We are filled with joy today as we were able to celebrate Christ’s resurrection with wonderful friends here in Kenya. We attended an early worship service this morning then came back to the compound to throw an Easter party for children from a local shelter.

It was so neat to be able to bless some of the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) patients today. We threw an Easter party they won’t soon forget. The kids had brunch, made bunny hats, Easter baskets, had an egg hunt, threw water balloons, did the Bunny Hop, played Pin the Tail on the Bunny and much more! The kids loved it and went home with full bellies, lots of candy and hats!

The best part was that a very dear girl that was a patient at the Sally Test Center when Eden was there was a part of the group that came today. Miriam is an orphan that has had so many challenges in her life, but she is quick to laugh and smile and is a wonderful leader in this group. She is very bright and it was such a JOY to see her today!

We hope that you were able to celebrate the resurrection with friends and family. Enjoy the pictures!

It seems like Andy has changed a lot since we arrived in Eldoret.  He is still very busy and climbs on everything, but he’s more independent and likes to wander and play on his own instead of sticking to my legs all of the time.  He has started going to bed with a toy car.  He doesn’t have a particular one that he likes to sleep with, but he wants one of his matchbox or tonka cars in his hand when we put him in bed.

He has entered into a bit of a shy stage.  I don’t know if that’s just because of his age, or because of all the new faces, but he hides his face against us when new people try to talk to him.  He is used to the Mamlin’s and the women that work in the house (Janet and Maggie) and will let them hold him or play with him.  He learned how to crawl in and out of his pack-n-play and he likes to drag his Twiga and blanket around with him.

He finally figured out how to stand up off the floor instead of crawling to something and pulling himself up.  He also learned how to back down steps.  This is great, except that now he can get out the front door (which is always open) and runs around on the porch by himself.  The other day I found him outside eating berries off a plant.  Ugh!

Andy is talking more.  His new words include saying ‘up’ when he wants picked up, he says Elmo, go go go, hi, Jambo, uh oh and most recently he started saying “no!” which he learned from Ben.  He gets lots of compliments on his eyes and hair and at church there was a little girl who spent about 10 minutes just running her hands through his hair. He was much too busy playing with his car to notice.

We had our first court date yesterday. It was just a quick pop in to see the magistrate and show her that we brought Eden back. It was a very interesting setup. It didn’t feel as formal as the last magistrate that we saw. I think that everyone who was on the schedule for the morning showed up at 9 and then we all sat in a room together. The magistrate sat at the front and they just went right through the list. The lawyers and the clients presented in front of everyone. We had no idea what was going on for a lot of it as it was in Swahili.
The kids did pretty well considering that we were sitting in a somewhat crowded room for an hour and they had to sit quietly. Andy was a bit restless, but Eden pretty much just colored with Ben the entire time.
Now we need to schedule a meeting with the social worker and get this adoption started! 🙂

I went up and confirmed the completion date with the head contractor today. He also claims a May 1st timeline like the second-in-charge had done a few days ago.

I snapped some pictures so that you all can be as excited as we are about it! We really can’t wait until we have the kids in their own rooms. Here at Joe’s we put Eden in her own room and she slept through the night. But Andy woke up at 1am and wanted to play/flop/giggle in bed with us for too long! Lets hope that was just temporary and he actually does fine tonight.

Our house will be the one on the right:

The front porch:

From the family room into the dining room towards the front porch:

Into the kitchen from the dining room through the waiter window:

One of the kids’ rooms (the other looks just like it):

Main shower or bathroom (another room just like it will have whichever one this isn’t):

Into the master bedroom:

And finally the master bath:

We have already resettled in Eldoret. The house that was supposed to be done for us is now not scheduled to be done until May 1st. 🙁 Luckily the IU compound people were looking out us and had a few rooms reserved in case. Unfortunately the rooms were in a house that is not meant for long term guests: no table/chairs, not much furniture, and no fridge! Between those and the unblocked stairs we almost went batty staying there.

But God was looking out for our sanity, and several rooms opened up in Joe Mamlin’s house (Director of AMPATH). Joe and Sarah Ellen have 3 extra rooms in their house that are usually reserved for the VIP guests. Apparently we’re the most important people that are going to be around AMPATH until mid May, so as of this afternoon, we are now living with them. Yay! A table! Refrigerator! Rugs! No stairs!

This is my office at Joe’s seldom used dining room table until we get our own house (with our own dining table):

For those of you that are curious, that was not OUR van in the picture in the last post, that was a hired taxi/van that brought us from NBO to ELD. Our minivan is scheduled to be shipped from Japan tomorrow and arrive in Mombasa May 2nd or so.