Welcome Michael and Cliff!

Michael and Cliff came yesterday evening from Nairobi. I met them last night as the rest of the toddlers sang "welcome welcome to our brothers, happy to see you, happy to know you, welcome, welcome to our brothas" =) it was too cute. This morning I helped our nurse, Joyce with their checkups (well i say "helped" loosely.. i was basically used as a distraction and to contain them while she drew blood (are you proud mom???). Michael seems to have adjusted incredibly fast, and was full of smiles, but Cliff is definitely a little more reserved for right now. I picked him up and he just laid his head on my shoulder- most definitely a bit overwhelmed! Just please pray for them both as they continue to transition and get healthy and for the families that will someday come for them!
This is Michael

 

and this is Cliff

Momo's new family!

 So many prayers have gone out for Momo, especially in the last few weeks and its amazing to see the results! It sometimes takes the children a bit to bond with their new mom and dad but Momo was ready to leave after only one day, and so excited to have HIS mommy and daddy. He's been at the Baby Centre for the majority of his life, so many of the staff were close to him. I've only been here barely 3 weeks and it was emotional to see him go, but it's also so exciting to know that he has a wonderful mom and dad. Its really incredible to be even just a small part of such an important time in these kids lives. Please continue to pray for Momo's friends, as they are very much aware of whats going on, and wondering when it is their turn. The Baby Centre is so good at finding families for all of the children, which is what they are here for- not to raise a child to an adult and send them off, but to do everything possible to find a good match with a family, and give them the childhood they deserve.

Pictures from the last couple days...

Click here

New Babies!

I had the privelage of riding to Nairobi this morning with Colleen and Staci to pick up 4 new babies for the Baby Center. Here they are! From the left its Rebecca, Angela, John and Nicholas- a mostly happy (and super cute) bunch =)

5 little monkeys swinging in a tree

Photos of our genious set up...

A lot of the babies that we have have spent a lot time laying in hospitals prior to coming to the Baby Center and either sit or lay down a lot. The caregivers do a great job, but with atleast 20 babies they have to first focus on their basic needs and in the process some of the kids dont catch to where they should be on walking/leg strengthening. Part of what I've been helping Colleen with, as I've said, is working individually with each child on specific developmental needs atleast 2 times a week... and today we figured this whole set up out which is great and the kids and caregivers loved it!

 

we found all these johnny jump ups and pieced them back together and then hung them under the roof/shade area where the babies sit and play outside during the day.

 

Theresia LOVED the seat. Shes one of the babies that should be starting to crawl.. and possibly burn off a couple kilos =) and she didnt stop bouncing! She even fell asleep, and a caregiver said her name and she popped her head up and instantly started jumping again. It will be fun to see the other kids catch on to the jumping, and starting to gain more strength in their little legs.

vaccinations...

Today I helped with immunizations for some of the babies... =( those who know me well know that I dont like shots... and that the 4 I received to come to Kenya had me seeing black spots. But today I can proudly say that I stepped up to the plate and held the babies while they got their shots, and they put me to shame! One little cry and a little comforting and they were ok! I'd like to think it's because i was such a good comforter, but honestly- these kids are tough! Colleen and I also worked on piecing together bouncy seats and a walker.. most were thought to be broken, but we switched around covers and seats and now have a walker and a floor mat with bars to hang toys (to occupy atleast 4 kids at a time) and then about 4-5 seats to put them in, so they are atleast sitting up a little bit. Cason also put together about 6 johnny jump ups, also all different pieces and the kids love them! Our plan is to hang them outside under the canopy the kids always lay under... there's about 7 of them, so it will definitely make for a fun picture! Went this evening to the Vanderhoofs (regional directors) right down the road for supper with a couple youth group friends (Rael and Matthew) who are staying the night, and met a doctor from Tenwek hospital, about 4 hours away. Had a great american meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, foccacia bread, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots, orange jello salad, and an amazing chocolate bundt cake. I havent felt sick the whole time I've been here, but oddly enough it was after eating AMERICAN food that i felt not so hot! I think I might've just eating too much though... and I feel fine now. Tomorrow's friday already. Time is going so fast. I think sometime this weekend or early next week I'm going to be moving out to the baby center. I'll be staying in the guest house there, which is very nice... I'll have a nice big room to myself and we just found out tonight that i can get unlimited internet there for about 1000 shillings a week (abour 13$) which means i can keep uploading photos and such. We'll see if I decide that i need it. Either way, Im looking forward to the move- possibly a little anxious about the newness again, but I think it'll be really nice to be closer to the kids and in a safe little town. A lot of the youth that I'm getting to know from the church are around Ngata a lot, so they can show me around. Thats all for today.. time to fall asleep to the Nakuru dog choir! goodnight!

Welcome Brandon & baby Hope!

We have some new additions at the Baby Center! Yesterday Brandon was picked up and joined the toddler class. Today I spent some time playing with them, since it was raining outside and they needed some entertainment and he seemed to be very happy. Unfortunately I failed to get a picture of him smiling, but I'll put the one I did get, below. Baby Hope came to us this afternoon from an orphanage in Nairobi and on Monday Colleen and I, along with Staci, the Baby Center director and possibly a couple others are going to go pick up 5 more from the same place! I'm very excited to bring them to such a great place. This will have the center pretty much full for now, which is awesome. Here is a few pictures after Hope's checkup and bath.
We got a little smile from her, but overall she was very overstimulated and just plain exhausted poor thing. It will be fun to see her personality come out in the next few days.

 

Hope and Joyce, one of the caregivers

 

Brandon

 

Theres no possible way to sit on the floor, or even squat without kids all over you.. its pretty fun but also nice that I'm still taller than they are and can stand up and escape the madness =)

 

See ya later!  this is Brandon, Mesh and Paul

A couple updates...

With the recent adoptions of 3 of the Baby Center children, there are 6 open slots for new kids, and many children to fill them. Please pray for God's direction as the staff at the baby center make decisions involving these children, and travel to pick them up in the near future. Also especially keep in your prayers Momo, Michael and Paul. Momo is the oldest child at the baby center and is very aware of his friends leaving with new families. He's been a little down lately, and rightly so, so staffers have been giving extra special attention when its possible, but the poor guy still needs all the prayer he can get, for him to be able to adjust and even more so that God will provide him a loving and nurturing family. Michael and Paul are 2 of the older babies, and were recently moved to the toddler area and are just having trouble adjusting to the different pace in the toddler room. Thank you so much for your prayers for these kids. Hopefully my pictures can help you feel as close to them as I feel in just one week.

This is Momo

And here's Paul (sry, i forgot to wipe his nose, he was just in such a good mood!)

and then Michael- he waves to EVERYONE, it's adorable!

Today I:

~worked at the Baby Center  till mid afternoon and then
~went grocery shopping for my first time in Kenya.. with Colleen. I'm definitely not used to having to stop at one place for the fresh mango and passionfruit juice, another for the mangoes and bananas, another for the bread and (funny tasting) milk, and then stop here for sugarcane (first time eating that!) and then of course the butchery. its the kind of shop that could very well make me want to be a vegetarian, if i didnt love steak so much... i have never ever ever smelled anything quite like it.. and the chunk of meat on the bottom of my shoe definitely helped the situation. Luckily we had to wait a bit, so by the time we left I was used to the smell! =) it was real gross.
~I'm learning to like tea. it's had quite often here, and i dont want to offend by refusing.. so i'm learning to like it. Or atleast I'm telling myself that I am going to =) It really has a good flavor. very milky, kinda like chai.. but its soo hot! The last thing i want to drink on a hot day is a hot liquid.. but I'll get used to it for sure. They take mandazi with their tea though.. now those i can get used to! (basically fried dough.. very healthy)
~ when a street boy (who didnt seem to be hooked on the glue yet- pretty cute little guy)  asked me for some money i got up the guts to use some of my very limited swahili and told him "thank you" instead of "sorry"! he hopefully just passed me off as one of those crazy mzungus =) we ended up giving him a couple mangoes then anyways.
~walking around here makes our feet very very black. dirty and black and dry and gross.. so for our mental sanity =) kinda... we went and got pedicures and manicures and neck massages at the nicest salon in Nakuru. Paid about 12$ for the 2 hours of pampering... it was vey nice!
~tried out the ethiopian restaurant here... who lost power as soon as we had our drinks ordered, and served an amazing meal by candlelight... theres something very freeing about eating with your fingers and it being ok!
~now its time for bed, tomorrow we plan to go into the Baby center a little later, and stay into the evening, so a little sleeping in will feel awesome!

New pictures!

Winnie

 

Mark

 

James

Faith

Joshua

 

 Big Benja

 

Momo singing the itsy bitsy spider with Colleen

 

 Sarah

  

 Little girl at the soccer game

  

 Soccer Practice

  

  

 A home in Ngata

 

Relaxing Saturday

I cant believe its Saturday already! On one hand it feels like I've been here longer, and then the other hand- I just left home Monday... and have only been here 4 days in Nakuru. Its kinda exciting to think that I have so much time to experience everything. This morning was quite relaxing, just slept in and did some devotions and started reading a book that came highly recommended to me called 'crazy love' i think. Im not far into it, but its about the crazy way we're loved by God. Looks pretty good. Then Cason made breakfast- pancakes and eggs and fresh mango and pineapple and their car finally was delivered- all fixed!  We drove out to Ngala, the town where the baby center is located- a very small town. I actually thought we were on the driveway when in fact we were on the main road into town. Cason and Colleen lead a Bible study with the youth on Saturdays at 1, so we got there a bit before 2, and by 230 people were showing up. They're studying proverbs right now, and had a bit of a discussion for about a half hour before choir practice (was supposed to) start. Then we played round robin ping pong with a few of the guys..for one game the mzungu (white people) were all pretty evenly matched and sliding around the table on a very verrry dusty floor. The youth were very welcoming (the range in age from around 18-25 probably) and seem like a really fun group and are planning a couple events/outings to do as a group during my time here, which will be really fun. I'll get some pictures of them soon I'm sure. Then we went to the baby center while Cason had soccer practice and played.. and played =) it was a little cloudier and chilly (75 and breezy =)) so the babies were inside which was probably good for my very sunburnt neck! Took more super cute pictures and spent a little more time with the toddlers and tried to start learning some words. I think theres a reason God has me working with children... their vocabulary will be MUCH easier to learn for me... I'm terrible at languages. Its coming though.

Around 6 (this day went so fast!) we headed to where cason was practicing soccer and I got some cool pictures there, as well as meeting some of the neighborhood children who were very cute and (thankfully) liked the camera =)

I'm really excited for church tomorrow morning. The people are soo welcoming and their singing is incredible. I'm hoping its different from anything I've ever experienced, in a amazing and eyeopening/jawedropping way. I think Colleen and Cason often pick up a couple of the kids to bring to church, and then in the afternoon we may bring some home with us for the afternoon =) Its so strange to get used to. Im so accustomed to the daycare setting, with tons of crazy rules- some necessary, but some that just seem to be there to make more work- and parents to 'deal' with.. heres theres none of that. There are some rules, but very few. Basically I think they want the kids to experience 'normal' things, like going to church, or playing in a backyard,  or riding in a car/greeting people on the street, so we get to show them those fun things. Pretty excited about that. =)

Yesterday while we were stuck at home with no car 3 (or was it 4?) of the children from the baby center were adopted! Theres always a few adoptions pending, but these kinda caught us (well colleen- i didnt know anything about it at all ever) off guard. I'll have to ask which ones they were again exactly.. a couple i dont think I ever met the 2 days I was there. But one i carried around for about and hour on thursday, his name is Jeremiah, theres some pictures of him in my album. It sounds like they've gone to good homes though, which is really great.  I'm going to get some pictures uploaded here soon and try to post them tonight. I cant even imagine the number of albums im going to have by the end of march! =) not a bad thing at all though.... if you want to see more pictures, check out Cason and Colleen's blog at:  http://casonandcolleen.blogspot.com/

The toddlers sing us their new welcome song for visitors

African Chinese food...

Today I spent about 5-6 hours at the Baby Center, playing with the kids and trying to learn the names, which is kind of a hard task. We brought along all the clothes/toys/bottles that I had brought from home and the caregivers spent a couple hours dressing the kids in the new clothes after their baths. They looked even cuter! Since Cason and Colleen's car is still broken down, and we werent' able to find a car/ride out to the Baby Center tomorrow (about a 20 min drive) we'll just have a bit of a relaxing day and start working on the beginning stages of revamping the Baby Center's website. My jetlag hasn't reared its ugly head yet, i'm just waiting for it to though... It's already 1245 on Thursday night- maybe should get some sleep, and I AM feeling tired, which i think is a good thing, cause it means im somewhat on their time schedule. I'm trying to think of other interesting things that have happened in the last 24 hours... heres a random list- i was kinda excited to use the mosquito net last night, but after having tucked it all in around the bed and forgot the light was on, i untucked it and tied it back up.. way too much of a hassle- and only 1 skeeter bite this morning. I had chinese food for supper, and it was awesome- so were the fresh mango/passionfruit smoothies colleen made for lunch.. so much for losing 10 pounds here- the food has been awesome so far! If i remembered what it all was called i would tell you. But i dont =). Last night i fell asleep to the nakuru dog choir.. it sounded like 1000 of them, but tonight its not sounding like quite that many... and lastly, before i head to bed- i actually got sunburnt today.. in about 45 minutes. Btween my pasty whiteness and being 10 miles from the equator, it didnt take long at all. One of the caregivers was so fascinated that my skin "did that" when i pulled up my sleeves and had a horrendous line.. she thought something was wrong with me =) Crazy thing is, some of the babies were out in the sun as long as i was, and were totally content and fine- in the long sleeves and sweatshirts that they dress them in.. its so strange, but it works for them. Im continually impressed at the Baby center, and how the kids are loved and taken care of- sure its not like having parents, but the kids are for the most part very happy and well fed and bathed. Its been very eye opening to see how they get along just fine with so much less than we think we need at home, or without things that in the states are just thought to be necessary to raise a child. Things like bouncy seats, and baby wipes, and bottles- they feed some just out of cups when they get their morning porridge- theres no baby monitors or diaper rash cream, or millions of toys (they have toys, just not a ridiculous amount, and from what i've seen in only 1 day is that it forces them to have amazing imaginations). I think i have a lot to learn from these kids. Please just pray that I'm able to get out of my comfort zone and learn to know and befriend the caregivers and missionaries and that my purpose here becomes clear. I know there is one, and I think its bigger than just "playing" with babies all day. Theres a mosquito buzzing annoyingly in my ear, so let me finish up- heres a few pictures from today. To see more click on the link right before this post to see my updated facebook album.

Meet Phyllis

and Joshua

 

Lydia

Grace sleeping in her new clothes

And a couple of the toddlers- i think Momo and Owiti. I dont know their names as well yet. They were very proud of their nice clothes and told me "asanthe sana" (thank you) quite a few times... this would be when i learned how to say your welcome back, in swahili- "karibu!"

 Practicing their welcome song

click here to see my facebook album of pictures

singing at the baby center party

The video is kinda all over the place, but i wanted to record their singing- i love it!

Finally in Nakuru

So its sinking in now. I'm in Africa!! Holy cow =). It's been amazing so far. I couldn't have ever imagined the things I've seen in the very few hours that I've been here. I flew in last night around 10:00, got my temporary visa with no problem, stood by the luggage carousel for 20 anxious minutes not seeing anything familiar, and then they came.. all 3 bags. Got them all on a cart and wheeled myself out to not see any familiar faces. I must have looked pretty lost, cause the woman who came to pick me up found me and let me know that Cason and Colleen's clutch broke on their way to pick me up and they werent going to be able to make it. So I stayed at another WGM workers house for the night and she brought be to Nakuru this morning. What an incredible drive! Driving through Nairobi in itself is crazy insane- and very entertaining =) and then just seeing all the people, everywhere, cows and sheep and goats and little stands made out of sticks and tarps selling everything under the sun. I wanted to take pictures of it all, but was warned that it could be offensive, and eventually end up damaging the car we were in i guess, so theres no photos of that. Not yet =)

We also saw zebras and antelope along the way, as well as flamingos from very far away in lake nakuru, and the other lake which i dont remember the name of.

Once we got to Cason and Colleens house, which has a beautiful property with a great view of lake nakuru, we went out for lunch in the city and then to a shop that someone needed to stop at. Along the way we walked through kinda a sketchy street, and it would've been fine except there were street boys everywhere. They said they've never seen so many, usually just a few, and there were around 10-15 running up to us and asking for sweets and food, all the while sniffing glue to get rid of the hunger pains. Soo so sad.

Then we finally headed to the Baby Center to get there for a celebration/farewell/welcome back thing for some of the staff. We were all crammed in a little room (well it felt small, just cause there were a lot of people i think... and babies. There are about 22 babies at the center right now and 9 toddlers, so more than i thought, and they are even cuter in person. Colleen handed me Lydia, one of triplets and she welcomed me to the center with a huge grin and spit up. about 4 times =) I'll get pictures very soon I'm sure. there was just so much going on today that I just had to take it all in and not constantly be snapping pictures.

So tomorrow we're heading (colleen and i) to the baby center, going for about a half day probably, just to take it a little easy so the jet lag doesnt catch up to me. i've felt good so far though, we'll see how tomorrow goes. So thats tomorrow. Heres a couple pictures, and then also a link to my facebook album of photos, which will have a few more. Thanks for all the continued prayers, I'm very excited for what God has planned- i cant imagine what its going to be like, after all I've experienced in the first 24 hours!

It's HERE!!!!

The time is here! At this time (1:00a) tomorrow I'm going to be sitting at the London airport.... halfway to Africa =) And I cant wait. Everything is packed, "see ya laters" are said, and I'm ready. I fly out of Cleveland at 3:20 this afternoon, and into Chicago O'Hare, leave there around 5:00 Chicago time and fly "through the night" to London, arriving (london time) around 7:00a. I leave London around 10a, and arrive in Nairobi just in time for bed, at 930p (which should be around 130p at home). Please keep my in your prayers- for smooth traveling and the amazing sense of calmness/excitement (nervous-free) that Im feeling right now. Hopefully my next post will include some exciting pictures... goodnight!