Well…I’m pretty late posting this, but we’ve been rather busy and I had to wait until we got Grace’s pictures back. 🙂

On January 26, Grace turned 1! It was a fun day which started with cinnamon rolls with a candle (she ate an entire cinnamon roll!) and then we played and did a little cleaning for her party in the afternoon. She LOVED her cake and was using two hands to shove it into her mouth. It was pretty cute, until she bit her finger and completely melted down. Although, to be honest, even that was pretty cute, right?

At her one year check up, she weighed 16 lbs, 13 oz and was 29 inches long. She’s still very petite, smaller than both Eden and Andy at this age, but she’s stayed on her curve, so Dr. Timmons’ isn’t concerned. I love it because even though she is one, she still looks like a little baby!

Grace is not quite as easy going as she used to be. She’s much more opinionated and likes to make her thoughts known by screaming at full volume. She isn’t walking yet, although she’s slowly getting more brave about standing on her own. She eats everything, often times more than Eden, and although she did her best to resist the switch to milk, is doing pretty well with that now, too. She’s a great sleeper, going 12 1/2 hours at night and taking 4-5 hours of naps during the day. We’ve limited her paci to just the car seat and her crib and she thinks it’s very funny when she gets to throw her paci into her crib when she wakes up.

On December 12, Eden turned 4! She is so proud of being 4 and has become very grown up in the last couple of weeks.

I missed Eden’s third birthday because she was in Kenya, so it was even more special to be together this year. Eden had a Jessie (from Toy Story) birthday party and our guests dressed like cowgirls and cowboys. It was fun to have a few friends and family together to celebrate Eden and she had a great time playing with her friends.

It’s been amazing to see how much Eden has changed in the last year. She has become even more of a high achiever and a wonderful helper. She loves to take care of Grace and clean her room as a surprise for us. She also wants to have a lot of adult conversations. Recently we’ve discussed the man she will marry (she made me promise to help her find him and mentioned that she would like him to have blonde hair!) and also more about her birth mother, her adoption and a lot of discussions about her time in Kenya.

Since Eden started school in the Fall, her ‘first child’ traits have become even more emphasized. She loves going to school and works very hard to get her car to the end of the track each day (the reward system at school). She comes home daily with a report on what the kids did in class and how well each one did on the race track. A few days ago, she came home and told me that she had a talk with Mrs. Amato about another child in the class who was using a bad word (butt) and that after she told Mrs. Amato, that child’s car was moved backwards. I love seeing aspects of Eden’s personality come out and it’s fun for me to watch her and to understand exactly what she does and why she’s doing it. Our first child bond runs deep. I wish I knew if her personality is nature or nurture. 🙂

Here is a picture of Eden at school on her birthday!

Since Grace will be 11 months next week, it seemed like we ought to go ahead and do a post about her being 10 months! Poor third child… 😉

Grace is busy spending her time chasing Eden and crawling away from Andy. She’s pretty quick and when she really wants to pour on the speed she ducks her head down and crawls so fast! She has pretty much dropped her third nap, taking a very long afternoon nap instead. And she has been sleeping through the night without a an early morning feeding for a little over a week. That means she’s sleeping 12 hours straight which is good for all of us!

Gracie has caught another cold, but doesn’t seem too bothered by it. She is still eating well and really likes the squeeze packs because she can feed herself with them. We love them because they are easy to travel with and don’t require a spoon! Grace’s front two teeth are finally coming in and we’re very happy that her fangs won’t be quite so prominent.

We recently had friends staying with us and Grace was really interested in their baby. She loved to pull herself up on the baby swing to peek at him or crawl over and stare at him on the floor. She was even nice about crying sympathetically when he cried.

We’re looking forward to Grace’s first Christmas and her first birthday which will be here soon!

Sarah is six years old and Mercy is fourteen. They are not related, but their stories are the same. Both girls were sexually abused by their fathers over the course of several years. They both came to the shelter through the rape center.

Sarah is not attending school because there isn’t money for her tuition. Mercy just received funding and will start school at the beginning of the next term! Please pray for these girls as they continue to recover from the trauma of being abused and removed from their homes and for Mercy as she begins school in the new year.

Note: Some of the details about these kids lives are hard to read, but I want to be honest about the things that children at the shelter are dealing with.

I first met Miriam in 2009 at the Sally Test Pediatric Center. At the time, she was an 8 year old who seemed very special to the staff, and I noticed she spent a lot of time at the center, more than most other children. She loved Eden and would help take care of her at night when I was home. I often found her carrying Eden through the wards to the Sally Test Center in the morning when I arrived at the hospital. As I began spending more time there with Eden, I learned more about Miriam’s story.

At the end of 2007, elections took place in Kenya which led to extreme violence across the country. Tribes clashed and over 800 people were killed in a little more than a month, and 60,000 people were displaced from their homes. Ben and I are proud and honored to know several people (Kenyans and Americans) that stayed in Eldoret and risked their lives to save many others. Eldoret (where we met Eden and where we live when we go to Kenya) was hit very hard by the violence following the elections. In a church, 200 people were hiding and rebels locked the doors and set the church on fire, burning between 40 and 80 people to death.

Miriam’s family lived about 2 hours west of Eldoret. During the night while they slept, Miriam’s home was set on fire. She and her two year old sister escaped through a window, but her parents burned to death in their home. A good samaritan found the girls and drove them to the hospital in Eldoret. Miriam’s sister died shortly after they arrived at the hospital. Miriam had burns on over 80% of her body.

For two years, Miriam lived at the hospital. She had multiple surgeries at different hospitals and was cared for by the people at the Sally Test Center. She bathed there, kept her personal belongings there and was a good helper with the other children. When I heard about what had happened to Miriam, I was shocked! She had so much joy, loved to dance, was so sweet with the other kids and liked to take care of the babies that were there. I could not believe that a child who had endured so much could even have the strength to get out of bed, let alone dance, sing, carry babies and love the staff. Here is a picture of Miriam (and a boy named Collins) from 2009. This was about 1 1/2 years after Miriam’s home was burned.

Since that time, Miriam has moved to the Amani shelter. She lives there when she’s not at her boarding school and is a leader among the family that the children have created together. She is very caring and still very sweet. I was reunited with Miriam when we returned to Eldoret in 2011. The IU Compound hosts an Easter party for the children that live at the Amani shelter and that was the first time I had seen Miriam since 2009. She looked so wonderful and seemed so much more confident! I was so glad to hug her and hear how well she was doing.

I was able to see Miriam several times while we lived in Eldoret, and it was fun to see her continued progress. She is currently waiting for a surgery on her scalp that doctors hope will help her hair to grow again on the half of her head that was burned while escaping from her home. Here is a more updated picture of Miriam from the Easter party.

Miriam’s school is already paid for, but if you want to help support her in other ways, such as buying her Christmas gifts, or buying supplies or food for the shelter, please email me or comment on the website and I can help you.