Spring is finally here!

And with spring comes baseball and softball season! Suzanna had her first game tonight. Here are a few pictures to capture the memories!



This is before the game - sportin her new uni. Can you believe they wear tie die socks????





Here's the proud papa with his little ball player.


Here's my girl catchin... had I know they were going to put her at that position she would have had some knee savers on!



She actually started the game at short stop - as you can see she quickly became bored with all of the hitters just walking around the bases.


This is my favorite! I'm sure after the first line drive that catches her in the chest or shin she'll figure out to be in ready position at all times!




Here she is waiting for her first ever at-bat.


And here she is taking a swing - she only got to bat one time during the whole game.


Here in Wentzville the girls play fastpitch and frankly there is probably not a single girl in this 10 and under league that can throw the ball over the plate. So all the batter walk and then once they get on they just steal each base. We've been trying really hard to get the other communities in our league to change some rules to improve this league but so far nothing has happened. Either way the kiddos had fun and it was fun to watch them - the weather was beautiful here today!

The next set of pictures were taken on Friday night. I love this first one where you can see her baby-blues - they just melt my heart when she looks up at me like that! :)









Here she is playing with her new kitchen - I love how she is up on her little tippie-toes!


And here she is getting ready to cook - it is so fun to watch her play. You can just see all of the imagination in the way she does things. It is neat to watch how fast she picks up on things.



And my favorite pic of her this week is this - titled "Who Me??"


Hope everyone has a great week!

I love this girl......

This picture was taken at Christmas but she's finally getting to use the new bat! She's been practicing pretty hard with her dad and she's really improving. Her first game is next week.



So, last night Mike and Suzanna and I were out to dinner and Mike and I were having a conversation about politics. At some point, one of us mentioned 9-11 and Suzanna asked what 9-11 was. Mike explained to her what it was - she said, "oh yeah. I knew that happened." I'm not really sure if she understands the magnitude of the event.



I was floored first of all to realize that they are not teaching these kids about 9-11 in history class. Then I suddenly realized that we have been at war for 7 of her 9 years of life. How sad is that?



I am still healing from the car accident - I started back to work this week and was really caught off guard by how much my back and neck hurt from sitting and staring at the computer all day. Hopefully with some more time the pain will go away. I have an MRI tomorrow to check out my hip and lower back - let's pray for no problems!

I don't have any recent pictures of Brooke - I have to get new batteries in the camera and I'll take some over the weekend.

Lastly, April is when both my grandma and grandpa died - I wish I had some pictures saved to my computer so I could post them but unfortunately I don't. I know if they were alive they would love Brooke and Suzanna so much. I can just hear my grandma carrying on about them. :)

Ending with one of my very favorite quotes:

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." -Sir Winston Churchill

Interested in a trip to Kenya?

Jambo Rafikis! (Hello Friends!)



I miss Kenya! I was reading the blog site of one of the girls that I met while I was there and gosh when she explains some of the things she is doing, I can just see the beautiful little town of Kitale. How I wish I could go back there again. I was thinking about this today (I do have alot of time on my hands - my doctor won't release me to go back to work and I don't see her again for two weeks!), anyway so I was thinking - if there is one thing I could do different if I went back to Kenya, what would it be?


Well, let me tell you - I would spend more time with those little kids, hugging and kissing on them and letting them play with my hair. I would try to be a little less "afraid" while I was there - I always had this little bit of fear that made me hold back just a little bit. I hope if I get to go again, I hope I don't experience that.




Lastly, I'd probably try to learn alot more about their culture - including more of their language and I would bring back lots of suveniers to give away to my family and friends.




Oh and one more thing - I'd go to as many Kenyan church services as I could find. Even though I couldn't understand their language all the time, I still haven't found a spiritual experience that has matched up to what you get in Kenya. I think it's because they don't have the distractions we do.




Anyway - so I now have an updated photo of Laban, the little boy who stole my heart while I was there. He's getting big and is a cutie. Labn was such a sweet boy - he wanted to come to America and be a preacher. :)


Here he is:








And this, a beautiful Kitale sunset - taken from the roof of our hotel room - where we discovered a bath tub with dirty rain water where the hotel staff was washing our clothes! A very nice gesture on their part, considering that most of them probably do not wash their own clothes.














And here is a picture I want you all to know about. Puffing on glue bottles is a very common addiction amoung the young street kids in Kenya. These are kids who are the poor of the poor in one of the poorest countries. These are kids who have been on the streets for most of their life - and some of them all of their life, being born to mothers who are street kids.

And some samples of the animals I saw on my safari.

So now - the question... ARE YOU INTERESTED IN A TRIP TO KENYA? I've got a really great contact that is always looking for groups to come and help with their projects. Just curious if any of you are interested in taking a trip? It wouldn't be for a year or so - takes a while to plan - and you could fund raise all the money you needed for travel and related expenses. Anyone could go - it would actually be a GREAT experience for kids 10 and over. They will know how wonderful their life is here in the United States!

Let me know if you are interested!

Kwa Heri! (Goodbye!)