The First Thanksgiving

This year was Ella’s first Thanksgiving and my first Thanksgiving with Ella home. And what a great Thanksgiving we had! I think it was by best Thanksgiving in Africa so far.

We trooped over to our friend Summers house where we joined her American family, our soon to be new American neighbor family, and several Ugandan singles and couples. There were a total of ten kids, all under six, a Jr. High girl and a four month old baby.

Following the tradition of the last two years, I baked two pumpkin pies. I didn’t actually taste them but they looked all right. There were too many other yummy looking desserts that I had to try instead :)

Ella wore her fancy new PINK duds that our friend Sue got her. This really made keeping track of her amongst all the other similarly sized kids a lot easier!

Hmm now, which one’s my kid? (There is a certain benefit to dressing your child in such incredibly bright and PINK colors I guess!)

Imagine our surprise and amazement when an Indian and a Pilgrim (Eliana and Eliza) showed up!!

Lined up waiting their turns for Pin The Feather On The Turkey

L with her buddies, Ezra and Eliana. I was trying to get a picture of Ella’s footwear. She was wearing one rubber boot. And it wasn’t even pink! Why? I do not know. But Eliana turned out to be a much cuter picture than a rubber boot…

Chow time!! The little guys lined up outside on a bench. It was almost like real little pilgrim children who stood while they ate (at least that’s how my parents always told me pilgrim kids ate), only these guys kneeled.

This was our AMAZING hunk of pork that Summer made– complete with pig hair!! (there’s some of it on the left side). It was super delicious and I pigged out!! Hee hee ;)

There was an awesome spread of food. Maybe everything seemed more delicious this year because Ella was finally home to enjoy it with. I don’t know but this food was GOOD! I ate so much that I almost bloated and had to come home and lay on the couch and watch a movie. Ella ate so much that her belly button was starting to pop out! I’d never quite ever seen anything like that before… I think it will probably go down in Halland Thanksgiving history!

Ella enjoyed the other kids and the games they played, as well as the food. I enjoyed the other adults, the kids (which is really something as there were lots of them!) and of course the food.

I am SO THANKFUL to God that my daughter is safe at home this year. She has been SUCH a blessing to my life. I really thought I had a pretty darned good one before she entered the picture but WOW – I had no idea how much better it would become! Right when I thought “life couldn’t get much better than this” God gave me this amazing blessing!

Through Ella, my relationships with people have really been strengthened. With my family, with “old” friends, with new friends and even colleagues. Some people warned me about how my life would change and how I’d be “tied down” with a kid, as if my world would shrink. The exact opposite has happened! Yes, my life has changed, but for the better! I am so thankful for the good friends that God has given me and Ella here in Entebbe. I just love my mixture of friends!

How To Properly Care For A Cat (Dedicated to Becky)

Being as we are such a cat focused family (NOT!), I thought I’d include an informative little post on proper cat care.

The models I am using are our own Ella Monica and Cody William.

# 1. Feed Your Cat

If your Russian neighbor gives you a can of expensive canned cat food all the better – just don’t forget to share it with the family hedgehog.

# 2. Hold Your Cat

For transportational purposes, you should know how to properly hold your cat. One arm supporting his neck and chest (try not to choke him/her) and one arm supporting your kitties butt. This method works well even if your kitty has a full tummy.

# 3. Pet Your Cat

Kitties like to have their ears scratched. This encourages bonding and proper attachment between you and your kitty.

# 4. Nap Times For Your Cat

Provide and monitor nap times for your cat. Cat’s are mighty hunters and like to hunt at night, so daily nap times are a must. Monitoring is crucial to be sure that your cat gets adequate sleeping space, especially when larger dogs are involved.

# 5. Dress Your Cat Appropriately

Only dress your cat as the weather requires. You don’t want to overdress or under dress your cat. A light sweater should be adequate for cool fall days.

#6 Read To Your Cat

Kitties should be read to in order to stimulate proper brain growth and development.

By following these 6 simple steps you can greatly enable your feline to lead a happy, healthy, well adjusted life.

Cat in a Sweater

Who looks happiest about the whole "cat in the sweater" episode?


Despite experiences like this one, we are seeing a LOT more of Cody these days. He comes in the house and pretty much spends ALL day sleeping on my bed. He has decided (after almost eight months!) that he loves Ella. Now that she's older and has more experience with animals, I let her pick him up, which she loves to do. He jumps up on her leg to be pet and she'll scratch his ears. Really cute! The after affects of her Aunt Becky's visit are still lingering... ;)

Score at the market!!

I scored big time at the market on Saturday! Imagine my surprise and delight when I found our cucumber lady selling broccoli!! Yep, you read that right – big beautiful heads of broccoli!

I’ve NEVER in my almost four years here ever seen BROCCOLI at the market. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t ever have it, just that I’ve never seen it before. And I LOVE broccoli!

You can afford to be an impulse shopper at the market so I ended up buying two heads , despite their rather exurbanite price. They were 1500 Uganda shillings, which is the price of a good sized pineapple. But, being as that is only around $.90 I guess it didn’t break the bank too bad…

Since it was her birthday, we also got one for our neighbor Kathryn. We gave her a “broccoli bouquet” instead of a more traditional (and non edible, unless you give it to a goat…) bouquet of flowers :)

So, I turned this delightful delicacy (the broccoli- not Ella) into…

… Chicken Primavera!!

Yum, yum if I might say so myself. Put on bow shaped pasta with a smattering of (expensive) Feta cheese, with a bit of French bread on the side, and you have a pretty darned fancy meal for this household! Then wash it down with a sparkling plastic cup of Coke … ;)

Ella also scored big time at the market. She takes her little bag and it’s just like taking your kid trick or treating, only by the end of the day it’s filled with vegetables instead of candy J. She made out with two carrots, a tomato and two of something that I don’t have any idea what it is. People call her by name :).

Budding Photographer

I did something that I’ve never done before. I let Ella loose with my camera. Doesn’t sound like a very smart thing to do but she did great! There is still a camera left and I was impressed with some of the pretty good pictures she got. She’s only 3.5 years old after all!

Here are some of her better ones:

Bridger sniffing some marigolds (Spike actually, who was sleeping under the marigolds)

Her mom – after she told me to “lift your chin”. So, I did :) I look like I just climbed out of the toilet but oh well!

Her plastic truck

Her puppy – Like mother like daughter… I cracked up when she’d hunker down and stick her camera into a dogs face! I guess she’s seen that done a few times before!

The neighbors, Uncle Gift and Baby James

I let her take pictures of whatever she wanted and it was interesting to see what she wanted to photograph! Sanyu was her first choice, Spike her second (that was pretty unsuccessful), then flowers, her slide, the swing, the cars, the neighbors and me.

I was really impressed with how careful she was with the camera and how she figured it out. It turns off when the shutter is even slightly bumped and she figured out how to open it again to get it turned back on.

Ella’s friend, Eliza

Ella has one of the cutest little friends. Her name is Eliza and she’s only a month older than Ella. They are so cute together because they look alike – same size, build and hair (Eliza’s is a bit longer).

Eliza’s strong, too!

And brave – she was making friends with Sanyu. Eliza’s middle name is Sanyu so I think they felt a special bond :)

Ella and Eliza at ballet – too cute!

We’re blessed to have friends like Eliza and her family :)

Memory Cycles?

In my extensive reading on the topic of adoption, I read a few things on memory cycles in kids. It seems that even in really small kids, traumatic events are subconsciously brought up again in yearly cycles. Sometimes even to the day of the anniversary of the event.

A week and a half ago (the 13^th) Ella went through a really weird experience. She was fine all morning while I was at work, ate lunch and took a good nap, as usual. I got home, Sarah left, and I moved a mat outside where I proceeded to lay down and read. Ella was poking around her in usual way, but then she started getting really discontented. I gave her some ideas on fun things to do by herself but she was really just agitated. I also suggested that if she wanted to cry, she needed to go in her room to do it. Not five minutes later she told me, “I’m going to go into my room to cry.” And cry she did. LOUD crying for at least 10 minutes! A loving mother would have followed her in and given her some comfort but I just sat outside and waited until she was finished. When she came out again her eyes were all puffy and she climbed on my lap. I asked her if she felt better and she said no. She was just “off” for the rest of the day but then did perk up towards the end. The next day she did almost the same thing with Sarah at lunch. It sort of weirded Sarah out and made her feel terrible.

This was such odd behavior that I started thinking. It finally dawned on me that her little buddies that she was raised with were moved from Sanyu to another children’s home last November. I can’t remember if it was in the middle or at the end but it definitely was November.

So I marked the date of her eruption on the calendar and I’m going to be more aware next year. I can imagine that last November was pretty traumatic for her. All the pictures I’ve seen of those kids departure, they were screaming. And it does suck to be the one left.

Baby Windsock (or “Hanging Out with Baby James)

Here’s an interesting windsock that the neighbors hung on their front porch. It’s a good thing that Entebbe doesn’t get much wind!

Ella and the Baby Windsock! (Imagine the ride he’d get in Bridger!)

She had to be told not to spin him…

Baby James sure is growing! He’s just two months old now and can focus his eyes and lift up his head.

Unlike American babies, who use these things to bounce and strengthen their legs, I guess British babies just hang there. Baby James was truly just “hanging out!” Or was he “hung out to dry?!!”