Are You My (Grand)mother?

This is Aden a month or two ago with Grandma Beth.  She just moved here in November or December.  She has quite an affinity for little babies and has a grandson that is 2 months younger than Aden.  Thus said, she takes out a lot of her lovin' on Aden. 

Note:  This post is not intended to make other Aden's true Grandmas' jealous, especially not intended to bribe them into buying their tickets to come here.  But if it pushes them over the edge to do so, then so be it!

Around 6 months old... an outfit from Sherry

Found a few photos from my other camera so expect to seem some older photos here and there in the blog.  This is one that showcases an outfit that our friend Sherry sewed for Aden.  Isn't it darling?  I love the one pieces that bunch at the bottom like that! Darling!

If I had to pick a Peanuts character...

for Aden to play...

It would be Pig Pen.

Its really not his fault...

It's so hot here, we leave him in his diaper (often without a cover because of the EC we are doing... later post about this).  And when he crawls around he gets soo dirty!!  It is sooo dusty here, that its impossible to keep my floors clean.

Before every nap, I take him over to the sink, plop him in and give him a good scrub over.  Repeat every 3-4 hours. 

Aden 9 months update

So looking back on things... I haven't given an update on Aden in 5 months!!! His last update was at 4 months old!  

Stats

Weight: 19.5-20.5 lbs- Between the 25-50th percentile
Height: 28.25 inches - Between the 25-50th percentile


We don't have an accurate scale but the one we do have measures about 19.5 lbs which is probably pretty close.  I think the heavier the person, the more inaccurate it is.  We actually haven't been in to take Aden to the Dr. since our last experience.  I didn't really enjoy our last experience so I think I may wait to take Aden in... possibly till the next time we are in the states.  I will take another look at the vaccines he needs, we shall see.  If I do go, I don't think I will go to the clinic because it was quite a confusing experience. 
 

Milestones

So since he was four months old... Aden has since passed all these skills: sitting up, crawling, and standing (even unassisted for a few seconds).  He loves to stand up and bang on things and is learning his way around furniture. 

Teeth:  Aden has his lower two teeth all the way in and his upper left has already poked through while his upper right is following close behind.

Schedule:  Aden is nursing every 2ish hours.  I was doing the whole "eat-play-sleep" cycle but I found it helped my milk supply if I did the "eat-play-eat-sleep".  Also, he is eating 3 "meals" a day.  Breakfast is usually 2 egg yolks and maybe a few tiny bites of banana.  Lunch and dinner consist of either chicken/tuna/salmon and some avocado, pureed carrots, banana or whatever else I have around to make.  We are waiting on grains till he is a year old.


Naps: Aden is down to 2-3 naps a day.  The first two naps are usually 1.5-2 hours long and if he gets a third it may be 30-45 minutes.  I actually had to quit caffeine (goodbye beloved morning coffee!) because I noticed he wouldn't nap for as long.  We weaned him off the pacifier about two weeks ago.  It went really well... just went cold turkey.  The longest he cried for it was about 15 minutes, but even then it was 'off and on.' I am not against pacifiers at a later age, I just knew it would be harder to take away later on so I decided to bite the bullet and get it over with.  He does quite fine even as he is teething now. 


Clothes: Aden is in the 9-12 month range of clothing.  We are slowly switching out the 9 month clothes that don't fit for the 12 month shirts/shorts combo.  Thanks Grandma Hunt for sending us a wardrobe for Aden.  We had assumed we would be coming home this summer and could get clothes then but due to finances it may be another 6-9 months later.


Aden is such a blast!  He will go to anybody and not cry (unless he is need of a nap).  We are working on 'don't touch' and some basic sign language: more, all done, and please.  The locals love him and call him "white boy" or "bobo"

 

Beach Day with Auntie Amy

We got to hang out with Amy and her team at River #2 beach.  It was quite fun because where the river meets the ocean it is quite calm and so a lot more fun for Aden.  We hadn't been to this beach since we were in Sierra Leone before Aden was born.  Get ready for some picture overload!!!

Auntie Amy Comes to Sierra Leone

John's sister recently came here with her ministry school out of Redding, CA for a missions trip.   We just like it how God orchestrates her to be assigned here instead of somewhere like LA or another needy country.

We took full advantage of the time we got to spend with her.  Her visit was a refreshment to us spiritually much like Timothy was often to the people groups that Paul sent him to.

A few pictures from Day 1.  He was a little weary of her at first, he even smiled a lot more at the other women that came on the trip with her.  We decided it was because her and John look so similar that he was confused by the resemblance. 

Bang Ground

Think I am talking about hitting the ground?

No, its the name of a village we just spent a week in.  Except when the locals say it, it sounds more like "Bahng Grun"

I was bad and didn't take too many pictures, especially involving the work (ministry and well drilling)... but here is what I have ending with some cute ones of Aden


John and a local pastor (Pastor Rudy) setting up to watch the Jesus film in Themne in the village.

Pastor Rudy had this really nice projector screen... we are going to have to get one of these for future trips.  A lot better than the dirty tarp we used here... 

The new mechanic in the family

MMMmmm spinach!

Says Popeye...

Oh NO! That's not spinach! It's cassava! Somebody tricked me!

This is the first time we let Aden free reign to crawl around in the dirt (other than at the beach)

The ladies cooking up something special...

Daddy loves to play with me... but sometimes I'm busy looking for the next thing to crawl after!

Easter Service

Easter Sunday we got together with some fellow expats to have a potluck, worship, and listened to an Easter message.  I made these (they didn't quite have the same presentation though so I think they got passed over because nobody knew what they were).  John and I ate the rest late that night with some frosting I made to go with them.  Here are some pictures...

Baby Boy fell asleep quite soon after we got there.

This is Aden's best friend Isaiah.  He lives about 5 minutes from us and is 13 months old.  The little guy was walking at 9.5 months old! As Aden gets more mobile they play with each other whenever we get together.  Isaiah gives Aden kisses.  Sometimes they both have their mouths open when this occurs.  Its funny.

Nothing like a baby sleeping...

Konta-Makelben Day 14

Oh it feels good to be writing the last day of this event, two months after it happened lol!  I am excited to blog about some more current events and being a better blogger.  I expect anybody that reads this to hold me accountable to it! If you don't see something in 3-4 days, send me an email!
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-I woke up a bit early today.  We ate breakfast and started packing.  John mixed in canned luncheon meat (aka SPAM) into the eggs this morning so I opted for oatmeal.  We were able to get the entire camp packed up (not in the car yet) and some of the well drilling tools in the car before church started.

Church was supposed to start at 10 but I don't think it happened till about 10:30 or 11.  The Sierra Leoneans call that BMT (Black Man Time).  They said it! Not me!  Oh am I going to be in trouble when I get back to the states and have lost all sense of political correctness as it does not exist here.  Locals say things like "Hey, lady, come here! No not you, the fat one!!! And the plumper woman comes readily with a proud look that says 'that's right! I am the fatter one!'."  Anyways, back to church... Abdul spoke on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

The people expressed that they didn't want us to leave because they wanted a pastor for the church.  We explained again that THEY are the church... a community of believers.

The only problem was that nobody had a bible.  And even if they did, few people can read or even speak English.

There was one guy who could read and was a a teacher and was also respected in the community.  We asked him if he had given his life to Jesus and he said yes.  We also asked him if he wanted to lead the church.  He was a  bit hesitant (with all of his yes answers) Emily pointed out that it was a good thing... he understood the implication of his answers and that it is not a decision that should be made lightly.

We did have to ask him if he only had one wife because of the rampant polygamy present in both communities (and all throughout Sierra Leone).  There were a few dads in the community that have 23 and 27 children! For them, you don't have as much clout in some of the village meetings if you only have one wife.

John decided to let Alfa borrow his study bible and encouraged him to read through the entire new testament. We decided to see how committed Alfa and the community were before we commit to working hard in that community to build it up.  Our job is to share the Good News and let God do the rest.  We hope to help water the seed we planted but we don't have the man power to disciple all the churches we plant when we do these 2 week well trips.  Please pray for laborers in the field, particularly for Sierra Leoneans and funding for Abdul to do what he does.

We all prayed for Alfa as he took on a monumental task.

We went back to the camp, ate lunch, packed up the cars.

Packing up tent #1 out of 3

Notice our crowd of observers

I love how Emily is just sitting and "watching" everybody else pack up :)  (Haha, John and I like to give Emily a hard time for everything because she is such a good sport about it and deep down, she's knows its our love language).  Also that bowl of food on top of that lady's head is rice.  They cook us SOOO much rice and expect us to eat it all!

Emily apparently excited about all that rice...

Packed up and ready to go...

Love this picture of John Barry's face (middle).  KP (left) and Alleyo (right) are some of our well drillers.

I thought we were going to leave by 1 pm but John decided to stay and help the guys staying put the pump together.  The three guys in the picture above were planning to stay and finish the Makelben well.  It took over an hour and it was close to 3 when we finally left.  I could feel the seeds of frustration rising up as my expectations for the car ride lulling Aden to sleep at his nap time (around 1:30) and hopes of getting home to unpack before dark slowly went down the drain.  I felt as though it was a final test of God before we left to the fruits of patience and letting go of control that He has been pruning in me this entire trip.  I had to give it over to the Lord and it felt good.

A picture of a car jerry-rigged.  We kept on having to stop on the way home because our car would over heat.  John decided to fix the hood open so we would get more air flow to keep the engine cooler ha! It worked a little bit!

Konta-Makelben Day 13

After breakfast and one of Aden's naps, Emily, Pastor Abdul, Aden and I went around both Konta and Makelben to make a "facebook" in the original meaning of the word.  We snapped all the people's pictures who we interacted with a lot and wanted to remember.  This included elders, men who helped drill the wells, the women I made friends with and the women who cooked our meals and helped with dishes.

Here are just a few of the people we snapped:

This is Mohammed's father, the little boy who was bit by the potentially rabid dog. 

This lady was so sweet.  She is one of the ladies who became a Christian and who shared that the teachings at night were really making a difference in how she lived life.

The Konta well was finishing up some plaster work while the Makelben guys spent the day putting in the 4" casing, pouring the sane, removing the 6" casing, and clarifying the well.  They did a lot of clarifying but still probably would have another 2-3 days of work after we left.

The Konta well

Emily and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening talking and hanging out.  It was really to to have some English speaking camaraderie after 2 weeks of almost nothing.

For dinner one of the hunters brought in a fritombo for us to eat!  I got to see them cook it, clean it, and gut it (in that order strangely!) While they were scrubbing off the fur after they cooked it, the guts were bursting out which was kind of gross.

 

After they cooked it over an open flame (as in the photo above) I asked them about the liver and they pointed it out.  I told them it was good nutrition for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.  Because I took such an interest in it, they made a special sauce for the rice for me with the liver (and I think they included some other organs like the heart).  It was so sweet and thoughtful!

Some sorghum.  They call it couscous

That night at the teaching we had promised the community to show the Jesus film in Themne one last time.  So what we did was show the film until the section in Luke that we were teaching on came on which happened to be when Jesus overturned the temple).  John taught on this section.

Emily told me that a lot of her Salone friends in Kamakwie site this verse as proof that it is okay to meat your wives because Jesus was angry and violent.

We invited questions:

Q1:  When is Jesus returning?
A: We don't know the date or the hour.

Since that was the only question, John started asking the group questions:

John's Q1: Does Jesus' actions justify violence?
The people answered Yes
John then explained that Jesus had righteous anger over people turning the temple into a business that exploited people worshiping God (selling their sacrifices).  Rarely is our anger righteous but more likely over selfish matters

Emily and I left after the teaching while John, the rest of the well drilling team, and the community stayed to finish the movie.