First Week In Our New Country

Well friends and family, we have been in Kenya for a little over a week, and we wanted to give you a glimpse of how our time has been so far. We are still staying at the orphanage, as we are looking for a house or apartment to rent. We have already began preparing for the new school in several different ways. We are adjusting to life here in great leaps and small steps at the same time.

It has been a blessing to be able to stay here at Tobiah Home. We are getting to know the children, the staff, Jerry and Danielle and Peter and Maryanne. We have had some great conversations about our vision for the school and also have gotten some input from Peter and Jerry about their vision for the CWH ministry. Peter has been very helpful as we look around for places to stay. We find that the places we want to stay at are either already full or are still being built at this time. We have a few leads and hopefully we will find a place soon.

Here at Tobiah Home there are 6 preschoolers that are currently being taught by one of the workers, mainly in Swahili.  I, (Kristy) will begin teaching these 6, so that they will acquire the English language. I will set up a classroom here at the home. In order to go onto high school here in Kenya, students have to pass an exam in English in the 8th grade. There are 3 older girls that are currently at the level of grade 1 that Gideon will begin tutoring. We do not have an exact date that we will start teaching/tutoring but right now we are looking at sometime next month. Gideon is in progress mode. He has said this himself and is already doing research to find out exactly what it takes to have a Kenyan registered school.

In some ways, adjusting to Kenyan life has seemed easier than our transition to Cambodia. Gideon was driving the second day we arrived, so we were able to get out and find our way around the city.  I think it took us a month or two before we were driving in Phnom Penh. Peter, Maryanne, Jerry and Danielle have all been great help in giving us advice and direction as we learn about Kenyan culture. Having experienced the transition to a third world country before, our minds were a little more prepared for the differences. The one thing that has made a difference is having Kai. Getting on a good sleep schedule has taken longer. After so long with so little sleep, we all have gotten colds. With the lack of sleep and a sore throat comes a grumpy, impatient mama in the mornings. Adding in trying to make major financial decisions about housing, buying things for the house, buying phones etc... just makes miscommunications even more common. Thank goodness we love each other and have Jesus who helps us forgive one another at the end of the day.

We are doing great! Feel blessed to be here. We are looking forward to having a place of our own though. Enjoy some pictures of Kai playing with his new friends.

Kai with Sophie 10 months and Josh 8 months.

Kai with Alice who is around 8 years old. She is so good with the babies, and she keeps Kai very entertained.

READY (OR NOT) HERE WE GO!

Here we are... 2 weeks from lift off! Before we go, let's look at how God has blessed us, is blessing us and will bless us!

God gave us plenty of time to do some hiking as a family in God's beautiful creation! Kai really loves water, so we took him to several waterfalls!

We definitely had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving! A truly amazing God, wonderful families, fantastic friends and a calling to serve God in Kenya! Also, as Kristy and I have looked back on our lives we have so much more! 

 For my brother's birthday, we got to meet up with several of the Walker family members and go to a Denver Nuggets basketball game and sit in box seating! It was AWESOME! Unfortunately Mama got a nasty stomach bug that forced her to stay in at the hotel! Kai loved seeing all of his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, but the game was just a little bit too loud for him!

We have enjoyed the cold weather and the snow! Kai got a white Christmas for his first one. He doesn't know how to catch the snow on his tongue yet. He also did not enjoy sitting in it for long.  He sure does love swimming in the hot tub to get all warmed up.

We had a great Christmas spent with Kristy's family. Kai got the most gifts. He is at the stage where he loves to make music.

As we have little time before we leave, we have many thoughts and emotions running through us. Some of those include excitement, nervousness, happiness, sadness, and gratitude. Please pray for safety for our travels, for our attitudes as it will be trying to travel with Kai, and for all to go smoothly when we arrive in Kenya.

We are extremely grateful for you our family and friends who care enough for God and His call on our lives to support us in this journey! WE CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH!

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's official we have our tickets, our passports, and our travel dates. We've sold our car, and our to do before we go list is getting smaller and smaller. We are excited, anxious and a little more nervous to leave the country this time with a smaller person, but bigger responsibility in towe. We have been making a list of everything we want to take with us. Those things we want to purchase here just to make sure we have for the first couple of months before we know exactly where to buy them in Kenya. We will be visiting Gideon's side of the family before we take of mid January! Please keep us and our families in your prayers as we prepare these last couple of months. Pray for our to do list not to feel overwhelming. Pray for Gideon as he finishes up teaching. Pray for easy and safe travels with Kai. Pray for Kai's time adjustment and sleep for all once we are in Kenya. Pray for our adjustment to a new culture and new relationships. Pray for wisdom from God for us as we work with CWH and people in Eldoret to build a new school. Wisdom to know where to have it, who to invite to come to our school, when to start it, and all the details.

Experiencing Fall Again!!!

Gideon was so excited to experience the fall season again since we didn't have it in Cambodia the past two years. He was anticipating what it would feel like. Once it came he said it didn't feel new or like we even missed it these last two years. I guess because we had experienced it the majority of our lives fall didn't seem abnormal or out of the ordinary. We are excited that Kai gets to experience fall even if he won't remember it we will get to show him the pictures. Please enjoy some of our fall pictures!

Busy Busy Busy September

I think September has been the busiest month we have had since Kai was born. Gideon loves to be busy, but I would rather have relaxing weekends where we stay home and have nothing planned. September turned out to be how Gideon perfers, but I did have lots of fun. Enjoy these pictures to see what we have been up to this month.

        Kai was dedicated at  church.
We were also able to speak
       about our time in Cambodia and move
to Kenya in front of River of Life
  and First Baptist Palisade this month.

      This is Remy. I have been
    watching him during the day
    on week days. He is 14 months,
and full of energy. 

  Went camping one more time. Kai
    did awesome sleeping in the tent, but
   I froze. We got to see some beautiful
fall colors on the Mesa.

      Lunch with family and friends to
celebrate Kai's dedication

           

                    Gideon got a position
                      at Caprock Academy
                        teaching 8th grade. This
                                 isn't a picture of him teaching,
                                 but he always looks this
                             handsome when he leaves
                                 to go to work. 

      Made it to the top of Hanging Lake on
                 our second try this summer. Our first try          
         we only made it up to the first bridge.
      Hiking with a baby proved harder than
thought.

 

We celebrated our anniversary twice. I planned the evening of our actual anniversary. It was a theme of 3's since it was a third anniversary. We had a three course meal pic-nic. Gideon got 3 small gifts. We watched Home Alone 3. Gideon had these flowers delivered on our actual anniversary. Gideon planned a surprise weekend to celebrate. We went to Denver, had my uncle and aunt watch Kai for the evening and we went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. It was so much fun. Gideon was even entertained, but neither of us figured out who the murderer was.

What in the world has Kai been up to? (sung to the tune of where in the world is Carmen San Diego?)

- Gaining weight now weighing 18lbs
- rolling over from back to stomach and getting upset he can't roll back over
-getting his 4 month shots, and handled them a little better than his two month still very lethargic for the following couple of days
- picking his pumpkin out of Bibi and Babu' garden
- laughing lots especially at other kids
-teething- always chomping on his paci, fingers or someone elses fingers. He has a couple of white spots on his gums.
- getting over his eczema hopefully it is just a phase from this dry climate
- watching football with Papa
- learning to eat yummy fruits and veggies even when his Papa keeps telling him that veggies are gross
- playing in the nursery during moms group at church.
-helping mama take care of a 14th month old during the week
- sleeping great only waking up once after 8 hours of sleeping to eat, then back to sleep for another 3!!!
-Playing with his toes!

Feeling Anxious To Go

We have been slowly but surely getting ready to go to Kenya. We got Kai's passport in the mail a couple of weeks ago. We skyped with Jerry and Danielle Sanders and met them for the first time. They are another American couple that just flew out to Kenya this weekend. They will be serving long term as house parents in the orphanage alongside of Peter and Maryann who are a Kenyan couple who are also house parents.  It was great to get to meet them. We hope to skype with them a couple of more times before we head over to join them. The part of our conversation with them that stuck out to me the most was when Jerry explained that he is so humbled that God would call him and Danielle to take care of all those kids. He also talked about how he is famous in his small town in Tennessee because it is unheard of for anyone to move to an African country. We are excited to get to know them and become great friends.

We have also sent out our support letters and have several opportunities to speak at churches. If you have not received a support letter and would like one please email us at gkkwalker@yahoo.com.

We have days when we wish we were leaving for Kenya tomorrow. Its hard to be in transition and see a goal but know that you have a long time before you can even start working for that goal. We also have those days when we are making great memories with friends, family and Kai. We know as we look back on this time in the States we will be so grateful that we had it.

We have been keeping busy. We just got back from a week in Portland, Oregon visiting my (Kristy's) college friends. Kai got to see the ocean, pick berries, ride up to the top of Multnomah Falls in his stroller, and meet lots of new friends. Gideon found out that his teaching job at CCU will not start this fall because they had a smaller number of students than expected. A little frustrating that they did not communicate that was the case when they hired him, but God continues to provide. He has been helping me take care of Kai. He is a great Dad! We are also watching a friend's 1 year-old everyday. It has made me realize that I would never survive if I had twins. I would never go anywhere. I would stay at home all day long. Gideon is also cleaning the office where the president of CWH (Children With Hope) works. All this to say God is taking care of us and knows exactly what we need.