Pray's Visa

Hey everybody!!!

Missed everyone.  My computer cord has broken and I am waiting for it to be replaced.  It should be ready this week.  But that was also true last week, and the week before, and the week before that.  You get the idea.  Patience is a virtue as they say.

Acclimating to the Mac and to the Ipad have been a little slow.  Eventually I will get it and just take over Carl's computer.  Then we will be up and running again.

I had a great birthday.  Thank you!

Carl's much needed break is coming up next week.

But I really wanted to update you on AMY & PRAY's saga if you are following her story... Basically the adoption went through a month or so ago.  She went to Dar last week and got Pray's Tanzanian Visa.  But America then denied him a visa.  The reasoning is something like... they can't issue a Tourist Visa because eventually he will be applying for an Immigration Visa.  But there is no one here that can do a home study.  So he can't be formally adopted in American eyes here in Tanzania.  And he cannot immigrate until he is adopted.  You see the problem?  The Embassy recognizes that this is a problem but they 'have no advice'.

Somehow Amy is staying strong.  You can read the whole story on her website (with wonderful photos)... http://www.kusalipray.blogspot.com/.  And feel free to share any ideas you may have to help this progress faster.  Following even the faintest possibility is occupying her life these days.

Body Paint

One day not too long ago our friends Christiaan and Catharina came over for some play and a bit of dinner.  We were fortunate in that Christiaan brought over his homemade body paint!  Not exactly sure of the components but it was body cream at least and a bit of food coloring ... they said it was easy!

Here is Theo at the start ... just getting comfortable with the idea ...

Kaia chose to not take part - we were a bit surprised but ... she of course eventually at least got her legs colored!

It was remarkably easy to get off as well, no soap needed ... just a bit of rubbing off in the bath ...

Anna (Christaan and Catharina's daughter) was a pro at it - it was her second time .... she encouraged Theo to take some risks!

 

The end results!  or maybe that should have been the caption for the previous picture!  Haha!

Home Fun

So we are just about caught up now with our pics/updates - at least until last week when school started ... and here are a few 'around the house' shots that are worth putting up ...

Daddy with his cast ... AGAIN ... and Theo - 'Oh no, not another 6 weeks of this again!'

I LOVE this shot of Theo on the driveway with the chalk ... how cool huh?

Theo helping Mommy relax after a yoga workout ... now do you really think he is HELPING her relax or ???

Theo and Kaia sharing clothes ... oh we need to keep these pics for when they are older ... sort of a 'show this at your wedding' type of shot yes?

and Kaia with some of her classmates and teacher Diana behind -- Kaia has really seemed to enjoy her new challenges in P1 this past week and a half ... yeah!!!!  Nice to see our little girl blossoming!

Balloon and Sand Angels Videos

Here is Kaia blowing up her first balloon all on her own ... don't worry, it does not pop at the end!

and here is Kaia on our beach trip to Peponi making a 'sand angel' ... ahhh ... what you do when there is no snow in a tropical location!!!!  Hee hhee ....

Flats

So, after our trip to the coast we got back to our 'home sweet home', although Carl had to go immediately to Nairobi for a doctors appointment which eventually led to his second surgery on the knee.  Sad thing too was that as we were all driving to take Carl to the bus that morning for Nairobi - of course we get a major flat tire!  Didn't really affect anything but still ... sheesh!

Still, it was good to be back ... Kaia missed her complete set of colors for drawing ...

Heading Back Home

So our trip was just about over and we were about to head home ...

Here is one last shot of us (the last night) by the beach and the wind blew us around!
It was so lovely ...

We then took almost two days to drive back to Arusha, but we took it slow ...

The kids were remarkably good in the car generally ... just give them oodles of books, toys, and of course FOOD/SNACKS almost constantly and they can put up with just about anything! :)

We saw alot of sisal plants / fields along the way ... used to be a very big crop in the country but it has faded a bit ...

We also saw (as usual in this country) some interesting vehicles along the way ... watch out for this WIDE LOAD ... is that what it says?

We stopped at the 'Elephant Motel' on the way back to break up the journey.  We kept looking for elephants ... Theo especially but no luck!  There was a nice play park however and it was a nice rest stop for a looooong journey home!

Snorkeling and Sand Island Day

One of our days at Peponi saw us go on a 1/2 day trip snorkeling and visiting a sand island with the resorts boat.  It was a wonderful experience.

An older Italian couple, and a couple of moms with a child or two each from Arusha (we didn't really know them but we did recognize them) came on the boat/trip with us ...

 Just watching the crew work this old style 'Douw' boat was a great experience.  It took alot to work the sail and it was fun to experience the whole workings

After a day or two of gentle pushing and encouragement, PJ got Kaia to go snorkeling with her!  Here they are ... it only lasted a few minutes but we are proud of our girl!

 Here is the view from the shade shelter of our Douw boat.  Ahhh ... the life ....

Of course the only reason why we could visit this sand island was because of the extreme tidal action .... stay too long and the island is gone!

The older Italian couple took a real shine to Theo ... and it was fun when he started trying to work out how this powerful water/squirt gun worked ... he kept everyone on the boat entertained for the voyage home.