Busy Busy Busy!

Cason and I have been running full speed into the new year and have hardly had time to slow down. Cason’s parents arrived on Jan 11th and were here for about ten days.  Click HERE to see some pictures of their first day in Kenya, including our time at the elephant orphanage.  We took them to all of our favorite spots in Nakuru, and even convinced Cason’s dad to get a pedicure!  Click HERE to see a few picture of all of us getting pedicures... it was quite the experience for the men as you can see!   They really enjoyed their time with the kids (Click here to see more pictures of the kids, Marti, and Jon), although the road to get to the Baby Center was under construction the whole time so there was “vumbi kabisa” as we say here (dust everywhere!).   The toddler boys loved Cason's dad and he would gather them all on his lap and them dump them on the ground as they laughed.  Click here to see some more pictures.    The toddlers decided they didn’t want to call Cason’s dad Babu (grandpa) Jon, but instead Babu MIke.    I think they were too confused about two Babu John/Jons coming in one month so they renamed one of them.  They both loved the triplets, so we took lots of pictures with them - click here for a few.  Cason’s mom and sister, Marti and Corinn, and purchased a bunch of on-sale Halloween costumes to bring to the kids, so one evening we had dress up night.  Some of the pictures were so cute - click here to see them!

Just one more album to link to... here some some the Baby Center and also our time at Florence's (the Baby Center caregiver's) house.
After a few days in Nakuru we packed up and headed for Tenwek hospital on Sunday.  At Tenwek, we got to stop and visit Precious, one of the little girls who has recently been adopted.  It was incredible to see how much her family loves her and how quickly she had improved developmentally with just a month of being with her new mom and dad.  We’ll put up some pictures of Precious (now called Chepto) with her new family soon. 
After Tenwek Sunday we left for Massai Mara the next morning to go on a safari.  We had a wonderful time with Cason’s parents and got to see four lion cubs!  We watched them for over an hour, it was really incredible.  The relaxation of the Mara was balanced by the insane drive from the Mara to Nairobi.  It is not a fun road to try and drive but the Lord kept us safe and hopefully we won’t have to make that trek again for a while!  We’ll put up some albums from our time at the Mara soon. 
Brian and Michelle (my older brother and sister-in-law) came in the same night Marti and Jon flew out.  In fact, the plane his parents  got on was the one Brian and Michelle had just gotten off of and they waved to each other was they swapped places.  We have had a few days with my brother and sister-in-law and so far it has been really fun.  We have spent a lot of time at the baby center as well as Cason and Brian playing lots of soccer. 
Thanks so much for your prayers and support!  We’ll try to blog again soon so we don’t get so far behind. 
Love, Colleen

Entering 2010

First some photo albums we’ve neglected to link to…
On Christmas Eve (my birthday!), we went to Lake Nakuru Park with Cason’s sister, Corinn.  It was really nice, but it rained quite a bit in the afternoon.  We did see rhinos, hyenna (including a den of pups!), and two male lions feasting on a cape buffalo.  Click HERE to see more pictures!











Click HERE to see a few photos of our Christmas with Corinn, including all of the sugary candy that Cason got from the States.  He was a happy camper!
On Boxing Day, we went to the Baby Center and got some great photos of the triplets - Lydia, Benjamin, and Caleb - as well as the other babies.  Click to see the album.

The Sunday that Corinn was in Kenya, we had a family from church over for Mexican food – we figured since we’ve been eating so many new things we’d have them try something new when they came to our house.  They are such a great family and we really enjoy the 4 boys to come to youth group - Click HERE to see a few photos of us with the Komens.

After Christmas weekend, we took Corinn to see Lake Baringo.  Even though it is typically like a desert, it rained much of the time we were there, which was great for the surrounding villages, but bad for our sightseeing boat ride.  It ended up being a good trip – after the rains stopped it turned into a beautiful day and we got to see hippos, eagles, a monitor lizzard, and many birds.  Click to see more pictures of Baringo with Corinn!

Finally done linking!  Read on for more about our new year plans and goals…

It’s the new year and Cas and I are starting it out with a bang!  After a few days of relaxing we discussed how we want this year to be different than last year.  We did the usual new years resolutions but we also sat down and talked through how we want our ministries to look differently this year than they were last year. 

Cason is finding ways of witnessing and drawing in the guys he plays soccer with.   Because of the language barrier it is very difficult to talk to the guys he plays with.  He can witness by lifestyle but eventually there must be some dialog.  Cason is hoping to foster a closer relationship with a few of the leaders on the team and encourage them to be able to talk to the others of a closer relationship with Christ.  We would also like to have the men to our home to watch a soccer match and include bible study as a part of that. 

For my ministry with the children I have decided to add some structure to their education and development.  I am evaluated each child to find out where they are developmentally and creating an action plan for improving their current state.  I will do monthly evaluations and work tri-weekly with each child in the hopes to get them caught up with where they need to be.  Many are behind and it has been sad realizing how much they need to accomplish to catch up to their peers.  I am very excited about adding structure to what I am already doing here and feel that it will greatly improve their progress.

We have a new baby at the baby center.  He is a little over a year old and needs to gain some weight fast!  Within hours of getting a bath and having some food he began to smile and interact with the kids and caregivers.  It was wonderful to see his drastic improvement after just a few small things like that.  We are excited to see him grow and develop.  He has already shown that he is quite smart and energetic.  We have named him after Mike Ho, one of Cason and my good friends because he came to us on Mike’s birthday.  So we welcome little Michael to the Baby Center and ask for prayers for his health to improve quickly.

Cason and I are going into this New Year excited about our ministries and eager to serve the Lord in new and fresh ways.  Thank you all for your prayers.  We are so blessed by all those supporting us!

Here is one last picture of Cason's sister, Corinn, spinning with her buddy Joshua who didn’t take off his Christmas wings for days after he received them.

Thanks so much for reading! Love, Colleen

The Holidays

This picture is of Daniel Owiti from our Christmas at the Baby Center... no, we didn't do anything mean to make him cry.  I think he was either afraid of Santa or upset because someone else was playing with the toy he wanted.  Either way, he is pretty cute.  See the link a ways down the page for more from our Christmas day. 

Time is just flying by… when we last posted, we were in Nairobi to pick up my sister from the airport.  We took her to the airport to fly home a few days ago after a fun whirlwind of a week.  It was sad to see her go, but so nice that she could be with us over Christmas!

We’re behind with our updates and our links to photo albums, so here is an attempt to get caught up…
As promised, HERE are some pictures from Day 2 of our time with Colleen's father, John, and her Uncle Jim on the Mara.  We got to see lions, hippos, hyenna, cheetah, lots of rain, and some amazing landscapes.
 
  Also, Here are the photos from Day 3 of our time on the Mara... we got to pet a baby rhino!  We had so much fun with Dad Ramsay and Uncle Jim on the Mara… especially when wearing the luxurious robes provided in our tents!
One of my friends from Taylor who coaches high school soccer collected a bunch of cleats for the guys on the football team that I play for.   John Ramsay brought the shoes and the guys love them - we haven’t lost a game since we received them! Thanks Kyle!  Here’s an album of some happy footballers and some kids from the Baby Center.  Check us out showing off our new boots!
Here some some photos from Corinn's first day in Kenya, including this smooch of Daisy the giraffe mere hours after she landed… we took her to the giraffe center since she loves giraffes so much. 
Probably the highlight of our time with Corinn was Christmas at the Baby Center – click for a link to the photo album.  We had so much fun passing out gifts to the kids and celebrating with the caregivers.  Some of the orphans who have been adopted came back to participate in the festivities, and Jim Vanderhoof (our esteemed field director)  dressed up as Santa Claus (or Father Christmas as he is known over here).  Corinn and Colleen played the part of Santa’s Helpers, and I was primarily the photographer of the chaos.  The kids were quite leery of Santa until they realized that he was passing our gifts… then he got swarmed by the mob!   See the picture at left of an exhausted Mr. Claus recovering from the madness… it captures the moment perfectly!


Thanks so much for reading.  Hope your families had wonderful holidays and are excited about all God will do in 2010!  We so appreciate your prayers and support… we’ve had an update letter in process for a while now, so hopefully we’ll get that out this week – we’ll send out an email, and put a link on the blog, so check back. 
Thanks again!

Dad and Uncle Jim come to Kenya!

Last Monday we left Dad and Uncle Jim in Nairobi to fly back home.  it seems like yesterday we were picking them up!  Click HERE for some pictures of Dad’s first day in Kenya when we took him to the giraffe center!

Dad spent over a week in Nakuru with us and we loved being able to show off the kids and our lives over here.  It was wonderful to be able to take him to the baby center and introduce him to the kids but also just to relax and let him experience everyday life in Nakuru.  We got fresh squeezed juice and mandazi, met the ladies I buy vegetables from and were invited into their home, got pedicures (after lots of convincing), led youth group, relaxed on our porch, and much more. 

One of the highlights was getting together with one of Dad’s old friends from college.  They haven’t seen each other in 30 yrs but Dad had sent us a name about 3 months before asking if there was a way to find him.  Cason asked one of the women he works with and her response was “well I know him, he lives just down the road, let me give you his number.”  It’s a small world.  So we had him and his wife over for an American meal along with another couple from our church.  We had a great time fellowshipping together and the best part of the evening was creating an “elf yourself” video with them in it and playing it for them.  It was so much fun and I don’t think we’ve laughed that hard in a long time. 

Dad also spent a lot of time at the baby center.  The children loved him and keep asking where Babu John is when I come.  Momo’s response is always wisely telling the other children “he’s in Nakuru with Cason”  or sometimes “he’s playing football with Cason.”  Momo and Mesh consider themselves the wiser of the kids and like to keep the other smaller children updated on where all their visitors are :)  Click HERE to see some picture of my dad at the Baby Center... the kids loved him so much and we had so much fun!

While Dad was here we also got to have a traditional Kenyan meal with a family from our church.  It was so much fun and they surprised us with ice cream for desert!  They sang us a fun parting song to send us off at the end of the night.

At the end of the week Uncle Jim joined us and we headed on to the Masai Mara for a “safari camping” experience!  The tented camps are nothing like traditional camping - They are complete with tile floors, four poster beds, showers, bathrooms, and robes!  We felt quite pampered and had some great game drives.  Dad brought rain everywhere he went and it definitely followed us to the Mara.  Our second day there we have a torrential downpour and hunkered under blankets in our canvas topped safari jeep while the plains we were attempting to cross quickly filled with water and began to look more like a lake than African plains.  We eventually found higher ground and where able to watch the water rise from a safe spot.  It was pretty incredible to see.  Click here for some of our safari pictures, including some of an elephant family and lions – we’ll post more when we have some time.

On Monday after a tearful goodbye we left  Dad and Uncle Jim in Nairobi while Cas and I headed to our Christmas field meetings.  It was very hard to leave Dad but fortunately we are back in Nairobi today to pick up Corinn (Cason’s sister) who will be flying in tomorrow morning to be with us over Christmas!

We’ll post more soon, including more pictures from our safari!  We hope you all are having wonderful holidays with your families!

Love, Colleen

Links… with more to come!

We’ve been having a great time with Colleen’s father John and her Uncle Jim the last few weeks.  We were just at the Masai Mara in southern Kenya for a few days going on safari and staying at the nicest “hotel” in Africa… it was awesome.  We saw lion, giraffe, cheetah, rhino, elephant, hippo, and so many more… all except leopard :  ( .  We’ll put up pictures as we have time… we are getting really behind with albums and blogging! 

Lots has been happening that we haven’t posted about… Thanksgiving weekend I went with the Ngata Youth group we’ve been leading to hike Mount Longonot.  It was an amazingly beautiful hike, and such a great time… until a torrential downpour swept in and soaked everyone to the bone.  I still had a great time, but a few of the youth swore they wouldn’t do it again :  ) Click here is a link to pictures of my hike with the Ngata Youth group – pre downpour.  I thought my camera was ruined from the rain, but thankfully it survived. 

While in Nairobi to pick up Colleen’s dad and Uncle, we celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary… actually it was our 1 year 11.5 month anniversary.  The real day is Tuesday (the 15th), but we knew we’d be too busy to get away.  Click HERE for a few pictures from our celebration... and by sure to tell Colleen congrats (and thanks) for putting up with me!

The weekend of Thankgiving, three of our friends who are student teaching in Nairobi came to visit.  We went to Lake Nakuru Park (the one we can see from our house) for the first time.  HERE is a link to an album of our day at Lake Nakuru National Park with Heidi, Mark, and Ashley.  Check it out if you like giraffes, zebras, rhinos, lions....  In addition toe park, they also joined us for Thanksgiving, spent time at the Baby Center, etc.  Here is an album of Mark, Ashley, and Heidi in Nakuru and at the Baby Center.

Thanks for checking in with us… we’ll post more pictures of our time with John and Jim, and at the Mara. 

PS-We’re trying to get out a Christmas letter, but we’ve got more meeting next week and then Corinn (Cason’s sister) comes to visit… so it might be more like a New Years or Valentine’s Day letter. 

Some kids and Lake Baringo

In the past week and a half, we’ve camped with hippos and boated with crocodiles at Lake Baringo, seen giraffes, lions, and rhinos at Lake Nakuru, housed our friends from Taylor for some nights, eaten a wonderful Thankgiving dinner at the Vanderhoofs, kissed a giraffe, and been to/from Nairobi to pick up Colleen’s dad and uncle.  It has been so busy, but so much fun! 

We’ll get up pictures of all those events as we have time, but now I’m focusing on catching up on the dozens of emails in my work inbox… can’t be all fun and games I guess (except for Colleen, who is playing at the Baby Center with her dad… ;  ). 

A few weekends ago we had some of the kids from the Baby Center out to play at our house for some hours.  It was Momo’s first time to come, though he had heard all about it from the other kids.  He is the oldest at the Baby Center and I had so much fun with him on our backyard ropeswing.  Click HERE for some more photos of Manu, Precious, and Momo playing at our house - they were so fun and cute! 

Like I said in the first paragraph, we also went to Lake Baringo with our Danish friends Mikkel and Margit.  There we got to see crocodiles and hippos right along our campsite, and we went on an amazing early morning boat ride on which we saw so many kids of birds and beautiful scenery.  Click HERE to see the entire album of our Lake Baringo photos… we got some really great ones of the birds and landscape. 

Thanks, as always for reading our blog… we’ll put up some more photo albums soon.  We really appreciate your prayers and support!