Dreams and Rough Drafts

I am happy to report we made it to Kenya with only a few catastrophes. It's good to be in the motherland again. Thanks to the TSA drama in the US, my flight was significantly delayed so I missed my other two international flights. While that is less than ideal, I was mostly worried about Cat and Paul getting to Nairobi and not finding me there. Thanks to the delightful folks at Canada Air, I was on another plane within two hours and I still got there before them. My luggage did not have such luck though, and I was a grunge muffin for a few 4 days until it arrived. Thankfully Catherine is Miss Prepared-For-Everything, so I didn't suffer too badly :)

Jessie and Catherine

In other news, We are delighted to officially welcome Catherine Shumaker to our ranks! She will be serving as a project manager for Too Little Children. This is her second time to Kenya, and she maneuvers it like a seasoned pro. She has her work cut out for her as she is currently revamping some of our bookkeeping structures and organizational systems, neither of which are my forte. Bless her. She also plays a mean game of futbol, and I anticipate skills are already in high demand on the makeshift soccer field in front of our house.

I'm sure these are painful to look at if you have an architectural eye, but these are the rough drafts of our dream home :)

We jumped right into work since arriving and have some exciting changes on the horizon. We will quickly be outgrowing our current property, so we are house hunting at the moment. We have several great options, so we are currently mulling it over and making our pros and cons list. I feel like I'm on Fixer Upper, without the visionary advice of Chip and Joanna Gaines. They both need some work and have required all my imagination capacity. Thankfully, I have an wild eye for potential and a blatant disregard for the obstacles that most reasonable people see, so I am banking on this and a really good fundi (carpenter) will be enough to make my vision of a children's paradise come true. We also have the option of building a new house just the way we want it. It would be harder and more expensive, so naturally I am leaning that way. I feel like I am back in that 6th grade perspective drawing class as we are trying to make a blueprint for our dream house that is somewhat to scale and accurate. It's a difficult decision though, and I am thankful to have Catherine here to be the voice of reason.

The kids and I in their favorite spot-the front porch

Arnold and Cat

 

Catherine and Paul at the equator

Next week we are going to do a home visit and assessment for a new little girl who may need to come stay with us. Her name is Janet, and as taking on a new child is always a huge commitment, prayers that we make the right decision would be appreciated :)

Jessie

 

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