Not an Easy Start!

Adapting to life as a family of 4 has been challenging at times, not least for Noah, whose first act in greeting his new sister, Emily, was to give her a hearty slap in the face! We do wonder whether people who post adorable photos of their toddlers tenderly holding their newly born siblings have been using the powers of photoshop (or perhaps even behaviour enhancing drugs), as it took us all of 13 weeks to finally get the photo below of Noah actually showing some sort of affection to his sister! Thankfully since then things have steadily improved and he is finally on his way to becoming a very loving big brother!

It was great to spend time with family whilst in the UK and whilst it was not always easy, Noah in particular testing our powers of patience, there were also many moments to treasure.

Sarah continued to show her mixed abilities when it comes to her hairdressing talents. Thankfully she has moved well beyond her inauspicious beginnings which left Tim looking like Jim Carry from ‘Dumb and Dumber’, but still managed to leave Noah with a sizable bald patch on the left side of his head, when accidently using the wrong setting on the clippers (3mm instead of 13mm!). Still, a dodgy haircut or two is par for the course when it comes to toddlers!

Whist Sarah may be accused of negligent hairdressing, Tim may be accused of worse as it was on his watch during a function whilst in the States that Noah sneakily chugged someone’s cup of vino before announcing that he would like some ‘more special water please!’

Emily has played her part as well, including her most prodigious guffs (to which Noah will announce “Emily did a BIIIIIG fartie!”) and a wondrous 7 day poo amnesty (I’m sure you can all guess how that ended!).  

 

Our return to Uganda in August was not the easiest of transitions. Arriving back to a dirty house, a car that wouldn’t start and an empty water tank may have had more than a little to do with Sarah announcing on the very first day that she was getting on a plane and going straight back home! Things then got even more challenging as we discovered a poisonous snake in the house, just a meter from where Emily had been lying on the floor. 

Enter Katende and Tim with sticks to give it a good battering and after that our trusty farm manager Stephen (usefully formerly a pest controller) to come and spray the house, requiring us to move out for a night. 

Stephen strikes his best Winston Zeddemore
pose as he prepares to vanquish snakes!

Thankfully it has got a little easier, although the fact that this month’s water bill is just 85 pence gives you an idea of just how little water we’ve had to survive on this first month back!

We are all getting back into the swing of things, Sarah picking up things on what has been a VERY busy Baby Unit as well as taking on River of Life communications (Facebook and Blog - do take a look!), Tim preparing for a new season at Synergy, Noah settling back into playgroup and Emily doing her best to make her presence felt with squawks, screeches, giggles and of course BIIIIIG farties!

As the ever-expanding Crow Clan we ready ourselves for another year in Uganda and look forward to what God has in store!