More Photos From The Field

Perhaps this is not the most appealing photo to begin with, but this is what a bathroom out in the village looks like. Make sure to bring your own toilet tissue!

We were at a field function on this particular day. As I was heading to wash my hands after eating, I could see this black line in the distance. As I approached it, I could see it was moving! It was a herd of ants crossing the path.

We didn't finish our work in the field until late this particular evening. On our way back, I was driving us down all of these village dirt and bumpy roads. Along the way I was trying to  snap some pictures of the village nightlife and this boda guy made one of the photos.

You see a lot of cows out in the village, but usually only about one per a family. Cows are very expensive, but are one way people both feed their families and make money. When I saw this guy, only one thing came to mind: A spicy chicken sandwich from Chik-fil-a.

The night life, even in the village, can be pretty vibrant. This was a group of people who were cooking up some fried fish to sell. We couldn't resist, so we stopped to buy some.

This fish was delicious!

Here's part of the team I work with - some of our stellar IJM lawyers - reviewing some notes for the legal education program we were conducting this day.

This was at a church we were asked to speak at. On this Sunday, some of the youth did a dance a drama for the church.

This was at our last WMBR event for the year. Our office has team challenges each month called "WMBR" (We Measure By Results). We're on the same team for the whole year and our last challenge which would determine which team came in first place for 2012 was a couple of rounds of bowling. The team I was on came in second place. Maybe next year we'll take home the #1 ranking.

This is the team I work with everyday - great and amazing people! A couple of them were pregnant at the time and we were having an out-of-office lunch to celebrate their pregnancy.

Some more returning from the field late, more driving on Jinja Road at night. Jinja Road during the day can already make for quite the adventure while driving on. At night, it's nearly outright dangerous.

We are big believers in measuring our performance so we know if our work is making a difference. I see these graphs each day and they motivate us all the more to work hard for our clients and those we're serving. Our end results for 2012 are much higher than  what you see here as this graph was made half way through the year. We well exceeded our goals for 2012!

 

Sometimes you just never know what you'll find around the office. I walked in to the kitchen to make some tea and found our mascot, until he became someone's dinner.

Speaking of chicken for dinner, this is Uganda's best chicken! In our project area, there's a place we sometimes pass by called Namawajallo. They have several workers who cook all kinds of food and sell it for people making the long trip to Jinja. This chicken is always sauteed with salt or some seasoning and then grilled. It makes for some good and inexpensive eating.

Coffee is one of the main crops in Uganda, it's actually their largest export. On our way to the field on this day we passed a coffee harvester who had picked the beans and was now letting them dry out.

Although this photo is not from the field, I couldn't resist posting this amazing checkmate setup. For Christmas I asked Amber for a chess set and board and she found this amazing hand made soap-stone one in the local craft market. Although this was one of Amber's first times playing chess, she fared well. In the end, however, my Knight and Rook conquered her King. For those who know chess notation, Am's King is on G5 (the blue lion facing right).

End of 2012 Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken last month and got the digital copies today. Wish we could post more pictures of our precious Baby Girl. Praying someday soon we will be able to.

What a wonderful end to the year 2012 we had- celebrating with our TWO wonderful children. We are blessed!

 

Adoption Update: Bonding and Attachment

Yesterday we went to visit Baby Girl's orphanage. We hadn't been there in a while and wanted to bring Baby Girl back so everyone could see her as well as bring a cake we had for them. We also have some friends who are adopting from the same orphanage. They live in the States so we went to check up on their little guy and take pictures and video for them. We even Skyped live with them while we were there so they could see their precious guy in real time. It was fun!

One child is different from the rest... =)

When we arrived ALL the children rushed out to great us. One of the bigger kids grabbed Isaiah and another one grabbed Baby Girl. They were all shouting "Zander, Zander!" (A nickname that they have for Baby Girl).

Some of the precious faces who came out to greet us.

For those of you who are close to someone who has adopted, you may remember them asking you to be a little "hands off" with their newly adopted child at first. Of course all adoptive parents want you to love on their child, but many parents choose to "cocoon" the baby at home for a certain period of time, with the parents being the only ones to feed, bathe, hug, kiss, love on, etc their child. This is so that the newly adopted child can begin to form a strong bond with their new adoptive parents. It is a very wise thing to do especially for a child who has had much trauma in their life and/or been moved around from caretaker to caretaker.

The bassinet with the blue blanket on it is where Baby Girl slept.

Since we have had Baby Girl home we have constantly been working on gaining her love and trust.  Because I am a stay at home mom, I am the one who meets all of Baby Girl's needs during the day (with Drew (being the awesome, hands-on dad that he is) helping out on evenings and weekends). Baby Girl has developed a deep bond with both of us and adjusted amazingly well. We could not have asked for things to go any better. But, until we went back to her orphanage, we didn't realize just how attached she had become to us!

Cutting into the cake we brought for them. They were SO excited!

Baby Girl started screaming and crying at the top of her lungs when they grabbed her away from us. Not right away, but as soon as we got out of her line of sight, she lost it! We immediately took her back, comforted her, and she calmed down. The staff at the orphanage just couldn't keep their hands off of her though and grabbed her back soon after. It's understandable because they loved and cared for her for her first 5 months of life and they were so excited to see her.  She did end up letting some people hold her but always kept an eye out for mommy and daddy and wanted to come back to us often.

These kids love this little toe-headed white boy!

Isaiah finds anything that's on wheels, no matter where he goes!

We were THRILLED with her response!! It means that she now knows that we are "hers". She belongs to us and we belong to her. She is OURS! She finds comfort and security in our arms, not in the arms of any old stranger, and not even in the arms of those who cared for her three months ago. She loves us and wants us to be close by. She knows we are her parents! It can bring tears to an adoptive parent's eyes when this shift happens in a child. We are so grateful that God has allowed her tiny little heart to put aside (for now) the hurt and pain she has experienced in her life and learn to love and trust a family who, just months ago, were strangers to her.

Praise the Lord! He does ALL things well!!

What in the World are the Hutchesons up to?!?

Wow! We can't believe another year has come to a close! The saying is true; time flies when you're having fun!

In just this past year we moved our family to Uganda, celebrated 3 years of marriage, Isaiah turned 2, and we added a beautiful baby girl to our family. It has been quite the year!

Here's a little update on what we're all up to:

Drew - International Justice Mission keeps Drew busy, that's for sure! He puts in many long days and works many weekends too. His job as IJM's Church and Community Relations Fellow involves a lot of field work so he's happy he doesn't have to sit behind a desk every day. Drew has seen firsthand the difficulty in helping ensure a public justice systems works for the poor. Through several field projects and working with different entities in IJM's project area, Drew's department was able to surpass the goals they had regarding the amount of people educated about the law, clients served, and partnerships formed. All the hard work his department puts in is worth it when lives and even the future of whole communities are on the line.

When he's not working he's at home being a husband and father. His love for his children is obvious in everything he does and he's a great dad! He's also a great husband and I am blessed to call him mine!

Drew and Isaiah had fun on the bouncy castle at IJM's Christmas party.

Enjoying one of his Christmas gifts. We had our "family" Christmas earlier this week before we headed to Jinja to spend Christmas with my family.

Amber - I am keeping busy with two kids at home! Love being a mom!! Through the avenue of wife and mother I have been able to make many great connections. Last month I was taking a walk with the kids when we met a little boy named Elijah and his nanny, Juliet. Isaiah and Elijah became fast friends and we have since spent much time with them! I am also involved with two Bible studies and have been able to connect with some great women this way.

Many of you will remember the woman, Amelia, who I wrote a blog post about in September. She stayed with us for two weeks, during which time her baby, (also Elijah) was born. We have kept in great contact since the time she left our house in early September. Baby Elijah is doing great. Almost as big as our Baby Girl and 3 months younger! Just last week she finally was able to go home to visit her family and introduce them to her son. Amelia has become a great friend and I feel privileged to be able to help and encourage her the way I have.

Keeping in touch with supporters, doing the mounds of paperwork and leg work for Baby Girl's adoption, taking care of two kids, and supporting my husband all make for a full time job and I love it!



Opening up the AMAZING suitcase we received for Christmas from friends back home!!!

Love my two babies!

Isaiah - Zai is growing like a weed and is now over 3 feet tall. If we go by the formula of doubling a toddler’s height at age 2 to determine adult height, it looks like we’re going to have an over 6 foot teenager in our house someday! He’s still wearing lots of 18 month clothes though because of how skinny he is! Thankfully we don’t wear pants here much (too hot) because I’m sure he would need 2T pants for length but they would be falling down around his waist!

Isaiah is such a happy boy and brings so much joy into our lives. He says and does the funniest things and keeps us laughing all day long. He is so affectionate and will grab our faces and kiss us all over before finally planting one on our lips. He can’t yet figure out how to say, “I love you” but when we tell him we love him he gets a huge, shy smile on his face, looks towards the floor and says, “yeah.” =)

He loves all things cars, is obsessed with the moon,  always has to be wearing shoes, and enjoys boda boda (motorcycle) rides. His best friend is his Jenny Dog and he never goes very far without her. Another one of Isaiah's friends is Elijah. He is almost the exact same age as Zai and they are great friends!

Isaiah playing with his friend Elijah.

Loves his Jenny Dog!

Isaiah enjoying one of his favorite things - a boda boda ride!

Silly boy in his sister's walker.

All of the "loot" Isaiah received from our dear friends who sent over a huge suitcase full of Christmas presents.

Trying one of daddy's wasabi almonds. He didn't like it so much!

ZaiLOVES his helicopter that came in a wonderful suitcase from Mimi and Grandpa.

He always wants to be just like his daddy. What a great person to model after!

Excited about two of his Christmas presents- a helmet for his boda rides and a moon!

Baby Girl - Baby Girl is 7 months old and has been in our family for 2 1/2 months now. She is such a joy! She is a very content baby, a little shy and reserved with strangers, yet super smiley with people she knows. She has turned into quite the great sleeper! She takes two 1 1/2 hour naps a day and sleeps an average of 12 hours straight through the night! A far cry from the very scared baby who woke up every 20-40 minutes when we first brought her home!

She just got her first tooth and the second one is popping through as I speak! She is a much better "teether" than Isaiah was. We didn't even know one was coming through until I felt it with my finger one day!

No bottles for this baby. She is 100% breastfed (Yes, by me! If anyone would like information on inducing lactation to nurse an adopted baby please feel free to e-mail me. It has been one of the best decisions we've ever made in regards to our adoption!). We are starting to introduce baby food (homemade! Not many options for baby food here) but she's not eating too much yet. At the orphanage she was being fed cow's milk with sugar alongside little bits of cake and cookies so she's had a big change in diet these past two months! She's adjusted like a champ, though!

She is attaching extremely well and we couldn't be happier. She clings to us, is comforted by us, and turns to us when she is in new situations. She is showing all the signs of secure attachment! In many ways it feels like she has been a part of our family since the day she was born.

We are hoping to have our court date some time in March or April. This is when we will be able to obtain legal guardianship of Baby Girl and will be able to share pictures and names with you! We are SO looking forward to this!



She LOVES it when her big brother pushes her around in her new walker.

The kiddos watching Old Yeller with my sisters, Janae and Adelynn.

Baby girl with all of the stuff she received in the suitcase. She was mostly interested in her puffs but mommy loves all the clothes. =)

Now it's your turn! We'd love to hear what YOU are up to! Drop us a line at drewamhutch@gmail.com!

Blessings to you this Christmas and in 2013!!

A Boy's Best Friend

When Drew was little he had a stuffed dog named "Jenny Dog" that he absolutely loved. Shortly after Isaiah was born, Drew's mom gave him his very own Jenny Dog! Jenny Dog has been in Isaiah's crib/bed for nearly two years now and he's never really paid much attention to her. Sometimes he would rest he head on her like a pillow but other than that never cared much if she was nearby or not.

In just the last two weeks things have drastically changed! Isaiah suddenly became very attached to Jenny Dog, possibly because of the addition of his baby sister to the family. Just as I feed, dress, bathe, kiss, hug and play with his sister, Isaiah has started feeding, dressing, bathing (that didn't turn out so well) , kissing, hugging, and playing with Jenny Dog. It's been SO sweet to watch him role play with her. Melts my heart every time!

Thought I would post a few pictures of Isaiah with his doggie. =)

Hugs for Jenny Dog.

Kisses for Jenny Dog.

He got upset because she fell over. =)

Jenny Dog makes for a great pillow....especially when Isaiah falls asleep on the hard, tile floor!

A boy and his dog! (And his Dino.)

Jenny Dog has to wear jammies now!

And she has to sleep with a "boo" (blankie) just like Isaiah.

She's even potty trained!

Zai had to get his shoes on to go to the doctor. Jenny Dog had to get hers on too. =)

Jenny Dog even sits at the table when baby sister is already in bed by dinner time!

I guess it's true what they say... A dog is a man's best friend!