29 April 2013

Tumefika!

Tumefika means "we have arrived" in swahili.  Our family has arrived in Kenya!  What an overwhelming feeling of peace and joy to plant our feet on Kenyan soil.  

Bud is out doing business with our safari company and we praise God for the open doors and provision!  I'm at the guesthouse we usually stay at getting to just be mom for the day.  So good.  The kids did amazingly well on the flights and slept and stayed awake right on the schedule we were aiming for.  We stopped in London to stay the night two nights and we can not stop patting ourselves on the back for making such a great decision.  What a difference it made in travel for this family with three small children.  After each flight we had several comment how great the kids did.  If only they knew the epic fails we've had in the past with traveling!  Ha.  Do all you long term readers remember?  It involved a lot of poop.  Blek!  So we are just grateful for all the goodness and mercy that has followed us this trip.  SO much of God's grace.  So now the kids are downstairs in the playroom, Ezra is napping, and I'm sitting here with some yummy Texan coffee (no good coffee here, they export the good stuff) getting a chance to blog.  And I'm about to jump off the roof in excitement to hug my Kimbilio girls and Mattaw kiddos!  And all our staff/mattaw family!  Tomorrow!

But for now, I thought I'd post a few pics of one little boy that isn't so little anymore....


At the end of our time in Texas we were able to squeeze in half a season of Upward Soccer.  Elisha's first time to play on an organized sports team.  Bonus that he plays ALL the time in Kenya.  Little did we know he would be a star on his team.  In Kenya, up against his friends, not so much :).  So it boosted his confidence some.  He had a great coach and teammates.  Sweet group of kiddos.



Going from age four to five for this boy has been fabulous!  And especially for us.  He's much more teachable.  He's more easily able to look up at us in the eyes and talk to us rather than constantly on the go running, chasing something, or wrestling with someone.  Although he still does all that, just an easier kid now.   I like this whole maturing thing.  It only gets better!  We were proud of the accomplishments he did this trip back to Texas.  Some big things being riding a bike with no training wheels, swimming and overcoming night terrors. 

Also being a good team mate.  Still some lessons to learn but we were thankful to see him not throw a massive fit if someone else had the ball or scored.  And as great as it was to be a soccer mom, I'm gladly trading it to be a momma to kids running bare foot, playing on the red dirt soccer field.  


It was so hilarious to watch a bunch of four and five year olds figure out the game for the first time.  Elisha was almost more pumped about a uniform than actually playing.  But he sure showed his excitement during the game.  We notice he sticks his tongue out to touch his nose when dribbling the ball down the field.  Opposite of Micael Jordan, ha.  And he also likes to get all geared up and his head in the game.  Or act like a bird and flap his wings...  ya know, whatever works.  I sometimes dont get how a five year old boys mind works and dont think i ever will!


And our little E is doing great.  He was the best little traveler.  We had our points of exhaustion but overall it went great with him on the plane.  He is the only one that is sleeping through the nights right now too!  


But we are still reminiscing of the friends we said goodbye too.  (had to blur out "T"'s face, he's being adopted by our friends)


And lo and behold, we finally got a picture with ALL of both of our families.  Here's our friends we love dearly as family.  One of those relationships you can't put a label on... they're our friends/mentors/parents/sister/brother... its supernatural and held together by the love of Jesus.  Thank you Caldwell's... again... for how much you've loved us and been such an amazing example of how to live as Jesus says to.


Next post will be of reuniting with our lovely Kenyan fam!

And here's a song for ya.  Holy Spirit will often give songs for the day or week or season.  Zephaniah 3:17.  And this song definitely came around again but in a new way.  I had to download a new flash player to get it to work so in case yours doesn't work the main part of the song for us is...

It's always like spring time with you, making all things new
your light is breaking through the dark
this love is sweeter than wine
bringing joy bringing life
your hope is rising like the dawn

this is what you do, this is what you do
you make me come to LIFE

It's like i'm living for the first time
finally living for the first time

And this song is actually the one our church ended up praying for us in the middle of to give us a big bang sending off.  It wasnt planned like that but Holy Spirit is so creative :).  And we DANCED with joy, praise God for all he has done and going to do.


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