Today the saga of The Jacob Twins’ First Holy Communion continues for yet another installment.


But in case you've wondered- no, my life hasn’t stopped just because I write slowly. New stuff has been happening, keeping me busier than a person really needs to be.
Yesterday, besides editing the film, I had to make this big baby shower cake for a party that was held this morning. It was for two little Burkinabé girls that have been adopted by US families. Yes, one of them IS the little toddler from the orphanage that I wrote about here! Her adoption came through (finally!) and now she has two parents, plus a big brother and sister, as well! I’m SO happy for all of them!

To add to the fun this morning, not only was there the double baby shower event, there was also the "fun" fair at the twins' school. The word fun earned the Quotation Marks of Irony by being agonizingly boring, loud and hot. Very, very hot. And they ran out of water. I am not kidding. Even the drinking fountain ran dry. So, heat exhaustion was setting in as the girls and I walked over to the Hotel Independance from the school. Why would we be walking the streets at 11 am in 110°F weather? Because my car refused to start this morning, of course. (The battery had to be replaced - 200 dollars US. The cost of living has indeed gone way, way up lately) Anyway, we staggered over to the hotel, hoping to find a taxi. We did, but it was a sad old Nissan with no air-con.
It was quite a morning, is all I can say.

But back to the twin-centric plot. (BTW- if you don't know what's going on, because you just tuned in, go back here for the start of the story.)

Next came the obligatory family photo session out in the garden. Well, the session was obligatory for all family members who were NOT dressed in ancient, ratty, school-bus yellow shorts. This meant that, yet again, JP missed out on an opportunity to take a Family Portrait- an object greatly desired by my mother-in-law. She’s a pretty undemanding person, really. All she wants in life is a reasonably recent photo of her only son, his wife and her four grandchildren, all dressed up for some big event. And though JP and I have had four children for over 10 years now, the Family Portraits are very scarce. There’s always someone missing and the MIL always complains. And I don’t blame her. It seems like a simple request and it wouldn’t be hard to comply with, if certain people would cooperate. Not that I’m going to be petty and start naming names…but it seems like I get a lot of heat from the MIL when she should really be lighting a fire under somebody else’s behind (possibly setting fire to a really ugly pair of shorts).

The garden photo session ended and I got the twins in the car and over to the church. Soon, everything was in place and all 24 children were lined up by height and ready for the procession. Pierre the Photographer was there, busily snapping away. The photos ended up looking a little odd, though. The children all look positively angelic, but it appears that they are having their sacrament in some bombed-out ruins in Kosovo, with big piles of broken cement, brick, metal and tile scattered everywhere.

The old wall surrounding the church ground had been completely torn down, but the rubble hadn’t been hauled away yet. And it looked like there were no immediate plans to do so.

We’d all better start praying nobody trips in the dark and impales themselves on some rusty rebar- was my first thought. Life-threatening injuries put such a damper on festive events.

The church slowly filled up as people carefully picked their way past the debris. I found a seat near the middle and held a few places for JP, the other kids and our many friends who would be attending the event.

Soon, everyone arrived and the mass began. It lasted about two hours and was not too boring, considering.