riding on shoulders

I remember riding on my dad's shoulders often as a little girl.  The view was so different from my normal one that I had on my own two feet.  I'm sure Dad's shoulders ached but onward he would march with me in tow.

Now I'm old enough that I have my own daughter on my shoulders.  I know now for sure that Dad's shoulders ached 25 or so years ago as he carried me.  Big C is full of glee when she is riding high on Mama K or Papa D's shoulders.  The view is so different for her.

Sometimes I long to ride on the shoulders of God.  I long to see the view from up there.  Perhaps I would see that Big C's tantrum phase is really only for a moment or that Baby C will eventually stop all of her drooling and a tooth will come.  Perhaps I would see just how much I should enjoy each day because each day that passes will be a day that I don't get back.  I am sure that on God's shoulders I would be full of glee.

You know sometimes I think I am on God's shoulders.  Sometimes, through prayer usually, my perspectives do change.  God does lift us up and allows us to see the greater view that God sees.  When this happens I am reminded of just how full of joy my life is.

It's Thanksgiving again.  I have had 31 Thanksgivings.  I am thankful for that.  I am thankful for this moment, right now, when I can reflect and see the view that I most often miss from being too focused on the details that are right in front of me.  I am thankful that God can pick me up and allow me to see just how great this creation is and that no matter what problems we are facing our lives can still be full of joy as we look out at the view from the shoulders of God.

Does that make sense?

Our Life

I'm sorry for the long silence.  We have had a lady from Charleston, SC out here for the past month putting fish farms up at many of our sites in Kalimantan to help the sites produce more income for their schools and what not.  She was an absolute blessing to me.  She is exactly one month younger than my mom.  We had almost an instant bond however because of that friendship I had a hard time taking time for the blog.  Well we put her on the plane today so I am back.  I love my faithful readers, sorry if I let you down.

Anyway, we had Starbucks drinks today when we were in the big city.  I was alone with Caroline in Starbucks for a bit and was looking at all of the Christmas decorations and mugs.  Before I knew it my eyes were teared all up as I was flooded with memories from last Christmas.  Last Christmas I was preggers and in America.  I remember shopping with my parents one day and then stopping off at Starbucks.  The smells and the decorations today were the same as that day.  I am always amazed at how smells can bring on such strong memories.  I miss you parents.  We had such a good Christmas with you last year.

While our "fish lady" was here we went to the safari again.  This time Clara had the courage to ride the pony.  She has ridden the elephant 6 times in her 2 years of life but has always wanted to ride the pony but has been too scared.  I know, backwards right...Well she did it this time!  Caroline also had some fun with a chimp, she even had her picture taken with the chimp!

Baby C Has Her Own Plans

When Big C was a baby she taught me a lot.  So when Baby C was born I had a lot of "plans" for how this infancy was going to work for the two of us.  First off she was born a "big" baby, especially for Indonesians, at 4.1 kilos.  Everyone who came to visit told me that I was so lucky because a "big" baby would sleep through the night faster.  That is FALSE.  All of you who said that are wrong.  Yes, Baby C has given us some good nights of sleep, even almost a week of 10 hours each night.  However, a big baby just means that they have more belly that they want to fill up.  (I will expand on this later)

The other plan I had for us is that she would stay my "blob" for a very long time.  I was hoping for the first five months she would just lay where I put her and would not move.  As I have already discussed with you she started moving her body in circles during her second month of life and rolling in her third month of life.  On Tuesday she will be four months and I need to admit that I am scared of what this month will bring.

My next plan was to keep her on breast milk alone through the first six months of her life.  So far that has been working out great for us.  However, when she reached about 15 pounds a week or so ago she started waking every four hours to nurse again during the night.  I discussed this with my local, American ped here and some friends and decided a few things could be causing this.  1) She had a cold and that got her out of her sleeping rhythms 2) Growth Spurt 3) She is just looking for a cuddle or 4) SHE'S HUNGRY.  Over the last 10 days I have been trying to figure out which one is causing our problem.  Here is my conclusion after my thorough study (Thank God I learned the Scientific Method in Grade School):

It could be the cold thing or the cuddle so to rule that out I have let her cry through the middle of the night feeding.  80% of the time this is not working at night.  When she wakes from nap early if I delay getting her she 100% of the time will go back to sleep.  At night; not so much.  Also, let's say Papa D gets her, he can't calm her down.  She will only calm once she gets to have some milk.  So I feel I can rule these two reasons out.
It could be a growth spurt....but for 10 days!!! Lord, if that is the answer then please HAVE MERCY!  This baby can't keep growing like this!
Which leads me to she is hungry.  I honestly think this is the answer.  When I feed her at night she goes to town.  She eats a full meal and she does it fast.  She does not dose off while nursing until she gets all that she needs.  
Conclusion: I think Baby C is hungry.

Response to Conclusion: I think I need to start feeding her a little and see if this helps.  Problem: I can not get rice cereal here unless it has added sugar or MSG.  Solution: Make your own!  Grind up uncooked rice.  Boil 1 cup of water.  Add 1/4 of ground rice, whisk constantly as it cooks for 10 minutes.  Add formula or breast milk until it reaches the consistency that your baby needs.  Add fruit or veggies if they are ready.  WOW, I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD MAKE YOUR OWN RICE CEREAL AND NOT BUY IT IN A BOX!  How amazing is that!

So back to my plans....I'm throwing them in the trash.  Big C and now Baby C are teaching me that I can plan all day long but my plans will not control them.  They are who they are and I give thanks for that.  Parents, if you haven't learned yet, you have to let your kids grow as they are ready, test boundaries on their timeline, move mountains when they can and not when you say.  Let our kids be themselves not us.  We can teach them what is right and what is wrong, we can teach them truth but we can not hold them back from growing up.  If this were not true I'm sure my parents would have me living in America right now.

I hope my girls take their time growing up but if they choose to run at full speed then we all better back up and watch them turn that run into flight.

Uncooked rice cereal, we haven't tried preparing it yet

Aunt Big H

Aunt Big H sent Baby C some pjs.  They are special because they are covered in VW bugs just like Aunt Big H drives written on one of the cars is "Going to Auntie's".  How special is that?  Here are some photos of Baby C showing off her new PJs:

Thank you Aunt Big H!!

Grandpa Do Not View

We found a baby tokek outside of our house the other day.  It was trying to come in through the roof.  We don't want this to happen because these creatures will not let go of anything they bite.  So say if it bites your foot then you need to put your foot in the toilet until the creature drowns and lets go of you.  This has never happened to anyone that I know or to myself.  Still, I don't want to take any risk so Papa D had to catch it and dispose of it.  These are actually worth a lot of money because they have something in them that can make medicine.  Here is a picture of our tokek that is now gone.

Sorry everyone this is a picture of it without life

Sunday Morning

On Sunday mornings the Kaemba family heads off to our Indonesian church.  At 8:30 we attend Big C's Sunday School class which parents attend with their toddler.  This is such a special time as we help Big C learn about the love of Christ and all the ways that Christ has loved creation throughout history.  We enjoy spending time with the other parents and watching all of the children grow in the knowledge and love for our Savior.

If the story is about a boat, Big C will make her table into a "boat".

Soccer Game

We recently went to a local pro-soccer game.  It is a lot of fun as long as you can ignore the smoking or have a husband who will constantly ask people to stop smoking around his baby.  The local team has a new coach who is actually a friend of ours so this made going to the game even more special.  The coach is a German man who grew up here.  The team ended up winning in the 95th minute of the game off of a PK for an hand ball in the box!  That was pure excitement!

Many of the westerners went to cheer on our friend as new coach during his first home game!