my valetines...

I'm a tad late on this post, but I couldn't let it go without writing just a wee bit about our Valentine's day festivities. I had planned a special get-a-way for me and Nate, but it got pushed back just a little, which didn't really bother us at all. After all, it's just an arbitrary day to remember the ones you love! (On a side note...I don't get people that boycott Valentine's Day...yes, you should show love every day, but what's wrong with putting a day aside so it doesn't get lost in the busy-ness of life??) Nate brought home 2 bouquets...one for me and one for Zoe!

Anyhow, so Nate took his two valentines out for a fancy dinner on the 14th. Zoe was an angel (which is not always the case, believe it or not) and she sat and enjoyed dinner with us--all the while showing all the people at surrounding tables all her new tricks (waving, blowing kisses, etc.) Never a dull moment with that child!

And then this past Thursday, we finally got our night away! Ever since we first moved to Tanzania and saw a movie at was was then THE movie theater in Dar...we were enamored by the advertisements for "The Colosseum" that played before the movie started. It's this fancy-shmancy hotel with a state of the art gym and a nice pool, and plush rooms (with a/c!). So, we splurged and stayed the night. Our sweet friend Webber stayed at our house with Zoe so we could have the night away. It was fabulous...we layed by the pool and read, Nate got to watch football (soccer, that is) on the nice flat screen at the foot of the bed, we played games, had an amazing dinner, and ate ice cream in bed while we watched some awkward dumb show on MTV...(btw, when did MTV cease to be cool and start playing dumb crap all.the.time?!) Anyway, we had a wonderful time and thank you, Webber for hanging with Zoe all night!

Zoe is 1 !!!

I know, I know...I'm a bit late on this post (and everything else that has been going on). Things are a bit crazy. But first things first...my baby girl has turned ONE year old. Our 4 Hands-On Volunteers got here the day before Zoe's birthday. So, to celebrate we took her to a restaurant here in Dar where they sang "Happy Birthday" to her. It sort of freaked her out..I posted the video on Facebook. But she was happy because she got to spend her birthday with four new friends (who are fantastic, by the way). She had such a fun-filled day, that she sort of had a melt down just about the time we were going to give her the birthday cupcake. Sooo...we decided to wait until her party, because she wouldn't have been too impressed at that point.
So that Saturday, we invited our friends over to the house for Mexican food and birthday cake! Yum! Nathan's mom had sent some decorations for the top of Zoe's cake (pictures below). So we had a grand time and Zoe loved being the center of attention (as always). But we sure missed all our family and friends back home and we are excited that we will be home for Zoe's second birthday to celebrate with them! Thankfully we got to skype with both my parents and Nate's parents for them to wish Zoe a happy birthday!

Now that Zoe is 1...she is no longer drinking formula! She has switched to whole milk and seems to be doing fine! She is taking steps (I think 5 is the most I've seen) but would much rather crawl to where she is going. She has started talking like crazy...not many actual words, but she babbles to herself all day long and she certainly seems to know what she is talking about! She is eating everything now...she loves her snacks, and is always quite interested in what Mommy and Daddy are eating and drinking!

what's NOT new?

Seriously...if you ask me what's new with us lately, that is how I would respond. When it rains, it pours...I'm starting to learn what that really means. After spending over 2 years in Africa, I've {tried} to get get adjusted to the extremely slow pace of life...It's hard for me--see, I'm a planner at heart. I absolutely love to have a schedule, to know what's going on a week from Thursday and to write it all in my cute little planner and stick that cute little planner in the fabulous purse that my husband just bought me (if he reads this, he will get on to me because I haven't gotten it out of the shopping bag yet...I can't help it...It's a disease). Anyway, we are trying our best to learn that here in Tanzania nothing goes as planned. We have been in our new house for 2 months now and where is Zoe still sleeping? Our bathroom in her pack and play...Ugh, it sort of makes me cringe just thinking about how much time it takes to get stuff done around here. Her room has been "being worked on" for 2 months now...we are waiting on the last piece of the puzzle--her air conditioner to be put in (correctly). It's always "tomorrow.." or "later.."  But I digress...

All of the sudden, things have been happening non-stop. It's exciting and exhausting and scary! It's something I'm just not used to on this side of the world. We had such a nice, relaxing, slow Christmas and then BOOM! It's been non-stop since...On New Years Day, we left to go to a meeting in Nairobi. A two-day drive with a sick baby and when we arrived we decided it wasn't just a little cold. She started throwing up, could not hold anything down and refused to drink or eat. So we took her to the doctor (and believe me, I was thanking the Lord that we were in Nairobi with a great pediatrician)! He advised that we check her into the hopital because she was beginning to get dehydrated and they wanted to run some tests because she now had a rash.  We took her right away and they took her blood to run tests, hooked up an IV to her little hand, and she just layed so still in my arms...she didn't even have the strength to keep her eyes open. I won't go into too much detail, because it makes me sad to think about. But the Lord gave us grace through the night..Zoe slept well (although me and Nate didn't since we were sharing a twin bed!) and in the morning she was feeling much better. The doctor said it was a bad virus and she would be back to normal soon. Ahhh, praise God for that!

After that, we had a great meeting and after doing some shopping and eating at KFC (yes, that is right...Nairobi now has a KFC...and it was good!) Oh, and Planet Yoghurt! I know I've mentioned this a million times...but i.love.nairobi. We made our two-day trek back to Dar and tried to continue getting our new house in order. But...no rest for the weary. This Wednesday, our Hands On volunteers arrive. Two guys and two girls from the States are coming for about 4 months to help us with our ministry here. SO EXCITED about this. So we have been tirelessly shopping, setting up and cleaning their apartments, and planning what this semester is going to look like for our team of 7 (8 including Zoe!)

Let's see...what else? Oh, Chester (our Ridgeback) is a daddy! A proud daddy at that--10 puppies! Molly (his wife) went into labor Saturday night around 10:30 pm (wonderful timing since Nate was preaching at church the next morning). She had 6 puppies by 1:45 am and had calmed down a bit and was letting them nurse...we thought that was it, so we went to bed. Only to wake up to find 4 more! They are real precious though and Molly is a good mom. We introduced Chester to the pups today. Nate had him on a leash and let him get close, he was just smelling around and watching them squirm...well, I guess he got a little too close and Molly gave a little growl and showed her teeth and he backed off rather quickly!! So he likes to be near them and lays on the back porch with them, but he knows better than to get too close. It was pretty cool watching them be born. She knew exactly what to do...made sure she licked all the yucky stuff off so they could breathe, licked them to get their blood pumping, chewed off the umbilical cord (i know, gross). But it reminded me just how amazing our God is... every aspect of His creation perfectly planned. Zoe loves to watch Molly with the pups and wants to get down and play with them...I can't imagine 10 puppies and Zoe running around the yard in about 8 weeks...wreaking havoc...aye aye aye

Oh....and speaking of Zoe. My precious little girl is about to be 1! Ahhh...it's almost unbelievable that an entire year has gone by. Her birthday is Thursday. And her birthday party is Saturday...I think if I wasn't so crazy busy, I might get depressed that the extent of the party will be mexican(ish) food, cake, and party plates (which cost more than I care to share with you...I had to convince Nate to get them). I think about what her first birthday might look like in America...family, friends, gifts, one of Vanessa's extravagant cakes, balloons, ice sculptures (ok, just kidding about that). I could drive myself into some serious jealousy looking at pictures on facebook or ideas on pinterest that just aren't gonna happen in Tanzania. But I look around and remind myself how incredibly blessed we are...I mean look at this sweet little girl...yeah, who needs an ice sculpture?

Did I mention she is starting to walk? She isn't quite there yet. She takes one or two steps by herself, then plops down...maybe because she is scared, but personally I think it because she can crawl herself across the room in no time flat and she is way too busy and active to take the time to slowly and carefully walk. I'm not pushing her...I know once she starts walking for real, I'll never catch up!

11 months

Thinking that Zoe will be a year old in less than a month is making me a little sad... Oh how the time is flying by. Sometimes that makes me happy though...like when I think that this time next year we will be home for our stateside--enjoying our first Thanksgiving and Christmas at home in 3 years! Ahhhh...I'm already SO excited about that!!

Zoe is growing like a weed--still more length than pudge. But she is getting a little belly on her! She still has 6 teeth and they are almost all the way in. It's amazing how much her teeth have changed the way she looks. Still cute as a button though. She celebrated her first Christmas just a day before she turned 11 months old. She had a great time opening presents, watching Christmas movies, skyping with family back home, and listening to her daddy read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible on Christmas night. We baked (and ate) Christmas cookies and had a grand old time!

Just within the past two days, she has started standing up on her own. Like from sitting on the ground to standing...not even pulling up on anything. But it's only for a few seconds. She stands up--looks to make sure we are watching, smiles with pride, and plops back down. She is eating less and less "baby" food and more of what we are eating at mealtimes--which she seems quite pleased with. She loved our Christmas dinner of meatloaf and mac and cheese (still so much like her daddy!) She has more energy than ever and it is almost impossible to keep up with her. This is what we found her getting into recently...she got the box out of the pantry, opened it and pulled out the plastic bag. Then got the oatees (like chocolate cheerios) and is enjoying the fruit of her labor:

We went to the beach to relax and celebrate Zoe turning 11 months. Here are a few pictures of us hanging out at the pool:

merry christmas!!

10 months (and a few weeks)

I'm totally slow on posting this...Zoe was 10 months on the 26th and we are almost halfway in to December. There has been so much going on since we moved to Dar...we are still trying to get our house in order (building a wall in Zoe's room, painting, putting up curtain rods and curtains, decorating for Christmas). There is much more going on here than there was in Morogoro which means less time for me to get on the computer.

Anyway, we celebrated Thanksgiving on the day Zoe turned 10 months. It was a Saturday because since Thanksgiving is just an American holiday, people were still working and kids were still in school here. So we celebrated with a bunch of friends on that Saturday. We had all the traditional foods of Thanksgiving--which is a rare treat here so we were really excited. Especially since we had chinese food on Thanksgiving day.

It seems as though each month goes by a little faster and my little girl is so close to turning 1 year old. Each month I'm amazed to look back at how she has developed and new things she has learned. This month she is finally up on her knees crawling. She did the army crawl for such a long time that we didn't think she would ever get on her knees. With our dirty floors and her scooting on her belly, it made for some nasty onesies at the end of the day. She has 6 teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom). She is pulling up on everything and just starting to let go and stand still for just a second before she gets scared and grabs something, or just falls on her bottom. She can wave, clap, and give high fives. She is talking up a storm and loves to be the center of attention (sound like anyone in particular?) She is finally getting a little bit more hair and has one little curl on the top of her head. She also learned to drink through a straw--and more importantly for her--to blow bubbles through the straw. She is into anything and everything and never.stops.moving. It's extremely exhausting at times. But she is our love and such a blessing to us!

movin' on up...

...to the east side...

(of Tanzania, that is)

Yep, we have finally moved! After months of waiting (sometimes not so patiently) we have arrived. We are now officially living in Dar es Salaam. So far, we are really happy. We feel like we are where God wants us. I would like to stay I absolutely LOVE living here, but there are a few things that are keeping me from being able to say that...

(1) It is seriously hot here. No joke, you can't get away from it. The humidity is no lie like 100%. We just dropped $1000 on 2 air conditioning units for our 2 bedrooms. Did we ever think we would spend that kind of money on a/c?? No, but we realized after our first night here we had no other option. Down to our skibbies, we moved our bed to the middle of the room so that it was directly under the ceiling fan, we layed there and we sweat. We were miserable. The next day the a/c units were installed and we decided we would never again leave the comfort of our bedroom (just kidding...but not really).

(2) The traffic is pretty nasty. We come from Atlanta, normal traffic doesn't bother me that much. I can handle it..you know? This is not normal, these people are crazy. They make me crazy. Nobody follows the rules. It's one big game of: dodging pedestrians, cows, sheep, goats, motorcycles, and bicycles, cutting people off even if you are the only two cars on the road, buses stopping in the middle of the road to pick up passengers because pulling into the bus lane would take too much effort, memorizing which potholes your car can take and which ones it can't, making one lane into three...and on and on. It's the whole "me first" mentality...my time is more important than yours, I need to be somewhere type thing. I hate it...sometimes me and Nate roll down our windows and yell "shame on you" out the window in Swahili. It doesn't make matters any better, but at least we can make our frustrations known.

But on the other side...we have tons of new places to eat (as opposed to the same 3 restaurants in Morogoro), we have grocery stores, malls (yes, there are 2 now!), and the beach!! As soon as we get all settled, I am very much looking forward to taking a beach trip and relaxing knowing that everything is done! 

This is where we live: