From Every Nation

And we're off... :)

We've been able to accomplish several things since Monday:

1) Kyle is fully enrolled in school and actually began classes today! We're expecting him to be dropped off by the school bus here at "home" (Mayfield guest house) anytime. The principal was going to arrange for a mentor for him today--so he could learn the ropes. For those who might be interested...he wore his IWU t shirt! Maybe tomorrow he'll wear his Anderson U t-shirt!

2) We looked at two houses that were available to rent..one was a MANSION..complete w/a swimming pool in the backyard. That was definitely NOT a choice for us. The other one was a roomy 3 bedroom, w/an office and plenty of space for extra guests. Some +'s on this place: good landlord (!) bore hole (well) on the property..and relatively close to Kyle's school. We debated for awhile on this, but finally called the agent and said yes. But today we received a call from the agent..and the landlord has decided to take it off the market! He is moving into it himself! So, we're in the search mode again. We are actually moving tomorrow though..to a small 2 bedroom apartment that is attached to a house that some missionaries are renting. It is less expensive than staying at the guest house and much closer to Kyle's school (within walking distance)..and is definitely managable for us on a temp. basis. We are getting some of our furniture out of storage tomorrow and take them to the apartment..and made do for the next few weeks. Maybe we'll find something sooner than we expect, but until then, we can stay at this apartment. There is security and a friendly golden retriever named Napoleon. Kyle will like that. One drawback..no internet connection there..so we'll have to go the local cyber cafe.

3) We worked with Supt. Nixon Dingili today on getting our residency paperwork started. It should take about 3 months for it to be processed, but we're able to travel in and out of the country as needed w/o any problem.

4) We've already experienced two traffic jams. And picked up some tips from our taxi driver on how to avoid them or get around them. I suspect though, we won't be quite as brave as he was, in our driving manuevers and will instead wait patiently (?) in the "que" (hope I spelled that correctly). Oh, for those who asked...the minimum age for driving here is 18, so Kyle will have to wait a bit.

Enough for now.

Have a great day!

The First 24 hours

:) Arrived in Nairobi w/out any problems. All 11 pieces of luggage came through just fine. We were met at the airport by the Kenyan Supt. Nixon Dingili and his wife Neddy, as well as a driver and van from the Mayfield guest house. Room 20..3 bedroom guest room. Mosquito nets hanging over our beds. Bathroom/shower down the hall. Wi-fi in the room. :) Nice.
Once we settled in to our room, we tried calling the girls..left a message on Kenzie's cell phone. Shared a bag of M&M's we purchased in Amsterdam w/our remaining euros..then hit the sack. The race was on to see who got to sleep first. I'm not sure who really won. Woke up in time (barely) to have breakfast this morning...(meals are in the small dining room, served family style)...then came back, had a family devotion time, and took a "morning" nap..for 3 hours! Mike and Kyle headed for lunch and I organized a few things in the room so we're not tripping over stuff the whole time we're here.
We tried calling the girls again, on skype..and were somewhat successful. We couldn't get the webcams to "work"..the call kept getting dropped. But I think it is mostly be/c of our connection..not a problem w/the webcams themselves. We did talk w/Kenzie & Kelly some and then sent instant messages back and forth for quite awhile. It's good to be able to keep in touch like this. We'll probably do that often this week.
Time for exploring..Mike, Kyle and I went out walking..to the nearest "shopping center" to pick up a few items and just see what we could see. The temp was comfortable..at 80 degrees..but it was a bit dusty and dirty along the road. The first shopping center was basically closed, so we made our way to another one a but further down..the Ya-Ya Shopping Center and it was a busy place. There was a huge outdoor market going on w/lots of fun African things to buy.but we weren't really in the mood for that kind of shopping (not yet!). But we were in the mood for ice cream..which we found and ate. New flavors...
Fruit something (raspberry), Bacio (chocolate!) and something else that was almond flavor w/fruit. Not bad. Walking back to the guest house we were approached by a few kids asking for money..which will probably happen a lot. At the guest house there is a manual in each room w/all sorts of security tips and we read them all last night and I read some again this morning before we left. It's good to be aware.

Back at the guest house we realized we missed a meeting with Nixon..but he'll be back first thing in the morning. Had a light supper that believe it or not, included ICE Cream! :) and now we're back in the room just relaxing and making some tenative plans for tomorrow. We're really need to find housing..staying here can be quite expensive..so pray the Lord will lead us tomorrow in directions and decisions. We'll also be making a visit to Kyle's school to see about him starting classes on Wed. :) It should be a busy day. We'll be in touch soon.

By the way...

As you can tell, this blog site is not quite complete! I mostly wanted to have it up and going so you could keep track of our move to Kenya--but we have other content/pictures, etc. to add to it. So, please exercise a bit of patience and check back in the "near" future for further updates and a more complete blog!

Thanks so much!

One week from today....

Good morning! One week from today we are getting on a plane, heading towards Kenya, and to many "unknowns". Well, unknown to us, but known to the Lord.  You would think that with leaving in a week, we would be at home frantically packing. But today, both Mike and I are attending an International Child Care Ministries Consultation being conducted at the World Ministries Center. It's good to be here..and be a part of taking a good look at all that ICCM encompasses and what we can improve..what direction do we need to go in, etc, etc. Very good ideas are being suggested and it's exciting to be a part of this ministry and being reminded of the potential we have, with the Lord's help, in really making a difference in the lives of families around the world.

This afternoon I'll take some time to attend a going away party for Kyle at his school! Then, back to packing!!!

The girls will be home for the weekend and we have lots going on, as you can well imagine.

Thanks for reading! More to come! 

Firsts & Lasts

In these days of packing and prepaing for our move, there are a lot of "Firsts" and "Lasts". This is the First time we've set up a blog! I drove our van for the "last" time today. This is Kyle's "last" week of school...the list goes on. We're counting down the days and counting up the pieces of luggage we're taking with us! As you can imagine, we're staying quite busy and trying to keep it all together.   We hope this blog will be one way to keep in touch with many of our friends and supporters. Thanks for tracking with us..and praying for  our transition! We appreciate YOU!