Let me tell you a bit about my week and how everything just seems to go wrong:

Monday: I wake up to find out that our maid up and left over the weekend as we were away!  No warnings, just gone!  So I spend over 2 hours just doing dishes and spend the morning doing some unexpected cleaning.  We had purchased a new faucet in Read More »

When we got Agnes, our maid, we knew she was a good maid who was trustworthy but that she also would bring drama into life.  Many times when things were communicated to her, she'd get so worked up in her head and misunderstand what was said and, as a result, would act brashly.  But we still decided to take her on as a maid since she was overall a good worker and was trustworthy.  When we moved her onto the property of the old house we were living in, she had SO MUCH STUFF!  Truckloads of belongings!  Because we didn't have a gardener living on the property, she was able to occupy both the gardener an ... Read More »

Mat and I took a quick trip to Francistown, Botswana to do some needed shopping—mostly getting hardware parts for the new house.  We took Calvin with us and decided not to bring the pack and play as we really needed the space in our vehicle to bring home our shopping items.  So when we got to the hotel, we put some blankets on the ground and he fell asleep...until midnight, that is.  He was crying and I looked down and he was sitting up near our bed.  He had crawled over to us crying.  Now, anytime we travel, we find it challengi ... Read More »

     One of the men in our small group from church is leading up a farming school called, Farming God's Way.  This school teaches their students farming skills, proper times to plant and harvest, as well as business management skills too.  Right now is prime planting time before the rainy season really takes off, but there is no seed to be found in the country.  He was telling us that the Zimbabwe government is not allowing any importing of seed into the country from South Africa, even though there are literally TONS of seeds waiting at the border to be shipped in.  This means that there will be NO maize meal (the staple here) in Zimbabwe for this next year! 
    The reason?  I'm sure it is politically motivated.  With this power sharing agreement that is taking place between Mugabe and Tschvangarai, perhaps Mugabe will be able to blame their food problems on Tsc ... Read More »

   Today we had a spiritual retreat for the faculty and staff of the college.  It was a really nice day where the speaker spoke about dying with Christ, rising with Christ and being his representatives on this earth. 
    Tonight Mat and I were watching a movie before bed and we heard gunshots at our neighbor's house.  Normally they will fire off a few shots to let everyone know they have guns, but tonight was different.  As several shots continued to be fired, it became clear that something was going on.  Then we began to hear gunshots on the other side of our house and behind our house.  Apparently our neighbors behind us had a break-in.  A armed robber broke into the window of their little girl's room and the family fired back.  The neighbors joined them in firing, but the robbers got away in their white twin cab truck.  And once again, I'm faced with this sit ... Read More »

      Well, we are house hunting once again!  For those of you who have been following, this has been something that has been looming for quite some time.  Our house went on the market in October 2007, before Calvin was born.  With every person who came to see the house, we thought--is this the buyer?  Will we have to move?  Once Calvin was born and we were settled, I began to look around for another place to move, but with no success.  Finding a house to rent that has good water, good location, good security and that is not a run down house needing lots of maintanence is harder than you might think!  I didn't find anything at that time so we just left it.  Then came the political elections here in March and again in June and the landlord told us that he was going to "sit" on the house for a little while.  So for the time being, we were ok.  
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   So many milestones lately!  This past weekend, Calvin began crawling--backwards crawling that is!  He's still learning how to move forward, but at least we are moving now as it has been a long journey to this phase! 
    Not just this, but today he began really eating with his hands for the first time.  He would always eat rice cake snacks or dried fruit with his hands, but never dinner.  If I would put his dinner on his tray, he would pick it up and throw it (as he LOVES throwing everything now--future baseball pitcher?).  But tonight, he picked up his peas and carrots and put them to his mouth!  YEAH!  So much progress all at the same time...
    A few other things Calvin has been doing lately: he hears the dog bark and says, "Da"; if he is upset, "I'm a Little Teapot" calms him down; he loves Turbo, the dog ... Read More »