Another Smith!

I would more than anything love to announce the birth of Jonah Joseph Smith. Don't let the last name fool you... as much as Christina and David feel like family they are really just some of our closest friends. Jonah was born on Wednesday, Nov. 15th at 7:53. He weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz and is 20 inches long. We wanted to share this with all of you that have been praying for Christina and David. Isn't he absolutely beautiful! God is amazing-- he even got the internet to work enough to get this photo posted. Talk about caring about the details.

Full House

Team Smith has three new additions to the team. As we love diversity, they come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. To start off the lineup, we are now the foster parents of a German Shephard, Sheba, while her owner is in Australia for home leave for the next five months. She has shocked us with how quiet she is. We are used to a dog that is always making noise even in her sleep or especially in her sleep. She also does not get excited about squeaky toys. The only thing that seems to be consistent between her and Star is that Eric is one giant lollipop.

This past weekend (this was written over a month ago in hopes of having photos attached & it is finally possible) we also took in two kittens. Their owners will soon be leaving the country, and we have a mouse/rat problem so we thought that our home might be a good fit for them. They are extremely playful and get into everything.

The female is ginger and white and extremely intelligent and curious. She can get into anything. Believe it or not, she has actually opened a door on three different occasions. The doors here have handles for door knobs, and she somehow has figured out how to scale up the door and use the knob. I didn't believe it the first couple of times but this last time I know that the door was really closed. We are wondering what she will be like when she has grown. She also stalked and killed a large praying mantis this past week. We are just hoping that if she likes praying mantis that she will also like cockroaches.

The boy is white with some black markings. He was pretty wild when we adopted him, but he seems to be calming down. He isn't as cuddly or curious as the female but still can get into his share of trouble.

Our team is somewhat divided now as the kittens and Sheba don't particularly demonstrate teamwork. We are hoping that in time they will realize that we can accomplish more by working together.

Update on Star

Star seems to be recovering quite nicely from the loss of her eye. My dad recently sent us some pictures of her diving, as usual, into the pool after her beloved squeaky toy. We are very thankful for this and very thankful for your prayers and love of our little girl. Unfortunately I am not able to poste the picture from dad, but we thought that you would like the update nonetheless.

Ode to our Tree

We have had a least a few violent thunderstorms during our time here. They really are very scary even for someone who is not normally scared by storms. During the middle of the night this past Tuesday, we bolted awake as lightning hit what seemed like right beside our window. Poor Eric almost lost part of his face as I grabbed ahold of it. We lied awake for the next half hour thinking that the next bolt would hit the house. The following morning we unfortunately witnessed the real victim of the storm as we saw our lovely acacia tree completely uprooted. This was a very sad sight for someone that loves trees. We have exchanged good shade and beautiful scenery for a good view of the outdoor toilets. So while my sister posted a lovely picture on her blog of the view out of her kitchen window, our view is somewhat different.

Team Smith's Anniversary

This post was written 1.5 months ago, but we were waiting patiently for our internet speed to be fast enough to add some photos. It has been too slow at our house so if there are photos accompanying this post it is only because the internet speed was fast enough in Kampala. Anyway, read and enjoy... oh, by the way, the baby animals pictures (if they upload) are dedicated especially to our niece, Erin. We love you, Erin.

Eric and I arrived back from a trip to Kampala this past Saturday. We were away for a week and a half so it was good to be back home. There were many things that took place during this week and a half, but I am going to first post the thing that I am most thankful for.

On Oct. 23rd we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. How could I ever express enough thanks to God for bringing us together? I absolutely love being married to such an amazing man. He has in a very real and human way shown me a glimpse of how God loves us. As I could go on about my love for this man, I will save that for another time and another format and instead talk about what we did to celebrate.

Team Smith spent two nights at a lodge in Murchison Falls National Park. It was a nice break from the usual. We enjoyed having a pool to cool off in as Arua is a place where it feels like you should always be able to go swimming but never can. We also were able to take some longer game drives. It was the first time in the park that we were actually able to sit and watch without any time constraints a large family of elephants. Our favorite part though was the boat trip that we took up the Nile to the bottom of Murchison Falls. It was a three hour trip in which we saw beautiful scenes along the river's edge. My favorite part was being able to see hippo after hippo. The only sad part was that when we first saw a mother and baby hippo, I got so excited (I know, shocking! :) that I must have dropped one of our largest camera cards into the river. Below are some of the shots from our time in the park.

While we stayed in the park for two nights, our actual anniversary was while we were in Kampala for a partner forum. Eric, however, had a master plan for our celebration. He ordered dinner from our favorite restaurant and was planning on taking it back to the office and surprising me with a candlelight dinner on the balcony on top of the office. Unfortunately, like our wedding day, it was overcast and chilly so everything had to be moved indoors. However, Eric had some of his coworkers pick up some beautiful flowers to brighten up the room. (One bonus of being in Uganda is that they have amazing flowers that cost nothing compared to flowers in the states!) Along with the flowers, Eric also continued in his tradition of continuing the ballad that he first wrote for me for our engagement. In the ballad, the African Queen and the traveler have set off for another journey. I can't do justice to the beauty of the ballad, and I know that Eric would be somewhat embarassed if I posted it, but sufficed to say, the journey is continuing. Praise the Lord!