All six to the U.S.

Greetings, all-

We're just back from a long-awaited family, as in all six of us, trip to the U.S. We're still holding for some more processing on the adoption, but Chris was able to travel on his Kenyan passport. We started out in Atlanta, where the kids were fortunate enough to have all four grandparents meet them at the airport on arrival. Chris had made the flight and arrival with no worries at all, meaning we shouldn't have spent all that time worrying about how he'd react to the airplanes, relatives, new activities, and the general business of the U.S. We put about 3,000 miles on a minivan (we're far past sports car territory) over the three weeks.

We had a great time visiting with the in-laws in Georgia. Chris met several people for the first time, though he acted like he'd known them the whole time. He figured out the "treats in a Happy Meal" racket, too, and collected plenty of toys with his cheeseburgers. The boys spent a lot of time in Grandpa Watts' train room and only a few times caused train wrecks. We enjoyed a family gathering one weekend where Annette's grandmother had ten of her great-grandchildren with her at once (you might be able to see her behind all those kids in the attached photo). We got to see Rachel and Aunt Emily in an Irish dancing performance and did lots of bike riding.

We headed down to Louisiana next. Aunt Kathryn and Aunt Sarah graciously hosted us at their house in New Orleans, and they learned what a jet-lagged baby sounds like at 3 a.m. We had a great time playing tourist there. We hit the Audobon Zoo, ate beignets at Cafe Du Monde, and ate too much good food. We spent a night in Thibodaux, where the kids' Great Aunt Marcia made the mistake of sitting on the floor and encouraging three boys aged five and under to jump on her.

We spent an evening in Birmingham at Jubal and Jenny's place, and the house was still standing when we left. The boys really enjoyed the time with Lily and Eva, and look forward to meeting their newest cousin in August.

Back when we thought Chris might have trouble adjusting, we had scheduled a tip to Chattanooga, Tennessee for just our immediate family. Although the time apart wasn't vital, we enjoyed the trip, especially sleeping in a train car that had been converted to a hotel room. They still have the luggage racks along the top sides of the train car, so I told the kids when we got in there that the luggage racks were the kids' beds. Little Mark, not to be messed with by his old man, looked at me and demanded I pass a pillow up to him to make his sleep more comfortable. We visited the aquarium and Ruby Falls, as well.

We ended the trip in Virginia, with my folks, Aunt Vi, Uncle Jim (in from Wyoming) and Thad (recently back from a year in Afghanistan). Grandpa Zimmer issued the kids rubber band guns on arrival in Front Royal, much to Annette's delight. Somehow, the guns only made it out of the suitcases here in Nairobi ten days after we got home (Annette must have forgotten about them, I guess). The boys enjoyed a brief fishing trip during which Luke alerted us that his bobber was defective when it went under the water (he reeled in a blue gill shortly thereafter). Chris caught a bass but refused to touch it. I'm not sure if all that Army training made Uncle Thad ready for wrestling with the nephews or not.

Back home in Nairobi, Joy has finally decided to start walking. She's doing quite well, especially when she sees one of her brothers with something she wants. She has a new, very special, sound that she makes when things aren't going exactly her way. The sound is less frequent, though, as she gets us all trained to answer her every whim.

Clifford was happy to have his kids back, though we're enduring a hunger strike. I asked the trainer/kennel owner if everything went alright while were gone, since Clifford isn't eating his dry food well. He said, "Yes, he ate the rice and ground beef I gave him without any trouble."

For the 'Kids Always Win' file:
- The boys and their cousins decided that bikes were the flavor of the week while we were in the States. So, we bought Chris and Mark each a $50 bike to ride while were there (Luke got a hand-me-down from his cousin Alex). Chris refused to ride on two wheels, so we bought him some $20 training wheels. The rear axle wasn't long enough, so we bought a new tire for $73 that would accommodate the training wheels. So, we invested $93 into a $50 bike. Less than a week after we got back to Nairobi, Chris asked to ride his bike while I had the training wheels off to fix a flat tire. He took off on two wheels and hasn't looked back. Great investment on the training wheels.
- Annette and I always said we wouldn't be "those parents" who let the kids rule by, for instance, forcing us to run out at night to get a blanket or doll we had left somewhere. We went to a wonderful Easter lunch at the home of some friends here on Easter Sunday. We got home about 7 and got the kids ready for bed. We realized about 7:15 we had left Joy's rag doll at our friends' house. Joy screamed until about 8:00 while we debated about the doll, reminding ourselves that we weren't going to be "those parents." At about 8:01, I hopped in the car and took off down the road outside our house, fondly known as "Carjack Alley," to go retrieve the doll. Our friend, who will get his reward in heaven and has young children himself, understood the gravity of the situation and set out from his house to meet me partway with the doll. I got back with the doll in about ten minutes, and Joy was asleep about a minute later. We are, in fact, "those parents."

Hope everyone is well,
Mark & co.

Super Monday

Morning, all-

I'm up watching the Super Bowl, so thought I'd send along a couple of photos. The boys convinced Annette to let them sleep down here in the living room so they could watch the big game with me. The bottom photo shows what a Super Bowl party at 0230 on a Monday morning looks like (we're 8 hours ahead of the U.S. east coast these days). Annette made me some crab meat dip and I managed to wake myself up for the game.

We got the paper from the Kenyan courts last Wednesday, confirming Christopher's adoption, about which we were told the day after Thanksgiving last November. We held the papers in our hands for about 18 minutes before we turned them in to the immigration authorities to apply for Christopher's passport. We may have that early this week, so we'd be one step closer to getting him back to the States. Next is the U.S. process. We're getting there.

I ride my bike to work most mornings. I got knocked down on Thursday morning and scraped up my hands and legs. The boys have been impressed by the bandage on my right hand, which looks worse than it is given the amount of tape required to keep the gauze in place. Then I took the boys to ride their bikes on Saturday afternoon and Little Mark crashed, ending up with a big wound on the heel of his right hand. We got home and he ran to show Annette, who promptly came to me and said, "His efforts to be just like you are getting a little out of hand, don't you think?" We had twin medical wrappings on our hands this afternoon.

Joy often uses her sign language - Annette has taught all of them sign language to use in that 6-8 months between the time they know what they want and the time they learn enough words to say what they want - to indicate she's ready for bed during dinner. She did that tonight as we were about halfway through our meal. I was working on a rack of ribs when Annette brought her to me for a kiss goodnight. Joy feinted for a kiss, then dived into my lap. I grabbed her, turned her right side up, and sat her up. As soon as she got oriented, she pointed at the ribs and started smacking her lips. She sat up for about 30 more minutes, eating a couple of ribs worth of meat. No paternity test required.

Luke finally decided he's ready to ride a "big boy bike" rather than his three-wheeled push-along. He's still working on keeping his momentum going uphill, so he gets stuck going up into the garage from the driveway. Chris has made it his duty to jump off his own bike every time Luke gets stuck, sprint to him, and push him the rest of the way into the garage.

Mark, Jr. wanted to do some of his own typing earlier Sunday: "mark. i love you. School is fun."

I'm attaching a couple of other older photos - one of us sitting around on Christmas Eve, and then the obligatory 'baby eating spaghetti' photo. One shows Luke feeding a giraffe at a local park Another is the three stooges modeling some hats they got in a care package from Grandma and Grandpa.

Enjoy the photos,
Mark & co.

Joy waving

Folks-

Here's Joy doing her latest trick. Let us know if you can view the video.

All's well here. The boys are studying hard in school, and Joy is getting more and more independent/certain about what she wants/obstinate.

Mark

Happy 2010

Greetings, all-

We (I) have failed to update this blog for about six months, but I'm going to try and revitalize the updates. I'm one of the least patient with excuses, so I won't offer any. At the same time, we just got new Internet service at the house in Nairobi, so I hope to carve out some time on a more frequent basis to update you all. In the meantime, here's an effort to capture some of our events in the last six months, in two sentences or less, doing justice to none of them:

- First and foremost, though out of chronological sequence, is that the Kenyan courts approved Christopher's adoption the day after Thanksgiving. Nearly two years of waiting and many nights of lost sleep were paid back with the knowledge that we did this right, and Chris will set foot on American soil at some point in the near future with no fear that we ever cut corners to get him there (picture of the celebration is attached; the kids have grape juice).
- Chris had his birthday party in August to celebrate turning 5. Rather than accept presents, he had his guests bring baby formula for The Nest, where he spent his first three years; the pyramid of formula cans in our hallway was a sight to see.
- Annette, Mark Jr, and Joy took an R&R in July (Big Mark, Luke, and Chris remained in Nairobi since Chris couldn't travel), and got to spend some great time with the in-laws, out-laws, and several old (by length of acquaintance, not age) and dear friends. to include the Daut's and Kyser's. Annette came back with lots of great stories about Mark not being familiar with the U.S., asking at gas stations if they had to verify whether or not they actually had "petrol" for sale (never certain in Kenya).
- Luke and I (Annette, Little Mark and Joy remained in Nairobi with Chris) took an R&R in September, centering our trip around weddings in Story, Wyoming (my cousin Gillian) and Los Angeles (my cousin Shannon). We were grateful for celebratory occasions to gather everyone and got to see lots of family, and enjoyed some great time with Grandma and Grandpa Zimmer, traveling though several states between Wyoming and California (ask Annette sometime about my telling her that the $9.95 prime rib deal trumped the resistance to taking Luke to Hooter's in Vegas).
- Annette joined me in Washington for three nights (plus two sitting on airplanes) in October when I went back for work. It was the first time in two years for us to leave Kenya together, and we're grateful for many folks who kept eyes on the kids while we were both out of country.
- Grandma and Grandpa Zimmer came to Nairobi for most of November, and we all had a fantastic time Big Mark remains amazed at how grandchildren get away with things that would have been clearly forbidden when Mark and Thad were growing up.
- Little Mark turned 5 in November. He chose to have his friends the Marcineks go play mini-golf with him along with Grandpa Zimmer, followed by some pizza for lunch.
- Joy turned 1 on December 10, 2009. She had a great birthday party at play group -- her mom made a VERY pink cake -- and we had a family party over dinner that evening so Luke could be part of it since he was sick.
- Luke turned 3 on December 12, 2009 He chose to have his buddies from the Marcinek family over for some time in the mini pool and then lunch.
- Our dear friends the Marchants, currently serving at the embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, came to visit us for Christmas. Let me tell you, Christmas with seven kids is even more magical than Christmas with four.
- Luke decided on about January 10, 2010 that he's ready to be potty-trained. This comes after Annette ordered about $150 worth of diapers via the Internet on January 9, 2010.
- Annette spent a couple of nights in the hospital last week while the docs worked to diagnose some unknown ailment. Big Mark was reminded that tending four wonderful kids is far more taxing than any paid work.
- Joy remains adamant in her refusal to walk, but we figure it may have something to do with three big brothers who carry her anywhere she wants to go.
- The three boys started school again this Wednesday, after being delayed from Monday due to the school being flooded out by unusually long rains.
- Annette claims Joy has Big Mark wrapped firmly around her little finger. Joy just deleted half of this message after I had already written most of it, but she blew me a kiss with her big blue eyes and curly blonde locks, so I guess we'll let it slide this time.
- Chris has lost three teeth, and has figured out that this Tooth Fairy operation can be lucrative. Shouldn't be long before he and the other two stooges start trying to knock each others' teeth out on purpose.
- We got our next posting, and will be arriving in Taipei, Taiwan for four years starting in summer 2011. We'll leave here in summer 2010 and I'll have Mandarin Chinese language training in Arlington, VA for about 11 months between Nairobi and Taipei.

Happy New Year and our best for 2010,
Mark & co.