We made it!

Jambo from Kenya!  We have arrived, and after crashing into bed at midnight local time, we are ready for our first day in Kenya.  I’ll take a little time to tell you about the trip, and then there are some photos from the journey at the bottom of the post.

Thursday morning was spent loading the truck with everyone’s luggage at AIM headquarters.  There are a good handful of other families, couples and singles heading to the field with us, many of whom are then headed to RVA after orientation.  It’s been great to meet so many people already, and Faith and Joel are grateful to have some new buddies.

We had a commissioning lunch with the staff of AIM and the families of the missionaries that hadn’t said goodbye yet, shared a little about ourselves and shared our last stateside prayer requests.  We were prayed over, loved, hugged and sent on our way.  We were loaded into passenger vans and drove off to the airport about 2 pm.  We arrived around 3 pm and brought everything into the airport.  It’s a giant mess when everyone has at least 8 bags (except most of the singles), as well as all the carry on baggage one could possible take.  There are a few older kids, and that helped immensely with keeping all the younger kids happy and corralled.  (One 6-year old, four 5-year olds, three 3-year olds, and one infant.) 

We had to check everything in with British Airways, some people taking longer than others depending upon the BA staff member.  We checked in individually at the first-class counter while there were no customers there, had a wonderful man help us, and it took about five minutes for each of us, 20 minutes total.  Another family took close to two hours, which was a long and frustrating time for them.  We waited for each other, so by the time we could go through security, we had less than 45 minutes before our plane was supposed to depart.   No time to buy snacks, fill up water bottles, or write a quick note online to say the least!  We ran to the plane, and the door was shut behind us. 

Our family chose to sit in groups of two, and that worked well.  The kids had a little more attention, and kept a little quieter than they might have with interacting with each other!  On the first flight we were served supper, and the kids watched a movie while eating, and we told them it would be bedtime right afterward.  Joel got about 2.5 hours of sleep with Jim, and Faith got about 25 minutes with me.  She rested well, just not long!  We got up for a little breakfast at sunrise and shortly landed in London.  When changing planes in London, there is more security to go through.  So about three long lines and a long walk later, we got to rest a little in the London airport. (By resting, I mean sitting and taking off our bags… no sleep for the weary!) The kids enjoyed some coloring and interacting with their new friends. 

Then it was time for flight number two.  Our goal was to keep the kids awake a little more to help them begin to adjust to their new time zone.  They tried, but they both needed little morning naps.  I woke Joel up after another couple of hours.  They enjoyed movies and toddler TV on their individual screens in the airplane.  I will admit that I slept for quite a while Joel watched his TV after lunch… and who knows what else he was doing!  We were definitely in survival mode at this point.  The kids did well on the plane.  Of course they were kids, and they were tired most all the time (they never got a full night’s sleep in New York before we even left) but they listened to us well for the most part and enjoyed the adventure.  By the way, British Airways was WONDERFUL with the kids.  I’m pretty sure they feed the kids more than the adults!

We landed in Nairobi at 9 PM, regrouped and headed to immigration.  Jim and I were questioned about what we were doing quite a bit.  It made me a little nervous!  Others were questioned heavily like us as well, but some not at all.  And we were one of the first families to go through, so it was a little intimidating.  Nothing out of the ordinary, and we have nothing to hide, but we had been given very clear instructions about what to say, which we followed, and we sure didn’t have any practice for this situation!  (The feeling I had a lot last night and this morning was that ‘I’ll be glad for the day when this feels like normal life!’)

We headed downstairs in the airport to get our baggage, which felt like Newark, take two, but we all made it through customs without any more questioning, so that was helpful... we were ready to go to bed!  We had a few AIM AIR (AIM’s aviation ministry) pilots who were behind customs with us to help point us in the right directions and such.  That was nice… normally you can’t have help in that area of the airport.  At this point, it’s close to 11 PM, and the kids are just ready to be done with the traveling.  We got things loaded and sorted (most of our bags are arriving at RVA this morning, while just a few stay with us for the next three weeks) and climbed in a bus to come here to the Mayfield Guesthouse, where we arrived just about midnight.  The kids had “Daniel Boone” stories (what we tell them when we don’t have any books to read) and we all fell right to sleep.  We got up at 7; Jim and I took wonderful hot showers (something I never had at all in Kenya the first time, so that was comforting) and woke the kids up for a breakfast of cereal, toast and bananas. They weren’t too hungry this morning, since we woke them up so hopefully they’ll make it to lunch!  They are now playing happily on the playground.  It’s wonderfully cool here.  It’s probably 65F outside.  I’m putting on long sleeves the next time I go out!

So that was our trip.  Thank you for praying, and please continue to do so!

AIM Headquarters in NY:  Loading up the luggage truck

Everyone's things (not nearly all of it!) in Newark Airport

Last sight of the US for (ack!) two years!  You can see Central Park... this is New York City.

Faith enjoying doing some little crafts in London's Heathrow airport.

Joel playing with his new airplane toy in London.

Faith sharing her coloring book with a new friend

Mary helped us pretty much the whole way with our kids in the airports and getting everything around.  She is 16, coming to RVA with her family as well, and pretty much did the trip by herself so she could help us.  What a blessing!

First sight of Africa... the Sahara desert.

We landed in Kenya!

Faith happy to finally be at her new home!

Our room, last night.

Good morning, Kenya!

Our guesthouse, a beautiful place.