Arriving in Kenya...

Ok, a couple of more weeks have passed by before I made myself make another blog entry.  There's just so much to process, I don't want to do it half-heartedly.  So, here we go...
After 2 LONG days of travel, we finally arrived in Kenya, and it was humbling...but I had no idea what was in store once we arrived to the slums of Nairobi.  First, I let the landscape heading away from the airport sink in...


                                                                  arriving in to Kenya

                                      the crew on the bus that picked us up from the airport

                                      


                                                               views from the bus...

the scenery changed drastically as we got closer to where we were staying...it seems as if it's one extreme or the other in Kenya.                                   

the beautiful picture that was hanging in the hallway right outside of our room at Gracia Gardens                                                     

After a couple of days of jet lag and letting the reality of what all went on in Africa settle in to my brain, I'm finally ready to start looking back over it through my pictures.  Here are some that I'd like to share with you, as I take you on a guided tour of our journey to Kenya together...

The morning of June 7th began with some idle time at the Indianapolis airport waiting to board our first flight in to Heathro.  Everyone's energy was pretty good - excited about what was to come... (Keeley, Cara, and Ashley)

 (Erika, Kristyn, Sierra, and Megan)

THEN!  This awesomely funny God thing happened - another missions group came up to greet us (our lime green neon shirts might have given us away that we were a team out to do something), and Ashley realized she knew one of the girls from Passion in Atlanta, GA earlier this year!  It was cool chatting with them and praying together for each other's journeys.

 Moss being Moss, and me being lucky enough to capture a moment of it.  She's hilarious.  We quickly nick-named her "the cheerleader". 

Cara, my niece, was the first honorary recipient of one of Corey's gratuitous "lean backs".  :)  Let's just say Corey isn't a ... morning person. :)  Brudder!

 The men of the other group prayed over our leader, my husband Todd, before parting ways. 

 It was definitely a cool beginning to what was going to be the trip of a lifetime...

The Facebook Fast

This past week I took a break from my favorite form of social media - my connection to the pseudo-outside world - that connects me with my sanity saving adult friends...my beloved Facebook. It was actually kind of a relief! I didn't realize how much I included the "needing to check FB" throughout my day. It gave me the permission to do other things that I had been putting off like, oh, ANYTHING else. I did feel really out of the loop, and missed hearing about everyone's days and how things are going. So many of you brighten my day with your anecdotes and helpful tips of things you figure out and save me the trouble of finding out on my own.

Here is just a little snap shot of a few of the things that happened last week...


We had a must needed trip to visit dear family in Knoxville, TN last weekend. Precious time spend with loved ones.



We took the boys to see Star Wars in 3D



I also spent quality time with my new BFF, ZUMBA baby!



kind of a low point, scratching off too much of my security code on my iTunes gift card :(



dinner and a movie with my Valentine ...



really important silly face making time with my littlest Valentine...



enormously rocky time getting ready for preschool, which resulted in no preschool that day...



snuggles with Snickerdoodle, my sister's beloved guinea pig



shock and AWE over my sister's latest birthday cake creation...



God's beauty. Loooovvvvve.


Hope your weeks were amazing!