Updates!

Pole! (sorry) It's been a bit busy to say the least! And have not been able to update. Pole!

I have SO much to update on!

Last week Bud went on a week long trip to hike up Mt. Kenya for his birthday. I was so happy for him that the timing worked out. It was right before our new team members were showing up.  There were a group of guys going and it worked out perfect. The wife of the head of the guys group stayed back and stayed with us. I was thrilled to have someone to stay in our house. It was quite a hectic week though!

And by the way, Angela, the mama of three girls that I told the story about previously, is doing great. The Kenyan mama that watches my kids, is her neighbor now and gives me updates everyday. The girls' feet are healed enough that they are now in school. And Angela is able to walk around more and do more things. Praise Jesus!

So back to last week. I went running around all week prepping for our new couple, the Huckabee's, to arrive. We barely got a house rented for them (it is difficult to find here) and some beds and a fridge moved in. (yes, there are refrigerators in Africa, thankfully!) That took half a day. Then I kept trying to get a birthday party together for some of the children out at Mattaw.

Let me make a horrible confession here. I have not thrown a birthday party for the kids since last December. EEEK! How terrible. But the only good thing about that is that none of our children come into Mattaw knowing their birthday so it's not like someone knew we passed the month we celebrate their birthday. Oh and the other good thing (whew, glad I found two good reasons) is that we have team after team coming this summer meaning I can catch up by having a birthday party with each team that comes. And our kids prefer having their birthday with teams and our teams get to experience celebrating some of the kids' birthdays. Win, win! Oh and triple win! (for the kids, team... and me!)

So we had birthdays this past week. I made over 100 pioneer woman cinnamon rolls! Cooking is an outlet for me so it was more of a stress reliever to cook this much rather than stress inducer. We ended up having the party on Friday. It was a great way to end the week.

Saturday early morning, I loaded up with both kids and ventured out on our first trip via public transport. It was quite an adventure. Bud and I, BOTH, rode the bus with Elisha when he was one yrs old and I remember that being difficult since he's so active. So I was preparing my mind for the worse. Turns out our kids are even better at traveling than I thought! I was impressed. They slept some of it, sat quietly some of it, and then of course wrestled with each other some of it. We made it to Nakuru though, where my friend Kiri (who had been staying with us), got out to stay in Nakuru with her husband and Soul Edge guys. Then Bud got on the bus to continue onto Nairobi. We got there about 5:30 and asked the driver to drop us at a point where we could walk across the highway and down and around the street to get to the guesthouse we were staying at. That was one of those moments I felt like a "real adventurous missionary". Bud and I were both wearing hiking back packs, he was carrying a huge duffle bag and stroller and I was carrying both kids. And we were crossing one of the busiest highways in Kenya at a busy time of day! Then we walked about a half a mile to the guesthouse. It was just one of those moments that'll kinda stick out in my mind. Let's just say kids do not have to keep you back from living a crazy adventurous life! They can enhance it!

Mothers Day. It was the day after we got to Nairobi. I had been with the kids at home for a week.The kids needed daddy time anyways. I don't like big cities and all the materialism BUT for a little getaway, its fabulous. We sipped on latte's and window shopped while laughing and catching up on life. It was a great Mother's day. Thanks to my husband for making that happen.

Bud will be arriving with the Huckabee's.  They made the journey over with no problems. We are so excited and thankful to have them part of our full-time team here! Just after a few days of them being in Kitale, and I know they are the perfect fit to our team for this season. What great faith they have! Austin was here years ago, before he was married, and worked at a camp outside Nairobi. Brittany has never been to Kenya but has been on a short term trip to Ghana, Africa. Besides that though, they really didn't know what they were coming to. They just knew God said go and they said yes! I'm thankful they will be in our team house this summer, overseeing the teams coming in and out.

(yesterday I was feeling like I was getting malaria. All the signs were there... headache, fever, body aches, nausea. I was really sad since this is terrible timing.  Many friends through facebook prayed. Then I couldn't find a place to get a quick malaria test in town yesterday so I was just going to wait it out and beg for healing. Bud was pretty on to me about it since he knew every time I've ever felt that it just gets worse and miserable. No doubt, I woke up this morning healed! It would have been great to have a test yesterday to prove medically what Jesus did but in this circumstance I choose not to be a "Thomas" (from the bible) and believe in my heart what my Father did and already accomplished on the cross! Please pray for our team here that we'd all be healthy and whole. Thanks!)

And I know I missed a fruit and flower update this past Friday. It'll be coming this Friday!

Thank y'all so much for your love and support. We really are overwhelmed with gratitude for the support we continue to have from overseas. We love yall so much.