Halfway to Freedom

Caleb turned 9 on Saturday.  He's halfway to freedom.  Or maybe we're halfway to freedom?  Either way, its crazy to think about him being halfway to adulthood.  The past nine years have not gone by in the blink of an eye, but they have gone by far quicker than we ever imagined.  I'm a bit wary of how quickly the next nine years will go!

The birthday boy woke us up just after 6am with the declaration that it was his birthday.  Even though I was completely not ready to wake up yet, I loved his excitement.  Birthdays should always make a kid feel excited and special, and they are totally worth waking up early for!

The early hour called for some early morning snuggles.  This photo just about says it all.

What kid wants to wait until breakfast is over and he's dressed and ready for the day before opening a present?  None of our kids!  So we always start birthdays with a present.  I had found this book at a bookstore in Nanyuki.  It has gorgeous photos and captions of the Big Five.  It seemed like the perfect addition to Caleb's ongoing animal book collection.

Then we baked the cake so it would be ready for decorating later in the day.  I love having the boys bake their own cakes so they feel pride in it.

Caleb had decided awhile ago that he wanted an "animal birthday" this year and he wanted to go to the bandas in the Mount Kenya National Park.  So we invited all the expat friends to join us and had a great time.  The drive through the forest was peaceful, as always.  Caleb and Lucy were eagle-eyed and spotted both Sykes monkeys and Colobus monkeys along the way.

It was a warm and sunny day when we left Chogoria and the weather remained favorable through most of the forest, but within ten minutes of arriving at the bandas a serious fog rolled in, followed by rain.  It's not uncommon for the weather in the foothills of the mountain to be completely different than it is in Chogoria, but we weren't entirely prepared for a rainy day.  We had jackets and some blankets, but no rain gear or umbrellas.  Thankfully there was a covered porch on one of the outbuildings where we could eat our picnic food while staying dry.  And we still had a lot of fun despite not going for a hike this time.

I brought Caleb's next present up to the bandas with us because it felt so appropriate to give it to him in the Mount Kenya National Park.  It was a bongo!  We found this stuffed animal at the Mount Kenya Animal Orphanage last month and knew how much Caleb would love it.  Our little naturalist and conservationist has a dream of seeing a bongo in the wild someday.  They are endemic to this national park but are critically endangered, and so Caleb is especially passionate about the mountain bongo.

He named the bongo "Mount Kenya" and he's been fairly smitten with it so far :)

Speaking of bongos, I decided to make a Mount Kenya cake with a bongo on it!  Caleb wanted an animal-themed cake, but was otherwise very non-specific, so I made an executive decision to keep a Mount Kenya theme in tandem with our excursion to the bandas.  He was pretty happy with it :)  The other animal is a Sykes monkey, and I put a leopard's tail hanging from a tree branch.  Caleb would also love to see a leopard in the national park someday.  We know some folks who've seen a leopard on the road there before, so Caleb awaits the day when he will see one there too!

I love this picture so much.  While all the other kids were eating cake on the front porch, Caleb sequestered himself in the door of the back porch.  He did so well overall with all the people in the house and being the center of attention, but he can't handle the social scene continually.  He needs to pull away to maintain an ability to reenter again.  This picture shows him doing what he needs to do to enjoy his own birthday party.  It pulls my Mama heartstrings in so many ways and I just love this boy so much.

This photo pulls my heartstrings too, because when did my son become a teenager???  That hand in his pocket, that far-off look...  The only thing that reminds me he's still a young boy is Nibbles in the crook of his arm.

Love that smile!

Caleb with Usiku, our pseudo-pet.  He's the perfect cat - he's friendly and he hangs around but can completely fend for himself.  We give him milk in the morning (or scrambled eggs or even tuna if he's really lucky), and the boys get the idea of having a pet without needing to actually take care of one.  Caleb really loves this cat.

Asa took this photo and I love it.  A happy birthday boy at the end of a wonderful day!

Caleb is one of the kindest kids I know.  Despite his social anxiety issues, he is socially aware of other people's feelings and is one of the first kids to step in and see if he can help or encourage when needed.  It takes a compassionate and brave heart to do that.  Caleb is an animal-lover more than anything else, but he also loves Star Wars and dinosaurs and mythical creatures and King Kong and Godzilla and Calvin & Hobbes.  He is a storyteller at heart and will tell anyone a story who's willing to listen.  He can often be found outside telling stories to himself and will stay up late at night telling stories to himself in bed.  I love that part of him so much!

And this kid loves the Lord wholedheartedly.  He loves to read his Bible and is always ready to pray and loves to watch music videos of worship songs.  His faith inspires mine and I am humbled to have a child of God like him in my care.  We will continue praying for our son to follow the Lord wholeheartedly all the days of his life, including these next nine years toward freedom and every year beyond.

Reimagined Retreat (Part 3)

The last part of our "reimagined retreat" took us to a resort in the Shaba Game Reserve, which is in Samburuland.  We'd heard about this resort from a couple friends and decided it was worth a try.  It did not disappoint!  We didn't go on a game drive there, in part because we needed to just relax and in part because the resort had enough other excitement for the boys.  We had a marvelous time just hanging out at the resort.

The road to Samburuland is one of the nicest roads we've ever been on in Kenya.  It's smooth with very few speed bumps, and not a lot of traffic.  And there are camels!  We love seeing camel herds along the road - it's such an iconic site in that part of the country.

The resort sits along the Ewaso Ngiro river and, unbeknownst to us, had a "crocodile viewing area" that turned out to be a highlight for the boys.  We passed the viewing area each time we came/went from the dining room, and saw crocs and turtles several times.  While having supper on our first evening there, Eli had to take Asa back to the room (to retrieve his snuggle blanket - can I just say how much I love that he still needs his snuggle blanket so much!).  They passed by the crocodile viewing area just as an employee was throwing meat to some crocs below.  It was a frenzy!  Caleb and Kai were disappointed to have missed the scene and were hopeful to watch again the next night, but feeding the crocs doesn't happen every night.  Oh well.  We still had lots of crocodile viewing during our stay.

The rooms were fantastic.  We had two adjoining rooms that were spacious and the bathrooms had bath tubs!  Taking a bath is such a treat for the boys since we don't have a tub in Chogoria.

Our rooms were upstairs, which provided a great viewing spot for this pair of African Orange-bellied Parrots.  They had a nest in the tree right outside our room and were so fun to watch.  They took turns going into the nest and were active all evening.

The pool was wonderful, and there were so few people at the resort (thanks to Covid) that we sometimes had the whole pool to ourselves.  Despite all our efforts to teach our boys to swim whenever we've had access to a pool in the past, we simply haven't had enough access for them to actually master swimming yet.  So none of our boys know how to swim still.  Kai and Asa are getting close and could probably figure it out quickly if given enough time in the water, but Caleb still needs a lot of time because of his sensory issues with water in his face.  All that to say, we were grateful for the kiddie pool and the shallow parts, made our kids practice swimming and putting their face underwater, but mostly just had fun.

We saw several water monitor lizards in the pool area - not in the pool, but definitely coming right up to it - and the boys were ecstatic.  We saw many of them around the resort, and considering we'd only seen one before ever, it was pretty awesome.  Caleb followed one once and discovered its burrow.  After he stuck his hand in the burrow (to point it out to me), I promptly freaked out and he promptly learned how I feel about sticking hands into wild animal burrows!

We thoroughy enjoyed our two days at Sarova Shaba.  As we left, we saw a herd of Grevy's zebra.  They are lesser known than the Plains zebra and are endangered.  They were perfectly placed against a gorgeous backdrop and I snapped several photos.  I especially loved the clouds against the horizon.  These are some of my favorites:

God redeemed our cancelled retreat in a big way.  We are so thankful for what we were able to do with that time instead, and so thankful for friends who rearranged their plans to join us for part of it, and so thankful for beautiful places to enjoy.  God was very good to us indeed.