Now that we're back in Nigeria, it's time to renew the blogging, and now that we have so many new exciting things in our family, we really needed to keep everyone at home updated.  On Wednesday afternoon we went to pick up our daughter, Mercy.  We're praying (please pray too!!) that the adoption will be finalized by the Nigerian court on Monday or Tuesday- sooner the better as far as we're concerned.  It's a bit of a steep learning curve for all involved, so you could also be praying for us.  Now, since I know you're here to see pictures and not listen to me chat...

 

Getting ready to go home.

 

Playing with her new doll at home.

 

Relaxing with Daddy and doll.

 

Mercy LOVES being outside and if that can't happen, then she'll hang out by the window and look outside.

So obviously, there's lots more we could share right now, but frankyly, we have an almost two year old and we're exhausted!  Time to go to bed.

Uche's mission trip to Honduras

Last February I went to Honduras for a two week mission trip with some guys from our church. We went to an orphanage in Santa Barbara and our mission was to help construct a multi purpose hall for the kids. While we were there, we did a lot of little projects like building a swing set for the kids, etc. We also played soccer with the kids. I will be posting some of the pictures I took there from time to time.

Our suitcases made it safely

This is how we met the new multi purpose hall.

We worked hard and played hard. These are some of the spiders we caught while working.

The swing set we constructed

Being back in the States

Since we came back to the US, our blog has been neglected as usual when we are here. I gues life isn't as exciting as when we are overseas. Anyway, on our way back from Nigeria in April, we flew to Seattle for Joel's (Sarah's younger brother) wedding.


We arrived in Seattle and immediately noticed how cold and wet it was. It was a big contrast to the sunny warm weather in Nigeria.

The next day, Friday, was the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

This is Joel and his beautiful bride, Elizabeth

On our way back to Redding we stopped in the town where one of Sarah's sister's lives. She works at a tulip farm so Sarah, her mom and sisters went to go see the fields.

We did let one cute little guy join our Slagle girls outing.

The fields were beatiful, and we found out that the next week when the sun came out they were even more tulips blooming.

Sarah's braided hair never made it to Redding.

How's that for a hairdo?!?!

Leaving Jos

Our last week in Jos was busy spent wrapping things up, saying goodbye, and packing. It's a lot of work to travel, and I often wonder why we do it so much! I have a feeling that our life will include lots of traveling, so it's good that we're becoming experts!





The youth gave Uche a thank you present. He was really touched by this because these kids sacrificed the little they had to purchase a beautiful watch for him.

Taking pictures with new friends. Nigerians don't smile for pictures. Which one has spent years outside of Nigeria???

I always get my hair braided before we leave. It's fun to come home with an exotic hairdo. For about $10 this girl came to our house and spent a few hours braiding.

You can see the attachments in the hands of one of the girls. They added this to my own hair to make it hold. I thought about adding some purple but didn't, maybe next time!

Here's the final product. We'll see how long I can keep it. Women here can carry it for months, but for me two weeks is about as much as I can handle. I'm usually desperate to wash my hair and my head itches, so it comes out!

Airport

A couple days before we left Jos we joined the kids for a field trip to the airport. This is something we had wanted to do with the children because a few had expressed an interest in going there because they had never seen an airplane. We got to go all over the airport and even stood on the tarmac as the one flight that comes in each day to Jos landed and took off again. The kids had a great time. For many of them they had never travelled a few miles from their home, so they 45 minute trip was an experience all its own.





The group.

Learning about the departure hall.

Here's the little kids tired of standing, taking a break.

We went everywhere around the airport.

There was an old plane parked close to the airport and the kids wanted to go see it since we wouldn't be able to go on the plane that flew in.

They all went inside. None of them had ever been on a plane and they enjoyed seeing it up close.

The inside had been stripped, but it was still pretty cool to be able to look around.

Baking

The younger kids at the ministry had been reminding me and Uche that we hadn't brought them over to our house to bake cookies, so we made sure to do that before we left. Unlike the other groups who started very quiet and calm, this group went from crazy to crazier! We did a have a good time with them, and we were glad we got to spend this extra time with all the kids.

I started by explaining how to bake cookies and they all took turns pouring in the ingredients.

I told them they must make a design with a fork on peanut butter cookies, so here they are with their forks in hand.

Some of the cookies weren't quite perfect, but they all tasted good!

At one point the littlest girls had had enough of baking and were ready to play, so Uche took them out to the swings while I stayed with the older ones and made play dough.

Here we're trying to get them all together for a group picture. Can you see the one who wasn't ready to join in??

The choice was to join in and smile or leave the area so we could take the picture. She wasn't ready to smile....

Retreat

A couple weeks ago we joined a mission organization for their annual retreat. We had been asked to come and hang out with a couple boys and entertain them while the adults had their meetings. We said yes because we knew we'd have a great time hanging out with everyone and getting away for a few days.

This is the retreat center. They displayed pictures of how the center started in the early 1900s and its progression to today. It's getting close to its 100th birthday.

One morning we took the boys hiking. It was just a small hill so it didn't take long, and the view at the top was great!

I took this picture from the top of the hill, zooming as much as my camera would let me. It shows a traditional village compound for this area of Nigeria.

One afternoon local dancers came and did a show for us. All the different tribes have different cultural dances and they're beautiful to watch.

Drumming + dancing= good times!

Uche joining in! At any time any one can jump in and join the dancing or sometimes the women would pull people from the crowd to join in. Did I join???

Nope! See me hiding there on the outside of the circle! I don't dance cause I know my limitations, and Uche said he was gonna pay the women to make sure they didn't ask me to come dance.