Plantin Raha house children

House two, Raha (joy) house, is officially "planted"! Monday was a really exciting and long awaited day for us all. It was also a Kenya holiday called Madaraka day. I'm not sure exactly what it is but has something to do with celebrating Kenya's independence. Independence day is a different time of year. It was a day of freedom for the new children and a day for celebration. We woke up early to head and and prepare the home. Both house parents from house one and two have been working hard. We bought the remaining things for the children, sorted through a few more things in the container to pull out for the home, and did finishing touches on the house. We painted here and there. There's a fundi that came and finished up installing doors and beds. The plumbing was worked on. Bud fixed the generator to pump water. With the help of house one children, we made all the beds in house two, they really enjoyed that. So each child, when they entered into their new home, found their own bed with blanket, sheet and small cute fleece blanket from women at FBC Keller. They also had a basin for washing filled with soaps, toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, and towel. And they each got a backpack full of new clothes, undergarments and socks. Noah and Aaron were just transferred over, but we still gave them a few new things. We were going to make a big deal of them all waiting at the door and then they run in to find their things but Jenifer, Mercy and Sophia are pretty sick. Also Jose was very timid, he is slowly warming up though. That night Bud, Elisha, Hollie and I went out to celebrate and eat goodies. I whopped up a cake quickly that afternoon to bring out there. We ate beef stew and chapati. Had coke to drink. Then cake and bread with butter and hagleslag for dessert. (that's a treat Hollie brought back for the children from Holland) Once Jose started eating he wasn't as timid anymore. Especially when he got cake! After eating we went into house two to sing, dance and pray together. They all had a lot of fun. The new kids quickly joined in and learned the new songs. Although Jenifer and Mercy weren't feeling good, they still jumped and danced around. At the end, it was beautiful to watch some of the Penda house children worship and fall to their knees and pray. We then had Raha house children gather in the middle with their new mom and dad and the rest of us circled around them to pray over them. I didn't get a picture of it but it was such a precious time for us. Isaac asked me to close in prayer and I got a bit choked up at thanking God for bringing these children safely into the home. That night they all slept well except Sophia got up and vomited.

The past two days, Hollie and Georgina have been taking children to the hospital. Mercy has malaria, Jenifer and Mercy are being tested for tuberculosis today, Geoffrey has TB, and for Sophia they prescribed medicine for her stomach. Lucy and Eric went today to get refills on their TB medicine. Lucy is also going to the nutritionist. They are having her come every week right now to do weighing and measurements to see if she's improving. Hollie said they measure the arms as part of determining how mal nourished the child is. Eric doesn't have to go back since he has improved so much but Lucy is still considered severe. We have noticed a huge difference in her face and her ribs are no longer showing so badly. With TB it makes mal nourished children even worse. It takes away strength and a lot of nutrients. They said within a few weeks she'll probably be walking. Not to scare you, but there is an outbreak in TB right now. (mom, DON'T worry!) Usually its those with HIV that have TB the most and also very poor people in the rural areas but now they're saying its common in towns as well. The bad thing right now is that there are certain people becoming resistant to the drug that people get for free to treat it. If they are resistant to it then they are sent to Nairobi for treatment and it can cost up to $1,000 U.S dollars per month. The treatment is six months. There was an article in the paper a few days ago. But the Kenyan government is looking for ways through outside organizations to help reduce that cost. We just trust God to protect us so please pray for us all!

Here are A LOT of pictures of the past few days. Starting out is the front of Raha house with the house parents and the new children. Noah is the only one not pictured because he was napping.

Here is each child in Raha house:
Rose

Selma Pauline

Sharon holding Lucy. Lucy is not moved into house two yet. We are waiting awhile until she is totally recovered. (I might be hanging on to her for as long as Bud will let me!)

Sophia and Jose
Mercy and Jenifer

Eric and Aaron

I surprisingly did not get a picture of Noah this week!!! That is definitely a first. He seemed to be sleeping everytime I had the camera out.

Here are some other pictures to update you on:

This Saturday Georgie made a visit. He wasn't wearing a diaper and pooped all over himself so I got to clean him up

Georgina making chapati's for Monday night

Elisha with his shag hair that I will cut soon!

The children love Elisha. Elisha plays so well with them. They would run around chasing each other

Geoffrey

Jeftah holding Elisha. All the kids were constantly picking him up

Jenifer playing with Maurine's doll shortly after she arrived.

God is always relating what we do in our ministry and the time line of it with birth. The name of the village where our property is, is Taito, meaning first born. While I was pregnant with Elisha is when God was birthing the vision of Mattaw through us. From the time Elisha was born until house one was officially opened with children was 9 months. From the time Penda house opened up until now is 9 months! I just realized all this the morning of opening Raha house. Isn't that cool? (So nine month from now would make it March that maybe we'd be opening Amani house!) After leaving Mattaw on Monday night, we took a deep breath, and felt like we did just birth something from all the energy, time and planning we had put into it. I think with house two though we had an epidural compared to house one! Haha. I guess that's how it is with having a second child. You know the process and don't have to prepare as much, they just get plugged into the syestem you already have. We're starting to look into whole sale stores now that we've grown so much for buying supplies for the home. Oh and also the slab is poured on the new school building of three classrooms! Jim Farmer and four women have landed in Nairobi. They are there for a week and then will come to Kitale for a week on Tuesday. Bud and I are going to Nairobi with Elisha this weekend and the group will ride back with us. We have to get Elisha's shots and I need to work on my passport. I can NOT believe Elisha is 1 and a 1/2 on Saturday! Yikes! Much love and much more to come...

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Kimberly