We thank God for the safe arrival of our second child, Naomi Joy Floreen! She was born here in Malawi on Monday, October 28th. She’s twelve days old, and beautiful.

Naomi surprised us with her small size: only 5 lbs, 15 oz. Her big sister Abigail was born at 9 lbs, 7 oz, so we haven’t had many baby clothes small enough for Naomi to wear. She doesn’t seem to mind: this is the hot season in Malawi!

Naomi is in excellent health. She has a voracious appetite, so she won’t stay small for long! Our biggest challenge is trying to keep her awake during the day so she’ll sleep more at night. God has blessed us with a very easy baby!

Rachel is also recovering well after a normal delivery. She had a milk duct infection last week, then an allergic reaction to the penicillin they gave to treat it. We’re thankful for access to several types of antibiotics, and both the infection and allergic reaction are gone now. Rachel feels ambitious, but knows she should take it slow. For now, she isn’t teaching Bible study or running the nursery, and people from the church have been helping with some meals.

1 day old. With the nurses at Nkhoma Mission Hospital.

Abigail was born at the magnificent Glendale Adventist Hospital in Southern California in 2010. Naomi was born in the Nkhoma Mission Hospital about an hour outside of Lilongwe. Those two experiences formed a study in contrasts–we may write about the differences in a future blog post. This time, some things reminded Rachel of a Hungarian youth hostel. The short version is: more chickens and mosquitoes, less electricity and hot water… but another awesome doctor and a nursing staff that took great care of us.

(Oh, and this time it cost $90. Total.)

1 day old. After a pretty good night’s sleep.

I admit, there were some risks in having a baby in one of the poorest countries in the world. (Malawi has the world’s 24th highest maternal mortality rate, and 10th highest infant mortality rate.) While we did as much as we could to minimize those risks, our hope was ultimately in the Lord. It took much more faith to have a baby in Malawi than in Glendale! Thank you all for your prayers for us!

Abigail is fascinated by her baby sister.

You might wonder: Why did we choose to deliver in Malawi? Cost was an issue. And practically, we knew that eliminating jet lag, trans-continental flights with a 3-year-old, and the frantic scurry for a birth certificate and passport would make it a more pleasant experience. But our main reason? We didn’t want to be away from our church, International Bible Fellowship, for several months. God has united our heart to these dear friends in Malawi, and we wanted to be with them as we welcome a new child. We hoped, perhaps, that our presence might be an encouragement to our friends who can’t go to another country for medical care.

But we seriously underestimated how much of a blessing our church family here would be to us. We have been wonderfully overwhelmed by the love they have shown to us: meals, babysitting, advice, text messages, visits, errands, prayers, flowers, and so much more. It has also been wonderful to get congratulations from our friends in America and beyond on Facebook and email. So please join us in thanking God for His kindness to us!

9 days old. First family picture.

When we first moved to Malawi, we found a car pretty quickly.  There was an Irish missionary who was leaving the country and needed to sell her car.  It wasn’t the most stylish car and had more than its share of a rusty bumper, but it was 4-wheel drive and had high clearance.  At the time, we didn’t know how important those factors would be!

We loved our “green car.”  We could haul all kinds of stuff, go to the village even in the rainy season, and do just about everything we needed to do.

But after a few years, the 1991 Toyota Hilux Surf started showing her age.  We had liked this car so much that it was tempting to keep fixing the many signs of old age; however, we knew that the longer we waited, the more money we would be pouring into this car.  It was time for a new car.  So we started looking, and this time it wasn’t as easy as the first time around.  We looked for months. Because Malawi imports all their cars from South Africa, England, or Japan – right-side steering wheel! – cars are expensive.  And because you don’t know the car’s history, there are a lot of questionable cars.  Eventually we found a great deal on a 1997 Toyota Hilux Surf (same as the green car, just newer model), and decided to buy it to keep us mobile in between the “green car” and “the car we really wanted.”  But as mentioned, it was a great deal, so we figured there must be something very wrong with this car.

We drove the “white car” for several weeks before we had to take it in to get something fixed.  We took it to one of the best mechanics in Lilongwe (um, not the one pictured above…) and asked his opinion on the car.  We’d started to grow fond of it, but didn’t want to get too attached because the plan was to replace it as soon as we could find “the car we really wanted.”  But the mechanic surprised us and said that the car was in great condition and would likely last us many years.  There was just one other thing that bothered us.  The car was a good deal… had it been stolen?  A quick trip to the Interpol office cleared that up.  With our minds at ease about the reliability and legitimacy of this car, it suddenly dawned on us – we had already found “the car we really wanted.”

So this post is a thank you to the many of you who read of our need for a car in our newsletters and graciously helped us raise the money for it.  Between what was donated and the sale of the “green car,” we were able to cover the costs of “the car we really wanted.”  We’ve enjoyed the reliability (and air conditioning!) of our new car immensely, and are so thankful to have a great car that we can do everything with, from grocery shopping to taking extra people to church camp.  Thank you!

We found a little window for vacation a couple weeks ago.  The Biedebachs are back in the country now, Rachel’s not TOO pregnant yet, and Abi was still 2 (read that as “free admission, room and board”).  So with still-valid multiple entry visas to Zambia, we jumped at the chance to see one of the best game parks in southern Africa: South Luangwa.

All packed and ready to go!  We’re used to camping here in Africa, but we decided to do this trip a little differently.  With border crossings, an unknown location in a foreign country, and pregnancy at 6 1/2 months, we decided to ride on a 15 passenger bus with 11 strangers and stay in a lodge.

The lodge we stayed at had stone and canvas chalets.  It was a cute little place, complete with our own bathroom and room enough to add an extra bed for Abigail.

One of the lodge staff would use this drum to call us all to meals.  Once Abi showed up, his job was in jeopardy! =)  As a side note, the trees right behind Abi are part of the lodge property, and the trees in the background are across the Luangwa River, actually in the national park.  We sat on the edge several times a day and watched baboons, impala, puku, crocodiles, and lots of hippos.  We were so close to the park that at night we had to be escorted from our chalet to the lodge for dinner because elephant regularly walk through the grounds foraging for yummy trees and fruit.

The lodge took good care of us.  Most meals were served in the open-air lodge, but one day for lunch they put us all out under the trees on the river’s edge – truly dining al fresco.

On to the safaris… South Luangwa has some of the best game viewing in southern Africa.  We’ve read lots of different claims, but it’s something like the largest variety of game in the smallest amount of time/area.  We discovered a little late in the trip that we didn’t have the greatest guide, but we were still able to see a lot of animals on our 2 morning and 2 night safaris.

By “morning safari,” they meant “wake up at 5am.”  This was a little much for Abigail, who would crawl out of her bed and straight into our bed!  But that grin should tell you that she wasn’t missing a thing and would be in the Land Rover as soon as possible!

 And by “night safari,” they meant “it’s very dark and you can only see what the spotlight will let you see.”  South Luangwa is one of only a handful of parks that allows night drives, but it was on the night drives that we saw lion and leopard!

We weren’t sure what we were going to do with Abi while on safari drives.  We’ve been practicing using a normal or quiet voice, but she really likes to talk loudly – especially if she sees an impala, her favorite animal.  So we thought we’d take her on the first morning drive and see how she did.  As it turned out, we were put in a safari vehicle with 4 college students from southern California, and I’m pretty sure they made more noise than Abi did, so it was all good!  We did end up leaving her with a babysitter for the first night drive, and then Rachel stayed back with her for the second night drive.  Baby Flo 2.0 had had enough of all those bumpy roads…

We saw sunrise and sunset from the back of an open Land Rover.  Even without animals in sight, this is an amazingly beautiful park.

But animals we did see!  Giraffe, impala, puku, warthog, elephant, guinea hens, lilac breasted rollers, waterbuck, leopard, lion, hyena, genet, mongoose, serval, monitor lizard, crocodile, hippo, baboons, monkeys, Cape buffalo, love birds… I’ll bet you had to look a couple of those animals up. =)  We did too!  And if you want to see more animals – the professional shots – check out Matt’s Flickr page.  He has already posted 35 pictures from our first 2 safari drives, with more from drives 3 & 4 coming in the next couple weeks.  Seriously, they’re good, and I (Rachel) will shamelessly promote it on this blog!  =)

Speaking of photographers, we apparently have another one in the family.  Abigail took this picture of Matt setting up a shot on the river’s edge.

And she’s learning how to track animals.  Give her a few more years and we won’t need to hire a guide any more.  She’s already an expert at tracking hippos.

Matt recorded our safari routes on GPS, and we were surprised to discover that we’d covered only about 1% of the park during all 4 safari drives we were on.  I can’t imagine how many more animals there are out there…  Abigail was eager to see as many as possible, so kept encouraging our driver to go faster!

But every once in a while, a 30 second nap was required to keep her going.

All in all, it was a good trip.  Lots of photos, good family time, and we came home saying “that was good, but it’s also good to be home” – the sign of a good vacation.

Happy safaris to the rest of you!