That Long Ago Trip to Kenya: Episode One, Visiting the Baby Elephants

We were toying with the idea of cleaning the house and then going to the library. However, as it is pouring rain it seemed better to waste time online looking at pictures of kittens and reading all the corrections to the Old Classical Conversations Foundations Guide and listening to this:

Finally it occurred to me to blog (did I mention the house needs cleaning?) and at the very least put up some of the very fine pictures we have of our recent trip to Kenya.

As is always the case, any time I visit my parents I come back in a better frame of mind, more grounded in reality, more cheerful, and, in this case, well able to put the grief and stress of the last six months behind me and focus on the present. I've been able to put back on the garment of contentment I once wore, and also look forward in delight and anticipation to this next baby, nameless though she continues.

I'm so grateful that we got to go and see the Anglican Church in Kenya first hand, and see NEGST, where my dad teaches, and see another part of such a vast continent. I'm embarrassed to say that I was surprised to find Kenya as recognizably African. I assumed it would be So Different from the the French Northwest. But it felt comfortable and homelike.

For this first installment, not in chronological order, I thought I'd indulge in pictures from the orphaned baby elephant reserve. There is a fixed time every day that the public can go and see these baby elephants have their large bottles of milk (baby formula to be exact, talk about expensive). The elephants are rescued from a variety of unhappy circumstances--falling in wells, death of the mother, falling into holes in a pipeline, wounded by hyenas. If I remember correctly, there were 19 elephants, way up from previous years because poaching is up.

This young lady delivered a fascinating and informative lecture about the elephants. As she talked, various baby elephants came for pats and to see if there was more to eat. She told us how the various elephants came to be there, and what their lives were like. For instance, baby elephants miss their mamas exceedingly and often cry through the night. They each have their own keeper who sleeps with them all night, feeds them, plays with them and generally lives with them all the time. All other human contact is very minimized so that they can be reintroduced into the wild. This process, once they are taken to the main reserve, can last anywhere from 2 to 6 or more years.



Along with all the baby elephants, this little orphaned Rhino came out to be acclaimed and patted by all. He was very interested in all the people and everyone got to touch him. We, foolishly, waited till he had been lathered in mud before we got our turn.

Slipping back into rhythm

I awoke this morning to the voice of Mark Driscoll preaching powerfully and longly about idolatry, in particular, the idolatry of animals, that is pets.

What! I heard him shout, Jesus isn't enough?!

Felt terribly guilty for being so over tired last night that I cried for an hour about my cat.

Anyway, I'm off for another ultrasound, hopefully to verify that this baby is really a girl. I've become thoroughly used to the idea, so if its a boy it will take some serious readjusting. I even bought my first diaper bag (thought it was finally time, after this many babies) and its pink toile. Besides, its for me, not the baby. And, as Mark Driscoll said, it will be kindling anyway when Jesus comes back.

Pretty sure Jesus is enough. Will take a shower and report back when I'm fully awake.

Home again, home again...

I'm drinking gallons of tea trying to wake up so that I can shove all our stuff in our suitcases, Very Carefully pack our carryons so as to make the most sense and be the easiest to access, and not look too carefully at the fact that in a few hours I'll be flying, with four small children, through Atlanta to Rochester and then hopefully be driven home by Matt. Was that a runon sententence? I believe it was. And I hope your prayers for me will run on and on today without ceasing.

We've had a lovely time here in California, so lovely we haven't had a second to blog. We are brown and rested, and some of us our thoroughly spoiled. But our thoughts are turning to home. I hear that our garden has been growing and growing in the rain. Elphine's cat, Frances, misses her exceedingly. And I, well, I miss my husband. So we are going to do the brave thing and fly in this age of barbaric and crazy air travel. See you on the other side.

Have a Happy Saturday

Matt is here for the day and we're off to the beach!! I've made piles and piles of sandwiches. Great Grandma is filling cold bags of food. Noni (my mother) is doing dishes. And I believe we've all taken a Tylenol or aspirin. So we should be all set to leave in about half an hour.

I'm sure all of Southern California will be out on the beach and freeway with us. This, I believe, is the American Dream.

Server Issues

Stand Firm is continuing to try to get their system back up. Until then, you can follow them here.

A Fabulous Birthday Was Had by All

While Stand Firm struggled with server trouble, we spent the day partying. Elphine, Alouiscious, and Romulous went to the pool early so as to be out of the way, while I and my mother took Gladys and went gathering and hunting for birthday presents, icing, whipping cream and a tub of ice cream. Elphine is So Old (7) that we didn't even consider a toy store for this expedition. We went to a book store and gathered up a lot of beautiful and loved books that she is finally old enough to read as well as pretty cards and note paper, fancy pens, swirly stamps and a very soft white baby owl (family inside joke--so great that she's old enough for that as well).

As the day went forward, I discovered something. Four babies in, I relish the mundane physical tasks of caring for small children. Changing them, dressing them, brushing hair, putting birthday cake on the table, sudden baths for bubble covered infants, evening bible story...I feel settled, suddenly. IMAGINE if I had stopped with beautifully perfect Elphine, one of the most perfect babies ever there was.

Now she is basically graceful, except when she crashes into the furniture, interested in interesting things
and still very beautiful.

Believe it or not, she arranged herself in this way and then called out for someone to find a camera and take a picture of her.
Late in the day, while we all sat around and watched the sippy cups washing in the dishwasher, many of us crying, Alouiscious discovered that there are still 274 days until his birthday. "That's TOO MANY" he wailed. Yes, it is, but they'll go so quickly I probably won't be ready when it arrives.

A Technical Note

Please exercise charity in your commenting on this blog. If there continue to be unkind anonymous comments, I will disallow anonymous comments and will have to check all comments before they post to the site, a sad eventuality as I do not have time to do such a thing.
Thank You.

From Sunny Southern California

We've finally got back online after a near 3 day Travel Black Out. I'm only writing until the Stand Firm Life Broadcast this evening. This is the first day we've gotten to catch up a little on the news, having only survived with very brief phone updates from Matt.

This morning we worshiped at St. James, Newport Beach. I MEANT to post and say that was where we were going, but the computer could not be had. We will probably be back in two Sundays. Next Sunday we will go to my grandparent's church and then hopefully the week after back to St. James.

We are about an hour and a half south from Anahiem in Murrieta. It is VERY hot but we are settled in the cool beauty of my grandparent's house. They have all the things I have remembered as a child. Having themselves lived all over the world, their house is full of lovely and carefully chosen things. The children are wilting in the heat, after a long cold winter and a fairly cool summer, they are amazed that the mountains are so brown and dry and that they can't really go out in the middle of the day.

Tomorrow is Elphine's 7th Birthday. We will be having fancy tea and a fancy time, being ready to put childish things away. I, having thought long and hard for about a month, still have no idea what I am going to give her on this important occasion. She likes, she says, 'to read books, play with dolls a little, and that's about all.

Meanwhile, we all miss Matt very much but are so grateful that he is covering the news. Me myself, I am watching with morbid facination the devestation of this once fine Episcopal Organization. And, may God be ever praised, I'm so grateful to be watching this time from the outside.
The broadcast is about to begin, so I will resume this at a later time.

Sorry about the total lack of blogging

My mother is extremely annoyed with me, as is probably everybody else. We've been gearing up for General Convention 2009. Matt is on his way and will be diving in to the invigorating work of trying to figure out What Is Going On!!!! I've finally twittered up my phone so I can follow Stand Firm.

We will follow in a day or two to just be in the general vicinity and go swimming every day. And also we'll be visiting some much missed family. Right now, I'm going to bed because the business of getting Matt packed properly, getting him to the airport, fussing the kids into bed and then trying very very very carefully to clip our dogs nails has wrung me out. I finally gave up on the nails and will run her to the vet tomorrow on the way home from the library. That's right, we have to go the library, go to the store, go to the post office....is there anywhere we don't have to go tomorrow? While I'm running around, you can pray for Matt and Greg and Sarah that they will shine big beacons of light on the madness of "The Episcopal Church" and that they will have a jolly good time in the process.

Good Shepherd Update in Brief

A Silent Movie

Monday Morning

I was going to blog, really I was, and write up my IHip and Quarterly Report, but someone unexpectedly came to take all four children until 3 o'clock this afternoon, and so we are flinging ourselves in the car and going to ALL the places its a hassle and challenge to take four small children. How far to New York City? Just kidding, we'll stay in town, but it would be a sin to waste this opportunity. I'm thinking coffee out, lunch out, something else to be determined, and then arriving home just at the same time as the children.

In Memorium

In keeping with my current Announcement Only Blogging Life, I just wanted to mark and honor the passing of my Glorious Cat into the presence of her Maker.

She had been sick for some time (I think I twittered, I can't even remember) and got to be much worse while I was in Kenya. Matt and the Cat Doctor determined that they couldn't prolong the inevitable any longer, and helped her gently out of this world last Tuesday while I was flying home.

I rescued this kitty almost exactly ten years ago from a dumpster on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene where she had been cast by some benighted individual who thought that they wanted a kitten and then decided they didn't. I reluctantly gave her away so that I could go to seminary, but when I married Matt, part of his present to me (besides a lovely desk) was reclaiming this beautiful cat.

This, I think, is really how Christ loves the church. Matt doesn't like cats, and neither does his dog, Maggie. But over the past 8 years, Matt has tended to this cat, and now two others, not only in the matter of kitty litter, and feeding, but finally in caring for her in her final days. I am told she slept next to him on our bed, food and water right there on a blanket, was carried down to be with him during the day and to sit in the sun, was carried down to the kitty box, was given medicine, and taken to the vet.

I am also very grateful to a very wonderful member of the Lady's Bible Study and Romulus's particularly important person for taking her to the vet several times and generally being there to comfort and sustain her.

I miss her very much and hope that God is taking jolly good care of her until I get there to be sure. In light of my present grief, I have two requests. First, I am not in any shape to acquire another cat at this time. Second, I would be most grateful to Clumber and Father Christian for refraining, if at all possible, from criticizing and mocking me, my cat or Matt in this matter.

All I'm doing is posting News

I have SO MUCH to say about our trip to Kenya, but it would be totally irresponsible of me to stop ordering my house and blog. There's just too much to do. So, you'll have to content yourself with snippets of news until the time is right.

That news being that this new baby looks very much like a girl. Couldn't be 100% sure, but through all the haze and stubbornness, it looks like we're probably in for a third baby girl and..............

What Are We Going to Call Her??!!!!!!

I'm not kidding.
I only have 19 more weeks to panic about this. The time is ticking away. Some of you should stop watching the ACNA Assembly Meeting and pray about it. On that note, I'm unashamedly delighted that Matt is not there and that he got to come to the ultrasound this morning and that later I'm going to bake tiny little beef pies and that he'll be here to eat them.

Just to wish Many Happy Returns of the Day

to my mother who will probably not read this message as she is laid up in bed with the flu. We've all had it over the weekend, she worst of all, which is why I haven't been blogging. However, we will celebrate when she's all better with a cake and maybe a balloon. In the meantime, blogging will continue light until I can get a grip on the laundry.

Home again, Home again...

Elphine is dropping off in the middle of her Bible Story. Romulus is talking loudly and squeezing drops of water out of a bottle onto his tummy. Alouicious is wiggling. Gladys is climbing on and off my lap. She's been throwing up all afternoon. In other words, we're all back in one place cozily together and SO GRATEFUL

1. That we traveled safely and that all the airplanes were sound and secure.
2. That we got to go and be with my mom at such a moment.
3. That so many of you took such lovely care of Matt and the boys (meals, a spotless house, many fun outings for the boys).
4. That we got to have a first hand encounter with the Anglican Church in Kenya and meet so many people who have prayed so much for us.
5. That my parents are this moment in the air and coming to be with us and that my mom is able to take a full breath through her own artery, 40 percent open.

Here comes the baby. This post will have to continue at a later moment.

Monday Morning

It is gray and threatening to rain and only 9 in the morning. Gladys drug me out of bed at what seemed like the middle of the night, but was really 6am, screaming for milk and kicking me or something. She was unwell over the weekend. She caught some throwing up bug and prevented us, except for her grandfather, from attending St. Francis Sunday morning. After being up with her most of the night, I did, however, manage to pull myself enough together to go downtown with my dad to All Saints Anglican Cathedral for the farewell service of Archbishop Nzimbi. Strangely and unaccountably, we ended up in the front row of the clergy (a very nice lady deacon from St. Francis lent me her extra vestments so that I could join in the procession) right next to the altar and able to see everything. It was extremely grand and wonderful. The organ alone takes church music to another realm. And the cathedral is beautiful. I am hoping to go back later in the week especially to take pictures of the bougainvillea such the like I have never seen before.

Saturday we did get to meet Bishop Atwood who is just as fascinating as I imagined him to be. My dad made chocolate chip cookies and we drank copious amounts of tea (at least I did) and talked for two hours. I'm not going to say anymore because it turns out the good bishop reads this blog regularly, and so I intend from henceforth only to be perfectly good.

Today I am hoping maybe we can check out the children's library and learn about something fascinating.

Thursday Evening

In another few minutes I need to go my gasping way back from the office to the house where sits my mother Very happy to be home, and breathing much more freely than I (we are up several 1000 feet and I am not used to it, also, this baby just seems really fat and big, even though it is apparently still only a few ounces). She has an artery now that blood can move all the way through. As the neighbor informed her this afternoon, in England 40% is a passing grade. It may not be in the US, but in this case, its well more than it was on Tuesday, and we are so so grateful, both that the doctors succeeded, when they felt dubious that that would be the case, and that she's home so soon. To open the artery more than 40%, she will require a diamond bit drill and a doctor to handle it, neither of which exist here in Kenya at this time. Indeed, the ability to do what they did this week is very new and special, and the doctor himself recently arrived from being trained in Dallas. So all things come together at the right time, and God is very good.

The girls and I are doing very well. For one thing, we're so happy to be here with my parents and see where they have lived the last four years. And for another, we are finally on the right hour, and so are not crying and fussing all the time. I've been taking pictures constantly, and will try to get them off my camera when I gather my wits. We hope to see the orphaned baby elephant reserve and Rift Valley Academy, and E wants Most of all to go back to the grocery store where they have child sized carts and she pushed her own. I am struggling to get my phone to take a SIM card so that I can text, which is what EVERYbody does here ('why don't you text?' my mother asked, 'I text') because its cheaper.

This Sunday, providentially, we will get to go to the Cathedral and see the goodbye service for Archbishop Nzimbi, and there are rumors that we will get to meet the Famous Bishop Atwood, about whom I have heard so much but have never yet laid my eyes on. AND there are so many children lined up to play and a library to go to, that we won't have a moment's peace as long as we are here.

An Update

Anne called with an update on her mother and said I could pass on what she told me. I am going to quote her aunt's summary since she seems to have a handle on things:

Joyce is resting in Intensive Care in the hospital, and will stay there a few days for observation. They succeeded in unblocking the artery (which had been completely blocked), but one place they were only able to unblock to about 40%. So overall, the procedure was "partially successful". The procedure was "very complicated", and Joyce was in the surgery for about 4.5 hours.

Thank you for your prayers and please do continue to pray for Joyce's full recovery

Just a Brief Sunday Hello

I'm here for a few minutes while the girls sleep. They've promised a tea party if they go to sleep. My parents house is a child's dream--lovely garden, wonderful dog to play with, big comfortable bed that we're all sleeping in together, cake, children's library on campus. We'll be able to very comfortably finish out the school year and relax and eat too well.

My mother is doing very well, though, as we keep saying, tired and winded. She will go into the hospital on Tuesday morning and the procedure will be at 2. Prayers, of course, are much appreciated.