We are back!

We arrived safe and mostly sound a couple days ago. We are happy to be home but it was a bittersweet goodbye. We were busy working and playing up to the moment we had to step on the plane to go back home. Jordan arrived in Kenya on the 15th and the kids welcomed him with songs and dances. The Kings were excited to have a boy volunteer around=) That week we took the kids on a field trip to a park. Jordan brought a bunch of games and toys from the states to give to them. We hired a bus and the kids kept their faced glued to the windows as we drove. They hardly ever get to leave the orphanage. It was a great day full of games and laughing. They were pooped by the end of the day, many fell asleep on the bus ride home. It was a lot of fun. I handed out the bows that my friends and I made for the girls and they spent the whole day wearing them, it was so cute. The rest of that week we helped build the chicken coupe and started working on finding chickens (a very frustrating task, way more difficult than predicted, after numerous failed attempts we finally had to leave money for them and are expecting to have them delivered this Friday, we are crossing our fingers) Then we left for a 4 day Safari from Friday to Monday. It was truly amazing, we saw sooo many animals up close in the wild. We had to stop as giraffes or herds of zebras crossed the road. We saw whole lion families just a matter of feet away from our van. On the last day we visited a couple lakes and got to see more animals, like the white rhinos and tons of different kinds of birds. We saw giraffes "wrestling" with each other, banging there heads into each other and swingin their necks around each others' bodies, it was soo funny. I was able to snatch some video of it. We returned home Monday evening and was rushed by the kids when we came through the gate. Its nice to be missed=) The rest of that week we worked on getting the chicken coupe finished, and to get the carpenter to start on school desks for the kids, since they have school on cold cement floors. We also were able to get them a bunch of new text books thanks to people who donated money for them! We got a lot done that week and prepared to go on a vacation come the next week since our program ended on the first and we would have had to pay for the extra nights we stay. We booked a train ticket to Mombasa, a city on the coast. The round trip ticket for all of us was barely over 100 bucks. It took about 14 hours to get there, we traveled over night and got beds so we could just sleep on the way. Unfortunately our train was like 6 hours late, so that put a bit of a damper on our start, but when we arrived it was nice and sunny and the beaches were incredible; white sand and teal water. We took a fairy and matatu (crazy vans) to get to Diani Beach. We stayed in our own little cottage with 2 bedrooms a bathroom (with running water...except it was like half salt water, kinda gross), it also had a small living room and kitchen and it was about 100 feet from the beach. We only paid 16 bucks a person, not to shabby! we went on a boat ride and visited old town and fort Jesus. At Fort Jesus they put on a show of the history of the fort and then we had an awesome dinner on the fort grounds, it was pretty cool. the next day we went out snorkeling to Wasini Island. A boat took us out to a couple different spots. The water is so clear and the fish are amazing. the only downfall was that it was rainy and a bit cold that day. We saw whales and dolphins on our boat ride out there. Then they take you to the owner of the company's property and they serve you a buffet and we ate all the crab we could. It was awesome. The next day was bit rainy as well, but we still swam around in the ocean, the waves are bigger in bad weather so it was way more fun=) That night we went out to a restaurant that is inside a huge natural choral reef. It was amazing! The food was great and i couldn't get over the atmosphere--we were inside this giant choral reef, so cool. The next day we hung out in the sun while it lasted, got a bit more fried and then prepared to head back. It was a great trip. It was nice to be warm for once since Nairobi was so wet and miserable. We caught the train back on Sunday night, arriving back and the orphanage in the morning. The kids were happy that we weren't gone for good, but we had to brake it to them that we would have to say our farewells that evening as we had to leave for our flight the next morning at 5am. We cried that night as we thanked them for everything and a good number of the queens broke down too, it was a night full of tears. I didn't want to leave those little ones, it broke my heart every time they said to me with an angry and hurt face "don't go, just stay, don't go" I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, but it was time to head out. I can do more for them here than I can over there. I miss them like crazy, but I know I will return there someday. Thank you for all of your love and support and prayers. We really felt like we were being watched out for and we are so grateful for that. I still am planning on fundraising for the orphanage and the organization so I will keep everyone posted on our future plans! Love to you all!