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Hello friends. It’s been awhile. Over a year, to be exact, when I posted about Rafi’s birth. He’s now a very opinionated almost-15-month-old who looks (and acts) like Hadassah’s blond twin. He’s a pile of fun but he keeps us on our toes. Can’t let this parenting thing become old hat after 3, am I right? Gotta shake things up. That seems to be his motto, anyway.
He was actually a remarkably chill baby and jumped from place to place with us no problem; this is the 4th house he’s lived in. Toddlerhood has added a hefty dose of independence and mischievousness – or maybe it’s the gigantic teeth he’s growing. He still doesn’t sleep well at night, which is largely to blame for my long silence here. I’ve been just plumb tired. Yes, I’ve tried sleep training him, but 1) we kept moving around at key points in his development, 2) he won’t take a pacifier so I’m all he’s got, and 3) I think I just got lazy with the third one.
But we still love him. A lot. It’s so fun to see him interacting with his older siblings! He’s been one of the pack from the time he could crawl, and his favorite thing is to be outside with them, digging dirt, throwing rocks, drinking muddy water out of old cans. It’s a good life.
But enough about Rafi. We’re still in Togo, West Africa, where we’ve been living since the beginning of October 2024. We’ve loved our time here, but it’s fast coming to an end. We’ll be returning to the States mid-September, Lord willing, although we still don’t know exactly where we’ll be going. Our vehicles are in Ohio, and our stuff is in Nebraska. Ryan has a job possibility near Omaha where we lived previously for his last year of fellowship, so that’s a strong contender. Paperwork is taking awhile to go through though so we’re pursuing some other options on the side in case we need a backup plan.
I’m hoping and praying we’ll be able to find a place to live that will have room for the children to play outside safely, as that has been a huge part of their life here this past year! City living is going to be a rough adjustment. Hadassah will be going into kindergarten, and we’ll probably be homeschooling for this year since we don’t know where we’ll be living yet. I’ve already started teaching her how to read and she’s picking it up so fast! Being here in Togo has made her grow up so much; she’s around so many older kids who are good examples and has become quite responsible. Having older children is so much fun. Not gonna lie – 3 children 3 and under was not my favorite stage, although I wouldn’t trade any of it.
I took an unplanned but very enjoyed break from blogging and posting to social media. I’ve been too busy living life, and it’s been wonderful. Life here in Africa has been so rich and full of meaning. When you rub shoulders with life and death and poverty daily, Instagram influencers with their Happy Juice and Pranamats seem a little empty, ya know? No offense to them, but I don’t want to get sucked into that, and it’s too easy to end up there. I should know – I’ve done it.
And Trim Healthy Mama? I haven’t had time to keep up with all the plan changes since I had children, and it all seems so complicated now. I want to feed my family in a healthy, balanced way…and trust me, I’ve been over here making my own pancake syrup and tortillas and salad dressings whether I want to or not! But there ain’t no stevia or almond flour to be found. We have white flour, white sugar, and vegetable oil here…and we’re doing just fine. (I do look forward to having easier access to protein sources and vegetables.) Since coming here I’ve realized that a lot of people can live on mostly cornmeal and be healthy. We have diets because we eat too much. Full stop.
It’s almost impossible not to eat too much when you live in America with so many choices and so much money. And then we get so little exercise and put corn syrup in everything. When you have to make everything from scratch with simple, basic ingredients and wash all the dishes afterwards, life is more balanced.
So what have I been doing? Spending lots of time outside with my children, taking walks, learning French, reading lots of books, teaching my daughter to read, taking care of my family and making food for people, catching up on 8 years of photobooks + a baby book for each child, taking family pictures for people, and making quilts with African wax prints.
I was recently asked to write a guest post for Mom on a Mission about our life in Togo. I was aiming for 1500-2000 words and ended up with 6000, so I’ll be posting those in a series with pictures here over the next couple of weeks. Sign up via email if you don’t want to miss them.
I also have a bunch of posts that I’ve started but never finished over the past 2 years, so maybe I’ll get around to posting those too. But no promises.
We’ve lived on the mission field for 35+ years (Came for at least 2! ) with 4 children (ages 11, 9, 6 and 3. at the beginning.) Homeschooled for 20 years; lived in 3 different countries and moved 15 times in 3 years. It has been hard the last several years to eat the THM way. I just do the best I can. Love reading your posts.
Blessings to you and your family, Cindy! Living in an impoverished country really puts “dieting” into perspective.
Love to see your update!! The kids are getting so big! I need to get back on THM, kind of fell off during Covid and struggling with health. Thanks for giving me a bump to get back at it! I hope you get back to the Nebraska area! Heck come to Des Moines, Iowa-I am sure your hubby would have plenty of opportunity in the medical world here! So wonderful that you have experienced everything there-that would be amazing!
Take Care and hope to hear more from you! Let all of us know where you land stateside!
Prayers and hugs,
Tina
So glad to be caught up on your adventures! Glad all is well and pray for God’s leading as you come back to the States!
Prayers for safe travels and thanks for sharing your story.
SOOO good to hear from you! Sounds like you have the right priorities down! Good for you! Togo sounds amazing!
Lots of love and blessings your way, and traveling mercies to you and your family
I loved hearing from you!
Hello,
I enjoyed hearing about your time in Africa. I have followed you for years and always enjoy your writings.
I live in NE Ohio. I’m not sure how I found your blogs but am glad I did! God bless you and your family as you transition back to the USA.
It was fun to hear from you again and see your pictures!! You have such a cute family! What a blessing your children are! Enjoy these years! I still use your cookbooks! Made a recipe from them last night and it was yummy! God bless your family!
Thank you for sharing your life and many adventures, you are such a delight and the children so much fun! I’m looking forward to all your future posts! I’ll be praying for your upcoming move back to the states, it will surely be another adventure.
God Bless and keep you and your wonderful family .
This is where you’ve been! I knew you moved, but didn’t realize to the Mission Life!
Looking forward to hearing from you again!
Jenny Survila
Beautiful quilt!! So good to “hear” from you again.
I was just thinking about you wondering how things were going. I love hearing about the adventures you’ve had. I love seeing how grown and beautiful your children are! Thank you. I look forward to hearing more! God Bless!
This is so neat! When I saw your email title, I was automatically drawn in because we sponsor a girl in Togo and now I’m fascinated to look through your posts to see what its’s like there!! Your family is beautiful and I look forward to reading all about your adventures. 😄
I have missed your blogs; I’m not sure what happened 🙁 . The good news is someone asked in ‘The Group’ for recipe for a good chocolate shake and since my very favorite is the copycat Arby’s Jamocha shake of yours, I started to link it and then I got to your page and saw all these amazing blog post that I am having so much fun reading. Rafi is just as cute as Das and his brother! Would be great to have you back in Big Red country with all of us Huskers. 😃
I actually haven’t shared them around yet…haven’t had time and wanted to get them all written before I complicated my life with comments to reply to…haha. We are planning to move back to Nebraska, Lord willing!
Beautiful quilt. I have always loved quilts and watched many videos about making them (Missouri Star Quilt Co is my favorite). I decided to jump in feet first and made a star quilt baby blanket. Well, turned out to be more throw size for an adult than a baby. Sometime when life slows down I want to try it again.