A few photos



First of all, sorry these photos are so dark.  I have a terrible camera with no flash on it.  Turns out taking photos of an African child wearing dark colors in a dark room doesn't turn out so well, but oh well...  Here is Innocent on the morning he left for boarding school in his new uniform with all his things safely tucked away in the trunk and his new mattress.  Whenever we added something to his trunk, whether it was soap or socks, he made sure I had written or sewn his name on it.  Fred delivered him to school on Thursday, and got him all settled in.  His first night alone at school was a bit tough, but when Fred checked back in on Saturday, he was doing much better.  He loves the matron, and has told her so many stories about his family already, including his Auntie from America.  (Innocent never calls me a mzungu, bless him.)

The day before Innocent left we got our Christmas package from my family.  Fred got a Kindle from my parents, I got some foods I've been craving from my grandparents and a beautiful nursing nightgown from my parents (there will be no picture modeling that).  My grandma also crocheted a really cute little baby hat, in white, since we still don't know the gender of the baby.  Innocent was so excited to get a set of construction trucks from my parents, along with a book about "Toad Builds a Road".  He now knows the English words "steam roller", "bulldozer" and "hydraulic lift". 

While Fred was delivering Innocent to school I did a few more little sewing projects for the baby, including these booties.  The tops were made from some trousers of Innocent's that I had hemmed into shorts, and the bottoms are from the same cotton sheets that the baby's bedding is made from.  Our friend Brenda just came over and laughed, saying we were training our baby from early age not to go barefooted.  I got a flannel receiving blanket in the package from America, so I'm debating whether to leave it whole or make diapers or burp rags out of it.

Here I fully intended to put a photo of my huge pregnant belly, but I took the photo on my phone instead of the camera, and I can't get my camera connected to the computer, so it'll have to wait.  Suffice to say that I'm at 35 weeks, 44 inches around, and feeling good.  I'm tired of being pregnant, and I'm for sure ready to have the baby.  We're (God willing) going to have an appointment at the hospital we're planning to deliver at in Nairobi.  Hopefully we'll get a nice, clear ultrasound and find out the gender.  Everything else seems to be progressing just fine.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and for the baby.  If you'd like to send a baby gift, there will be a team coming from Portland to Tanzania in mid-March, and there's room for them to carry some things.  Clothes, especially in the 6 months and older range, are appreciated.  Also, cloth diapers and even just flannel cloth that I can use for sewing things as needed would be great.  (Hand-me-downs are awesome...pretty much all quality baby clothes here are second-hand clothes shipped from the States anyway!) 

We love you guys!