Arrival in Kenya!

Ashley on the airplane

      Melody, Steven and Kayla before takeoff          Tired girl during 6 hour layover in London (it was supposed to be only 3 hours!)

We are so grateful to all of you for your prayers for our family! We are now staying at a missionary guesthouse in Nairobi after 15 1/2 combined flight hours on a cramped plane with no leg room. It was so sad to have to pass all those "caccoon" seats that go all the way horizontal in first class and head back to our "steerage" compartment, where the guy in front of you puts his seat back in your lap. Our flight to Nairobi was delayed in London too, so we spent a few more hours at Heathrow Airport than we planned on! We did survive with several naps and bad plane food, and our good friends and colleagues, Chuck and Amy Bemm, met us at the airport late last night with our van and a mini bus to carry all our luggage (which all made it with us safely) to the Hampton House, where we will be staying until we head to Tenwek on Wednesday. Kayla and Ashley loved seeing their best friends Abby and Lydia Bemm who were also there to welcome us back to Kenya. Tomorrow we plan on visiting RVA to see the campus and visit the teens who are going there now. Steven and Melody are very excited to see their friends who are in their last week of school. We are all fighting major jet lag though, and after getting to bed last night after 2 am, we slept until noon today! Hopefully we will do better than that tomorrow, since we want to be at RVA just after lunch.

We are all enjoying getting acquainted with Nairobi again, visiting our favorite restaurants and enjoying weather in the 70s and 80s (with no humidity!). Mike drove our van today for the first time in 2 years, and did well in the busy traffic avoiding pedestrians, matatus (public transport vehicles), and pot holes. (Steven told him it was just like riding a bike!) It will take me longer to get used to all the near-misses again though. I decided it was better for Mike if I just closed my eyes, because I kept shrieking everytime things were close, and I was making him even more uptight than he already was! :)

We are so happy to finally be here, and have all the packing, moving, saying good-byes and long journey behind us. It will be great to see our Kenyan and missionary friends again in a few days, and begin to unpack and settle into our home. Mike will have his first transition meeting for the Medical Director position on Thursday, just a day after we get there. Please keep him in prayer as he adjusts to his work again at Tenwek.

Thanks again to all of you who have prayed for us. We are incredibly humbled and grateful for your interest in and love for our family. Most of all, we are grateful to our Heavenly Father, who has watched over us and brought us to this place of service again. To Him we give ALL the glory.

Pam