Giving up a latte (or two).

I wanted to take the time to update the faithful supporters of Ameena Project, and also those of you new to our work. Megan Steele, one of the Ameena Project co-founders has finished with her visit of the school project in Kiang’ombe, and is on her way home from Burundi, where she was on a [...]

Ameena thoughts

Ian laughs every time he sees the picture of this little girl.  We wondered tonight what she might have been thinking when this picture was taken.  Do you think she was thinking, “Go away, I don’t want your help”?  I can’t imagine that she was.  I imagine that she was wondering what this white person [...]

The nitty gritty of Ameena Project

It started the moment we arrived home from Kenya.  The usual calls from friends, former employees and acquaintances in Kenya. “Can you help with school fees?  A new business?  Food for my family?  Building a  house on land that was gifted to me?” And in our relative abundance, we have given, knowing all along that [...]

Ameena

Today we celebrate one wonderful year of having Ameena in our lives.   What a full year this last one has been.  Being pregnant while living in Africa was interesting.  I felt healthy, but had more physical symptoms than with any of my other children.  Crazy high blood sugar that I monitored much less than I [...]

A how to lesson

I’ve posted in the past about my love of kangas & how Kenyans use them to tie babies on their backs.  Because some of you asked to see what it looked like to balance the baby on the back, I took a few pictures about a week before we were due to come back home [...]

Self Portrait

I had a post on facebook a while back about Eli’s self portrait drawing done at school.  It’s a pretty accurate drawing, except for the skin color.  When I asked him why he made himself black, he corrected me saying, “Mom!  I’m not black, I’m dark brown!”  If only he had seen his class picture that [...]

Therapy

Ameena is now [gulp] 10 1/2 weeks old (I think?). She had her 8 week doctor’s appointment last week at 9 weeks. We had the usual developmental checklist.  All fine. She’s gained plenty of weight…..getting pretty close to doubling her birth weight, which isn’t nearly as hard when you start out so light (6 1/2 pounds). [...]

Baby Paperwork…..

So, my friend Eve asked if we would have to get a passport for the baby once it is born in order to come back to the US with her. And yes we will.  First, we’ll go to the US Embassy with the record of birth given to me by the hospital this sweet little [...]

Awww

A moment of true love. Lucy was invited to attend school all week, all day with Eli as this is the last week before a 3 week  break between terms.  No mention of me paying the insane private school fees the school charges…..so I jumped on it. Eli has been REALLY genuinely excited to have [...]

a day in the life of my active child

Last week Ian was able to tag along on a climbing trip up Mt. Kenya. This is one of those things he has hoped to do while we are here, so we both agreed that it wasn’t an opportunity he should pass up.  It meant that he would be gone for a total of 4 [...]