our homes...

We paid our rent yesterday and will get to live in our apartment one more year. Actually, about 11 more months. And then he wants to sell it, so we'll have to move. A fourth move in what'll be 6 years. Boy. He asked us why we don't buy a house. Well, there are lots of reasons...

We have lived here 2 years so far, and it feels like home. And it's where we want to bring two more babies home to. 2 (hopefully) babies from Ethiopia. We don't have any exciting news on that front. We are still doing paperwork. EVERY part of the paperwork has been a long wait. And then, just when we thought we were finished, nope. We're not.

So maybe we'll get to bring them to what now feels like home. Or maybe not. Our home really isn't on earth, so we can live anywhere--I just tend to get attached....

In other news, we had a successful family trip to the mountains with our friends who came to visit from Mississippi/Tulsa. It was so nice to be out there and let the boys run and play and throw rocks into the river and just enjoy the outside. And Johnny got to hike to the most beautiful place he's ever been in this part of the world. Those words came out of his mouth...So it was a wonderful trip. Johnny asked us if we want to go again at the end of June. Kind of. Kind of not. We'll see.

I think it looks pretty, too!!

We do hope to someday be able to get an apartment out there, so maybe we'll have a home out there...

Superboys

My kids have been wearing red napkins clipped with a clothespin for almost 2 days straight.

Because they're superheroes!

This is what we do.

drinkin' tea

One of my favorite things to do in this enormous country is drink tea. It is, after all, the land of tea...

I like to go to the same restaurant/tea house and drink tea as much as I can get time to do it. I also like to talk to the sweet younger-than-me ladies who serve the tea. So, while I can't post pictures of them here, I really love them. And I really love their sweet milk tea.

Happy Easter!

We are so excited it's Easter!

And we wanted to say Happy Easter!

With love

just a day

Johnny was gone for 2 weeks to the States. And the boys and I didn't get to go. That would've been a HUGE chunk of the money we're trying to save to adopt children from Africa!

So, we stayed here and played and watched movies and got to hang out with friends! We had fun.

Johnny was gone for 2 weeks to the States. And the boys and I didn't get to go. That would've been a HUGE chunk of the money we're trying to save to adopt children from Africa!

So, we stayed here and played and watched movies and got to hang out with friends! We had fun.

I took pictures one day just of the places we went and the people we saw and the things we played.

We got up and went to get the local version of what we think taste like donuts without the sugar. So we dip them into sweetened condensed milk--as close as we can get to an easy donut for less than 25 cents each.

We were in our big market across the street from our apartment. This is a guy buying peas at the veggie stall...

the front of the veggie stall

One of the perks of living here: cheap flowers. We bought freesia (I think--anyway, it smells so good!). They got to ride with our friend, Zipper in the back of the stroller.

And the flower lady gave free flowers...

And we went home to play outside.

Now it might help to tell what our home is like. We live in an apartment complex. There are 7 or 8 buildings with about 16 floors in each building. And they are built in somewhat of a circle that surround a courtyard. Our courtyard has playgrounds, a sandbox type area, exercise equipment (not at all like the equipment in the states, so don't picture it that way), and small waterways with fish and rocks. Our children choose to play on the rocks and in the water. Even with all the other fun stuff...

On this particular day, we found a turtle. We think it might be the turtle we set free in December. His name was Nugget, so we called this turtle Nugget all day, too.

And while Luke was being his version of a Wild Kratt, Jace was doing this:

and this (sorry about the blur.)

and while both of them played, they had this audience

We love that we get to live here and play here and meet people all around us here. We think they're pretty cool...

the mountains sans kids

I went to the mountains last week for 3 whole days. And it was with friends. And Johnny kept our boys. It was fun! And I missed my boys, too. But it was fun! The sunshine was awesome, and we kept the pace pretty slow and low-key. Visited some friends, tried to visit some friends that weren't there, and made some new friends!

We were invited to sit down with some cool ladies. One of them spoke the language we've learned for 4 plus years. The others all spoke their local dialect that we don't speak at all (but that gives us lots of motivation to learn!!). And they were on a little break when we stopped.

And then the break ended. And they all went back to building this monstrous house together for one of the ladies (also doing labor) in the community. Pretty awesome system, in my opinion. I helped load and lift one basket full of rocks. Made me feel like a total wimp. Which, really, I am.

I really love these tractors that carry stuff in the back. I think that some September/October I want to load one down with hay and take the boys for a hayride. But this one is loaded down with rocks--way more useful for the work everyone was doing.

And we found a small temple. We went in, and the little monk tried to get us to say things to all the pictures of other higher up monks, but we're not really into that.

After which we played with balloons outside the temple with the village kids. And their grandpa. I only have his picture. Isn't he cute?

It was a good trip. Johnny and I want to try to be out there for a couple weeks/months at a time sometime next semester. Crossing our fingers...

PS the top picture is the backdrop to the workers that were working on the house. Pretty awesome. My friend said something about becoming immune to it. I do wonder if it's possible to become immune to the beauty. And then I think, Nah, not possible!

Thailand and some favorites

We went to Thailand. And took some lovely pictures of the boys playing in the sunshine. But they won't be featured today because apparently, we are the last people in the planet still using film cameras. Or at least the last people in our city. I hope when Johnny goes back to the states for weddings in April he can get them developed!

And speaking of the states, I thought I'd just show our favorite thing we brought back from the states last summer. Well, this and our flavored coffee that we have been mixing with the cheap IKEA coffee we buy. (That way, our flavored coffee lasts LOTS longer!).

It's the quilt I found in my Grandma's house a few years ago. It's hand-stitched. And it's not machine washable, so it's entirely impractical for the stage of life we are in, but it just feels so good to snuggle under a quilt and watch a movie. Or sleep blissfully. So it's our favorite thing we brought back with us. And it will now go with us wherever we go...

And I thought I'd show a picture of what we do on the gray winter days around here. It's a cave, and that's a bear in the cave, in case you didn't know. He was disturbed by a pesky photographer (in a loose sense of that word) from his hibernation...