Our kids

Just a normal picture of the kids.. Hannah trying to look as sweet as ever, Nolan wondering what he is looking at, and Hailey distracted by something!

I know we have been mostly posting about the Maasai ministries on this blog but this morning as my girls are off at school and Nolan is sleeping there are so many things I could be doing but I feel the need to write a bit about my kids.  So, for those of you that read about kids and are tired of hearing stories of other peoples kids, I’m sorry!! You may not want to continue., but for those of you who want to hear more about who my kids are, here you go.....

Hannah started school in April.  She was so excited to go to school and we were so excited for her to go.  The first week was great. She went from 9-3.  At first we thought  that was too much to start with but after picking her up at 3 she didn’t seem upset with the amount of time we had her in her class.  But after the first couple days Hannah started showing signs of stress.  She would get very, very nervous before we got to school and then came the screaming.  We had her teachers take her inside and she would be screaming for us not to leave her.  I decided then that we would pick her up early. Maybe the amount of time she was gone was too hard for her to start so quickly with.  When I would pick her up in the afternoon she would cry that she wanted to stay at school and why was I picking her up before all the other kids.  She was so mad at me for picking her up early.  So, we tried a couple more days of her screaming in the morning, hiding in her room and then again, at the end of the day  screaming that she didn’t want to leave school.  We would wait outside the school gate in the mornings and listen for about 2 minutes and the screaming would stop.  Every day when she came home she was so proud of everything she did at school. She couldn’t stop talking about how much she loved school but in the morning her fear would come again.  She started biting her nails and just shaking.  We decided to give her a break. We pulled her out for a week to reassess what to do.  The teachers encouraged us to bring her again but maybe for only 3 days.  Then we brought Nolan home so getting her to think about leaving her brother to go to school was hard.  We thought of another solution.  Hailey kept asking when she was going to get to go to school. We kept telling her it wasn’t time yet and not til she was five.  So, the teachers suggested hailey going to school a couple days a week. They had a program for 3 year olds.  We asked Hannah if she would go if hailey went.  That perked her up and got her excited to show Hailey everything and have her there with her.  So, these past 3 weeks Hailey has been a champ and now Hannah can't wait to go to school, whether it is with Hailey or by herself.  She was so excited to go.  The teachers says she gets a bit tired by the end of the day but she is very happy to be at school.  It is so funny listening to what their teachers say about them.  Here is a bit of what I have heard about my two girls from school:

  Hailey answers every question (whether she knows the answer or not).  She has a lot of energy and likes to just play, even if it is by herself.  She excuses herself from learning time and goes and sits in the corner and plays with a toy J She pretends to be animals all of the time, walking on all fours.  When asked if she wanted to do show and  tell she said “yes, right now”.  They told her that she needed to wait a couple of days and it would be her turn.  All day she kept asking when she could share.  She wanted to share about her headband.  She wanted to show everyone the different ways she could wear it.  When I came to pick her up she ran out to me yelling “mom please go home. I haven’t shared about my headband. They keep telling me Thursday but I want to share right now!”.  The teachers at Sunday school have asked me if she always has this many stories at home and if I really think they are all true.:)  My social little butterfly.  She plays with every kid there, including the older ones and is not afraid to sing and dance.  When Hailey colors she uses every color she can find and colors as fast as she can to make it look as colorful and beautiful as she can!  When she plays with Nolan it is with so much intensity that sometimes she knocks him over because she is hugging him so hard!

Hannah is reserved.  She sits and waits until she is called on and even then sometimes refuses to give an answer.  Most of the time I am sure that she knows the answer she is just so nervous to say it.  She has a very good friend at school that she loves and says how thankful she is that she has such a good friend.  Hannah is very respectful and always remembers to say please and thank you.  She adores her teacher and loves the times that they get to learn.  She sits anxiously waiting to learn more but then when it is time to play she chooses very carefully who she and her “best friend Amanda” are going to play with.   When asked if she would do show and tell she asked if she could try and if she was too scared if she could stop.  Yesterday, she brought a toy that her Auntie Sarah and her cousin Emma gave her (yes, Uncle John and Johnny did as well but she said she was pretty sure the boys didn’t pick out this out cause it was a princess thing and boys would have picked her out a ball or something).  They said that she was very nervous but she got up there and shared her toy.  On the way home I noticed she had bitten her nails all the way down to bleeding, but she was so proud of herself for doing it. She said “Mom they absolutely loved it! They were all smiling at me and their questions made me so happy.  They really were so happy I shared!”  Hannah’s heart is in everything she does.  She is so sensitive and I have seen the good that can come out of that.  At home the other day she was sick with a fever and a stomach bug.  She was lying in my bed watching a movie with Hailey (who pretends she is sick when Hannah is so she can watch the movie) and she said that when the movie was over she saw a shadow in the room.  It wasn’t a normal shadow though, it was a white shadow.  She was so confused because she hasn’t ever seen a white shadow, only gray shadows.  Then she realized that it was Jesus watching over her.  She told me that she told Hailey and just sat and hugged Hailey as they looked at the shadow. She told me she felt so loved by Jesus that He was sitting in that room with her!  Another day she was drawing a picture of Jesus and made him half dark brown and half yellow. When we talked to her about it she said that Jesus told her that He was not just for Americans but he was God for the Maasai so Jesus must look like he is all different colors.  He couldn’t be all brown or all yellow, he had to have a little of each person in him.   I am constantly in awe of the things Hannah hears from Jesus. She teaches me more about Jesus every day.

 

Nolan is a funny little boy.  He mimics everything that we do.  After we sneeze, he tries to make that sound.  When we laugh he pretends he is laughing hysterically.  He always tries to dance, even when walking by someones house with music on.  He loves to be held and I believe he would be fine never being put down on the floor but when you put him down he crawls so incredibly fast!  His adventurous side is slowing coming out.  He is very social as long as someone he knows is holding onto him.  Anybody that walks by our house he waves at and screams.  He wants people to look at him.  He has started to squint his eyes thinking he is making a funny face and then starts laughing.  He has learned so much in the past month.. Yes, June 8^th it will be a full month that he has been home with us! He has learned to wave hi and goodbye, when we say Hello he puts whatever he is playing with up to his ear and mimics the sound of hello like he is talking on a phone, he signs “more” and “all done” when he is eating.  He knows High five and how to clap. He tickles the girls.  He has learned what “hapana” means and stops when he hears it.  “Hapana” means no in Swahili. We realized after naming Nolan that “no” sounds a lot like his name.  Nick sings a song that just says “no no no no no no “ and Nolan loves it and starts to dance every time. So one day he tried to turn on the stove and I said “no no” and he started smiling and dancing… so we are using “hapana and tabala (Maasai)”.    Nolan has been a trooper out in Maasai land and has gone to visit a couple of bomas.  He isn’t too scared of the Maasai and even gives them high fives.  The one thing he is fearful of is animals!  He sees anything and starts to cry.  We aren’t sure what made him so scared of animals but even chickens frighten him.  He is terrified so we have tried to keep all animals away from him.  He is adjusting so well now and has stopped crying when his food is all gone and when his bottle is empty.  When he came home he had 2 bottom teeth and now one top tooth just came through yesterday  The other is sooo close! I am hoping after those come through his naps during the day will start getting longer than 20 minutes!!

So, those are my kids.   They are all soo different and so amazing!  I feel soo blessed to be able to raise them.  Lately I have been feeling so overwhelmed and really wondering what I am doing!  I have forgotten what it was like to be a mom to a baby.  Nolan needs everything! He needs his diaper to be changed (every hour due to changes of food and his stomach trying to adjust), a bottle, spoon fed all of his food (he is still trying to grasp food but won’t put it near his mouth), played with him all of the time, etc.  All the things I forgot about when you have a 3 and 5 year old.  The hard part is its all started right away. There was no newborn time.  No time to adjust.  Just BAM a 9 month old that needs me 24 hrs a day.  I had been waiting and waiting for this moment but I forgot what this would mean.  My day is full of poop, bottles, making my own food, playing with blocks, and cleaning up again.  Its different than in the states where I have friends around to help or to just vent to when the days are hard.  It feels so different to not be in a familiar place with a new baby.  Everything feels harder.  Getting food, making food and hoping the electricity will stay on long enough to be able to blend the food I am making, finding diapers that don’t leak every time that he goes to the bathroom,  etc.  I have been so homesick and really missing family and friends.

 With Nolan home the girls have been a little more needy.  Just last night Hannah told me that she really misses me being her mom!  This broke my heart and I started to cry. I asked her what she meant and she said before when she would ask me to play with her sometimes I would say I have work to do but other times I would play with her.  Now every time I say I have work to do.  She asked me if I could please have Daddy make dinner tomorrow so that I could have some time to sit and play or draw or something with her.  She told me that she doesn’t know why she is so sad but she just feels like I choose everything over being with her.  Oh man, that shot right to the heart.  I had been feeling like maybe I should take on something else at the base or do more ministry out in Engikaret with the maasai women and trying to figure out how to do that.  I had been feeling like being a mom wasn’t enough right now.  After she said that I felt so excited about what my work is and I felt inspired to be able to be a mom to my kids.  Today when I woke up it felt like a new day and that the Holy Spirit really poured out on me an overwhelming love for my children.  I am going to walk in that!