A Change of Blog

I've pretty much had it with Xanga so am switching blog sites!! To read about and hopefully see pictures of the current events in my life (some exciting, some not so exciting) tune in to http://bridgerandsanyu.blogspot.com/ I know, pretty lame address but i couldn't think of anything else right off the top of my head like that and it refused my first idea. Bridger and Sanyu said that they didn't mind so it is used with their permission.

Goodbye Xanga!

I've figured out what's wrong with Xanga. It won't let me write a post ahead of time, then copy and paste it in. So for each entry it wants me to sit and type it all in. I always write my posts at home, then come to the office and copy them onto the blog but for some reason Xanga has deamed this unexceptable. I don't have time to sit here in the office typing in my posts (I'm, um, supposed to be working when I'm at work!)! So until I get this little problem resolved there will not be any long or interesting posts from me. If I can't get it resloved then I may need to switch over to blogspot.

My parents arrive tonight. I am happy!

Xanga has not been kind to me this last month, hence the absence of any new posts! Seriously, I have tried and tried to update it but to no avail. Then after wasting so much time I sort of just gave up. So this is really just a trial to see if I can get it to work again.

• My parents come next Wednesday!! I can hardly wait!
• Our court ruling over Ella's Legal Guardianship is over and done with. It turned out even better than I'd hoped for and was done QUICKLY! Praise God!!
• Ella herself is like a totally different person than two or even one month ago. She is a confident, happy child who talks ALL THE TIME and plays happily with her toys now without me. An easier child to parent I think would be hard to find.

Things have been going so well with Ella that now I am starting to worry. She has been almost TOO happy and I am not wondering if it's just a front that she learned at the babies home to get attention. At first I was really encouraged with this happy personality and behaviour but some warning bells have been going off lately, especially in the last week or so. Normal 3 year old's let themselves cry a lot more than Ella, especially when they're hurt, and she simply doesn't. She'll crack her head on a table, her eyes will fill with tears, her lip will quiver and she'll hug me and say, "I'm not hurt, I'm not crying". Just a little odd, don't you think? So I've been encouraging her to cry more (well, telling her it's okay to cry - not intentionally trying to get her to do it!) so this week we have had a lot more crying going on. But then it feels wierd to be rewarding my kid for crying and an ususually happy child that doesn't cry at all is much easier to be around than one that is sad and crying all the time. So?? My mom will be here next week and will help me figure these things out!!!

I'm gonna see if this will post...

Since when did I become a pooping coach, I found myself asking the other day while encouraging Ella along with her stinky bodily functions. Oh yah, when I became the mother of a three year old… I have never talked so much about pooping in my entire life. Its gross and I can’t wait until she’s figured out that bodily functions aren’t something to necessarily be proud of or discuss as a main topic of conversation. And when she doesn’t need encouragement to do it.

Notes of interest during the last week:

• Our court hearing was postponed until next Tuesday (29^th).  The judge had a conference or something and I got a call about it Tuesday morning – as Prossy, Ella and I were half way to Kampala! Ella and I were in our fancy duds and everything.

• Ella broke out in mysterious bumps all over her arms, some on her legs, and some on her back and between her bellybutton and crotch, Sunday. Strange. Thoughts are that it could be a reaction from one of the following. 1) The new lotion I was putting on her last week 2) The blended onions in the incredibly spicy soup that I’d just shoveled down her little throat (forgot to taste it first! Whoops!) 3) A reaction to a silver bracelet that she’d just put on before her nap and 4) fleas. Thus far I’m thinking it might be a reaction from the bracelet or the onions. The lotion was put on a week before and why would fleas only bite a kid on the arms, lower legs and a band around her torso? But I nor anyone else really has a clue. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that the judge postponed our hearing! Hate to present my kid to her looking like a bumpy little frog.

• Sanyu has started BARKING at people and things, rather than just letting Bridger do it or running and hiding on the porch. This is a big milestone in the life of a little watch/guard dog!!

• Tuesday Bridger almost attacked the security guard who was filling in for Charles, who is our normal one who the dogs really like. The hapless victim made the mistake of taking a swing at little Bridgy with his rifle –not a smart thing to do. Bridger had his teeth bared snarling, his hair up and was really going for the poor guy with his newly barking deputy bravely behind him encouraging him on, while the guy held him off with his gun. I rescued Bridger and the frightened security guard before Bridge got shot or bit the poor guy.

• Got the terrible and rather upsetting news last Friday that my supervisor and his family are leaving for good in June. I really respect and trust these people and he is just the best supervisor a person could ever have. He and his wife are a huge part of the reason that Ella and I are together here still working with this organization and his wife has been SO helpful since I’ve brought Ella home. Work wise that leaves me and Prossy the only ones left in Language Programs here in Uganda (Prossy in Literacy admin and Grace in Translation admin). Frightening thought! This is NOT cool. More work and responsibility for Grace, as well as being forced to work with people in TZ who don’t like her. Prossy will at least be able to keep her supervisor, whose in the US, but still working by email. I don’t mind the extra work but I really don’t care for such a large amount of responsibility.

• I started working at the office again, a couple mornings a week without Ella. I’ve been doing some work at home and going into the office around three or four times a week to answer email work related questions but now it looks like I’ll need to start going in more regularly, two mornings a week. Ella simply did great staying with Sarah Wednesday. I was able to go in and work all morning while she stayed home and “helped” Sarah work. I needed to go in for a few hours in the afternoon, after her nap, and she sat quietly on my lap for an ENTIRE hour while my supervisor and I were finishing up some work together. She wasn’t too distracting and amused herself by kissing me and inspecting all of the bumps on her arms and legs. Hey, what ever works for yah I guess!

• Ella told me that she wanted to drive the car. Isn’t she a little young for that? I mean, she’s only three and it’s starting already??

• Last Friday we went swimming with our friends and I taught Ella how to heckle people. She’s great! We offered lots of loud, obnoxious encouragement to our two 12 and 13 year old friends who were trying to work up the courage to jump off a high dive. Sadly, Ella and I reminded me of my mother at a Fourth of July parade… I was told that Ella was more like me than I thought and that we were almost embarrassing!!

• While in the office talking to Lydia, Ella dropped to all fours and began crawling around, exclaiming that she was Bridger…. Yup. No doubt about who her mother is! It’s almost frightening. I mean, it’s only taken me six weeks to make this child almost as weird as I am! Poor little thing… ;)

• While in Kampala yesterday I found out that my drivers license expires today. Oops. Also found out that my bodas insurance ran out last October. Double oops!

• Thursday visited the Mildmay Centre which is a huge hospital that treats HIV/AIDs patients. I was VERY impressed with the comprehensiveness of the work and the facilities. It is funded mainly by the American and UK governments and it was VERY nice to see American tax dollars actually doing some good somewhere and poor people benefiting from it. The ARV’s and all the medical and counseling services offered are free and very well managed. Services are actually getting to the people that need them!

• Ella likes Ethiopian food but it makes her fart… 

• Ella’s starting to spit out fairly long, grammatically correct sentences. She still does a lot of repeating (which gets really annoying), and will repeat the same thing over and over again (“Bridger is outside? Bridger is outside. Sanyu is sleeping? Sanyu is sleeping. TV on? Uncle Gift at the office?” and on and on) but will also say some really long sentences that come from her head and not from me.

FAVORITE SENTENCE OF THE WEEK: “Don’t eat my underwear, Sanyu. They’re icky!”

Context: We always have a spare pair of Ella underwear in the car so as we were driving home from the airport Ella, the dogs and the underwear were in the backseat together and, um, well, Sanyu will pretty much chew on anything she can!

Whew, another week gone by. Ella and I laid low this week and didn’t do anything too terribly exciting. I have been convicted about the little amount of real attention that I give her – I’m with her all the time but more often then not focused on a book, working on my computer or something else and not really paying attention to her. I hope that my maternity leave isn’t being wasted with me just reading books and dragging my kid along to fun activities (to keep her mom happy!) rather than focusing on playing with and attaching to my child. At this point I’d say that Ella is doing great despite her crappy mother though. She still gets easily overwhelmed and it’s sometimes easy to miss because she’s so easy and good natured. I’ve been reminded several times this week that she still is a very needy little child and that I need to take it a little easier on her. I can not believe that it’s only been 5 ½ weeks since she’s been home! I’ve really been expecting too much of her, poor kid.

I took her to the Tuesday market this week, for the first time. I’ve taken her several times to the Saturday market, which is much more calm and low key. As we were walking to the market on Tuesday and she was practically stopped in awe and wonder at all the “sights” in Kitoro, I realized that I had never actually walked her through town before! We usually drive everywhere, get out of our car and then go in a shop. So here is a three year old who is totally overwhelmed with something as simple as walking through town. She was so cute though, once I could get her to move and keep her from getting run over. I bought a bag of fish for the dogs and since she loves to “heyup” (seriously, she sounds like she’s from the South!) I let her carry the bag. It wasn’t heavy but it was big and awkward and she struggled with it the whole time but insisted on carrying it “for my dogs.” It’s all about the dogs…. J

Wednesday Bridger, Sanyu, Kathryn, Diana, Ella and I all went for a walk. This is the first time I’d taken her on a walk, too! Kathryn took her and Sanyu on a short one last week but this was the first time that I’d taken her. Kathryn and I took turns walking her and Bridger. I am truly AMAZED at this child. 5 ½ weeks ago she had never been near ANY animals of ANY kind and was terrified of them – Wednesday she was trotting along in the midst of her two dogs and we even stopped and petted a huge billy goat! The neighbors a few houses down have a small herd of really nice goats that they picket out in a lot beside our compound. When they let them loose to wander a bit one of the big boys always accompanies them so our short conversations always center around my dogs and his goats. So Ella got to pet the big brown, hairy neighbor billy and he didn’t even stink! Thursday Ella the dogs and I went for a short walk on our own, which actually turned out better then I expected. I have misplaced Bridger’s choker chain and I haven’t trained Sanyu to heel yet but they both did fine with minimal lunging. We didn’t take a very long walk but Ella had to stop twice to hug and kiss her dogs. As if we don’t draw enough looks, a little Ugandan in pink hugging and kissing her dogs sure does! Generally Ugandans are rather afraid of dogs and I’ve never seen them hugging or kissing them, that’s for sure.

Sanyu got the rest of her vaccinations yesterday and all pets got dewormed today. So the next time Sanyu will need to see a vet is in July or August for “The Big Surgery”. It’s a good feeling to have all the dogs and the cat fully vaccinated with their little vaccination cards filled out J. I’m taking care of my family!

Ella and I have a court date next Tuesday the 22^nd regarding her Legal Guardianship. Please pray about this and that the Lord’s will is done and that I can accept His will, whatever it may be. One of the worst things that could happen is that she wouldn’t be able to leave the country before the adoption is complete (in three years) and I couldn’t take my furlough next year. That would really bum me out. I really don’t want to serve a six year term without visiting the States at all!

And now for some pics...

Yes, that would be my happy child with the dog sitting on her head...

YOU try explaining to her that she is not a dog! Because I've tried!

Ella playing with a puzzle that her Granny sent her

Ella drinking cocoa out of her little cup that her Granny also sent her

The Boy sleeping in his chair with his tongue sticking out!! Cracked me up.

Ella did learn how to do a summersault this week, after I SHOWED her, so I guess I'm not a complete failure as a mother yet... ;)