Reward Day

Today Maika and I took four kids out for the day as a reward. First we went to the biggest bookstore in Kathmandu, which is actually quite big, and had a lot of fun looking at everything. They were thrilled. From there we walked to a restaurant for lunch, where they enjoyed "boogers" (no matter how many times I tell them, they just can't say BURGER! and pizza. After that we walked around in the huge mall, and they had tons of fun in the stores as well as in the elevator! After that we took them bowling! None of them had ever been bowling. The two boys, Ashish (14) and Prakash (12) were actually really good and quite competitive. Sangeeta (12- above) couldn't get it and just did it between her legs, but she still got about 50! Manju, our oldest, who is 15, just couldn't even slightly get the hang of it and had a cumulative score of 5. And I know for a fact that 2 of those points were a computer error. She actually only knocked down 3 pins. HA HA HA HA HA! I didn't even know this was possible. She is just so absolutely not competitive that it makes me laugh! Well, we enjoyed our day!

Am I Crazy?

Am I crazy? The kids all have a month or so off of school, and they look forward to this time to be able to do fun stuff. We wanted to take them on a big trip, but since we didn't get funding for it, I came up with a "great" idea. On Monday we'll be leaving to go "trekking." This means we'll take a van to a little village 20 minutes away, and then walk about five hours up to this ridge overlooking Kathmandu Valley on one side and the Himalayas on the other. We'll spend the night in a hotel (yippee! None of them have ever done that before!), play around all day, spend another night in a hotel, and then walk back down the same way we came. I just hope that everybody (including myself!) can make it- I hope we don't all get blisters and wish we could get on the next bus out of there! Because we'll be walking in the middle of nowhere, so that won't be an option. HA! Everybody is very excited.................. I'll definitely post pics when we get back!

water fun day with the kids

Our Ashmita is such a cutie isn't she?!

A couple of Saturdays ago I decided that I would make a homemade slip-and-slide. If you're anywhere near the age of 30, you surely HAVE to know what a slip-and-slide is. I didn't have my own, but I have fond memories of going to Karen Bauman's house and sliding on that long, yellow slip-and-slide. It was AWESOME! Not only did she have a huge yard and a slip-and-slide, but she had an indoor pool with a dolphin or whale or something painted on the bottom. Well actually, that dolphin/whale thing quite freaked me out... but well, thats not the point! HA! Playing at Karen's house rocked, I think thats my point, or slip-and-slides rock, maybe thats my other point! Here in Kathmandu its rainy season now, so we have plenty of water. We went and got an eight meter long piece of tarp, sprayed water all over it, and they slipped and slid away! They had SO much fun- of course they moved on to wiping mud all over their bodies- and since it was a sleep over that day, I had to bathe everybody. I just lined them up, hosed them down, and gave them a bar of soap. Then we all snuggled in for a movie.

Manju and Sangeeta are squirt gun snipers.

Saajan and Gyalzen are good buddies.

Sanjay was the champion slip-and-slider! He could go the whole 8 meters!

I guess being the champion makes Sanjay smile!

We were lining the hose with holes in it up on the tarp.


Yay! It works!


Goofy Saajan! Can you tell he's been with me practically every day of his life?!


Oh! oops!


Smiley girls!

Tsering got a face full of water.

my little buddy

Today is Friday. On Monday, the guy who watches our gate and takes care of the yard opened the gate for something and didn't notice that four month old Tyson slipped out. About fifteen minutes later we went out to search for him, but to no avail. He was gone. Someone mentioned noticing a man enticing him to come. The thing about German Shepherds is that they are expensive and people will just take them. Someone obviously took him knowing that he was somebody else's. We made lost dog posters offering a reward for Tyson's return. Someone wrote on one of the posters that he has the dog or knows where he is, and he left a number. We have been trying to call the number, but we can't get through. We're thinking that the guy has run out of money on his phone and thats why it doesn't work, but we're not sure. Please pray that we'll get Tyson back! Molly is pretty sad about it and so are we. ;(

Uncle Bob

This is my Uncle Bob. He is so adorable that I want to bite him. I mean, I guess now that he is legally old enough for a discount at lots of restaurants now I don't really want to bite him now but look at him in this picture! Its so cute that I just wanted to share it with everybody!

my bunny...........my heart

Some of you non-animal types are not going to understand this. But thats okay.

My bunny Zoey is fantastic. She makes me happy in a way that I really need. Sometimes living in Nepal and being surrounded by people that only want, want, want, it gets really hard. I can feel used, burned out, sad, lonely, frustrated, and all sorts of other crazy emotions!

Then there is Zoey. She lives for the moment I'll open her cage in the morning to let her out (she is totally litterbox trained). She jumps out of her cage, runs around, does flips, does crazy things with her ears, and then starts to follow me around. She does this every morning for 30 minutes to two hours. Where I go, she goes. If I go upstairs, she goes upstairs. If I come right back down, she comes right back down. If I sit in one living room chair, she sits in the other. Seriously, if I sit in a living room chair for two hours, she will sit in the other for two hours. I've never seen her get up as long as I'm here. If I lay on the floor, she'll lay in the chair so that she's right behind my head. She continues to make me happy and make me smile all day long. Sometimes she jumps in my lap and then licks my arm repeatedly. Basically she thinks I'm the best thing ever. I think everyone needs at least someone or something that thinks they are the best thing ever.

Thanks Zoey.

birthdays

Birthdays. In the US we always celebrate them- we usually get to have a big party and get lots of presents. But especially for little kids, isn't our birthday party about getting stuff?

In Nepal, most people do not celebrate birthdays. Sure, nowadays the upper class educated people might, but your average village Nepali does not.

We celebrate the birthdays of our kids for two reasons- one is, we want to celebrate that the kid is alive- that the kid is here- that the kid exists! How many kids are treated daily like they were a mistake- like they aren't wanted? Nepalis are definitely not an exception to this rule! Lots of our kids had never once celebrated their birthdays before us. Just the fact that I would make a cake and everybody would sing a song just for THEM is a really huge thing to them!

We also celebrate to thank God for giving us the child and ask Him to continue to bless them. They love this time of prayer- I think it feels like their heart is getting a hug.

I make so many cakes now that I can practically make one without opening my eyes!

Tyson the puppy

Tyson is our new German Shepherd puppy. He is so fun! He loves our older dog Molly (she is the oldest but she still isn't even three!) and jokes around with her, biting and biting her face, but she is so gentle. He is just three months, but he already knows how to sit and come. He follows us everywhere and loves Maika and I more than anything (except dry dog food maybe, loves that so much that he eats it quickly and gets the hiccups!)! We are so blessed to have so many fantastic pets!

thankful for rain

My friend Jo has a children's home here in Kathmandu. She came over this afternoon with almost all of her kids- 20 of them! Thankfully we have a HUGE house and a HUGE yard! She has almost no water at her house and lots of the kids needed to bathe. Thankfully it was kinda raining and we had LOTS of rain water! So we started piling them out there- the big ones in the bathroom and the little ones all naked out in the rain. I knew all of her kids but she recently got five more from way up in the mountains where its so cold that they probably almost never bathe. They were SOOOOOOOOOO cute I wanted to keep them! So tiny, and we were all scrubbing them down and rinsing them off with rain water while they laughed and smiled while saying "AAAAHHHHH-CHOOOO!" which is like what we would say for "BRRRR!!" Then it was time for them to leave and they all gave me kisses on my cheek. OH YEAH and earlier we made 60 packets of instant noodles for her 20 kids and my 10. They ate quite a bit! She took the rest home to give them for breakfast. ha ha! Sorry I have no pictures of the event. But it was fun!

taken for granted

Most people reading this post probably never think about where their water is coming from when they open the tap. There is just always water there, right? In Nepal, the water situation is a different story. Many people do not have direct water to their houses, and if they do not have a well, then they do not have any water! Most poor people cannot afford to dig a well.

Many of our kids families have suffered a lot because of water. Ashish-14 (above) and his sister Ashmita-11, do not have any water at their house. Their father died when Ashmita was a baby, and their mother works full time as an aide at their school. For cooking, drinking, washing clothes, bathing, for the toilet, for everything, their mother carries water in buckets from about 500 feet away. At our house, we have been collecting rain water that comes out from a gutter like thing. We can fill up several drums of water and buckets every single time it rains (and its monsoon season right now!). It is SO nice that I was able to tell Ashish and Ashmita, as well as Babita (who works for us) and her kids Sangeeta (12) and Saajan (5) that they can bathe here and wash all of their clothes here all the time! Up until now, Ashish and Ashmita would wear the same clothes for days and only bathe on Saturdays (that is very Nepali!). Today is Tuesday and they bathed at my house and washed their clothes!

There is a family that lives with us too- they always had water problems up until now too. They love bathing and washing their clothes now! Now they are all squeaky clean, their clothes are clean, and their health will probably be better too. And they are so thankful for it. I'm thankful now too when we have lots of water- its something we have to remember every day - to pump water up to the tank on our roof and pump water from our well into the reserve tank. I'm thankful every time that I can keep the reserve tank full from water from the well.

Next time you open your tap, remember to be thankful that you have all of the water you could ever use! And try to do your part to not waste it.

random thoughts

Would you wonder if your life is going the way it should when you have to search the living room for your pet rats while your rabbit sits on the living room chair picking poop out of its butt and your dog is a peeping tom looking into the neighbor's bedroom? Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo- well at least the birds are sleeping! I wish I could get my pets all matching red sweaters with white snowflakes on them. Getting the sweaters might not be as hard as actually getting them on them, especially the birds, they would be mad. And I guess the rats because they don't really have necks. Probably by the time I got the sweaters on the birds, Molly (the German Shepherd/Tibetan Mastiff mix) would have eaten her sweater right off of her body. She is so naughty. Well, seriously time to go find the rats. I just thought it might be nice for people to read the things that just take place in my head. hee hee!

Kansas City boys

We had some boys come from Kansas City to hang out with our kids. I think the KC boys had an awesome time and our kids loved it too! They loved having someone love on them, wrestle with them, read with them, etc... The boys also helped us clean up our yard, paint stuff, lay carpet, etc.. It was fantastic! We hope they will come back to visit !

WATER!

We have water! Our old landlord offered to go get a great pump for us (that our new landlord agreed to pay for) and we put it in the well today. TONS of water comes out! We also filled up our reserve tank with water that we saved from the rain. We got a cloth, strained the water (to take out any leaves or sand) and the kids ran back and forth with buckets and dumped water into the reserve tank. Our tank is full, we have water in our well, we are happy! YAY!

meaningful

don't worry, if anybody is reading this..... someday I'll write something more meaningful!

hungry

I'm so hungry I can't stand it. It was Saturday today and we had no time to make anything. Now its 9:45 pm and I'm so hungry I can't think of anything but food! I'm not in the US though, so if I want something, I have to cook it. What should I do?!?!?!?........................

my crazy dogs

My dogs are crazy. Max (on the left) is just a mutt that we think is mixed with a boxer somewhere down the line (by the fact that the kids are the ones that found him and brought him to us, and when we saw a boxer the other day, the kids said, "look! That dog looks like Max's daddy!" Molly is a half Tibetan Mastiff/half German Shepherd. She is so smart and so naughty.

We have a woman with her two sons living with us. We have some rooms on our compound that are separate from the main house. One of the boys is a kid we have worked with for almost four years now, and he is ten. His brother is 18 and works for us. One funny thing that Molly does these days A LOT is in the morning when the boys mother opens the door to their rooms, Molly goes inside and licks the boys hands or feet. Then she uses her nose to push the blanket off of their heads and licks their faces until they get up. Max doesn't do anything except sometimes jumps on the bed to sleep with them! We all find it so funny that Molly does this almost every morning!

my sleeping husband

My husband is weird. He falls asleep in the evening all the time and sometimes in really weird positions. He can fall asleep sitting up. He can even fall asleep laying down but with his head off the ground. Think thats easy?! Try it! He makes weird noises too if you try to communicate with him while he is sleeping. All in all, he is a very entertaining husband!

Kung Fu Panda

Today is Friday, DATE DAY! Yay! Maika and I always go out on Fridays for a date. After the yummy Mexican food, we went to see the movie "Kung Fu Panda." It was hilarious! I love when they make movies that little kids would like and adults would also think were funny. When it comes out on DVD, we'll definitely get this one for the kids. If you get the chance, definitely see this movie!

faith

We moved into a new house not even a month ago. I love the house, but we were having water issues. We were fixing up lots of things on the house that will go towards our rent money in the future, but for now we were running out! I came home one day when there was no water (actually there was water in the well, the pump just wouldn't pump it out), we had no money, and I was so stressed out that I wanted to cry and puke all at the same time. I went upstairs to my new amazing bedroom and fell asleep. It was all I could think of to do to stop thinking about all of the things in my life I couldn't control.

I woke up to the sound of rain. I got really excited! I ran outside to where there is a place that rain water comes out of in a big stream and started collecting the water in drums. I called Tsering, the little boy that lives with us, outside to take a shower! Maika came out too, and the two of them had fun soaping themselves up and rinsing off in the rain. We started storing up so much water in drums that there was plenty for toilets, washing dishes, washing the floors, etc.... There still wasn't water to come out of the taps, and we still didn't have any money for anything, but I was for the moment a bit happier. Then it hit me.....

My parents, my dad in particular, were very interested in teaching me how to work for my money. This was a great thing to learn! So many kids/teens are just used to having everything handed to them. And I was always working and saving up money for what I wanted. It was a fantastic thing to learn, but then what do you do when there is nothing you can do to earn yourself even one dollar?

God, though the last few years, has taken me on a journey of trusting Him with the one thing I had the hardest time trusting for- finances! I loved the total freedom I felt when I finally totally trusted Him for whatever I needed. When we moved into this new house, our rent more than doubled. We needed many more things. We added one more staff member to the household because of the gigantic compound. I suddenly felt like God was showing me that He had taken me to a certain level of trusting Him, but now my faith in this area is being tested again. Can I trust Him for more? Of course the answer is yes, but my logic and my heart resist. Now now since I'm becoming more aware of what is going on, I am less stressed and more looking forward to see what He is going to do. I know that He is good and that He can be trusted!

Yummy Food

I was so excited today. We know people that have opened an Arizona- style Mexican restaurant on the other side of town. Mexican food is the food I have missed the most. Maika and I drove over there today for lunch (it's Friday- date day!) and it was FANTASTIC! YUMMMM! It is definitely my new favorite restaurant. I am so excited. yipppeeee!

the new bunny

I got a new bunny! Her name is Zoe or Zoey, I can't figure out how to spell it. She is so smart and got litterbox trained right away. She is adorable! She loves the rats like they are bunnies, and they love her too. Check it out!

new house

It's been about three weeks since we moved into our new house. We LOVE the house! The only thing we haven't loved so much is the lack of water! The house is a two story, four bedroom house. It also has two kitchens (I think one is supposed to be a small dining room), a big pantry, a gigantic living room, and four other attached rooms at the back with tin roofs. We use one of them for a classroom, one for a shoe/bags/etc.. , sewing, play room, and then two of them are for Tenzing, the 18 year old that we hired to help us with the yard, gate, etc.. to live in with his mother and brother. The yard is huge! I cannot figure out how to put the pictures where I want to, so no use explaining what they are of! ha ha!