Preview of Apartment!

So we received some pictures of our Kenyan apartment! It’s a small 4 bedroom, second floor apartment on the hospital compound. Not sure what people are expecting our home to look like, but here it is…

Below is a picture of the living room. It has a fireplace because it gets chilly at night. I wonder what I should bring to hang above it??

Next, we have a picture of my kitchen. The (small) stove is right beside my washing machine (no dryer). I think the stove is gas, and I’ll be hanging clothes outside to dry as long as it’s not raining. We do have a microwave!!!

Here is one bedroom. It will be where the 3 boys sleep. Noah and Jacob are SO excited for the bunk bed, but Noah is hoping for a side rail to keep him from falling out of bed!

I do have more pictures, but I thought these 3 would give you all a good idea of our standard of living in Kenya. It is small and not nearly as nice as our home in PA. However, it is a palace compared to where some of the local Kenyans live. I’ll be sure to post pictures after I make this apartment our home. (Someone else was living there when these pictures where taken.) We’ll use the 4th bedroom as an office/homeschool/craft room. (I’m planning to catch up on my scrapbooking!) Our bedroom has a queen-sized bed, which is larger than we have now. Hannah will have her own room. I can’t wait to see the garden and yard! It will be heaven for the boys to be outside everyday!!

Praises and Prayer Requests:

1.) Praise God! We have renters for our house AND a buyer for our van!

2.) Please pray for the selling of our car and the remaining furniture.

3.) Praise God! Noah is nearly night trained! He has the occasional accident but is dry most nights!! Yay!!

4.) Please pray for my sanity. I am quite crazy these days. There’s SO MUCH to do.

5.) Please pray for wisdom as we pack. The list is longer than we expected, so I think we’ll have to leave some things behind that we planned on bringing…Don’t worry. We won’t leave any kids behind ‘by accident.’ 🙂

Less than 2 months!

We have our tickets! Our official departure date is January 29, 2013!!!! Yikes! That means we have less than 2 months until we move to Kenya….
The more I think about it, the less confident I am. No, I’m not doubting God’s calling on our lives. I’m 100% sure we are suppose to move to Kenya on January 29. However, I’m less and less sure what to do to prepare, how to feel and why God chose us.
Fortunately, there are a lot of people to help us with the first dilemma. Today we visited the travel medicine department at the hospital. As a result of the 3 hour appointment, we collectively received 21 shots. Aaron and I were the only two NOT to cry, but we all survived. Here’s a picture of our stuff guys showing off their bandages.

As far as how I’m feeling about the whole process of preparing to move to a place I’ve never seen, to say it’s been a roller coaster of emotions is an understatement! Should I be excited? Nervous? Sad? Happy? Should I consider it a huge deal or an obvious next step? Should I mourn all the people and things I’m leaving behind or should I just celebrate all that God has and will bless me with? I guess there’s no right answer to how I should respond…So, I guess I’ll just feel all of the above. 🙂

And as I feel all these emotions, I can’t help but ask God why He chose us. I mean, doesn’t He know how unqualified we are. Yes, I know, God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness. God’s been speaking to me sweetly in so many ways to reassure me that I am the one He has chosen to mother these children and support my husband in Kenya for these 2 years. But, wow, I’m a bit overwhelmed by just the thought of it.

Prayer Points

Please continue to pray for us as we celebrate Christmas with friends and family and then quickly go into packing mode.

Please pray that we will be healthy the remaining time here in the States. (We’ve been battling one virus after another. Nothing serious, but it seems like someone has been sick with something for over a month!)

Pray for our family and friends that will miss us while we’re gone. (We’ll miss them too!!)