November has been such a whirlwind of a month. I can hardly believe that tomorrow marks three months that we've been living in Kenya. I can hardly believe that two weeks from today we'll be landing in RDU to spend the Christmas season with our American family and friends. Time is absolutely flying.
After the first week of November, all of the students in Kenya travelled home for holiday. Since the kids have been out of school, we have spent November in a few different places! We miss our kids all the time, but like I wrote about in our last post, we take great comfort in the fact that their Creator loves them far more than we do. We are counting down the days until we are reunited with them next semester.
After the first week of November, all of the students in Kenya travelled home for holiday. Since the kids have been out of school, we have spent November in a few different places! We miss our kids all the time, but like I wrote about in our last post, we take great comfort in the fact that their Creator loves them far more than we do. We are counting down the days until we are reunited with them next semester.
After we had a special celebration for the class 8's who will be attending different high schools in January, Emily and I packed up and headed to Nairobi for the next two weeks. While in Nairobi, we lived with a Kenyan family that we now consider our own. Maggie, their 18 year old daughter, had just graduated from high school and became one of our close friends. Trying to figure out how to do life in Nairobi contained so many adventures, and I'm so thankful that Mags was a part of all of them.
Maggie, Em, and I went to a local orphanage almost every day to love on the children and serve in whatever way we could. We were put in the baby room, which was filled with about 15 babies between the ages of 1 month and 3 years old. I have never changed more diapers or been more of a human jungle gym. As hard as working at the orphanage was sometimes, I will forever be thankful for the time we were able to spend with those babies and their caretakers. I pray that as our littles grow older, they never doubt that they are so loved by their heavenly Father.
Maggie, Em, and I went to a local orphanage almost every day to love on the children and serve in whatever way we could. We were put in the baby room, which was filled with about 15 babies between the ages of 1 month and 3 years old. I have never changed more diapers or been more of a human jungle gym. As hard as working at the orphanage was sometimes, I will forever be thankful for the time we were able to spend with those babies and their caretakers. I pray that as our littles grow older, they never doubt that they are so loved by their heavenly Father.
We also found a way to fit in lots and lots of shopping, a day trip to Nakuru for a safari, hair braiding, a birthday party for one of our driver's grandsons, and countless trips to Java and Chicken Inn. I'm telling you, it was a busy two weeks.
After our time in Nairobi with the Dzimbas (that we will be reunited with in two days!), we made our way about two hours north to Kijabe to spend Thanksgiving week with the Hemphill family. The Hemphills have been serving in Kenya for almost two years now, and we are so thankful for the way they welcome us into their home and into their lives. While we are here in Kijabe, we have plenty of time to process what the Lord is teaching us and pray about what plans He is preparing for us, all while cuddling babies, telling bedtime stories, and making trips to the Duka because they have real Snickers bars. :) We love our Cheaper by the Half Dozen family.
We have been on so many adventures over the past three months, big ones that we've been able to write about and post pictures of and small, everyday ones that come with learning to live in a very different culture. However, I think the grandest adventures we've been on have been the ones that the Lord has taken us on in growing us closer to Himself.
Those adventures haven't always been easy or fun, but they have all been good. I remember walking into our dorm washroom for the first time to bucket bathe. As Em and I started singing Mambo Sawa Sawa, which became a theme song of ours in September, we realized that the joy of the Lord was going to have to be our strength in the simple things that we weren't used to relying on Him for in America. I remember getting sick in the middle of this month and wanting to go home and see my mom so, so, so terribly. But as Emily sat on the edge of my bed and prayed, I was reminded of the Lord's faithfulness in bringing us both here to Kenya and how He has so purposefully placed us in this country to do life with all of the people we now love.
I remember the night in Narok that we went out onto the field after tucking all of our girls in to bed to watch the stars. In the stillness of that night, we fell more in love with the Lord than we have ever been in our lives. We knew that we desired nothing more than for Jesus to continue taking us on these crazy adventures.
We have seen His beauty in the slow and fast moments and in the big and small adventures. He has revealed Himself to us in unimaginable ways over the past three months.
We never would have thought.
Those adventures haven't always been easy or fun, but they have all been good. I remember walking into our dorm washroom for the first time to bucket bathe. As Em and I started singing Mambo Sawa Sawa, which became a theme song of ours in September, we realized that the joy of the Lord was going to have to be our strength in the simple things that we weren't used to relying on Him for in America. I remember getting sick in the middle of this month and wanting to go home and see my mom so, so, so terribly. But as Emily sat on the edge of my bed and prayed, I was reminded of the Lord's faithfulness in bringing us both here to Kenya and how He has so purposefully placed us in this country to do life with all of the people we now love.
I remember the night in Narok that we went out onto the field after tucking all of our girls in to bed to watch the stars. In the stillness of that night, we fell more in love with the Lord than we have ever been in our lives. We knew that we desired nothing more than for Jesus to continue taking us on these crazy adventures.
We have seen His beauty in the slow and fast moments and in the big and small adventures. He has revealed Himself to us in unimaginable ways over the past three months.
We never would have thought.