Lovin' Life

These sweet girls are very excited, because they will be attending International School Moshi in just a few short weeks. This is a very big decision for our family as we have always intended to homeschool, and have already begun our homeschooling experience. However, after much prayer and consideration for what might be best for our girls at this point in time, we have decided to enroll them at the International School. Please pray for us as this will be a big transition for all of us. We are excited about what God has in store for our family this year.

Hashing it out...

What is a hash, you might ask??? It is when a group of people gather together and follow a previously plotted course up the hills, over the rivers, and through the bush on the side of Kilimanjaro... How do we follow it? Not with a GPS system, although that would be VERY fun out here. No, instead we follow little patches of white baking flour that the course setter leaves at various intervals. There is a hash twice a month on Sunday afternoons. It is quite fun and allows us to see parts of Tanzania that can only be seen by foot. Anna ran the whole trail (about 1.5 hours), Sarah petered out about 30 minutes into it, Jeff managed to carry Ben on his back the entire time and I walked it this time, but fun was had by all! And let it be noted that as soon as we set foot in our house, Anna immediately laid on her bed and went to sleep!

Yustino

Here is Ben holding Yustino, or wait, scratch that, reverse it... Yustino works as a gardener for our friends. He and his wife Neema had a baby boy, Joshua, in January of 2007. At eight months he died of malaria at the local hospital. Neema is currently pregnant with their second baby, but she has been very sick throughout this pregnancy with bouts of malaria. We are praying for God's protection over this little one. Yustino eats up any time he can spend with Benjamin, and is always inquiring as to where he is if we visit without him. The smile you see is a perma grin. No joke!

Sarah's colorful world!

What a fun girl. This little one spins giggles and sunshine wherever she goes and does as little work as possible with a smile. :) She has been trying her hand at photography as a 4, almost 5, year old. Not half bad, although 10+ pictures of the back of my head show more of her developing fine motor skills rather than her photography skills. She does show some promise though. I thought we'd include some recent pics that she has taken, as well as some of her and her lovely block creation that she labored over one morning this week.

Meet O'Reilly and Floyd

We would like to introduce you to a few other members of our family.

Here is our fourth child, O'Reilly. Typically, I wouldn't refer to him as another child, but this puppy so desperately tries to be one of our children, that I think we will give him an honorary position for our blog's sake. It takes one sweeping wag of his tail to knock over Sarah, so imagine what he can do to "learning to walk" Ben! He was named after Bill O'Reilly - and we hope neither one is offended.

Sarah is patting her friend Floyd the tortoise. He is named after Floyd from "The Pond" children's radio show. Floyd is a very quiet, faithful and banana peel loving member of the family.

Blissful Beach Boy Ben

Happy 6th Birthday Anna!

Annalise Rose Holcomb turned 6 on July 5th, 2008! We were lucky enough to catch the fireworks on the peninsula, where the US Embassy is located, the evening before. The first thing Anna did on her birthday was have tea with her sister overlooking the sunrise on the Indian Ocean. She was SO excited for this treat and the day only got better! We were able to enjoy waterslides, swimming, and a few presents too! What a birthday, what a girl! :)

Adventures in Africa

So, we attempt to get our son immunized and trek out on an eight hour road trip to Dar es Salaam, the capital of this country. Our departure time of 5 am was supposed to land us there about 1 pm. About 2/3 of the way there we completely fry our engine and spend the bulk of our day on the side of the road trying to figure a way to make it to our destination. Mostly because that was literally the next point of civilization that we could get help!

After praying together that God would send a truck that could tow our LandRover, we were all relieved that God did indeed provide just what we needed. And the dust patch we had called "home" for about six hours of the day has now become a happy memory for our family.