Bunny Sittin'

Ms Dave got out for a little bit of sunshine, hopping and munching the other day. The kids like to bunny watch in comfort and followed Ms Dave around the entire time, with their chairs. The funny thing is, Ms Dave seemed to have liked the company!

Nothing like sitting in the sun, watching your bunny

Frank sure liked it!

They sort of reminded me of an old couple here :)

These guys would have been more than happy to have "taken care of" the bunny! Bridger is actually probably about 95% safe with Ms Dave - Billy, not so much!

Clown

Before too long ( a month?) we hope to be moving into our house. I haven't blogged about it because it's been going so darn slow, but this is the front of the house and we're looking forward to moving in soon!

This is the back porch. My kitchen sink is right under that window :)

Laundry helper - what would we do without that ridge?

Billy helped me with the laundry the other day, and this is how! It's very handy to have a dog like Billy, with a very useful ridge!

First it started with this - one clothes pin



Then it went to this - three clothes pins!

Until it came down to this - spiderman underpants and a pair of Ella's undies as well!

Smile and be happy - Billy is!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood - for a Pack Walk!

The weather as of late (or pretty much always) has been particularly beautiful in the evenings when we take our Pack Walks. We've really enjoyed living in this neighborhood and since we walk so frequently people know us now and don't really stare.

This evening we had along our trusty friend and photographer, Tanya, who snapped a few shots of the Infamous Pack Walk. So come along and join us!

And away we go!

We're marching to Zion - or something! Or onward Christian soldiers? Not sure!  

The Pack - L to R : Ella, Madea, Bridger, me, Sanyu, Ranger, Billy and Frank

Literally, a "behind" shot!

Do we spot a monkey?

Ready, set...

...Action!

Our reluctant Canadian Dog Whisperer and photographer! We will convert her, we will!

The littlest Pack Leader, with Billy. Billy is a big, SLOW dog and it's a little like leading a mule!

I love Frank's eyes in this one. Nice shot of Billy's ridge, too!

Goodbye training wheels! Ella's growing up!

This week the oldest H tot achieved the high and lofty goal of riding the bike without any training wheels!!! YEAH!!!! I am SO proud of her! Truly, I am. Ella is NOT one that particularly wants to try something and fail, much less get hurt. But I knew she was ready - not to mention the fact that she's almost seven years old - so off came the training wheels yesterday and the lessons began!

It took her more time to build up her courage than it actually did on how to ride the bike. For as spastic as she is she is an extremely coordinated kid, thanks to the trampoline and jump roping. Today she was riding up and down the big paved street above our house all by herself! While I of course sat on my butt in the shade and watched :). Wonderful!

She planned ahead and wore two pairs of pants and a jacket, just in case she fell. Which surprisingly she didn't!

I think she only ran into one person :)

We are very much going to miss this neighborhood when we move. We've really enjoyed living here!

She can even handle the speed bumps!

So while riding the bike was all fine and dandy for L, this is what Ranger thought of it after a while...

This is what little brothers do while they're waiting. Sit and catch dragon flies!

And give a little "love" to the dog

And more love to the dog...

... and even a bit more love to the dog!

The bike doesn't have a kick stand but Billy works just fine

I think Bridger has the right idea to get a little extra protien added to his meal

Little Pink Riding Hood!

He cracked us up when we were at a friends house. He came happily bursting out of the house after a gaggle of older girls, in a Snow White dress! He makes a very pretty little Snow White too :)

Billy also likes to be fashionable. Here he is in Ella's headband. He is an awesome dog for only being 9 months old. Very calm, low energy and submissive.

Family time :)

Madea, enjoying a rare moment on the furniture, and her cat

Lucy

Dinner at the H's!! Won't you join us? It's possible we could even find you your own plate!

Shouldn't we know better?

I was really disturbed to see this site, especially after reading this. They could not conflict more. It is a sad day when Christians spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to tour orphanages and chalk it up to “visiting orphans” as commanded in the Bible, despite the harm that it can cause.

Is there no concern about the children’s safety? Even if a background check is run on someone, that doesn’t always catch pedophilia! And what an opportunity for a pedophile. Emotionally needy children + little supervision + unknown visitor from a foreign country with money = __________. You fill in the blank. Anyone who has spent ANY amount of time in a Ugandan orphanage knows the liberties that can be taken and lack of good supervision of volunteers.

Although I despise the word “orphan”, lets just say that I have a huge concern for them, as I’ve had some very personal experiences regarding “them”. I volunteered for two years at my daughters babies home before adopting her and knew many, many, kids during that time. I am still haunted and pray for those kids as the majority went on into big money making orphanages.It hurts to think of Ella’s little buddies, Trevor, James, Maddox, etc who are also six years old now, sitting in institutions. It makes me sick to think of my vulnerable, pretty little daughter in one.

Suffice to say, Ella and the other children at her babies home between the years of 2006-2008 changed my life. These people are as real to me as Ella is. Which is why I hate to see Paul’s command to “visit” and care for orphans misused in the context of taking tour trips to foreign countries “to visit” the poor children there.

The best thing for an “orphan” is to be placed back with their family, considering that the family is safe. It’s okay to be poor. Help the poor family alleviate their poverty rather than simply remove their child and providing for it somewhere else. One of the key points in Corbett and Fikkert’s book, When Helping Hurts, is never to do something for someone that they could do for themselves. Like, um, er, raise their child.

If it’s not possible to place the child back with his or her family or no one has any idea where the family is, as in the case of truly abandoned children, then the next best step would be to find the kid an adoptive family. Preferably a local one. If a local adoptive family can’t be found, then try an international one. If that’s not possible, than find the child a local foster family. I don’t really see why an institution should ever be needed, unless the child needs specialized medical care that a foster family couldn’t provide and the institution can provide it. This is not impossible, as this article shows.

Oh. But wait. Without these institutions, how could their be a “visiting orphans” organization? How will many local Pastors make money? My point? GET CHILDREN OUT OF INSTITUTIONS – DON’T PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK FOR SPENDING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO GO VIST THEM! IT DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD. This is not what the Scriptures mean when they tell us to care for and visit the orphans and widows! If I was using skype I’d use the “facepalm” smiley right now.

It really saddens me when Christians think that this is the best that they can do. What about the social orphans in the U.S? Rather than spending a ton of money for a two to four week trip overseas to visit their poor children, why don’t you become a foster parent? There’s a crap load of children in the United States who are far worse off than say, a Ugandan “orphan”. With the take over of drugs in our country you see reports everyday about children who have been reported “missing”, only to be found killed by their drug addicted parents. Why don’t you go visit them? More than likely they’ll even understand English and know what you’re saying!

So, my advice is to take the three to four thousand that you’d spend on a cool trip overseas to “visit” poor foreign children and a) send it to an organization like VIVA or b)reach out to a foster child or poor child in the U.S (or your respective country). Heck, maybe even foster one!

Come on Christians! We can do better than this. This is embarrassing.

Yuck - food is food!

One thing I don’t want my blog to be is a place where I continually gripe about things. BUT, I just have to gripe about something, so bear with me…

I have mixed feelings about “missionaries”. In general, I don’t like them, but individually, I do! Yes, a lot of my good friends are missionaries. Heck, I’m even supposed to be one! Like any group of people, you have some good ones and some bad ones. I’m just really intolerant of the bad ones : (

Some of the missionaries who were raised as missionary kids are the worst. Not all, but some. We were at a party this holiday with a group of these people and I was disgusted and somewhat surprised when I heard one of the “old timers” going through the food line with his daughter, talking about “Wazungu food”. Now, Wazungu means “white person”, so this was evidently all white people food? What the hell?

Yes, I was eavesdropping – he wasn’t talking to me- but I was a bit shocked at his ignorance. For one, it was a VERY mixed group of “white people.” Egyptians, South Africans (white ones), Russians, British, a Ukrainian, Americans and a Canadian. His particular group of missionaries doesn’t really mix with Ugandans socially but in this context we also had my kids, our Ugandan neighbor who is married to a Brit, and our friends black American son. So? Because these four people are black they’re not going to like the food? The black American boy is only going to like the beans because he’s black? My kids won’t like the quiche simply because of the color of their skin? What is “white food” and “black food” anyways? Is Ethiopian food “black food?” Um, no…. it’s Ethiopian food! My kids and I love Ethiopian food but most Ugandans don’t, so the type of food you like has nothing to do with race! Ethnicity is what makes food different, not the color of the ethnic group. Duh. And you’d think this fellow, after all these years of being a “missionary” would realize this. Nope, he was trying to impress his young daughter with his command of Swahili (which isn’t even spoken in these parts!) and teaching her about “white food”. Yuck.

Maybe I won’t share the pizza that we’re making tonight, with the kids. Because after all, Italians are kind of white so it must be “white food.” And no more Ethiopian food for me, because it’s “black food.” Bummer. And so ridiculous!