Family Photo Shoot

One of the many things we need to accomplish before HMA is ordering new prayer cards.  That is easily done...if you have a family photo to use.  Taking a current photo, however, is not so easily done.  It's even more difficult to get a nice photo.  I'll just say it: little boys are not usually the most cooperative human beings when it comes to photo shoots.  They run around, wiggle, pick noses, jump up and down, and so on.  But we really needed a current, nice-enough-ish photo since our last prayer card only had two kids on it and we thought it'd be preferable to pass out prayer cards that include smiling faces from the whole family as we are now.

Well, after trying to mentally gear up for several weeks, today was the day.  It was a Sunday, and Sundays = church clothes.  Check.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Check check.  We found a place with a decent background that was also in the shade and wouldn't wash out our faces.  Check check check.  So far so good.

But before the actual photo shoot, we had to run up the hill to church.  We were already late and the photos would have to wait.

After surviving church (and I mean surviving with a complete meltdown on Aisle 3, which resulted in him needing to be taken out of the service, which resulted in a kicking match as Eli picked him up to leave, which resulted in kicking his biggest brother clean in the face, which resulted in more tears on Aisle 1, which ultimately meant that, yes, the Horn Circus was in town again) - after all that, we found our way home to attempt the photo shoot.

We made it home, but one boy was hungry and crying, one boy wanted out of his church clothes and hid in the closet when I told him he had to wait until after the family photo to change his clothes, and another boy had such bad bedhead that we needed to soak and tame his hair before letting him be in the "we're such a happy missionary family" photo.  Good grief!

Finally - finally! - we pulled ourselves together to take the photo.

All I had to do next was set up the tripod and get the camera ready.  Why don't we just ask someone else to take a photo of us, you might ask?  Because one kid has social anxiety and hates people watching him, which means he has an unfortunate tendency to shy away if not freak out whenever someone else takes a picture of us.  So the tripod it is.  The good thing is that once the camera's in place then I can set it to take multiple photos in a row - click click click click click - and hope that at least one will turn out.  So that's what we did.

And we had a kid pulling up his shirt and showing off his belly, we had another kid picking his nose, and we had all three kids running away before the camera was done clicking because "I want to see it!  I want to see it!"  But, BUT, we also got a few decent photos in the middle of it all.  Eli and I looked at each other afterward and took a deep breath.  Victory!  We wrangled our three boys and made 'em smile and they were even genuine smiles!  Take THAT family photo shoot!

So one more thing can be checked off the list before HMA.  Whew!  And one of these photos will be plastered on a prayer card, coming soon to a church near you :)

Here are a few gems I took afterwards.  I gotta say, for as much as these munchkins give us a run for our money, they sure are cute when they wanna be!

Sabbath Time

This past weekend I enjoyed two nights by myself, away from home and the boys.  Two nights!  It was amazing.

This past year Eli and I have tried to give each other "Sabbath Time" in which we get away from home for a night to be alone and with God.  It hasn't happened as much as we'd like, but it does still happen occasionally, and this time I wrangled two nights away and spent that time in Nakuru National Park.  I went there because 1) it's a city where I could get some supplies before coming home, 2) there was availability at one of the resorts (unlike the first place I called outside of the park), and 3) it's where the flamingos are, and I really really wanted to see flamingos and take photos.

After reading, napping, reading some more, eating really good food, reading my Bible without interruptions, swimming laps in the pool, listening to worship music, watching Netflix, praying, and reading again, on the second evening I left the resort to find the animals.  Nakuru National Park has lots of wildlife, and what I found was the highlight of my Sabbath.

First, ubiquitous buffalo.  They were seemingly everywhere I went.

Also, a troop of baboons near a marshy area.  This baby captured my attention, for obvious reasons.

And a couple of jackals right along the road, blending into the dry background.

And then - my first flamingo sighting!  A long line of flamingos stretched along the edge of the lake.  I couldn't get any closer since the park doesn't allow people to get out of their cars and wander away from the road (ya know, just in case a buffalo stumbles upon you and decides not to like you), so these were the best shots I could get with my zoom lens.  But I knew there'd be more flamingos at the bottom of the lake, so I continued on in my search.

Further along I spotted this rhinoceros!  Rhinos are not ubiquitous and I was elated to have come along at just the right time to see one.  It was lazily eating whatever edible grass it could find and I paused to take some photos and marvel at such a prehistoric beast.

I remember thinking that with its head down it looked a bit like a giant rock, similar to the little rock just behind it.  Then, just as I was about to pull away, the little rock moved!!!

Baby rhino!!!!!  I had no idea it was even there, and let me tell you, if seeing an adult rhino is cause for excitement, then seeing a baby rhino is cause for calling someone just to share the good news (which I did)!  I could not believe my eyes.  A baby rhino, in the wild, right in front of me.  It was unbelievable!!!

Once I finally calmed down, which took awhile, I continued on in my search for flamingos.  I reached the bottom of the lake and found them!  So many flamingos.

Can you see that faint pink line all across the water?  Yep.  Those are flamingos.  All of it.  Flamingos.

I stayed there for awhile, watching them with fascination.  They are beautiful creatures, and quite noisy too.

This guy, for whatever reason, was all by his lonesome the entire time.  I was able to get out of the car at this particular spot, so I walked right to the water's edge and took several photos of him.

I felt like I was in the middle of a National Geographic show.

At one point while I was looking through my zoom lens I noticed some buffalo hanging out near the water as well, along with more rhinos!  I couldn't believe my luck!  Nakuru National Park is known for its rhinos, but you never know if you'll see them or not, and I sat there and counted no less than five rhinos mixed in with the buffalo.

And one of them was a baby!!!!  Another baby rhino!!!  This one wasn't as little as the first one, but still, another baby rhino!!!  It was so hard to see because of the distance, but I did see it and felt soooooo blessed to see these creatures in the wild.

Back to the flamingos.  Did you know the tips of their wings are black?  It's completely hidden until they flap their wings.

As the sun set further, the flamingos gathered together from their various locations around the lake.  I'm not sure if this is a normal behavior at the end of a day, but it felt like they were gathering close for the night, ready for a sleepover or something.  It was fascinating.

Finally I had to leave and head back to the resort for the night.  Shortly before getting there, I almost ran over a group of guinea fowl.  There were nine of them, darting back and forth through the grass and across the road.

Seeing these animals was the highlight of my Sabbath Time.  I thank God for giving me such an incredible time in the park, and for giving me the chance to take photos, and for refreshing my soul through His creation.

Christmas in Kenya

We just celebrated our second Christmas in Kenya and it was wonderful.  Eli didn't have to work the entire Christmas weekend and the actual holiday was a quiet and joyous occasion with our boys.  We began the festivities the night before with our tradition of giving them new jammies on Christmas Eve, so they can wake up wearing them on Christmas Day.  So after bath time, it was present time.  They were very excited!

We're so thankful for people who visited us in Kenya this year and brought over these jammies I'd ordered on Amazon.  It would have been more of a challenge to get the boys new pajamas otherwise (since wearing pjs to bed isn't exactly a thing here).

For Caleb, who loves the Force almost as much as he loves animals, it was Star Wars.

For Kai, who digs in the dirt at every possible opportunity, it was construction machines.

For Asa, the tractor-lovin' boy, it was a tractor.

And they were very happy :)  Once we got them in bed, it was time to wrap presents, since of course I hadn't made the time to do it ahead of time!  The power had gone out (which happens fairly frequently this time of year), so Eli and I wrapped presents by candlelight.  Then the power came back on just as we were finishing, so we enjoyed seeing them under the lit tree.  We continued our newfound tradition of chopping down a random tree branch to serve as a Christmas tree, and we were quite happy with the results!

Caleb was the first to wake up, and he ran into our bedroom and declared, "Mom, I saw there were presents under the tree!  And the stockings are so fat!"  He was giddy as giddy as can be, and he was also very patient as he waited for brothers to wake up, and then everyone had to wake up Daddy Horn who slept the latest of all.  It was a wonderfully fun morning.  Being with kids on Christmas morning is one of the best experiences in the world!

And Eli made coffee that had been sent from the States, and I made hot chocolate that had also been sent from the States.  Merry Christmas to us!

Later that day we were busy baking and cooking a Christmas meal to share with friends.  The Benacs are an incredible family who lived below us for the past four months, who also had two little boys, and who we came to love very dearly.  They left Tenwek the day after Christmas (much to our chagrin and not without tears on our part), so enjoying a last meal together was the perfect way to spend the holiday.  All of the boys (minus Kai) were still in their jammies by dinner time and had so much fun playing together as usual.  We adore this family and are missing them greatly.

We also had the joy of the Cowles joining us for dinner.  They also live in our building and lived at Tenwek about 25 years ago (and had three little boys here just like we do now), and now they've been back for over two years.  We had a truly delicious meal (think ham, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes...) and joyful fellowship.  I laughed so much and it was so good for my soul!

We are so thankful for Christmas in Kenya.  This next year will be amazing as well for entirely different reasons (since we'll be back in the States), but we are so thankful for how the Lord blessed this Christmas season for us!