I am beyond excited! Two weeks from now I will be reunited with my 16 little loves in Kenya. My patience is running out. I just want to snuggle them and hear their laughs, and see their sweet faces. I have really missed them terribly during this time away. When I think about seeing them soon I feel it all the way in the pit of my stomach--sheer anticipation.
How much will they have grown physically? emotionally? How are they handling their school lives and their lives at home? I get updates every week and if there are any health or emotional issues I discuss them with our on-site directors but those conversations are usually about the big things.
What I am thinking of now is all of the small things that I miss, both good and bad. Subtle personality shifts and emotional changes are a natural part of growing up and I am anxious to see and feel all of that from them. It may take a little time just sitting with them, playing a game, talking together but I’ll soon be able to see the progress that they have made. This time of discovery and connecting with them brings me more joy than I can say.
I will be there for two months on this trip, and while I will get in quite a bit of snuggling with my cuties there is also a lot of work to be done: staff reviews, children progress reports, figuring out what we can do better within our home and our Outreach Program. We will also be working with the schools and continuing to lay the groundwork for our future clinic. In addition to all of that, thanks to our Winetopia success, we are able to move in four more children as well! We’ll soon add four more members to our wonderful family!
As with every journey I make to Kenya there will be so many lessons. There will be a lot of joy and also pain. There will be growth, change, and progress--but most of all, there will be love.
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps, hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it’s destination full of hope”- Maya Angelou