Tuesday in Kitale

This morning we had an early morning flight from Nairobi to Kitale on a 20 passenger prop plane and landed on a small strip in the middle of a corn field. We were met by my dear friend Margaret and our driver David who arrived safely yesterday. We got settled in at the Kitale Club and went to Purpose Driven Academy (PDA), a Christian boarding school that Margaret started. We had a tour of the school and it was great to see how it continues to grow and do well. Kelly, on our team, is an elementary school teacher and had a great time talking to the students.

The next experience is one that I find difficult to put into words but I will try. I met my 4 God children today, 3 for the first time. The first one is Augustine, I met him on my very first trip to Kenya in January 2005. He was in prison with his mother. It is a long story maybe I will tell another time but for now let's just say that we had a very unique connection. On a later trip his mother tried to give him to me to raise as my son. She was later sentenced the death penalty. Thank God they do not enforce it but still Augustine could only stay with her in prison until he was 4 and her family would not take him. It took about 1 1/2 years to work it out but I was able to arrange to send him to PDA. It was then that we discovered that he had a 6 year old sister Elizabeth. He also has an orphaned cousin Caleb (5) and another cousin Brian (8)that his father has died of AIDS and his mother is dying of it now. So that led to 4 children that my husband and I sponsor. So today was a very emotional day for me and one I have been looking forward to for months.

After our tour I saw Augo outside and asked someone who it was because I thought I recognized him. It was all I could do to not just grab him up and squeeze him to pieces. I had not seen him since he was 2 years old so I had to respect that he did not remember me and go very slowly. Margaret arranged for us to meet in the office and all 4 children came in togehter. At first they were very shy and overwhelmed by 7 mzungus (white people) staring at them. They had not seen white people before coming to PDA a few months ago. We spent some time with the group then I got to spend some time alone with them getting to know each other. I told them that I new their mother and had met Augo in prison. I brought them some school supplies, toiletries, new clothes, shoes and a soccer ball which was probably the first time they had new clothes. I had to show them how to brush their teeth as that was new to them. I showed them some pictures of my family so they could get to know me. They do not speak English so Margaret translated for us. Pole pole (slowly) they warmed up to me and after a little while we were hugging and holding hands everywhere we went. The rest of the team joined us for lunch then we went into town and got them locker boxes to keep their new things in. The rest of the team was hanging out with the other students making some cool connections.

Today was a very special day for me that I don't think I will ever forget. I get very emotional just thinking about it. It was all I could do to not cry while I was with them because they are not used to people showing emotions and I did not want to scare them. I can't imagine what Thursday morning will be like when we leave Kitale and these beautiful children that are embedded in my heart.

I'll post more later about our awesome day yesterday of divine appointments all day long.