. When our social worker first met her it was just in time. She was about to have to drop out of school and forced to be married. Thankfully God put her in our pathway.

Here is sweet little Michele. She is so shy. She is around 6 years old and Daisy is 11.

Hollie and I went to pick up all the children the next morning. They all live in the boon docks, but it's a beautiful drive. Rolling hills, tea plantations, banana trees, the flowers now blooming, just gorgeous. Hollie commented that it was like we were on an episode of Lost! No weird black smoke or polar bears though. Just a bunch of children coming out of no where yelling "mzungu!" and then some children running off screaming "ghost!". After we picked them up, some of them had no shoes and the ones that did were borrowing them from neighbors. So we went to the container to get them shoes. We then came back to the house and fed them pb&j and bananas. Oh and topped it off with some chocolate. Needless to say, they were happy kiddos. Then Hollie took them to the Dr. We found out Daisy had brucella (disease you get from bad meat or milk) and she also had typhoid! Yikes! But she is on medicine and will be fine. The others just had minor stuff and got some medicine. Georgie has also been a bit sick with cold and flu but got medicine and doing better. God's grace has protected Elisha! Here they are on our front porch. On the right is Michele, then in the pink next to Elisha is Jenipher, Elisha, Lucy (Violet's daughter), Jose and Sophia on the left.

Eric and Ian

Yesterday Lucy, Violets daughter, came over to play. (Violet is who keeps Elisha during the week) This is mostly for you Lauren! Lucy is still a jumping jelly bean full of joy! She has grown so much though. She led Elisha around all day playing with him, it was pretty cute.

Today we're resting and going to a bbq get together at Meredith and Sean's (TI compound). I made a hummingbird cake to take. If it's yummy, I'll post the recipe. Pretty easy to make and looks good. It's a first time for me though. I found the recipe in my Kenyan Kitchen magazine that I get every time we go to Nairobi.