Christmas day

Christmas was busy to say the least. Up at 5am to get things going for breakfast at the Children's Home. Opened presents with the the boys. Headed to the Home at 7:30, we all had breakfast together. One of my good missionary friends in Yaounde gave us a bag of small gifts for each of the children. Each bag had a new toothbrush and toothpaste; plus pens, pencils, candy, hair clips for the girls, cars for the boys and little McDonald toys. (A church back in the States put them together). They were a huge blessing and to see the kids faces opening up their presents almost made me cry. They were so overjoyed, it was a first for most of them to get Christmas presents.

Then back home to prepare lunch... We ate about 3pm... super delicious even if I do say so myself! Then we all played Wii for a while. Also got to speak to most of my family (thank you Skype!). By 8pm I was ready to crash! Boxing day was awesome, we just hung around the house, watched UP (one of Sethy's presents), played rummikub (one of Josh's presents), ate leftovers... nice and relaxing. Anyway here a some pics of the day, it took me seriously 2 hours to upload these!

Christmas morning at the Ski House. It was 56 degrees, nice and chilly!

Seth jumping for joy over his new lego

Jude loving his legos too

Cooking breakfast at HHCH

Dorcas and Meranda, how cute are they!

Christmas tree that the kids decorated. We put all the pressies under there before breakfast

Bena enjoying her Christmas breakfast; eggs, fried potatoes, bread and jam, and hot chocolate

Tim reading the Christmas story to the children

The kids opening their pressies

What a smile! Aruna enjoying his Christmas gifts

Christmas Dinner at our house: Our co-workers, the Born Family, plus Becky and James (volunteers for WON) and then Maxwell, the Car Wash manager and his family (kids table didn't get in the shot)

A fun day

Yesterday we had out first Christmas party at the Children Home. It was a LOT of fun. Someone donated some bouncy castles to Bread For Life (who we used to work with) and they gave one to Win our Nations. So we blew that up yesterday, the kids loved it! It was defiantly a hit. Then we did a slideshow of photos from the past year, the children all had a good laugh at seeing themselves projected up on the wall. It was great to see how much they and the Home has changed in the last year. Then we watch "The Nativity Story." We (or Jake should I say) made a bunch of popcorn, plus some groundnuts (peanuts) and a bunch of Kool Aid for snack. All in all, we had a blast and it won't be a day the kids forget anytime soon.

Christmas morning Sara and I are going to make breakfast for everyone at HHCH... we have some little pressies to hand out to all the children... it will be nice to spend the morning with the kids. Then back to home as we've got about 15 people for Christmas dinner. Couldn't find a turkey this year so 2 chickens and a pork roast will have to do. Will post pics.

Jake making his "delicious" Popcorn (better than any microwave popcorn!)

Should be enough popcorn for everyone

Josh helping to make our 15 litres of Koolaid

First time bouncing for all the kids

Group picture (it was super hot!)

Our wonderful Pa and Ma, they are such a blessing! (and so cute!)

Jake manage to get Pa to bounce... and he even did a flip. We all had a good laugh :)

Christma goodies!

Jake came back from town today and look what he found! A 3lb bag of Hersey's kisses and another 3lb of Hersey's nuggets (every pregnant woman's dream! :). Amazingly the kisses are still in date and the nuggets are only two months out... it seems the little shops that sell stuff from America, buy it on sale in the States (going out of date) and then ship it here; which takes a couple of months.... so when we find some US food it is usually at least 3 months out of date. Missionary life 101: Sell by date, more of a suggestion that a rule. So these will make Christmas a little more special.

Couldn't resist posting this pic, look at those blue, blues eyes... a little chip off the ol' block! Still trying to teach Jude to be gentle with the puppies, he likes to hug them VERY tightly :)

RETRACTION: Last post I wrote that all the children at HHCH passed their end of term exams. We got their report cards back this week and a few of them did fail... a couple of them will be moving back a class, this term really was to see where they are at and place them correctly in the school. Even so, they have all done sooooo well and we're so proud of them.

Puppies and other news

Jude said his first words in Pidgin today all by himself. He heard the doorbell ring and shouted "Na who!" This is what we always shout out too, it means, who is it? It was really cute and we all cracked up and then he wouldn't stop saying it. Ahhh, less than 2 years old and already bilingual.

We put up a Christmas tree at the Children's Home on Saturday, the kids had so much fun, a first for all of them besides one. Also been practicing Christmas carols with them, they're learning very quickly. The had their end of term exams last week and praise the Lord, all of the children passed, they have improved so much since starting school 3 months ago.

Brindie had her puppies on Wednesday, 3 males, 3 females. They are all so sweet. One will go to the Children's Home, one is going to a local Bible school that need a dog for security and the rest we will sell. The boys just love them.

First Doctor Visit

Finally made it to the hospital today for my first prenatal appointment. We've decided to have the baby at the Catholic hospital here in town, it is small, super clean and well run. There are a lot of Spanish nuns everywhere who are super helpful. They also use midwives to deliver the babies, doctors only come in if there is any complications. The simpler the better for me so it is a perfect fit.

It was an extremely long morning though, left the house at 7:30am, got there at 8am and didn't leave the hospital till 1pm! There is a group of us that was there for the first time and you go through all these "stations" one at a time. First I went to register at reception, then headed to prenatal room. Waited about an hour, they got all my info... waited another hour... went back to reception to pay for lab work, go to pharmacy to pick up vitamins, Go to lab, get blood taken, back to prenatal room. Wait for midwife to come, another hour, get checked, all is good, PTL! (I'm 14 weeks along). Back to the waiting room... wait for lab results and for all the other women to see the midwife. Listen to midwife give 40 minute lecture about pregnancy. It was actually really good, all in pidgin (very proud of myself, understood everything). Got some more insight into Cameroonians and pregnancy. Lots of superstitions in different villages, such a women shouldn't eat eggs or sugar cane when pregnant... witch doctors cutting women to make them better... very interesting. The midwife was great and really let them know what was what.

After this, got a Tetnus shot, saw lab results, and was finally out of there. Praise God Jake was with me (the only husband there, poor thing) or I would have died of boredom. Next appointment shouldn't be so long, since this was the first one it is very thorough.