Twister and New Sisters

(Blogpost done by Catherine Shumaker, project manager for TLC).

Karibu Kenya! Getting off the plane in Kenya is one of the biggest rushes of excitement for me!  This trip to Kenya has been a little different than other trips. For the first time I spent a week alone in Kenya in an attempt for Jessica and I to be able to spread our time further. It has been  eye opening, exhausting, but also wonderful. 

We were lucky enough to add two new girls full time to our house. Two of the girls we were sponsoring at home were no longer in a safe environment. We attempt to keep our children with family as long as possible, as long as it's a safe place to be.  Thankfully we were able to remove the girls from the home quickly and without resistance once we became aware of the situation.  Millie and Selah were put in a new school, which is where our full time kiddos go, so it helped ease the transition a bit. They have been thriving at our house since coming which makes all of our hearts so, so happy!

(Millie and Selah on their first day at their new school)

In addition to getting the girls moved to our house, my first week here was filled with other new and exciting changes.  We are getting ready to not only expand, but to buy our own land to create our permanent house! We are so very excited to be creating our own space, designing it for our needs and making it our own! The land is about 1.5 acres with a small fish pond and spread around the land are mango, banana and avocado trees! The house will be sitting up a bit over the fish pond and the land beyond with a beautiful view of our space. There will be plenty of land for us to grow our own crops in an attempt to be as sustainable as possible. The land appears to be extremely fertile with lots of crops currently growing on it, and all the neighbors seems to be lovely!

In the meantime, the kids love the game Twister so we decided we would create a Twister mat on the cement pad next to our current spot. They got Twister last year, but the mat did not survive as long as the board, so they could no longer play... The kids were the lead painters once I showed them how to do it, and they absolutely loved painting it. When we were done I found all their toenails had been painted with oil-based house paint... What can you do? The kids and adults have all enjoyed playing on the mat when they get home from school.

So my first week was busy helping get our new girls settled into our house, dealing with visiting the land, meeting with the contractor at our land to discuss the best location for the house, but also many nights filled with knowing the girls were safe, lots of laughter, smiles and pure child joy! What more could you ask for?

Catherine