Goodbyes

And so it goes here in Kenya, and everywhere in life, that goodbyes need to be said. They are hard, but we look forward to seeing everyone again within the next 6 months, which makes it easier.

First, and hardest, we said goodbye to our friends the Popps. They have been here in Kenya with us for the past 9 months. They have helped, encouraged, taught, and most importantly, delivered our little boy. Here they are for one last shot with Ben...he's about 6-7 lbs heavier than the last photo of the 3 of them together! They'll be returning to the US to work again in Ann Arbor, so we hope to see them this fall.
Maggie in particular took to the Popps' daughter, Anna. In fact, she's the first person who Maggie called by first and last name. She would wander around calling for "Anna Popp!" Anna was so sweet to play with Maggie, read her books, and push her on the swings.
The same day we said goodbye to Rachel, a short termer here for 2 months. She helped provide childcare during our week retreat at Malindi, and Mags took to her immediately. She's returning to finish an MPH degree in Kentucky, so we hope our paths cross this fall as well.
And finally, a hello AND goodbye! Mary Elizabeth, our indispensable PRP secretary, supporter, and cheerleader, came out for a brief visit to Kenya. It was SO great to see her, even if it was a brief visit. We could not do what we do here without people like her.

Time Blesses The Journey

A song about the journey itself (i.e. getting from here to there), but also about the time it takes to get there, just as a musical statement is made by the interval between two successive notes, but also by the space between the notes as well.

I read a story several years ago, that JRR Tolkien, in his elderly years as an Oxford professor, sold his car. Though it was for different reasons that I write about here, I imagine he rediscovered a few things along the way.

Time Blesses The Journey

(download)

Tolkien ambles home along a garden lane

Sold his car and then discovered once again

All the cobbles in the street

And more than that, the movements of his feet

It's been planes and elevators for too long

Until I was getting off, the windows all were drawn

So, though I've arrived, there's still

Something that I missed along the way

I've been away from this ocean town

Reminds me of all that stretches past the shore

But these points on a line remind

That time will bless the journey that's in store

As the journey blesses time

Think I can see Vespucci on the open waves

Nothing on his horizon now for days

He cuts through every blade of tide

And sails under every inch of sky

I've been afraid of these mountain views

All of the heights that still are left to climb

But these points on a line remind

That time will bless the journey that's in store

As the journey blesses time

So the hour sits behind the tutor's desk

Dons the Oxford robe and teaches me the rest

That much will come and go

That much will collide and then fade away

May Update

I feel we have been rather remiss in blogging recently...between 3 blogs and facebook updates, our old friend "The Adventures of Eric and Rachel" gets rather neglected at times. Looking at our sidebar blog roll, it appears we are in good company. :) Well, there hasn't been a whole lot to blog about in the past month, but here's what we've been up to.

Kids:

I have enjoyed staying home these past few months. It's back to work for me in June, but in the meantime it's been fun to watch both Ben and Maggie grow and change. Ben topped the scales at 14#5oz at 9 wks when we brought him in for a check up. He smiles all the time and has even started laughing. Other developments are taking their time (I think because his head is so big) but he is sleeping well at night, for 7-8 hours at a stretch. Maggie's vocabulary grows by the day and it's fun to watch her develop new interests in things like coloring, stickers, play doh, and carrying her dolls and animals around. She puts everything down for "naps" on a regular basis. Wonder where she got that idea?

Hospital:

Eric has been rotating on the peds and medicine services, and this month branched out into my world! He is spending a few days each week learning some basic C-section skills. He also got a chance to go out with the hospice team into the villages and watch how the chaplains minister to people at the end of their lives.

One of the chaplains involved in the hospice program

A traditional Kipsigis hut seen out in the villages

Family:

My mom arrives in just 1 1/2 more weeks! She'll be staying for a month and we are soooo excited to see her and introduce (or reintroduce) the kids to "gamma."

Future:

Our plane tickets are purchased for the homeward bound leg of our 2 year adventure here. The McLaughlin feet will be back on US soil on Sept 9. Maggie has started packing for the journey already (see picture below). We still have four months here at Tenwek but I'm sure the time will fly. Then the plan will be to travel, visit friends and family, get some tropical medicine training for Eric, and support raise through summer of 2012. By August 2012 we hope to be headed off to Albertville, France, for French language school, and then Burundi by summer of 2013. It's been great to watch God's hand directing us to just the right places these past few years. The Faders and Alyssa just took a trip to Burundi to get a more in-depth look at our future workplace. You can read about it here.

Smiley Ben

And because we couldn't just post video of Maggie and not her little brother, we thought we'd share a couple of Ben videos. He's been sick lately, and not so smiley, but these are from a few weeks ago.

Awkward Children's Tales

Maggie has a lot of great books. We spend a lot of time reading them. Some of the best of them are true "classics", which I guess means that they're pretty old, and yet still awesome to read.

They also contain things that would be extremely unlikely to be published today. Take Curious George for example:

"After a good meal, and a good pipe, George felt very tired."

Or below a page from Good Night, Little Bear, by the famous Richard Scarry.
Oh Mother, you are such a tease. And last but not least is the wealth of Beatrix Potter stories, which are pretty much uniformly wonderful in this regard. Below is Jemima Puddle-duck, and a little context is needed: Jemima wanted to hatch her own eggs, so she ran away into the forest to do so, where she is befriend by a fox, posing as a friend, but planning on eating her and her eggs. The ending? Jemima is rescued by several farm dogs, who save Jemima, but in their excited frenzy, also eat all her eggs. Redemption comes in the last page, as seen below.

She had always been a bad sitter. The End.

Do I take a delight in these non-PC moments? Obviously, I do. Why? I think it's because these classic stories preserve for the next generation the knowledge that, for better or worse, society has not always thought and behaved like it currently does, nor is it likely to remain like this indefinitely. Any other examples spring to mind?

Always Talking

For Mother's Day this year, I made a video for our moms of Maggie's second year of life...lots of pictures set to music, with a few video clips interspersed. The video ended with a 2 minute clip of Maggie talking over the past year. We thought you might enjoy the talking clip (the whole video is too big to load). She certainly does, asking to watch it by name (apple juice? apple juice? pees, mommy?).

A Very Veggie Birthday

Well, our little girl has completed her second trip around the sun. Maggie turned 2 years old on Sunday. I'm sure everyone says this about their kids, but she has changed SO MUCH this year! Maggie's favorite thing in the world is watching "Bob" on a daily basis (she also likes "M's," her words for M&Ms, any other form of candy, and I like to think Mommy and Daddy, but I think Bob still wins out). We own 3 Veggie Tales DVDs and she gets to pick one to watch every afternoon after her nap. So it seemed only logical that her birthday would have a Veggie Tales theme. I use the term theme loosely. Here in Kenya, it's not like I can run to the party store and pick out cups, plates, and wall hangings in a given genre. So, when I say theme, I mean "birthday cake."

My disclaimer is that I have no formal cake decorator training. I never made cakes before I came to Kenya, and I almost never make them here. I did try my hand at a 2 layer birthday cake for Mags last year, which was sort of sloped and needed a lot of frosting to hold it together...I'm not sure why I thought that this qualified me to be able to make a themed cake for my daughter's second birthday, but I jumped in with both feet.

Using some ideas online, I decided to make Bob as an 8 inch round yellow cake, and Larry as a 9x13 chocolate cake and cut off the edges. Some of the misadventures included forgetting the baking powder in the yellow cake until it had been in the oven for 10 minutes, and the chocolate cake sticking to the pan when I flipped it onto the cookie sheet to cool (and then sticking to the cookie sheet when I flipped it back over onto the foil-covered cardboard I put the cakes on. Again, lots of frosting has the ability to hold cakes together. And I have no access to decorator frosting, so decided to just put the facial features on construction paper and lay them on the cakes. But here is the finished product:

Not bad, huh? It was all worth it when I put Mags up next to the cake and she recognized the characters, exclaiming, "Bob! Cake!" We had about 20 people over for the party (meaning, come and eat some cake), and they all watched as Maggie tried to blow out the 2 candles. This was unsuccessful, despite Eric practicing the candle blowing with her earlier in the day, so I stepped in to help.
This is what happened (also note that only one candle was blown out by me):
Oh, the danger of construction paper faces. No one seemed too traumatized, though, and there were no tears, and the cakes didn't taste too bad.
Happy Birthday, Maggie!

More Ben Pictures

Because we know that all you really want on our blog is more pictures of our kiddos. :)

Maggie's Egg Hunt Extravaganza

Last year, Maggie was too little to participate in the Tenwek Easter egg hunt...in fact, she wasn't even walking yet. And she was napping. What a difference a year makes. She was SO excited to take part this year. First, she got dressed in an Easter-themed butterfly shirt, and visited Aunt Jess's nail salon on the front balcony.Then, while the big kids were hiding the eggs down in the fields by our house, we went up to the Popps' porch with all the little kids and heard an Easter story.
There was a carton of 12 plastic eggs, and inside each one was an object that helped tell the story of Easter. Here's Abi picking out her egg:
And Maggie got to pick one, too. The 12th egg was empty, reminding us that Jesus' tomb was empty because He rose!
After the egg story, we walked down to our house and posed for some pictures before the egg hunt began.
Here's Maggie finding her eggs:
Oooh! These eggs have CANDY inside!
Happy Easter!

Easter Eggs

Here in Kenya, we still try to participate in a variety of holiday traditions, as is evidenced by our blogs. Last year, Maggie was too young to participate in any Easter events, but this year we decided to dye eggs. The problem, as you can see from the photo below, is that Kenyan eggs (for whatever reason) are brown. This does not lend itself to easy dye-ing. But we gave it a go anyways, opting for some basic and strong colors.Maggie also enjoyed learning about coloring with crayons on eggs (although she never pushed hard enough to leave a mark). A good use for the white and peach crayons that get little use otherwise.
Ben, meanwhile, offered advice from his carseat. He asked to wear his ducky outfit in honor of the Easter season.

The finished products: actually not too bad! I think we chose good colors for the brown eggs. Maggie is going to wonder why all the eggs are white and come in cartons at the store (instead of from Joseph the egg man) when we go home next year.

Remembering Eunice

Friday night Eric and I got some tragic and surprising news. Our good friend Eunice Loeweke was in the hospital, unresponsive after a brain surgery due to bleeding in the brain. She passed away this morning. When we said goodbye 18 months ago, we didn't think it would be for such a long time. I've spent a lot of time thinking about Eunice these past days, about her remarkable life and what a huge impact she has had on both of us.

Eunice was a true old school missionary. When she was in her 20s, she and an Australian lady sailed to Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible translators. They approached a remote tribe and asked to live with them. For 20 years, they lived among a tribe that spoke no English. It took about 4 years to learn their language, and the next 16 to translate portions of the Bible. She spent another 6 years on the PNG coast before she began to have visual side effects from her anti-malarial medications and was forced to return to the States. Now in her 50s, what does a former Bible translator do with her time? Eunice moved in to a house on the edge of the U of MI campus and spent the next 20 years ministering to students and the Chinese community. She would have students over for lunch many a Sunday afternoon, prompting the formation of what people would affectionately call “Eunice's Lunch Bunch.”

Eric first met Eunice back in 2001 when he was interviewing for medical schools. He actually sat next to her sister (from Nashville) on the flight up to Ann Arbor, who proceeded to talk to him the entire flight. She volunteered Eunice to give Eric a free ride back to the med school. Years later, Eunice told us she was so mad at her sister for offering a ride to some strange man without asking her! Eric took her contact info but promptly forgot about it until coming to the U of MI for med school. One Sunday, a friend of his was talking about her friend Eunice, a Wycliffe Bible translator from Papua New Guinea. It was the same Eunice, and Eric started attending her usually weekly Sunday lunch gatherings.

(Eunice's lunch bunch; hosting our last wedding shower)

Eric and I have both lived with Eunice in one of her spare bedrooms for about six total months. We ate at her house countless times. She prayed at our wedding (my favorite part: “May they be able to factor in Your presence and power in any analysis of the possible.”). We shared rides back and forth to Nashville, and once got caught in a snowstorm and sat on US-23 for over an hour eating Christmas cookies to tide us over! We drank her lattes. We enjoyed her museum house that she had taken back from nature. We enjoyed free music performances. (In short, she was the only individual on our top 10 Ann Arbor list.) Our last 2 years in Ann Arbor we tried to get together for a meal at least once a month to soak in as much of her wisdom as we could from her years of missionary and life experience. She urged us to consider the spirit world in dealing with patients overseas. She emphasized having prayer supporters in addition to financial supporters. She reminded us of the typical struggles of a patient in the US medical system (through her own experiences). We prayed regularly.

(Our wedding; Eric's medical graduation)

When I look at Eunice's life I am forced to re-examine my own in light of how she lived hers. She sacrificed much to live in a remote area, with almost no one that spoke her language, and no creature comforts to speak of. She did not spend time in PNG coercing villagers to believe in her God but instead faithfully translated His Word, letting it speak for itself, living out her faith in actions and deeds, and the entire village came to Christ because of this. When health problems forced her to take a life detour and return home, instead of settling in to a comfortable retirement or despairing at how her calling had changed, she embraced a new ministry, one that had profound effects on the Ann Arbor community and literally on people throughout the world. She was always willing to help out with a meal, a ride to the airport, a spare bedroom, a listening ear.

(A free symphony performance at Hill; meeting Maggie)

Eunice, our hearts grieve at our loss of you here on earth. I wish we could have one more meal together, one more talk, one more time of prayer. I wish I could tell you one more time how much you meant to us, the difference you made in our lives, how much we love you. And yet we have such joy for your homecoming. I pray that you are being welcomed into eternity with the open arms of so many who are in heaven because of your faithful service. I have tears in my eyes as I picture Jesus smiling at you, speaking the words we all long to someday hear:

Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.

(Rachel's residency graduation; our last visit with her)

New Family Photos

Well, after 5 weeks of life as a family of 4, we realized we had no photographic documentation of the fact that we are actually 4. Our first attempt to capture said documentation was on a very small plane to the Kenyan coast, where we attended a great WGM retreat (the missions organization that runs Tenwek). Here's us smiling because of the money we saved by flying with 2 lap children! Eric and I have a long history of taking photos of ourselves, and it's requiring a little bit more skill to include 4 people in these photos. It sort of worked......but not really, as you can see, so we had someone else take the next photo. Note the color coordination. This was taken at the Turtle Bay resort in Malindi, Kenya. There were about 50 bright yellow weaver birds in the trees behind us, although that might be difficult to see with the downsized image I used. Beautiful place! And many more family photos to come as the years go by, I'm sure.

Quote

Quote of the day, from this snippet from Andrew Peterson:

"That anyone at all in the world would set their sad heart and tired hands to the work of wreaking beauty out of chaos is a monument to Grace."

Bummed

Before Maggie was born, we already knew we would be moving to Kenya before she was potty trained (way before). So it seemed logical to use cloth diapers for her, as we were unsure what the availability of disposables would be. As it turns out, there are plenty of disposable diaper options in Nairobi, although they are quite a bit more expensive than in the States. While I was researching cloth diapers, I found that the days of the traditional "pre-fold" cloth diaper and rubber pants are long gone, and in their place are a myriad of options for cloth diapering. We ended up selecting what I like to call the cadillac of cloth diapers, BumGenius 3.0 (that's the official name, yes). BGs are a one size option that, because of a series of simple yet ingenius snaps, fit babies 8-35 lbs. Maggie has been using them since age 2 months (we received a diaper service as a gift in Ann Arbor) and they are still working great. Although, we have high hopes that she will not be using them much longer. :) All the McCropders kiddos who use diapers have at least a few Bums. Shown below was a photo shoot of Maggie, Abi, and Micah in their matching "grasshopper" colored Bums, maybe 8 months ago or so.
All this to say, when we knew Ben was coming along, it was only logical to continue the Bum trend. We debated about if 20 diapers would be enough for a newborn and a toddler and wisely decided, no. I had heard about a company in the US called Cotton Babies who offers diaper grants to missionaries. I emailed them and, what a blessing, we received 15 more BumGenius diapers, plus some wipes, diaper bags, "bum spray" and detergent samples for FREE! If you are at all interested in cloth diapers, or you are a missionary who wants to apply for the free diaper grant, or you just want to check out these nice people, the website is www.cottonbabies.com

Here is Ben sleeping next to his giant pile of clean diapers (to be fair, some of them are Maggie's):
Thanks, Cotton Babies!

Newbery Goal Progress

You would have to be a very avid blog-reader of ours to notice it. Maybe you would have noticed that a number of the books on the "We're reading" sidebar had little gold stickers on them. Maybe you would have then remembered that we had previously stated our goal of reading all of the Newberys and ranking them according to our own preference. Maybe you then would have clicked on this link on the sidebar and seen our growing list and have done some quick math.

But the fact is this: We are more than halfway there. The Newbery Medal was first awarded in 1922, and so this year was (I guess) the 90th Newbery, and we have crossed over 45. And by ransacking the libraries of all the homeschooling moms of Tenwek, we should be able to get close to 55 before leaving Kenya. Pretty good progress for living in Africa.

And we've been ranking them. A couple have even warmed their way into our top 10, and one of them earned the dubious honor of replacing Sounder as the worst Newbery we've ever read.

Here's a couple of our favorites:

A Year Down Yonder (2001): This didn't make the top 10, but was sent us by our friend Janet Tang, and was just a purely fun book, probably the best of the newer ones we've been reading. The story of a city girl who ends up in rural Michigan with her grandma during a recession in the 1940's. But the heart of the story is that her grandma is just an amazingly crazy character.

Secret of the Andes (1953): If you're wondering why Charlotte's Web didn't win a Newbery, the answer is that it came out the same year as this book. And as much as I like that "some pig", and was pleased to not see him bite the big bacon, I liked this book better. Opening scene high up in the Andes, a young llama herder looks down to see, for the first time in his life, other people.

The Wheel on the School (1955): Just a fantastically told little tale about a group of Dutch school children, living in a small fishing village on the dike, and their quest to bring storks back to their village. Full of redemption and setting. Illustrations by the guy who did "Where the Wild Things Are", but that's really secondary to the great story.

The Matchlock Gun (1942): And lastly, our new least favorite (though even some of the low ones are still good). Maybe it was a slow year. A 25-minute read about a young boy who fires his gun and kills some Indians. It ends with his mom injured by a tomahawk. Does she live? Who knows? Maybe that wasn't the point of the story. But what was the point?

All in all, our recommendations. It's been a lot of fun, and we recommend most of them.

But don't take our word for it!