Hello from Kenangop, Kenya!

I am here! I arrived on Wednesday afternoon to a beautiful village. Tuesday night I flew in to Nairobi and stayed at a woman's house and then went the next morning to exchange some money and come out to the orphanage!

I have seen so many things in such a short amount of time! I have seen the city, the villages, and the mountain range. This is a beautiful land!

It has not taken long to fall in love with these children...there are 5 younger children who are home for the most part of the day, and the older kids who go to school until evening. We have spent a lot of time playing with the younger kids...they love to climb, rub our white skin, and play with our hair! The have the cutest laughs you could ever imagine, and their smiles melt my heart in an instant! This morning I got out some finger puppets that Deb (nate's mom) got for them...they loved trying to make the animal noises (which mostly just turned into growls!)

The older kids love to make up stories and grab our feet under the table when we are supposed to be eating dinner! They have lots of questions and we help them with their homework as much as we can...and then they try to have us read Swahili, and they get quite a kick out of that!

The staff here have been very helpful and hospitable. We are well taken care of and safe!
It has certainly been interesting being the definite minority. When we walk the younger kids to school, or drive to pick up the older ones, we get many looks and most people wave and are friendly. Many kids will just stop and look at u s, though, because we are such an unusual site for them! It is neat to think about how God made us all...and we all have our individual beauty! Yesterday when we picked the younger kids up from school, the rest of the village kids walked home with us and even tried to come into the gates...we had to tell them to go to their homes. They were so fascinated with our freckles and hair, though!

It has been a tough adjustment, being so far from home and everything comfortable...but God has really been at work in me and I trust He will continue to use each day to form my heart and I hope I can give all I have to these kids and this community each day.

Please continue to pray for me, and for this beautiful village I am apart of for 45 more days. May God's love be so real here...and with you at home!