What a day!

Today was a really great day…probably one of the best since we’ve been here (and we’ve had a lot of good days). It started out as a regular Sunday- getting up, rushing to get ready, Caden taking his diaper off and stepping in poop (oh, that’s not so regular- 1st time for this one), running late due to the diaper incident, and making it to church in time to sit in the middle (they fill the church row by row starting at the front).

Now, last week Caden fell asleep half way through the church service so we were all able to stay for the entire time. Today, we knew before we even left the house that he would not make through the service- it was just one of those mornings. Well, he lasted about 30 minutes. So, I took him outside to play for the remaining hour and a half. While outside his friend Noah came out to join us. They played for a while, then Noah wanted to sit in the car- he loves sitting in the car. Just after we got into our car Sunday school let out. Nigerian kids gathered around our car and started touching Noah and Caden…it almost felt like we were an exhibit at the zoo. Noah did great, Caden was a little scared. After a while of this we got out and waited with all the kids until church got out.

After church we headed home to prepare for Toby’s birthday meal. Today is his birthday, and Father’s day. I had planned a meal of Chinese food and invited 2 families over- Noah’s family and our language teachers and their kids. OK…I did not cook the Chinese food- I hired someone to come and do it…but Toby had been craving sesame chicken so I thought it would be fun. It was sooo good!!!

Missy, Noah’s mom, had ordered a cake for Father’s day and I made a cookie cake for Toby for his birthday (I usually make him French Silk pie- it’s the one time a year that I make it- but it didn’t turn out right yesterday so I substituted with the cookie cake- that turned out perfectly I must say!)

Our guests stayed until after 3:00 and it was so fun just sitting around talking and laughing. After lunch we all went to the Prison (that sounds like a bizarre outing, doesn’t it?) Well, John (Noah’s dad) had been invited to give his testimony during the church service. So, we all went to hear it (the kids stayed home with a sitter). It was really great to hear how God has transformed John’s life from a kid whose dad was in the Mafia to a man who has found freedom and salvation through Jesus Christ. The men at the prison really seemed to enjoy hearing John’s story.

The women prisoners were not allowed to come to the church service since it was on the men’s side, so afterwards we went and greeted them and visited for a few minutes. They are always so excited to see us and we had some great conversation while there. Missy also wrote about this on her blog at www.servinginnigeria.com.

It was dinner time when we got home so I heated up some leftover pizza and we enjoyed a little family time. Caden had not had a nap so he went to bed early , leaving Toby and I to enjoy a movie on the “big screen”. We had movie night at our house Sat. for our compound and still had the projector set up so we decided to watch it. We really enjoyed an intimate showing of the film “Invince-able”.

Now, it’s time to hit the sack. We have pics from today but I will add them later. Toby is going to write about today for our “Day in the Life” article so be sure to check the website for that soon.