Home and Re-entry

There will be some more posts and pics from our time in Kenya, but I wanted to post an official "We're Back." Tuesday night before we left, we enjoyed dinner in Kijabe Town with the Shirley family. Ever since we had arrived in Kijabe, the kids had been eyeing Mama Chiku's Hotel (FYI, hotel = restaurant) asking for a chance to try it out.

Family-style dinner at Mama Chiku's

Wednesday morning before we left, we made a short visit to the hospital to say good bye. We had a tearful moment with Mercy (more on that during a later post) and admired the many improvements being made to prepare for the visit from Kenyan President, Kibaki, which was Friday.

David with the team in the Nursery (similar to NICU levels here)

Jonathan, a Samaritan's Purse driver, picked us up from our apartment at 4pm and we headed to Nairobi. After so much time in Kijabe, driving through Nairobi during rush hour was quite overstimulating (think African equivalent of Mayberry goes to LA). Our plane took off from Nairobi sometime between 10:30 and 11:00; for the 30 min we sat at the gate John asked, "Are we in the air yet?" Apparently he had forgotten how much the planes move during take-off. We made it into Amsterdam early Thursday morning and had a 4-5 hour layover. Thankfully, there is a wonderful play area where the kids could run and burn off some energy.



The kids spotted these teacups when we went through Amsterdam on the way to Kenya and had been looking forward to dining in one. Thank you to the couple who offered their seats.

John and Abby were very eager to pose with Ronald in the airport.

Geared up for the last leg of the trip, we boarded the plane headed for Atlanta. David's parents and my mom were there to welcome us home. The kids really were troopers and made it to the car before they crashed on the ride home. When we got to the house, it had been over 32 hours since we left the sitaplex in Kijabe. I couldn't help but give our moms a hard time when they commented on how long the day had been!

Friday morning we woke up and started unpacking. Unfortunately within 2 hours, I started feeling quite ill and in another hour I was back in the bed. Though it was not good, I was VERY thankful whatever it was did not hit on the trek home. David seems to have had a more mild version, but we're much better now (the kids were not affected.)

We're adjusting to the time change. John is no longer asking for breakfast at 3:30 or 5:00 am (remember, we are NOT early morning people).

Abby, John and I headed to Atlanta early this morning to surprise my sister and welcome her home from Liberia. It was great to see her and hear a little about her trip. The quality isn't very good, but here are 2 short clips from "Welcome Deedee" this morning (pause the Sprayblog music player at the bottom of the page before watching).

David heads back to work tomorrow (Tuesday), the kids have their homeschool co-op, and hopefully I can finish unpacking.

Thank you again for your prayers for our safe travel home. We look forward to sharing some more pictures and stories soon.