Jungle baby.

Today the Atrims (the nice folks I met in Decatur who let me cowboy around on their horses all summer) came through the area, so they stopped by good ol' Oglesby and had lunch at Delaney's with me. It was really sweet to see them -- I miss watching them bicker on our long rides around the country roads in Forsyth. ;) Unfortunately, they didn't bring the horses -- I guess they wouldn't have really liked the buffet anyway -- but hopefully they'll get up here soon and go riding at the state parks.

Also today, my mom and I stole my niece from my sister-in-law. Time with Aleksa is basically spent watching her do extraordinary things that aren't really that extraordinary. For example, tonight at Steak-n-Shake we watched as she unwrapped a straw. ("She's contemplating how to do it -- an engineer's mind," my dad muses. "Look at her fine motor skills!" These are actualy quotes.) Earlier in the day, my mom and I watched her eat a popsicle. No lie. We just sort of sit there and watch everything she does. We're totally wrapped around her little finger.

Also at Steak-n-Shake, my mom said I was going to have a "jungle baby." That's right, a jungle baby. I'm not sure there are words to describe this moment and how hilarious it was. She also complained that it'd have some strange name, then went on to speak some garble (presumably some of the Swahili she's picked up here in the Illinos Valley) and tagged "Susie" at the end of it.

Just another moment of my parents being upset that a) I'm not married and/or dating anyone and/or having any prospects and b) I'm taking my 110% single self to Africa for two years. ;) I guess you can't win them all.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a family from the church in Oglesby to talk about supporting me for my trip to Sudan. This is my first appointment with a family, so I'm not sure how it's going to go. Luckily, I just made it today, so I don't have a whole lot of time to fret about how horribly it will go.

Theeeeen, I get to head to Chambana for the weekend to hang out with Kendra, my discipler from Cru. I LOVE Kendra, so it's going to be awesome to get to see her and just talk and relax and enjoy each other's company. She's been an incredible blessing in my life. So yay about that.

I've babbled enough for tonight. I'm going to go take my future jungle mother self and get back to work...