Real Life

We recently received a package from J.B.,a friend of ours in Uganda. (I have written about him in previous posts from when Lacey and I were in Uganda. He is the pastor of the church I went to in Jinja, he took Lacey and I to a village to distribute our suitcase full of goodies to the kids, his wife, Grace, cooked many yummy meals for me, and he and his whole family blessed me tremendously. We love JB and his family!)

So when we opened the package, it was full of African outfits for each of our children. For any of you that have had to buy clothes for others, you know how difficult this can be. Imagine being in Uganda, buying African clothes for American kids you have never met nor seen in pictures! And all the clothes fit perfectly! Everyone loves their individual outfit and is very appreciative.

So, ever since we received this package, I have been thinking about how important it is for me to get a picture of the kids in their Uganda clothes. This is almost a daily thought. When I woke up this morning, I thought, since Jaden and Kellen are on Christmas break now, and everyone is home this morning with no plans of having to go anywhere, this will be a great day to get pics done. So I made a quick chore list for each of the kids with the last one being--change into African clothes.

Everything was going well until I had the camera out. All of a sudden the whole morale of the group went downhill fast! So I reminded them how fast pictures will be if everyone just cooperates and smiles!! This is how the next 20 minutes went:

Me: Everyone stand over here, ok smile, look at me! Christopher, put your shirt down. Jaden no bunny ears for this picture. Look! Smile! Uhh, that would have been good, but Katie you weren't looking at Mommy! Again...Sage please stand on two feet, Jaden, relax a little bit, that doesn't even look like a smile anymore...Click! That would have been good, except I can see your undies! Come one everyone, this doesn't have to take soooo long. Please just LOOK AT ME! SMILE! NOW! Sage, please stop looking at your reflection in the TV. Jaden please stop making funny faces. **Now comes bribery** Everyone look at me, smile and you will get a cookie! (Everyone gets excited and shouts "cookie") click, but now Christopher is sooo excited at the idea of cookie he can't stand still. Jaden has had it...there are no more smiles, he keeps raising his hands in the air, like he's had enough. I'm irritable and grouchy and just keep clicking the camera anyways. Kellen keeps running from his spot to the camera because he wants to see the picture I just took! I know I am nearing the end of every one's sanity, so I try to muster up some enthusiasm and announce that this is the last picture. Everyone give me your best smile! Click! Ok...that would have been the last picture, if Sage would have had been standing on TWO feet, if Jaden was smiling, if Kellen didn't have his arms wrapped so tightly around Katie and Christopher that it looked like they were in a choke hold, if Christopher didn't have his arms in the air, and if Katie didn't have drool down the chin! Augghhh! Let's try this again....Augghhhhh!!!!

And all of you are wondering why you haven't received our family Christmas picture in the mail yet! HA!









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So, in the middle of posting the above pictures, my friend Megan, popped in to say hi while on her lunch hour. She and I were downstairs, when we heard a sudden crash and the sound of things breaking or at least hitting the floor. We ran upstairs to find our Christmas tree laying sideways! Ornaments were everywhere. And there were two guilty hoodlums standing next to the tree! This gruffy mom (you are getting a great mental picture of me today!) sent them all to bed. Megan and I tried to lift the tree back into a standing position, which did not work well. As we are lifting and holding and the other is fixing the base, we realize part of the base broke. We notice this, as the tree is in the upright position, I am just letting go of the tree, and Megan is down on her knees looking at the base of the tree. This picture explains the rest...


When this happened, I said, "Megan, are you OK?" She muffled out a "yeah." So I said, "then hold on, I have to run and get my camera!" She graciously let me take this picture. We had a good laugh! If it were not for her being here at that moment...who knows... God knows how much we can handle, and then I guess, he sends in reinforcement!