Never Presidents

The process of getting our daughters' citizenship straightened out has been a serious undertaking.  Step one is getting birth certificates.  Until we have official certificates from Kenya, the US can't start considering them to be citizens.  It all started with a pink piece of carbon paper about 1/8th the size of the standard 8.5/11 which was the official report of birth from the hospital.  Once we dropped that off with an application downtown we needed to make two more trips (each after 2 weeks) to downtown Nairobi, first paying for the application and finally picking up the birth certificates 2 months after they were born. 
Step two  is even more grueling.  For the US we need to apply for a passport, a social security number, sign an affidavit attesting to every day we've been physically present in the US, and apply for a formal report of an American birth overseas.  Of course, all the paperwork is doubled for our twins.  Once all that, plus passport pictures (with eyes open on a white background please) of each daughter are together, I must send that to the US embassy for them to pre-screen the applications.  Of course, you can't just go to the embassy.  First of all, you can't park there (security) so you need to either park nearby and walk or take a taxi.  Then, the applications can only be turned in on a Monday or Wednesday between 9am and 11am.  Once we do that, they'll contact us to get an appointment to go to the embassy with the girls to sign the various forms in front of a notarized official. 
Only after all this will we get passports so that we can...you know....go home with our daughters.  And even with all this work, it seems like if our daughters ever want to be president, they'll be dogged with a whole posse of "birther" fanatics.....So much for their White House dreams!

Give Me One!

In Kenya, carrying babies is a magnet for the attention of every passer-by.  During our regular family outings we feel like the center of attention, every head is turned our way.  When we went to the nearby zoo, many children seemed to find our babies more amusing than the animals, "look at the hyena....LOOK AT THE BABIES!"

So in honor of the Kenyan fascination with babies, a top 10 list of the best (or worst) responses we've gotten from people seeing our twins:
10. Twins are a double-blessing
9.  Hello Mama! (joining the sorority of motherhood is a big deal)
8. Those are yours, you don't look very tired?  (sorry to disappoint)
7. Are they natural? (referring to the babies...)
6. One boy and one girl? (clearly we're not following the baby color code)
5. Those babies look cold! (only wearing three layers in the sun)
4.  Can I have a picture with them? (imagine this person showing off these pictures at a dinner party)
3. You're not going out with them are you? (fresh air is apparently toxic to babies)
2. Are you actually breastfeeding? (Nestle has brainwashed many with their formula propaganda)
1. Give me one!