Benakuma and Beyond

Well, I mentioned in my last post that Ben was going to Benakuma for the weekend. He left Thursday and had plans to start his trip out in the small village of Benade (prounced BEN-uh-day) which is about an hour and a half beyond Benakuma...provided you can get a bike to take you there! :D

Well, the roads were SO bad that they made it to Benakuma after dark but couldn't continue on to Benade until the next morning. After a night's sleep in the Hotel Bonanza they began their journey to Benade. They got two motor bikes and the trip took just over an hour. They would frequently have to get out and walk so the bikes could make it through the thick mud. There were also no flat stretches of road either...it was all uphill and downhill, uphill and downhill. Here is one shot of the road.
They finally arrived in Benade and spent most of the day visiting. The village is quite small, so it didn't take them long to meet a lot of the people. They noticed a crowd at the health center and went there and met the family of a woman who was in labor. Well, the lady came out while they were there and Ben had a word of prayer with her and her family. She'd been in labor all that day, and all through the night. Ben found out the next morning that she still hadn't had the baby. He and TomMike began the trip back to Benakuma, only this time they didn't have a motorcycle taxi. They had to go on foot. Ben said the trip was exhausting! They had to treck 20 minutes to the main road, and then from there it was uphill and downhill once again through muck and mud taking them 4 hours to reach Benakuma! While they were trecking along, they heard a motorcycle coming from the the direction of Benade headed towards Benakuma as well. Ben recognized the lady immediately... Yep...the lady who has now been in labor for over 24 hours! Riding a motorcycle!! Mind you she also had to treck the 20 minutes to the main road, and an additional 20 minutes before the bike picked her up! And I thought I was doing good having a baby in my plush hospital bed, with cable television and no pain meds?? This woman wins the mother-of-the-year award!

Once she arrives in Benakuma, it is possible that she had to climb this hill to the hospital as well, as the motorcycles won't go up there, but I can't say that for certain. Considering all she'd done so far though, she might have! Here is a shot of the big fancy hospital she finally gave birth in sometime Saturday evening. Ben and TomMike heard about her delivery and made it a point to go and visit her Sunday before they had their church service and ultimately left to head back to Bamenda. In honor of Ben's visit out to her village, she named her baby after him. So, meet Pastor Ben and Pastor Ben: Here is a close up shot so you can see how adorable Pastor Ben is: Oh...Oops! I meant to post this Pastor Ben: haha!
And here is the Mom of the Year award winner herself: Oh, and to top it all off, this woman told Ben that she was going to TRECK back to Benade that day!! Ok...4 hours of exhausting up and down hill climbing?? She just had a baby??? She didn't have the money to pay for one extra night in the hospital (it would cost her the equivalent of 2 u.s. dollars), so she just planned on heading back home. Ben wouldn't even hear of it! He paid her hospital bill (which cost a total of $20 u.s. dollars) and gave her an extra 5,000 cfa to stay an extra night and pay for a motorcycle the next day to drive her back to Benade. I'm still shaking my head...

And that is the end of my version of Ben's trip to Benakuma! So many great things happened though...many people trusted Christ and Ben came back overflowing with things to share. So, in order to get the full view you'll definitely want to read his summary HERE.

As for the kids and I, we survived the remainder of his time away just fine. Thankfully after the car incident, there were no more blunders on our part and God kept us safe. We had a little bit of sickness over the weekend, but thankfully everyone is doing well now and we are all thrilled to back together as a family again!

Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday to Drew! You look like a monkey...and you smell like one too!! Haha! That is what Uncle Jay's card said for Drew's birthday and Drew sure got a kick out of it! My brother is really talented with computer and video stuff! He made a card for Drew on his computer with a special video message from his uncle Jay!

We are certainly thankful for the 10 years that God has given Drew. Especially when the doctor's said he only had two months to live after he was born. If you've never read Drew's story, you can check out www.cameroon4christ.com to find out about our miracle. This website hasn't been updated in quite some time, but you can at least click on the link to read Drew's story.

My mom is coming to visit in three weeks, and she is bringing all of Drew's birthday presents. But I did have a little something to give him on his actual birthday and told him I'd make him a cake. But then when Mimi comes we will have the big celebration. Ben was leaving for Benakuma at around 11, so we decided to do our happy birthday wishes at the breakfast table. Here is Drew with his gift.


I love this kid! It takes nearly nothing to excite him! He is SO easy to please! I got him a small spiderman figure and a spidey coloring/acitivity book. He was pretty pumped about it. I always love watching his reaction. He shows his emotions all over his face! Not all my kids are like that. :D

Ben left at 11 and I pushed the kids through school. They were so ready to be done and to play. I started working on the cake so that we could come home from church and eat it. I told the kids that was going to be supper! haha! They were pretty excited about that! So, I pulled the cake out of the oven, and herded the kids to the car. We were running a bit late. I pulled the car out and ... "Crunch!" I stopped...and looked back...only to realize that Faith hadn't shut the car door. This was my very first car accident. I know some of you know what it feels like in the moments after you make the dumbest mistake! You wish you'd turned around one more time! I heard a car door shut, and mentally thought all the doors were shut. Faith started crying immdiately b/c she just knew it was her fault. Poor girl. I told her it was all Mommy's fault. I should have double checked. So...there was no going to church. We were late as it was, it would take us 30 minutes at least to walk there. I tried calling Ben and couldn't get a hold of him. I finally called Genesis. I figured he could help me. He said he would come and get the car and get it repaired. So, he came after dark on a taxi, helped me tie the door b/c it wouldn't even shut and he took it to town. He has a friend who does body work. Thankfully this mistake took place in Cameroon...and not in the states! The repair work is a fraction of what it would cost me in America! And I learned a valuable lesson...To be more careful! The car is still in the shop because Ben decided to have the entire car repaired...new paint job and everything. Our car is rusting out in several places and it has needed a big repair on the body for a while...I just facilitated the process! lol!

So, once the car was finally taken care of...the kids and I enjoyed Drew's birthday cake! I felt I could relax a little knowing that the car was in good hands. I'm thankful for Genesis who came to help out so quickly!

All in all I think Drew's birthday was a good one for him. He is counting down the days til his big party though! Of course...we all are, because that means Mimi will be here!

Life in the Fast Lane

It has been a busy week here at the Sinclair house. Between bouts of mild sickness (fevers - sore throats), funerals, and just plain trying to keep up with school, we have been running at a fast pace. I'll try to update with pics and give you the rundown of what is new in our lives! :D

We are enjoying our new kitty. It is a battle of sorts...trying to keep the girls away from that cat long enough to do their school.

Whenever they get a break, it is off to our store room to play with her. I have to be very diligent to keep her away from Penny though. I tried to put them together, but Penny is just crazy rough with her! She picks her up around the neck and just shakes her for all she is worth! So, my new strategy is to chain the dog up during most of the day, and allowing the cat freedom to roam around. Then at night I unhook Penny and we shut the cat into the storeroom. Once she gets bigger, she will be able to hold her own, and Penny will learn to steer clear!

Penny is good for some things though...home clean-up in particular! :D I dropped an egg on the floor and called Penny in to clean it up. She was unsure about coming in at first, and kept flinching every time she saw me move. She's used to getting whalloped when she comes in the house! haha!

On Friday, Ben packed up the bus with generator, screen, water, tracts and other supplies and headed to town to pick up 7 guys to head out to the village of Nginikom. The wake keeping for Emmanuel was to be held that night, and the men were prepared to be up all night and to share the gospel with as many people as possible. Ben said it was such an encouragement to go out with these mature believers, who were so on fire to share the gospel. The family was quite divided about our church being involved in the funeral any way. They were so afraid of the Catholic priest finding out that baptists were there. When your eternal destiny lies in the hands of a man, I can understand their fear! But Emmanuel's mom allowed our church to take part, thank God! Late in the evening Ben showed the Jesus film in the Pidgin dialect. He said it was SO good for people to see that because they were able to compare the baptism of Jesus by John, with photos of Emmanuel's baptism by immersion. A lot of people were talking about it, and many people were once again afraid that the Catholic priest would find out! On Saturday I came to Nginikom with Matt Yeiter and a couple more people from our Bamenda church, Ezekiel and Genesis, and we piled my kiddos in the back boot of the car. The ride out there took Ben two hours in the bus and about half that time in the little red toyota that Matt drove. The view is absolutley amazing out that way. There is no point even posting photos, b/c they don't even begin to do it justice! We arrived to a mass of chaos in my opinion. There were different groups of music bands playing their traditional instruments and drums. A MASS of people arrived shortly after we did to come and view the body that was set up under an ornate canopy for the viewing area. I finally merged my way to where our church people were (it took me a while) and I found Emma who was white as a sheet! Poor girl! She had a rough time on the curvy hour and a half drive there, and then we arrive and are just stuck in this mass of people! Thankfully she bounced back once she was able to get a little bit of fresh air. All the men were standing to the side of the viewing canopy singing out of the hymn book. I joined them for a bit, and then Matt stood on a pile of mud bricks, and with the aid of a microphone he preached the gospel to those that were filing through the line to view Emmanuels body. There was a crowd gathered around listening intently to the message. I was surprised they could stay focused with all the racket going on around them, but they hung on every word that Matt preached! Off to the right was a traditional xylophone - a loud cacaphony of sounds that comes from men beating on different lenghths of wood planks that are balanced on the trunks of a banana tree. Beyond that, men were dancing to the music in a big hole. As a few men shoveled dirt into the hole, the group would continue to pack it down over the casket by dancing back and forth. It was very interesting.
You can't really see it, but the hole is directly behind the group of men in this picture. And that house was Emmanuels own house, so he was literally buried right outside his front door.

Here is a great shot of Matt preaching. There is one funny in the photo...I'm sure it won't take you long to point it out. :D As we say here..."TIA" ...This is Africa. You can also see Eugene holding the little speaker, that amazingly puts out quite a bit of sound!

We really weren't there for very long. After Matt preached, and we went over to the actual burial site, we went to one of the homes of the family members and they fed us some fufu, njamajama, fish, and jellof rice. The kids were pretty excited as they love African food. Kate enjoyed picking out the fish heads for herself out of the pile of fish that they served us. It started raining right before we left and we were a little afraid we wouldn't make it out of the village. The roads are steep and incredibly slippery! Wow...I could barely walk! It was like an ice rink! Matt's car had some trouble...swishing and slipping it's way out of the village. I couldn't believe the bus made it out. We decided some angels were pushing the back end! We have had that bus in the shop a few times in the last couple of week repairing the 4wheel drive, so, it really was a miracle we made it out! After all was said and done we know of 16 people on Friday that trusted in Christ, and 8 people on Saturday! The salvation of Emmanuel's family has been at the top of our prayer list for quite some time. He was very burdened for his staunchly catholic family members. Sometimes God uses a death to draw people to Him, but I know Emmanuel wouldn't have had it any other way. Praise God for what he did this past weekend in Nginikom!

Here are a few more family pictures from this week.

We measure the kids every few months. They didn't grow as much as they did the last measurement. Faith Ann had the biggest growth spurt. We didn't get an actual photo of Kate b/c she is the one under the weather now with a fever and sore throat.

Ben had a good laugh at Drew's bear, Barry, this morning: haha! Poor Drew and his glasses. Last time we were home we went to one of those discount eyeglass places...eyeglass world or something like that. We got a great deal on his glasses, but they have been nothing but trouble...we have those things wired and glued and rigged to stay together. The next time we are going to have to invest the big bucks and get some nice glasses. And we will just have to pray the ones we have through the next year until we can go home next.

and speaking of home...only 3 weeks until my Mom and the Whitely's come! Yipee!!! We are so excited!! Drew's next milestone is his birthday in two days. We will have a very small celebration Thursday night, and then when Mom comes, we will have the big party (basically b/c she is bringing all the presents lol!). So...I guess that is all for now!

Overdue Update :D

Wow...blogger is going to actually let me post tonight? I don't know what it is, but I have been having so much trouble with blogger lately. I haven't been able to post anything the past couple of days. Every time I try to log in or create a new post, I get an error 500. The last time it was an error 400...I guess I should look for the big 600 next time. Anyway, sit back, grab a coffee or a soft drink. This is gonna be a long one! haha!

First of all I 've decided to give up on my 365 project. I'm just going to enjoy keeping track of life via my blog. I have a daily record (or almost daily) of events up until about the beginning of Sept. That isn't too bad. And I'll definitely keep you up to date, I'm just not going to go crazy trying to get a picture everyday, and dealing with the guilt feelings of not having taken any photos etc... I'm just going to blog, at my own convenience, and I know I will enjoy it more. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the 365 project...I did. But, now I'm done.

Another thing I'm considering is changing the name of my blog. Which I think means my followers will have to rejoin etc... Unless anyone knows of a way to change names without doing that?? Any advice would be appreciated. I wasn't really thinking when I created my blog...obviously. Why I would create a blog name with the year in there was really dumb. So, help me out...what should I name my blog? Provided that name is available of course...but leave me a comment with some ideas.

Thanks for the help with the kitty names btw. The kids decided on cuddles. My opinions don't count too much anymore in this house. At least when it comes to naming pets anyway. They love that cat, and she is getting to be pretty cuddly. She loves to purr and gets her motor running as soon as we pick her up. I have kept her pretty confined to the laundry room. She has a litter box in there and we keep the door shut. I'm afraid of her getting brave and venturing out in the yard and getting eaten by the neighbor dogs like our last cat. And I'm a little afraid of how Penny will treat her. I try to put them together a little bit everyday for some supervised play time. Penny is all puppy though, and just wants to rough house with her. I was watching them today and laughing at them. Then things turned a little scary, as Penny muckled onto the back of the cats neck and picked her up. She looked right at me and I was sternly saying her name, "Penny, no!" But I think she thought it was a big game of catch. As soon as I started towards her she took off running right out of the courtyard gate with the cat still in her mouth. Ahhh! I took off through the house to meet her in the front, since it appeared that was the direction she was heading. Well, she never came around so I went back into the courtyard and she sauntered right in, and then little Cuddles came walking in after her. So...thankfully Penny didn't kill her. I just don't know what to think. I don't think Penny would ever intentionally kill her...but she is SO rough! She LOVES to play and she sees that cat as a live playtoy I guess. She bats at her and nips and jumps. Poor kitty.

We thought we'd lost Rex this week too. We have this plant in our house, and the kids will put Rex on the leaves for whatever reason. Well, Drew evidently put Rex there and forgot about him. I noticed him looking the plant over very closely at bedtime and asked him about it. He told me he'd left Rex...and now he was gone. Sure enough, he was gone. Which means that he fell off the plant, and onto the table, and then fell off the table and onto the floor. That little guy is tough, let me tell ya! So, all during devotions, while Ben was reading, I was walking around the parlour with my eyes open. It is a chameleon for crying out loud! They are hard to find! Sometimes we will all be searching in our window and be staring straight at him, and not even see him! I thought for sure we'd never see him again. I never did find him that night and cautioned the kids to be very careful where they stepped, b/c I figured he probably made his way down the hallway and was hiding in a bedroom somewhere. Well, the next morning (yesterday), Drew found him. He was in our bedroom and was crawling on the base of our oscillating fan. Of all people to find him, too. Drew, with his terrible eye sight, spotted him! haha!

We found a new restaurant for our family day. The Hamburger Place, as the kids like to call it, had some trouble with their employees. Evidently the cook left and ran off with a bunch of their kitchen supplies. Now, we are in Africa after all, so all the kitchen supplies probably didn't amount to much. Their kitchen is about the size of two of my closets...but they couldn't serve anyone without those supplies or without a cook for that matter. So we went in search of another restaurant. I'm always skeptical. You just never know what you will get here. You might order rice and it be full of rocks or dirt b/c they didn't clean it. You might get an organ or a piece of meat on your plate that you didn't really want. So, restaurant eating is done with caution, and when you find a good one...you stick with it. Well, this restaurant (I don't even know the name of it!) was a winner. It was in a very nice, fancy-ish dining room, and it was all clean. They had a big flat screen tv on the wall, and handed us the remote when we sat down. So while we waited for our food (which is usually a long time...another African thing) we were able to watch The National Geographic channel.
It was so nice! We watched some show on animals in Russia...and it kept the kids content while we waited. We got really yummy chicken, and french fries, and Ben and Emma got fried plantains. The kids love it and even Drew strayed from his normal order of plain spaghetti, and got chicken this week! So, we definitely found a winner. You can take a gander at their menu too, if you'd like. If you click the image it will make it bigger. On Sunday the kids sang a special in church. Kate came to me and said she'd like to sing, so I picked out a song that she could sing for a special. I decided to see if Drew could handle carrying the alto part, and if Kate could carry the soprano part while Drew carried the alto part. haha! They did great! Drew has an amazing ear for music. I don't know if all kids his age begin to harmonize. I remember wanting to sing alto SO bad. I used to sit next to Mrs. Russell in church because she always had such a strong alto voice. She must have cringed every Sunday as I slid in the pew next to her because I couldn't carry that alto part at first and sounded awful! I was in junior high I think, when I was determined to learn that part. It seems to come naturally for Drew. So, he picked it up in no time, and with some work, Kate did a great job staying on the melody line...and my fingers managed to find all of the keys so I didn't mess them up with my piano playing either!

We left our service in Bambili and headed to church in Bamenda. We saw this interesting sight along the way:Those are not birds...they are bats. Weird, huh? The sky was just FULL of them!

As we were pulling into our church lot, Ben got a call from Emmanuel's caretaker, Andrew, who informed him that Emmanuel had just died five minutes ago. It was a sweet, but somber service in Bamenda on Sunday. We had a time of prayer for Emmanuel's family, who still doesn't know Christ. He mentioned them in prayer regularly - he was really burdened for his family. He has a neat testimony actually. Matt and Susan Yeiter had regular mechanical problems with their washing machine when they first got one here. It was a used model, and the lady they bought it from promised to send a mechanic out to repair it. Well, Emmanuel was the tech guy. He came out and repaired it, and before he left that day Matt shared the gospel with him. Emmanuel didn't make a decision though. Shortly after that, the Yeiter's washer broke down again. Guess who came back to fix it...and guess who heard the gospel again? I think their washer broke down three times, and after hearing the gospel several times, Emmanuel finally trusted Christ. Sometimes God takes us through frustrating circumstances for an ultimate purpose. Emmanuel was a different person from that day on, and a faithful member of our church in Bamenda. He was a true servant...always working behind the scenes at the church doing a lot of maintenance. If Matt and Susan hadn't gone through the frustration of being without a washer...and had they not taken advantage of that situation by sharing the gospel with their technician...Emmanuel would be in hell today. I'm so thankful that Matt took that opportunity and was able to lead Emmanuel to Christ. For the last couple of months, he'd been in SO much pain. Through our tears we were rejoicing on Sunday, that Emmanuel was suffering pain no longer! Here is a picture of him on the day of his baptism. So, this next week will be a busy one for Ben. I think on Friday he will spend the night out in the village with people from our church for the wake keeping.

As you can see I'm kinda working my way backwards. :D On Saturday the kids played hard outside. They also went to visit our neighbor, to deliver thank you notes for the kitten that she gave us. I cracked up at Kate's note and had to share it: In case you can't actually read it, it says, "Thank you for the kittin - you are the best - she is soooooo cute - I love her sooooo much - why would you give that kittin - why, why, why - oh well - thank you for it enyway." LOL! No punctuation, or anything. She just finished her first chapter in English on writing...so I guess we have some more work to do. But it sure made me laugh!

Kate went to town with Ben on Friday. He is starting to take the kids every once in a while. She loves one-on-one time, so it is very good for her.

I got this cute shot of Emma and Penny on Thursday. Penny is gettin' big!

On Wednesday, Ben came home from church and the power went out. We were all amazed that even though it was dark we could still see to walk around our house! Usually when the power is out here, you can barely see your hand in front of your face! It is SO dark. But the moon was SO full and so bright. The sky was so clear too, that Ben said you could see one of the planets. I didn't get a shot of that, but we tried to get a good shot of the moon. There was one bright star that really shone underneath it too. It was too beautiful to describe and obviously the picture doesn't do it justice. We were all outside as a family staring at the sky! Our nightwatchman must have thought we were crazy! Well, I could share more, but I'm afraid I've bored you as it is. 4 more weeks until my Mom comes and we are getting excited and counting down the days. I'm also so excited about Bernadette, a girl that I just hired to help me in the kitchen! Woot! Today she came and washed all my dishes, cleaned my stove, washed my kitchen windows and I taught her how to make coffee cake! So, having her help out with stuff like that will help me stay on top of the kids and their school work. It just gives me a little breather a few days out of the week. She comes from about 9-12:30. She and her hubby are serving in a church about 15 minutes from here. They are newlyweds and are really struggling financially. They have been begging for work. They came this past week actually to tell us that they only had 100 francs in their pocket (500 francs is 1 dollar) and that was the last of their money. They wondered if we had any work that day for them to earn some money. So, this job really helps them, and it really helps me too. She will learn to bake and I will have help with our breakfasts. And...the dishes!! I hate dishes!! That alone would be worth it!!!

Ok...I'm done! Have a great day!!

Saturday Evening Post

It is Saturday evening, and I know that I promised you an update yesterday with pictures, but I do live in Africa after all, so I guess I shouldn't make promises. Anyway, our internet was out all night and Saturday morning until 9. So, I honestly couldn't post. :D (for once I have a good excuse!)

My week was a blur. I am not sure I could even recount any details, but I did get all the pictures off the cameras that will hopefully give all of us a smile!

First up...My silly kids!

I'm not sure what sparked this idea, but they were getting ready for a big snowstorm. I had to laugh at Drew's hat choice. You can see Faith Ann in the back lookin' kinda sad. I'm not sure why she wasn't participating in all the fun. But she decided to imitate her siblings the next day, and this is what she came up with for snow attire: Gotta love the princess panties...

Drew is a pretty good artist in my opinion, though I am sure every parent must say that about their kids. He is always asking for paper to draw on. Here is his interpretation of Monster's Incorporated: Ben has been spending much of this week at Mbingo Baptist Hospital with Emmanuel from our church in Bamenda, who is very ill. He learned that he has tuberculosis in his bones. Evidently it is literally deteriorating his bones. He has some fractured bones right now even, and is in constant excruciating pain. He was already a small man, but Ben says that he is literally a skeleton. Today Ben and Matt along with Primus and TomMike went to visit him. Primus couldn't even stay in the room he was so broken. He is barely recognizable - he has wasted away to almost nothing. While they were there, Ben always has opportunities to pass out gospel tracts. He got a picture of one man reading Drew's story...the perfect thing to read at a hospital! Thursday was meat day. I suddenly realized on Wed. that we were out of ground beef. So Ben went first thing in the morning to get some fresh beef. Once he buys the meat, he brings it home and begins the trimming process, which is a LOT of work. But Ben has it down to a science. He didn't have time to finish everything unfortunately, so I had to finish it up and do the grinding:

We interrupt this broadcast for a public service announcement....this is a test....this is a test of the emergency blogger system... Ugh! So, I have this whole post ready except for this last picture and the introduction to our new family member and I suddenly get this blogger message...Error 400. What?? I couldn't do a thing on blogger last night. Couldn't log in, access my dashboard, upload pictures nothing. I shut down my computer and rebooted. I finally gave up and headed to bed, but not before googling that error message. Evidently it is a random message that people get, and they recommended clearing my cache, or switching browsers...etc...Well it was too late. I figured I'd just come back tomorrow - now today - and finish my post. Thankfully no error 400 today. So, here is our new pet. And I need your help. We need a name for this little guy, who is so cute btw. She has taken up residence in our laundry room, complete with litter box and seems quite cozy in there. She loves to whine and meow, but she also loves to cuddle and purr, so I think she is getting comfortable with us.
Ben came home from his visitation on Thursday and said, "I got a surprise...bring a bowl of milk." I knew what that was and squealed. The kids still didn't catch on. So we all rushed to the laundry room, and there was our adorable new kitty! So again, I need names people! :D Respond with some ideas and I'll run them by my kiddos. If we choose the name you responded with....you win..............drumroll please........

nothing, except for the fact that our adorable kitty will bear the name you have chosen! :D

No Title

I have no title for my post. I'm a bad, bad, bad blogger! and I've left all my peeps hanging the past few weeks! It really is just getting harder and harder to keep up this 365 project. I love blogging, but don't like being stuck on having to do it every single day. I think next year, I'm going to do project 52. Rather than 365 days of pictures, pick out one highlight of the week, or something. This week I have been terrible. I haven't taken one picture! Ben took a picture of the kids yesterday. They were all dressed up for the snowstorm...haha! I won't reveal too much because I plan on coming back tomorrow (last day of school for this week!) and posting some photos. We also have a new addition to our family that I'll share (no I'm not pregnant!) and I will try to take another interesting photo tomorrow too. Then I really need to try and remember to dig my camera out each day this coming week! So, I just wanted to quickly pop in and say I'm sorry, and that I'll get some pictures up tomorrow!!

The last few days...

So, I'll catch you up on the last few days. I figured I'd better post before my mom said something...hahaha!! Just kidding mom! :D

On Sundays, Ben walks to church early. We have Sunday School in Bambili at 8. Because it is such a long day already (we don't get home until 3) I usually get ready and head to church for the main service and Children's church. I drive the car since I have all the kids, and Ben walks to church. He snapped a shot of the road ahead of him as he was walking to church on Sunday. I got the sweetest email this week. Check it out:
This kid loves to email! I bought this typing tutor program for kids. Drew went through the whole program and he types better than his dad now! So, Ben set him up with his own email account, and he checks his email everyday. He's written and received letters from his Mommy of course :D, his grandma and his Mimi and Papa and uncle Jay. He is so stinkin' cute! So, out of the blue he sent me this sweet email. He is SUCH a good kid. So easy going...never complains. He is the reason I really wanted all boys, and one girl, rather than the other way around. I'm just kidding of course. I did want that when we were planning and talking about a family, but I obviously wouldn't change a thing now!

Tuesday was hamburger night. I made yummy ranch burgers that were far to small for the buns that I made. Oops! But the family loves burgers. The kids always ask for another one. And I don't skimp on the meat either. They just love ranch burgers. We also had some dill pickles that Susan found in Younde...Oh yum. What a treat.The girls occasionally ask Ben to show them his muscles (and he does have some nice muscles). It is such a crack up to listen to them..."Wow Daddy...that is enormous!!" It makes him feel good for sure. And then of course all the kids have to show their muscles too. Daddy does a good job pumping Drew up and making a big deal of how big his muscles are. :) And then my last pic, for tonight. I had something else on the camera to post, but Ben came quietly into the kitchen as I was working on the computer and said, "Grab the camera. Here is your 365 for the night." I was like, "what?" I was expecting some big hairy spider crawling across the parlour floor or something. But instead I found this: Emma is our sleepwalker. She takes after her momma. I was a terrible sleepwalker when I was little. I once tore all the covers and sheets off of my bed in the middle of the night and threw them out in the garage. And then crawled back into an empty bed and went to sleep. Several times when I was in high school, my dad would pound on the bathroom door while I was in the shower, only to tell me that it was 2 in the morning! Huh? I did that a lot. Anyway, she walked out into the parlour and curled up on the couch and I doubt that she will even remember it happened come morning!