Babysitting Some Cuties

Last week, friends of ours asked us if we would watch their two children for a few days while they went away. Sean and I jumped at the chance because well, we kind of like children. In case you didn’t know.  J

We had the joy of watching Elisha (3.5 years old) and Claire (16 months) from Wednesday to Saturday. It was a few days of fun and positive learning experiences for Sean and me.

In hopes of having our own children some day, I secretly (well not so secret anymore, I guess) have a list of stuff that I would DEFINITELY NEED for us (I mean....our children) to make life easier. It’s been watching other parents over the years and seeing what things they get and thinking, “Oh wow, that would be great to have.”  The list is a long one.  J

Some things we learned/observed while watching the cuties for those few days:

1.       My husband is going to be one AMAZING father some day.

2.       I have a lot more patience than I thought I had.

3.       Cuddle time is one of my favourite things.

4.       Boys are DEFINITELY different than girls.

5.       When the children are napping, the parents should nap as well.

6.       The parents definitely need to have “mommy and daddy time”.

7.       Boys like to be villains and heroes; the killer and the saviour all in one character.

8.       Girls love the attention of the dad; it’s as if they know/sense the security that they have with him.

9.       No matter what age a kid is, they LOOOVE Macaroni and Cheese.

10.   I love the way little children say my name: Ma-wee.

11.   We can learn from them: faith, fearlessness and innocence.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos:

Meet Miss Claire!

Meet Hero Elisha

Miss Claire's Funny Face

Hero Elisha bein' all cool.

Uncle Sean & Miss Claire making funny faces.

Hero Elisha

Kids. Are. Awesome.

Much love,

Meredith

Update On Our Previous Blog

Thank you everyone who emailed or commented about our previous blog: http://stewartsinafrica.blogspot.com/2011/06/two-deaths-for-price-of-what.html  and for saying that you were praying for all of us here.  We ALWAYS appreciate the prayers.

On Friday evening, we found out that the suspects in the murders/robberies were arrested. They were arrested in our community again; it being assumed that they were possibly going back to the organization to steal some more.  It is also being talked about it that it was probably an inside job.

One of our TI staff workers was a neighbour to one of the murdered watchmen. She said it was a horrible ordeal.  The man was in his early 60’s. He was married years ago and has grown children who are married and with their own children. The first wife died some few years ago and he remarried again. With this second wife, he has younger children, around the ages 6-10. It’s been difficult for the family since his death, just over a week ago, but the organization and/or the company that the man worked for, are going to be providing the wife with odd jobs so that she can now bring an income in to help provide for her children.

The other watchmen who was killed, I don’ t know any information on, except the area that he came from, that he was a bit younger and that his death was far more gruesome than that of the older man.

Again, these men were son, brothers, uncles, fathers, grandfathers and husbands.

Ever since this crime happened, there have been GSU (General Services Unit) soldiers patrolling our community at night. I don’t know if this will continue now that that suspects have been arrested or not.  Either way, the people who did this are behind bars and we are all at a little more peace.

So there is an update for all of you who have been praying for us and were worried. Things are okay now but please know that we do always welcome prayer for our safety and day to day life here. Prayer is such a wonderful covering to have.  Thank you again everyone.

Much love,

Meredith

Two deaths for the price of what?

This morning I learned that a compound in our community, which belongs to a very well known organization, was broken into over the weekend.   The two watchmen, who look after the compound in the evening, were beaten, tied up and slaughtered.  For what?

Computers. Cameras. Money.

Two men died; their lives, in the eyes of the thieves, were worth less than a computer, a camera and money.

Are things becoming so desperate here that people are now doing the desperate measures to get by? And do desperate measures really mean taking the life of two men? Men who were sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands. It sickens me.

Desperate times are here. Maize (corn) bags at 90kgs are selling at about 4,000 shillings ($44 CDN) each (and as a maize scandal continues to rock this country). Maize is the staple food here for Kenyans. And at $44 per 90kg bag, it’s very expensive for a family who may only live off of $30 CDN per month.

Then we have the rice shortage that is happening. We’re being told by people that rice is becoming scarce here as the distributors of rice are being sold up by the Asians. So any rice that we do have here is going up in price. Rice is another great dish among the Kenyan people.

As we feel it all over the world, prices of EVERYTHING are going up. Most of us are feeling the pinch.

But to resort to slaughtering two men to get electronics, to sell, to have money? No, that’s not right.

My heart is heavy today. Yes, with the news that I heard of two men dying such a horrible death but for something even more.

I can’t explain the heaviness. It’s hard to put into words and in all honesty, I’m not sure I completely understand it myself.

Much love,

Meredith

I Hope You Dance

Sean and I have been married for 2 years, 3 months, 3 weeks and four days. But who’s counting? Well, actually the little counter thingy is on our blogspot. See it on the left hand side?  J

Anyway, tonight we had some friends over for dinner and we were chit-chatting about life and things in general.   

Throughout the night, I would turn my head to Sean and he’d wink at me or I’d wink at him.  Two years of marriage doesn’t seem like a lot, and it isn’t but Sean and I have grown so much together these past two years that it seems like we’ve been together our whole lives. We just fit so well as husband and wife.

When our friends left, we had a lot of dishes to do but we took a few minutes to just hug and talk and laugh. We had music playing in the background during dinner and dessert with our friends and after they had left, the music was still playing....

So, we danced.

Like there wasn’t a care or thought in the world.

Just Sean and me.

And it was wonderful.

It reminds me of a song, “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack. In it she sings:

“I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger

May you never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens

Promise me you’ll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance”

Life has thrown us curveballs over the past year but Sean and I choose to dance. Dance with each other; dance before our Father and dance with complete joy and love.

And when you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance too.

Much love,

Meredith

Mouse in the House Part II (From Rat-a-2-ee to Rat-a-9-ee)

Last week Meredith shared about our experiences with a rat in our house and the adventure we had capturing it.  Since that time we have had nine confirmed kills.  Some have been literally at the hands of James.  Some have been at the hands of poison (more in this in a bit).  Some have been at the hands of traps.  There really is more than one way to kill a rat!

We have found them in our buffet, our stove, and heard them scampering around in our attic.  One day James and I were taking the back off of the stove so that we could see if there was one hiding.  We had heard noises coming from it, but as we banged the sides, and moved the stove around, there was no sign of any rat, other than the droppings around and behind, and as we looked, inside.

The more coverings that came off, the more exposed the insulation became.  The rat popped up to see what was going on, and the short chase ensued.  James reached in to grab the rat.  The rat dropped to the floor and ran back and forth for a bit.  I alerted James to this fact and he tried another time to grab the rat.  The rat scurried over to the table that holds our toaster and spice rack and began to climb one of the legs.  James finally got a hold of it and put the rat out of our misery.  We cleaned up the remaining mess all before “The Scream Machine” (as James called Meredith that day) got back from a lunch date with her friend.

This cat and mouse game was getting to be too much.  We decided to switch tactics.  We thought that the best way to deal with the critters was to put poison into the ceiling.  This was the safest place, as it was nowhere near a place where the dogs could get the poison.  The next morning, we discovered that one of the rats had carried the poison from the ceiling to the outside of the house and left the poison next to one of the dogs’ food dishes.  That day we decided to have the watchmen keep a close eye on the dogs, look for any poison or dead rats around the house as they did their rounds, and tie the dogs up when they left so that they could be as safe as possible.  We have not used poison since and moved to traps.

We had seen that seven had been killed, and could smell from the ceiling in our veranda (as there was no access large enough to allow a person inside to investigate) a sixth one.  Today James informed me of a present he had discovered on the veranda.  I went out to see a rat’s tail hanging from a gap in the ceiling panels and the fascia.  The flies were a buzz with the discovery.  James pulled the rat out, ever so carefully, and disposed of the body.  Later this afternoon, he told me that we needed to do some more investigating as there was still a smell coming from the veranda.  On a hunch, he climbed the water tower to look on the roof of the veranda.  Sure enough, there was the ninth one dead on the tile roof of the veranda.  That one had been there a while and was half decomposed.

We believe that there is at least one more varmint to get.  We will keep you posted once they are gone.

Our Saturday in Pictures

Regan with Uncle Sean's glasses on

Rosey & Mary

Lydia, Rosey, Mary & Joyce

Singing for us

Regan sleeping on Auntie Mary

Baby Mary and her tongue

Baby Mary and her Mama, Virginia

Martin taking a picture

Lilian and Rosey

Joyce with Baby Mary on her back.

Regan's Funny Face

Playing Football

Shiro

The Kiddos

Our Thursday in Pictures.

Enjoy! We certainly did!

Getting ready to hand out biscuits!

Yummy biscuits

Saying "Thank you!"

"Maaary!"

"Yeah, I know I'm cute!"

"Yuuuuummmy!"

"Whatchu talkin' about Sean?"

"Can I have more biscuits if I flash you this cute smile?"

"I love my Baba Jeff."

"My name is Churchill LIVE."

"Am I cute or what?"

"Are you taking a picture of me?"

"Whatcu doin' Sean?"

"I just flash this smile and I get what I want."

"We're so cool!"