A Very Special Day

In 1974, January 31st became a very special day... Franklin was born!!  We are blessed to have such a wonderful man as a husband and father!  God created him uniquely to be the man that he is today and we wouldn't want to share life with anyone else!  Thank you for being who you are... for loving us and taking care of the both of us!  

It was a beautiful day to be outside, so we decided to go out to an old fort that we hadn't seen yet.  We ended up with a personal "tour" from one of the tourist police and Alex thought that was cool.  He doesn't realize that they are everywhere at the tourist spots and are just being friendly to get your money.  We quickly told him that we were not simply "tourists"; but I think he still wanted bragging rights for showing an American family around :o)  He was nice, so it was good to find out a little bit of the history of the fort. 

Getting out to the Fort

The Fort

 

Inside the Main Building Underground

 

At the Top of the Main Tower

Cannons in the Courtyard

Having Fun with Daddy!

We treasure each day 

the Lord gives us with you, Franklin, 

and our prayer is that He blesses us 

with many, many more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

WE LOVE YOU,

Rachel and Alex

Rooftop Chinese

One of our favorite places to eat is a chinese restaurant on the rooftop of a hotel with a wonderful view of the city!  Alex loves to come here!!

The view from the rooftop.

 

I'm not sure what Alex likes the most... 

the fact that he gets to eat 

on the roof of a hotel 

or that he gets to get up and walk around 

because it's never crowded when we go??  

Probably both!

Waiting for the food...

We've been thankful that Alex 

has tried anything we've had to eat 

since we've been here and likes the food!

A Summer Surprise!

 

 

Yes... these are my ultrasound pictures!!!!

Back in November, I started getting really sick to my stomach!  At the time, we had only been here a month and had been having our share of stomach issues, so I thought it was just time for another cycle to run through our family.  After a few days of this, Franklin had been out getting some other things we needed and came home with a pregnancy test.  I looked at him crazy and thought "surely, he can't be serious!"  It never had even crossed my mind that I could be pregnant!  Well, I finally took it for him and we couldn't believe it was actually positive.  For those of you who don't know our history... we haven't been able to get pregnant again for seven years!  After several miscarriages and many, many negative pregnancy tests over the course of about three or four years, we finally had to let go of the heartache and allow the Lord to give our hearts peace over not having another child.  This took another two years; but we had grown to love Alex even more deeply and became content with our little family of three!  The older Alex got, we realized it wasn't so bad to get a good night's sleep and not have diapers to change :o)

Well... all that is about to change come August 11th!  Once we got over the shock... we became very excited over the thought of a little one running around here again and very thankful to the Lord for this little miracle and blessing in our lives right now!  Alex is going to be a wonderful big brother and can hardly wait for the baby to get here!!  He can't understand why I don't have this baby next week or something :o)  He asks us just about every day if it's August yet??  Surely, you don't forget what to do with newborns??  I've been told it's like riding a bike... somehow, I remember it being a bit more complicated than that :o)

Just Kidding... we are NOT having twins :o)

Anyone For A Swim?

Most days have stayed fairly warm here.  Unless it is a very windy day... it doesn't get that cold.  We like to take Alex out to the beach from time to time to play in the sand.  Now, the water is too cold to throw a bathing suit on and go for a swim; but Alex will get his feet wet and claim that it's not while his teeth are shivering! 

On this particular day there was a local boy sitting not too far from where Alex was playing.  He finally decided to come over and see if it was ok to play with Alex.

As the afternoon passed, the waves and rip current got extremely rough!  I made Alex get away from the water; but the other little boy seemed to be by himself and didn't speak any English.  I was watching Alex, who had ventured down the beach to investigate a rock pile and next thing we knew, this other little boy was out in the water and seemed to be in trouble!  He apparently had lost one of his sandals and was trying to catch it; but didn't realize the waves were pulling him out too far.  I could tell he was having trouble getting up and kept being knocked over by the waves, so I started telling Franklin he was going to have to go in after him!  Franklin was thinking the same thing because he was already emptying his pockets and kicking off his shoes.  Thankfully, this story had a happy ending and he was able to safely pull the little boy out of the water... sandal and all!!  Since everyone was ok... the funny part was Alex, who had run back up to me to see what his Daddy was doing going swimming, and he couldn't??  He told everyone not to worry, his Daddy had been in the Coast Guard and he would bring the boy back to the beach!!  Too cute; but one... the people standing around by now couldn't understand a word he was yelling and two... they wouldn't know what the Coast Guard was if they could understand what Alex was saying :o)  It didn't matter... Alex and I were proud of him and grateful that both he and the little boy got safely out of the water!

Poor Franklin... 

he was freezing and
we had to take him home to thaw out!

A Day at the Zoo

No... this isn't another school story :o)  We found the city zoo and decided to take Alex over his winter break... if you can call it winter here!  Although it was a fun day for Alex, he got to pet and feed almost every animal there, it was sad to see how dirty an environment these animals had to live in and how poorly they were taken care of.  A few had somewhat of a natural habitat to live in; but most of the animals were kept in cages.  I think the only food they get each day, is from the children paying a few pounds to feed them!

Alex is waiting for the tram.  

The tram runs through the middle of the city 

and we can take it to a few places.

The only camels inside the city!

This ostrich had made a hole in its fence 

to get to some food.

In the middle of the zoo, 

you'll still find some begging cats.

There's cats all over this city!

Hi, Friend!

Hungry, Hungry, Hippo!

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone!  2009 was filled with wonderful memories and significant changes for our family.  It is definitely one for the record books!!

We had a great day with a trip to the park.  It was a beautiful day to be outside and play.  Alex loves going to the park where he can run around and be a six year old... without getting yelled at to get out of the streets!  He is always thrilled at the fact that his park has a McDonald's inside it!!  What little boy wouldn't be?  We didn't eat at the McDonald's this time though... instead we hung out with some friends and talked about the changes we have all been through this past year... knowing there are still more to come!

Enjoying the Park...

Alex likes to play

on this wall

around the lighthouse.

You know Alex...

he is always running!

The kids like to take the

palm tree branches and

use them as swords.

There's a beautiful lighthouse in the park.

The Official Tree of Africa!!

A Beautiful Sunset

In true American style, we decided to go and ring in the new year at the Chili's across the street!  It is so good and we don't get to go there very often.  Only on special occasions and a little reminder of home!  We went early and decided to get back to the apartment before it got too late.  We had been told we shouldn't be out and about late here... we weren't sure what to expect, so we decided it would be best to watch the action from our apartment.

Once we got home... Alex started in on a loose tooth that he has had forever!  He has been talking about pulling it for weeks and decided tonight would be the night.  He worked on that thing for over an hour.  So, instead of watching the ball drop in Times Square this year... we cheered Alex on to pull his tooth out!  He wouldn't let either of us near him to help :o)  Finally, after all that work...

 The Tooth Came Out!

Alex was so excited

and very proud that he had

pulled it out all by himself!

Can you go back

and ask for a

tooth for Christmas?

Once we could get Alex calmed down enough to go to bed... it was around 11:00.  Thankfully, he was so tired he went right to sleep.  We thought the noise at midnight would be enough to wake the dead; but Alex didn't budge.  We could here children laughing and carrying on... apparently, there was a fireworks display; but we couldn't see it.  I was just glad it didn't last long and we could get some sleep!  What a day... or should I say night!!

 We wish each of you a Happy New Year!

May the Lord bless you in 2010...

All Our Love,

Franklin, Rachel and Alex