March 14, 2007
It’s hot here right now. This is supposed to be the rainy season and cooler, but we have only had a few short rain showers for several weeks now. Six of our seven fans have broken, which allows little relief. Less I make it sound too severe, it is still very tolerable, but I am ready for the rains to start back. It is only really uncomfortable when we are trying to sleep.
Christian is the latest to become ill and is home sick from school today. He appears to have the same illness that Blake, Addison, and I had back in early February. He only weighed 139 pounds this morning, which is less than he weighed when we left America in September even though he has grown two or three inches taller. I asked him if he wanted to add anything to this blog and he has not provided me any material yet.
We have received very few emails in recent weeks, and so we are wondering if they are disappearing into cyberspace again. We have sent out some emails that would have initiated responses and heard from only one or two people. So, if you have sent an email in the past three weeks and not heard from us, I recommend that you re-send it. Pam’s mom confirmed that we have not gotten two emails that she sent us.
We harvested our first vegetables from our garden this morning: two cucumbers and one zucchini. The dry weather is hindering a greater crop, but it was still exciting to see produce coming from our yard. We should have many vegetables in upcoming months. Getting fresh tomatoes year round has been a nice treat.
We had another near miss on an eye injury since I last wrote. The boys were playing street hockey and Blake accidentally hit Addison in the face with his stick. He has a black eye and a cut beside his eye. This makes three boys who have had injuries to the face around their eye. We thank God for his protection, and pray that Collin will not be the fourth to get hurt.
Pamela is going this weekend to Arua in northwest Uganda along the Sudan and Congo borders. She will be helping some of our friends from World Gospel Mission, John and Erica Rineheimer, who are moving there to help train pastors. She made many curtains for their house and is helping them to decorate and settle. It will probably be a nice break from mothering, even though it is an 8-hr drive and will not be an easy trip.
I found an interesting tree frog yesterday. The boys found some more chameleons and I was releasing them in a tree, when I spotted the frog. It is black with yellow stripes and resembles the poison arrow frogs from the Amazon rain forest. We saw two parrots in our yard last week, too, though they were not gray parrots, which are our favorites. We visited the local zoo last week and got to see lots of animals up close. There are wild monkeys that come into the zoo, apparently to beg for food. Christian and Blake had guavas in their pockets and the monkeys reached into their pockets to take them. The boys got a kick out of interacting with the monkeys. They were holding onto the boys’ hands and pants. One monkey got annoyed with Blake and tried to bite his leg, but fortunately did not succeed. We got to see chimpanzees as well, which were the favorite animals in captivity. It is kind of anticlimactic to go to a zoo after being on a safari and seeing everything in the wild. It was interesting though, when the ostriches began mating about 10 feet from us.
I am wondering how I am supposed to get income taxes done this year. This is a bad year for me to be out of the country when doing taxes because this will be the most complicated tax year that I have ever experienced. We sold a house, had major changes to our stock programs at SAIC, had large expenses associated with moving to Africa, and made some financial investments with the equity from the sell of our home.
I guess that it is warming up in America with the approaching spring. Spring was always one of my favorite times of the year as everything would begin turning green and the days grew longer and warmer. It was also the start of baseball season. We have 12-hr days year round, and the temperature only fluctuates about 5 to 10 degrees from rainy season to dry season. It is a pleasant climate and we are close enough to the lake that we usually have a breeze to cool us down, though a little more variety would be nice. What is interesting with this climate is to see how big some plants get that I always thought of as small in America. For example, the ficus trees are as big as oak trees, and we have salvia flowers that are 4-ft tall, when they were only 6-inches or so in America. Did you know that Uganda is one of the world’s biggest producers of roses? They are beautiful here and grow very well.
Our biggest news is that we are more seriously considering adoption. We have found out more information in recent weeks and now know that we need to start moving on this soon if we are really going to do it. You have to have a child in your custody for at least two years, and they prefer three years, if you are going to leave the country. We also found out that they need to be a “true orphan” with no confirmed living relatives if you are to get custody. So, we are seeking the Lord about this and how we should proceed. Five of us want a boy, and one of us would prefer a girl. Maybe we should get one of each. It does make me realize that I will need income again soon if we are going to increase our expenses even further. It is in our hearts to do this, though we still don’t have clear direction from the Lord.
If anyone out there is contemplating a care package, there are some small things that we could use right now that are not included on our container that is due to arrive in early May. So, if you decide to send something our way, please check in with us prior to so that we can get some small items included. It is mostly kitchen spices and inexpensive things that we just can’t get here.
If there is something that you would like to read about that I have not included, please let me know and I will write about it. I am not sure what people are interested in, and our schedule is getting so consistent that there is not as much variety to write about. I am trying to get Pamela to write something, but she says that I am doing fine. Please encourage her to add to the blog. She had an interesting experience yesterday helping a student who is pregnant.
Blessings,
Kevin for the Ironside Tribe
It’s hot here right now. This is supposed to be the rainy season and cooler, but we have only had a few short rain showers for several weeks now. Six of our seven fans have broken, which allows little relief. Less I make it sound too severe, it is still very tolerable, but I am ready for the rains to start back. It is only really uncomfortable when we are trying to sleep.
Christian is the latest to become ill and is home sick from school today. He appears to have the same illness that Blake, Addison, and I had back in early February. He only weighed 139 pounds this morning, which is less than he weighed when we left America in September even though he has grown two or three inches taller. I asked him if he wanted to add anything to this blog and he has not provided me any material yet.
We have received very few emails in recent weeks, and so we are wondering if they are disappearing into cyberspace again. We have sent out some emails that would have initiated responses and heard from only one or two people. So, if you have sent an email in the past three weeks and not heard from us, I recommend that you re-send it. Pam’s mom confirmed that we have not gotten two emails that she sent us.
We harvested our first vegetables from our garden this morning: two cucumbers and one zucchini. The dry weather is hindering a greater crop, but it was still exciting to see produce coming from our yard. We should have many vegetables in upcoming months. Getting fresh tomatoes year round has been a nice treat.
We had another near miss on an eye injury since I last wrote. The boys were playing street hockey and Blake accidentally hit Addison in the face with his stick. He has a black eye and a cut beside his eye. This makes three boys who have had injuries to the face around their eye. We thank God for his protection, and pray that Collin will not be the fourth to get hurt.
Pamela is going this weekend to Arua in northwest Uganda along the Sudan and Congo borders. She will be helping some of our friends from World Gospel Mission, John and Erica Rineheimer, who are moving there to help train pastors. She made many curtains for their house and is helping them to decorate and settle. It will probably be a nice break from mothering, even though it is an 8-hr drive and will not be an easy trip.
I found an interesting tree frog yesterday. The boys found some more chameleons and I was releasing them in a tree, when I spotted the frog. It is black with yellow stripes and resembles the poison arrow frogs from the Amazon rain forest. We saw two parrots in our yard last week, too, though they were not gray parrots, which are our favorites. We visited the local zoo last week and got to see lots of animals up close. There are wild monkeys that come into the zoo, apparently to beg for food. Christian and Blake had guavas in their pockets and the monkeys reached into their pockets to take them. The boys got a kick out of interacting with the monkeys. They were holding onto the boys’ hands and pants. One monkey got annoyed with Blake and tried to bite his leg, but fortunately did not succeed. We got to see chimpanzees as well, which were the favorite animals in captivity. It is kind of anticlimactic to go to a zoo after being on a safari and seeing everything in the wild. It was interesting though, when the ostriches began mating about 10 feet from us.
I am wondering how I am supposed to get income taxes done this year. This is a bad year for me to be out of the country when doing taxes because this will be the most complicated tax year that I have ever experienced. We sold a house, had major changes to our stock programs at SAIC, had large expenses associated with moving to Africa, and made some financial investments with the equity from the sell of our home.
I guess that it is warming up in America with the approaching spring. Spring was always one of my favorite times of the year as everything would begin turning green and the days grew longer and warmer. It was also the start of baseball season. We have 12-hr days year round, and the temperature only fluctuates about 5 to 10 degrees from rainy season to dry season. It is a pleasant climate and we are close enough to the lake that we usually have a breeze to cool us down, though a little more variety would be nice. What is interesting with this climate is to see how big some plants get that I always thought of as small in America. For example, the ficus trees are as big as oak trees, and we have salvia flowers that are 4-ft tall, when they were only 6-inches or so in America. Did you know that Uganda is one of the world’s biggest producers of roses? They are beautiful here and grow very well.
Our biggest news is that we are more seriously considering adoption. We have found out more information in recent weeks and now know that we need to start moving on this soon if we are really going to do it. You have to have a child in your custody for at least two years, and they prefer three years, if you are going to leave the country. We also found out that they need to be a “true orphan” with no confirmed living relatives if you are to get custody. So, we are seeking the Lord about this and how we should proceed. Five of us want a boy, and one of us would prefer a girl. Maybe we should get one of each. It does make me realize that I will need income again soon if we are going to increase our expenses even further. It is in our hearts to do this, though we still don’t have clear direction from the Lord.
If anyone out there is contemplating a care package, there are some small things that we could use right now that are not included on our container that is due to arrive in early May. So, if you decide to send something our way, please check in with us prior to so that we can get some small items included. It is mostly kitchen spices and inexpensive things that we just can’t get here.
If there is something that you would like to read about that I have not included, please let me know and I will write about it. I am not sure what people are interested in, and our schedule is getting so consistent that there is not as much variety to write about. I am trying to get Pamela to write something, but she says that I am doing fine. Please encourage her to add to the blog. She had an interesting experience yesterday helping a student who is pregnant.
Blessings,
Kevin for the Ironside Tribe
posted by Ironside Tribe at 10:41 PM
3 Comments:
I wonder who wants the girl in the family? Could that be Pamela, I would like a girl as well. Thank you, Thank you for the pictures. I would love to hear what Pamela is doing in her own words, however, you do an awesome job. Are the boys adjusting better, or is it day by day. I have sent an email, not sure if you got. God bless, Lisa K
It's great to see pictures of the boys. Now I can "see" more of you and life.
Collin and Addison have grown! I hope you and Pamela adopt a girl! So that make 2 out of seven who want a girl! ;)
P.S. I'm going to send a test email tonight, let me know if you get it.
Katie
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