why i need "cute" in my life

Let me introduce this post with a short video...this was first introduced to me and nate by our good friend hannah, who we love and miss!

We must have watched this video a million times and laughed together...mostly because it's sort of like mine and nate's conversations...

Lindsey: "I want to buy those $8 thumb tacks."

Nate: "umm..why?"

Lindsey: "Because they are cute"

Nate: "But those plain silver ones are a dollar."

Lindsey: "yeah, because they aren't cute"

I think before we made this leap of faith and moved to Africa...I imagined myself living in a tiny mud house, denying myself of every "good" thing and sacraficing everything that meant something in order to serve Christ. Ok, where did I get that idea? Why is it that I can't have cute things? God never said that...and in fact, in Mark 10:28-31 Jesus says something much different:

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

   “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first." {The Bible}

Soo...that is why I have decided that it is ok to have "cute." I know I don't deserve it, and there is no Target down the road, but God is gracious and has placed this cool thing called the internet at my fingertips!! So it's ok that I order outfits for Zoe online from Old Navy and ask my mom to mail them, or a cute planner that I ask my mom to send (I love my planner!), or pretty pens, or make-up, or whatever. <At this point you are probably thinking "her poor mother is going to go broke mailing her all this stuff..." And she is sooo appreciated for it! > But it's ok that every now and then I get the urge to go shopping online and send mass amounts of stuff to my parents house. It's ok that we brought back 13 pieces of luggage when we came back from our vacation (yes, 13...that is a bit embarassing...and in our defense that included nate's parents luggage and some stuff for friends of ours here).

 I'll be honest...it's hard sometimes to live in Africa--especially when for almost 3 weeks the power has been cut  EVERY day, or because our water fluxuates from the point of not enough pressure to wash dishes to sooo much pressure that we have had to replace busted pipes like 8 times in the past year, or because we have gotten so used to our filthy floors from all the dust that we don't even notice a difference when we let our ridgeback run through the house with muddy paws....SO if a little bit of "cute" makes it a little easier and a pretty sparkly pen to write out my list for the market brings a smile to my face...well then, bring on those thumb tacks!

oh...here they are. Cute, right?? They are from the website Girl of all work. They have tons of cute stuff!

Half a year!

Wow, I cannot believe Zoe turns 6 months old today! It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital...Nate was asleep on the couch, Zoe was asleep in her little bed, and the nurse was waking me up--forcing me to drink hot chocolate. It's been a crazy 6 months and it has definitely flown by! Zoe has become quite the world traveler with flights to Kenya, London, America, and Zanzibar. We could not ask for a sweeter baby...and her smiles and laughs just melt our hearts. She is now saying "dada" and "baba" (swahili for dad) and just yesterday she started with "mama". Ahhh...

She can roll across the room, sit by herself, and she is eating avacados, bananas, and carrots (yum yum!) She loves to take baths, play with all her toys (from Aunt Tiff and Uncle Michael), listen to books, look at herself in the mirror, and watch her favorite video "lots of shapes."

Love you, baby girl!

TIA (This is Africa)

Soooo...Zoe has said her first words "dada" and "baba" which (unfortunately for me) both refer to Nate. Baba is Swahili for dad. It somehow seems unfair that I carried her for 9+ months, breastfeed her every few hours, get up in the middle of the night with her...and she gives that special little smile only to her daddy and now she loves to look at him and say "da da da da." But I cannot be mad, it's absolutely precious and it's priceless to see how elated Nathan gets.

These past two weeks have been a constant reminder to me that YES, we are in Africa (as if I could forget). One day last week it somehow ended up that we were without power, water, and gas for cooking. What do you do when that happens? You complain, then you leave the house. This is a great place to say just how much I love and appreciate Nate. He dropped what he was doing to get gas for the generator (yay for power!), gas for the stove (yay for being able to cook!), and called a fundi (repairman) to fix our busted pipe so that we could have water (yay for drinking and showers!). I don't think there has been a single day this week where we have had power the entire day. Gotta love the power company...no warning, they just shut it off whenever it suits their fancy. A couple days ago they shut it off while I had cookies in the oven, a full load in the washing machine, and clothes in the dryer.

In the past 2 years, God has taught me that it is a whole lot better to laugh and remind myself that we are living in Africa than to get stressed or upset about our circumstances. Although at times, it wears on me...I'm so thankful for my sweet husband and little girl who make me smile every day!

(I really would have loved to upload the video of Zoe saying "da da," but that was too much to ask of the internet...so a picture will have to do!)

new tastes

When we were home for vacation, Zoe had her very first taste of rice cereal. She pretty much liked it right off the bat and has been eating it ever since.

Just this week, I decided to give her the first "solid" food besdies the rice cereal. This decision came after a couple weeks of Zoe paying very close attention every time we would eat. She started reaching for our food and moving her tongue like she was hungry...and we have never fed her anything from our plates. So we figured it was time.

After shopping in Dar and seeing that jars of baby food would cost between two and three dollars (for the little tiny jars), I decided it would be best to make all her baby food myself. It wouldn't be too hard...we have tons of fresh fruits and veggies and a blender. I guess that's pretty much all you need. I researched online and asked some friends who made their own baby food and decided to start with avocados. It was super easy...I didn't even need a blender, just a fork. I mashed up the avocado and gave it to her. She was a little thrown off at first because she was expecting the rice cereal, but after a few bites she was pretty happy with it. Here she is after eating some avacados...

10 things...

These are the 10 things which I took for granted in America before we came back for our vacation a few weeks ago. We will start at the bottom...

#10 TACO BELL
Enough said, really. Oh and since when do they have new sauces? Fire Roasted and verde? Yum.

#9 WALMART
Ok, people had warned us that walking into a super Walmart would be extremely overwhelming. I welcomed it! But man oh man, they were right. The first time I walked in, I was with my mom and Aunt Judy. I just walked and walked, looked at everything and put nothing in my basket. I was just walking the aisles with my empty cart for quite a while. I hadn't been in a Walmart in almost 2 years, and I walked out with a greeting card and a bottle of sunsceen. I wanted everything and nothing. The food aisles were so overwhelming coming from our 2 half-aisles in Morogoro. I didn't know what to get, I didn't know what I needed. But no worries, I returned to walmart quite a few times before leaving and ended up filling my cart more than once. I guess I just needed to get back in the groove!

#8 THE INTERNET
A lot of our computer time is spent clicking "retry" on the internet. And then oh joy, we are connected for all of ten minutes before it kicks us off again...usually just enough time to pull up email and see that there is an email from someone that we would really like to read, but not long enough to actually pull it up to read it. Loading pictures...that is another story. Usually it takes anywhere between 10-20 minutes to load one picture. Many times I walk away to do something while they load and come back to see that it messed up somewhere in the middle. Perseverance is the name of the game. Well, at home I was able to load like 150 pictures on the internet in like 10 minutes flat. So yeah, we will miss the internet.

#7 THE MALL
I must admit, that we do have a "mall" in Dar es Salaam, however it's got about 3 stores and you can walk from one end to the other in about 45 seconds. So coming from that to the mall of GA is quite a step up. Me and Nate walked the mall a couple times. We also walked Perimeter mall when we went with my parents to the Cheesecake Factory (yum!) We ended up walking from one end to the other only going inside about 2 stores. What do you do when you want everything in every store and you are on a missionary salary? You look.

#6 HOLDING NATHAN'S HAND
In Tanzanian culture, it's really inappropriate to show any type of public display of affection. You don't see men and women holding hands, much less hugging or kissing in public. It's extremely taboo. So, in an effort to respect the culture, me and Nate never even hold hands...so it was sooo nice to just be able for Nate to put his arm around me and for everyone to see that we really do love each other. Alot.

#5 TARGET
I remember quite fondly my re-entrance to Target for the first time. As I walked from the parking lot through the automatic double doors, with the air conditioning blowing my hair, I felt like I was walking into a little bit of paradise. Almost like a scene from a movie. I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly as people around me gave little looks...I didn't care, I had forgotten the smell of popcorn as you enter the store and just the amazing feeling that comes over you when you enter a Target store. The most pleasurable shopping experience there is. You don't get that in Africa, ladies and gentlemen.

#4 DIET COKE
I cannot even guess at how many gallons of diet coke I must have drank in 3 weeks time. From the moment my parents showed up at the airport with a cold can in a cooler in the car, to my last taste at the airport before boarding the plane...ahhh. I've had a few withdrawl headaches since our return, but it was oh-so worth it. I love diet coke!

#3 DRIVING
Not just driving, but the whole idea that there are actually some traffic rules, and yes, you are actually supposed to follow them. Coming from the world of of two speed limits (50 and NOT 50), speeding through red lights and stop signs, and cutting off anyone who gives you the opportunity...it was a breath of fresh air to be around sane drivers!

#2 FRIENDS
I was so blessed to get to see so many of my friends! There was even a surprise guest who was not supposed to show up for a few more weeks. My good friend Kim and her husband brought a beautiful baby girl into the world just 3 days before we flew out. Makinley is absolutely beautiful and although I couldn't hold her (she had to stay in the lights for jaundice) I got to see her precious face in person and that was such a blessing! She is the newest arrival to the math girls. Love them!

Also, I made a short day trip to birmingham with Adrienne, Campbell, and Zoe to see Jenny (and Lyla). This was an extra special day because Jenny was not able to make the trip all the way home since Lyla Rae was scheduled to arrive anytime (since then she has made her entrance and is absolutely beautiful...more on that later!!) But we met at Target and spent several hours just walking the aisles (talking more than shopping). At one point Jenny disappeared with Zoe and were nowhere to be found for quite a while, but when they showed up, they were both all smiles (I'm pretty sure Jen gave Zoe a little sippy-sip from her starbucks!) Then we went on to Panera for lunch and catching up until we all had to head back. It was such a very special time and I'm sooo thankful Jenny was able to meet us and sooo thankful that Adrienne and Campbell took the trip with us. Cam and Zoe had quite a fun roadtrip in the backseat together!

I was also able to see some of my very best friends from college: Georgette, Robin, Leah, Kristin, and Lauren. We all met at Moes and got cheesecake afterwards. It was so much fun and an exciting time for everyone. Lauren had just gotten married and was back from her honeymoon, we were back from Africa, Georgette is pregnant, and Robin just got engaged and she all surprised us with her ring that day! It was funny because when I showed up and hugged her, I specifically looked at her hand to see if she had a ring yet. Later, while we were eating she must have slipped it on her hand and then she went into this whole story about how they went to New York and it was such an awesome trip. And Kristin made the comment like "Wow, that would have been a great time to propose!" And out comes her hand and there is the ring! So cool!

#1 FAMILY

Oh man...yes, this is number one. I miss my family! My mom let me borrow her car to go everywhere and anywhere, she babysatt and fixed us all sorts of goodies. My dad (admittedly, a baby hog) held Zoe constantly, read her books, and rocked her to sleep. And my sister and Michael brought Zoe presents seriously every time they came to the house. And Zoe, of course, loved all the attention and everyone doting on her... she's like her dad.