step one: go shopping

It's my second full day back in Kenya and I spent the afternoon shopping. More details on that in a sec... let's rewind just a bit.

The last few days at home were so good and yet such a blur! I'm so thankful for my sending church of Shadow Mountain and their willingness to send me off in prayer.  I was so encouraged by the amount of people who joined my monthly support team in the week before I left. 12 families signed up monthly and 2 increased their support, allowing me to hit 100% on Monday afternoon! (Gotta love how God's timeline isn't ours!) Goodbyes at the airport were bittersweet but I was grateful for each one who woke up early to come say bye!

All three plane rides went pretty well. The ride into Salt Lake City was only preparation for what is to come on the commuter planes I will soon enjoy! The two long flights I had the seat next to me empty and was able to sprawl out and sleep, quite well actually. I arrived in Kenya early, about 9:30pm on Wednesday night, local time. Customs went smooth and on to collect my bags. Five of them came out pretty close to together and I should have known at that point there was something wrong but I held out hope. I checked 4 action packers and 2 suitcases. In order to make sure the action packers stayed closed I had to put airline approved locks on them. When the 3 action packers that made it with me arrived one of the locks had been tore off of each one. To my surprise the insides of all three were still perfectly packed as I had them and nothing was taken! Praise God! And my dear friend Amanda who I've known since I first came to Kenya back in August 2013 patiently waited and waited and was there as I walked out of the airport at about 11:30pm!! What a relief to see a friendly face!

I waited and waited, hopeful the last one was to come. It didn't. I was directed to baggage claim problem area where before she even had a chance to look at my baggage tickets asked, "Are you Ms. Warford?"... yes, yes I am(and I realize this isn't a good sign). "One of your bags didn't make it." Can you tell me where it is? "Yes, it is in Amsterdam".... at least you know where it is! She agreed to have it delivered on Friday and behold at around 2:30 (today Friday) it was delivered! I found it with both locks still attached(Praise God!) and opened it to find my contents just as I had them! This is amazing considering the stories I've heard of bags getting lost or delayed and things being taken. Thank you Jesus for looking after it and answering my prayers!

Thursday, my first full day back in Kenya I slept in, went and got a new Kenyan phone number (which works in my iPhone yay!) and enjoyed lunch with Amanda, and then back home to rest. I went to sleep around 8:30 (with the help of sleeping meds), wide awake at 2am, back asleep at 3:30 (with help of sleeping meds again), and finally awake at 5:40am. Oh jet- lag... how I wish you didn't exist.

And now to today. Had a lovely morning of girl time when one of my teammates who arrived from Egypt this morning and the other from Doro yesterday commenced together in our living room with our cups of tea & coffee to catch up and enjoy being together! We soon realized today was the best day to go shopping. I was definitely excited but feeling a bit stressed knowing decisions were ahead and I was going to be buying everything I needed to set up a home in a new place and everything I got would have to first be organized, weighed, shipped by plane and delivered into Doro before I could really settle. So the idea of going shopping was very much embraced and yet desired to be procrastinated on. But with the help of 3 ladies and my jet-lagged brain we did it!

2 out of 6 baskets!

My amazing shopping buddy Bethany! I wouldn't have finished if it wasn't for her!

This amazing guy met us and willingly and quite professionally loaded all my stuff into his car including the big items on top! Thank you Johnathon!

Had to document!

And the next step, putting things into piles and into importance. Everything I need for the next 3 months. 

All this stuff should go in on two flights, possible three. Tomorrow we repack, weigh & label and Sunday it will get taken to the office for final processing before it goes to Doro on the 20th! 

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about this day! It was great fun reconnecting with old friends and beginning this next step towards making Doro home!