My FIRST birthday!

This morning i woke up to mum and dad singing me happy birthday and then we opened some presents from family and friends back home! It was so exciting to receive so many wonderful presents and i now have a great selection of books which i love reading through with mum and dad or Ibu Sumi. I enjoy roaring at anything that remotely looks like a lion as i haven't quite worked out the difference between a lion, a dog, a cow and a cat! It was very exciting to get sms's and phone calls and emails, thanks for them all! Tonight we are going out with some Indonesian friends to a fancy restaurant to celebrate!
Thanks SO much for all your prayers!
Here is a picture of me with all my goodies and reading a book with mum!

It's my party!

This afternoon we had my first ever birthday party with all my friends from the kampung! I don't know how mum, dad, ibu tati and ibu sumi organised it all as there was loads of food, a big cake, games, balloons and a room full of about 40 smiling faces! Ibu Tati and Ibu Sumi worked all day just to get all the food ready!

We cleared out the down stairs room and people slowly started arriving until the room was full. Dad opened in prayer in Indo and then they sung happy birthday to me in Indo and everyone was clapping and then I got to blow out the candle on my cake!

We then played games like pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey and everyone enjoyed themselves very much. Then Ibu Sumi passed out food packages to all the children and within 5 minutes the house was empty! It was all over within one hour, but then I was able to play with the balloons and my new car than mum and dad brought me! We were also able to eat all the cake as they left so quickly that they didn't even get to taste it! I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the chocolate cake very much!

Holidays! Celebrate!

Mum, dad and our friend Esther took off for a holiday to the hills outside of Bandung. Dad did an amazing job of driving a car through the Indonesian traffic for over 2 hours and through torrential rain - there were only a few times when Aunty Esther went white as a bus was heading toward us on the wrong side of the road!
We staying in a lovely little cottage which had a log fire and carpet to crawl around on as well as grass and a lovely view. It even had a hot shower which mum and dad where very excited about and had their first hot shower in three months or so!
We visited an animal safari called Taman Safari and we were able to feed zebras, elephants, camels, deer, llama, and all sorts of animals from the car. At first i was really frightened but after a while i enjoyed looking for animals and growling at the lions and tigers! I got to pat an elephant and play with a baby orangutan! The orangutan was very scary as he had big long fingers and coarse red hair when i touched it - i didn't really like it very much but he kept on climbing up dad and wanting to play!
We enjoyed the cool air and seeing the tea plantations and eating food at different restaurants! If you ever come over we will have to take you there!

ARRGH!!! TEETH

i must apologise for my lack of blogs of late as i have been struggling with the growth of my new teeth! i already had two on the bottom and in the last few days i have had four new ones begin to poke through on the top! It has not been much fun and i have been in a bit of pain. Mum and dad have been good to me and have given me lots of cuddles. I also received some great packages from friends back home - thanks so much for your love and concern!

Today we visited an Indonesian church. The music was so loud that i could barely sleep and it sounded like it was a rock concert in a tiny hall. Mum and dad didn't understand very much of the sermon but they have met some nice people who were very friendly. Dad thinks he might go to bible study with them this week and see how much he can understand! They only have one more week of study before they finish another unit!

I am enjoying spending time with my carers in the morning and look forward to seeing them every day! As soon as they get to our house i jump into their arms and we play all morning until i fall asleep - they are lovely!

What a clever mum i have!

Today my mum gave her testimony in Indonesian at her language school after studying for only 5 weeks. The teachers asked them as a last resort because none of the other students wanted to do it in the first week. Dad was too scared and didn't think he could do it, but mum put up her hand and wrote it in one night and then had it checked by a teacher before speaking in front of the whole school. I didn't see it, but dad said she did very well and many people were amazed that she spoke so well for such a new student! I am very proud of my mum! Dad recorded her testimony so if you want to hear it he can email it to you!

Weighing Day

Each month the people in the Kampung get together and every child under the age of 5 gets weighed and measured. Mum and Dad took me along and we met some of our friends. The weighing experience was a bit traumatic as they put me in this sling and i was just dangling there and i started to cry! The other kids didn't seem to mind one bit and would pretend they were asleep! I guess they do it every month from when they were born! I ended up weighing just over 11kgs which everyone said was very good and i was over 80cm tall which i think was pretty good!

Today, Dad put me in the baby carrier on his back and we went for an explore of the hills below our house. The path down was very steep, and then the path up the other side of the hill was even steeper. We found rice paddies and saw people working in them. We saw a river and found a big waterfall which was very beautiful, but the water was very dirty. There was a man walking around at the bottom of the waterfall collecting some of the rubbish. We also saw some very old rocks which have ancient writings on them. They were housed in their own little houses to protect them from the water.

After that dad carried me up the hill, he kept on complaining that I was very heavy! At the top of the hill we found a wonderful tea house. It was a cultural center with art displays and had wonderful views over the city. We sat together on the floor around the table. Mum and Dad had some coffee and tea and I played and ate ice cream! It was a great day!