Easter 2013

Thanks to Becky, who is hanging out in KTL for awhile, we had an Easter party. It's nice to have someone who loves throwing parties so I don't have to! :)

All the kiddos excited and ready to party

Let the egg dying begin...

The colors are light so it is hard to tell but he made the country flag. Then he made France's as well.

If her parents would let me take her, I would. I absolutely love her. She is precious.

The egg walk with all the McCabes clearly in the lead. I'm thinking it has something to do with personality...they are free spirited, ready to go and try. Mine are cautious, not wanting to mess up.

My attempts at Easter pictures...not quite the same as the last few years in my parents' backyard with beautiful green grass.

See, she wants to be a part of our family. :) She could fit in. 

Cute Titus

 Becky leading the crew to find more of the eggs that were still hidden.

Showing off his lot of candy. They all got lots of good treats.

Happy Birthday Dawson!!

My first born turned eight! Wow! He is a joy. I love that kid. He is kind, polite and respectful. He loves his brothers and does well taking care of them. He likes to follow rules and makes sure all of us do as well. :) He is obsessed with washing his hands (too much and we are working on it) which I would say came from me, not the hand washing but I knew of a girl once who had an obsession with brushing her teeth. Oh the joys of seeing your crazy traits being passed onto your offspring. 

He is a stupendous kid, if I say so myself. Simply wonderful and I am grateful, so incredibly grateful, that the Lord gave him to us. I love him to the moon and back...and back and back and back to infinity, as we often tell each other at night. 

D wanted a Lilo and Stitch party, without the Lilo and with the experiments. I had no idea what he was talking about but now know what experiments are that somebody makes on each show. The boys write down the experiment number (which are really things like Stitch that do things, not like science experiments) after each show and keep a log for some reason. It means something to them. So I obliged.

My free hand Stitch. Not too shabby, I think. As I sweat over cakes I am oh so "grateful" to my sister who made the boys awesome cakes that I must live up to, that and colored pancakes. So no Jennifer cake, but this is my best.

One experiment blew bubbles so we tried to see who could blow the biggest bubble.

Dawson held the lead until right until the end when Joel made a massive bubble.

Then there was an alien that made a crown and if you wore it you could tell everyone what to do. So it was experiment Simon says.

He loved getting to tell people what to do.

Then there was a water experiment that through water balls at people....so we threw water balloons.

 There was also an experiment that folding everything so we folded paper to make something, like a hat and various other games sprinkled in the day.

And of course, then came the cake.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Dawson!!! Love you with all my heart! May this year be a great year for you!

Goodbye car

The hospital needed ambulances so we ended up giving our car to the hospital and getting a new (used) car that was being sold in Bamako. It was hard to give away our sweet car that held precious memories. It was our favorite place in Mali for the first year here. :) I kid you not. We would go and sit in the A/C and just enjoy a moment of peace. Good memories.  But a car is a car so we have moved on but not without some pictures. :)

 

Brett wanted me to take a pic of the car before we gave it to the hospital. It ended up being a Silas photo session and since they were funny, I had to post them.

 Jeremi wanted his picture with the car as well before it left the MacLean household. 

Ode to Purr and our other two cats

When we returned from Burkina, we realized that our animals were costing a bit of money and we decided to look at decreasing our numbers. Since we brought an animal back with us, you can see we do a good job at limiting ourselves. :) We started giving away rabbits as we were up to 12 and that was just too many. Our plan all along had been to give them away when they had babies. So through these discussions our kids knew we wanted to decrease our animal load. Call me crazy, over 20 animals is just a bit too much.

Well, we decreased our amount this past week but not like I wanted, though Dawson made sure I knew I shouldn't have ever wanted to get rid of some animals. All three of our outdoor cats died. The culprit: rat poison from the neighbor's yard. I'm not sure really if they put it out to kill rats or to kill our cats (they had complained to our guard about the number of cats congregating in an abandoned house near them) but alas, it killed our cats. 

It started with the youngest, Purr's daughter that I watched be born. It was sad but we thought it was something random that she died of. 

But then Mittens fell sick. When Mittens passed away I noticed Purr was thinner and not as well. He wasn't eating. 

I called our friend who knows a vet. He came at night which was quite nice, gave a shot and said he'd be better tomorrow. This didn't instill much confidence. It was during that night that we realized it was rat poison but there was nothing we could do at that point. 

The next day I couldn't find Purr in the yard. I went looking for him. As I started climbing the tree I heard this awful meow. I saw him in our neighbor's yard (not the ones who put out the rat poison). He saw me so he purred. I went to him and realized he was dying. I lost it. Partly because it was sad to seem him suffer and be unable to do anything but I think there was probably some other feelings of loss that have occurred over the past few months that must have found their way to the top. But I bawled. Like a baby. The wiping your snot on your skirt kind of crying. The kind that left me with a roaring headache for over a day. Thankfully, the kids weren't at home at the time and didn't see their mother out of control. I felt stupid when our house guy came to me to see what was wrong. In a country where they aren't to cry for the death of a child, he was unsure of what to do with me crying over the cat. But we are those crazy Americans. I couldn't leave him. I would rub his head and rub his head. If I stopped to leave, he would flip his tail as if to say, "keep rubbing, stay here with me." And so I did.

Purr was the sweetest cat I have ever known. I never liked cats much. They always did their own thing, seemed a bit snobbish to be honest, so I just never got into them. But Purr changed my world. He was so incredibly sweet. He would always sit in our laps. He would suck on the boys' ears. He was a GREAT cat.

The boys did come home and were able to spend some time with Purr. They took it well overall. Right after this kiss Kenan sat up, began to cry and said, "He was my favorite." He cried for a little bit. I held him. Then they went inside to play. They asked about Purr but handled it well when he finally passed. I love the resiliency of children.

We miss our kittens and cat. The yard somehow seems empty, even with all the animals still around. Thankful for the time we had with them, especially my favorite, Purr. 

Waterfalls, Camels, and Goodbyes

 Found more pics from our time in Burkina. 

There was a beautiful waterfall not far from where we were staying. It was a little hike to get to but so worth it. The kids could have stayed there all day.

Falling off the edge with Aiden.

They decided to have a boat race. Each team made a boat and then they raced. The production of these boats consumed much time and energy, especially for the length of time they lasted. :)

This was all Becky's idea. She had done boat races as a child. I think she was more into it than the kids.

Dawson and Ella's boat, made from a nest of some kind.

So the boats went in and immediately flipped over. :) So much for all the hard work. But we were able to watch the pieces race. The nest beat the strands of leaves by a hair. It was a close race. :)

As our kids played their that day I couldn't help but think how cool their life is. They get to see the world. They go places not many kids have gone. They get to experience things not many do. The weather was nice that day. It was incredibly peaceful. It was one of those times when I am overwhelmed by the blessing it is to be here. What more could one ask for?

As we left the hotel to stay in another city, we passed camels on the road. We don't get to see camels very often so of course we did the logical thing anyone would do. We pulled off (into a ditch I might add) to turn around and follow the camels and ask if we could ride them.

  Anna rode it too but I guess it was on her camera so this is all I have of her and the camel.

This was the last day of school for the boys with Anna. 

Anna was a wonderful teacher and a huge blessing to our entire family. She really became part of our family and we feel that sense of loss. Glad for her that she is where she needs to be but sad that it took her away from us. We will be forever grateful for the love, time, energy, sweat and tears she put in for our boys. She impressed me greatly with her strength and determination. She is a jewel and we miss her!

And this is what happens when mom takes over schooling. Needless to say it didn't go quite as well as with Aunt Anna. :) And I may be smiling here but it wasn't before I had shed some tears. I think school lasted all of an hr, if that, the first day. But at least it ended with art. :)

And surprise, surprise, we picked up another animal in our time away. She was too cute to leave so we took her from her mother as she nursed (I kid you not, terrible, I know) and made her part of our family. I fed her day and night for several weeks. She is doing well and is affectionately named, Burkina, as a reminder of our time of displacement and waiting.