Happy

This time last week, we were in our hotel in Nairobi having left Atlanta nearly 24 hours prior and having just one sleep and one last little half hour flight in the morning between us and our new home.

By the by, thanks so much for your prayers and well wishes--the flights both went beautifully! Tiras and Micah did a fair bit of sleeping and were easygoing on both flights and in the airport. Plus, our second flight was the flight where they had assigned us 3 seats together and one seat by itself behind us several rows. Which meant one parent to two kiddos. Which did not seem too promising since Deron had kept Micah happily entertained with various activities and Tiras was happy to hang out with me BUT put the two in the same row and Tiras wanted to grab at Micah's toys and things would tend to devlove into a dynamic significantly less rosy than our man to man coverage.

Still, we were grateful for one good flight and steeled for the one ahead. But our second flight ended up being not full and passengers were invited to relocate once the plane had made its ascent. Tiras and I ended up having a row of 3 to ourselves with Micah and Deron just across the aisle in a row of 5 mostly to themelves--one sleeping woman on the end was their ownly rowmate.

The attendants on this flight were wonderful and so professional and efficient and pleasant. I cannot say enough great things about our experience with K*LM. (And yet another segue, I put the little asterisk in this airline's name because people tend to do this on blogs, maybe to avoid messing up other people's internet searches? At any rate, I am blindly following the trend.) So we had two wonderful flights which concluded with being met at the Nairobi airport by Deron's supervisor and someone from the embassy, which made for smooth sailing on that portion of the journey too!

So back to my reflection mode, just a week ago, we had come so far and were so close to discovering our new home and neighbors. And one week later I cannot begin to convey how wonderful this week has been because of these neighbors and the people we are already meeting in Kisumu. The reality is that there IS a lot to learn and adjust to just to do basic functioning and the reality is that I tend to like my world in order and I tend to love my routines and sense of being on top of things, and I TEND to get really flustered and out of sorts by moves because of the lack of the aforementioned factors. But I am happy and excited here. Our neighbors look out for us. People are social and warm and I feel like I am just experiencing the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

And along with developing friendships with these wonderful people, I also feel like there is so much to learn and discover here. It's hard to articulate my sense of anticipation and excitement, but it's very much there.

Deron is three days into his first week at the new job and it's all he signed on for and he is thrilled. There is a LOT to learn and Deron likes to be on top of his game, so he has the challenge of the learning curve. BUT it's a learning curve toward something about which he is passionate and excited.

There have been points when we felt overwhelmed about all the "to do"s of gettting settled. There have been points when we just felt physically wiped out (not helped by having Tiras on his own new special time zone). But we have talked about how it is like the newborn phase of parenting when there is so much coming at you in all directions needing to be done and there is sleep deprivation. But it is a temporary phase and you get more adept at things and it is all part of something you love.

Hoping this is coherent. Our neighbor drove the boys and I into town and I finally got to see Nakamatt for myself, which is where we can grocery shop and get art and get microwaves and get kitchen goods and etc. I was especially tickled when Micah excitedly pointed out a billboard he remembers from our drive from the airport last week. It just somehow seemed like foreshadowing of how at home he will be here. Which is cool to me. And we also saw cows crossing the street. And they look different than our cows and as best as I can recollect Micah has never before seen livestock cross the street on one of our grocery runs, so it just seemed fun to see. The boys and I have mostly been on the compound and getting out and about was very good.

Thankful and happy.

I do love and miss you, my dear friends and family. FB posts (and my first two comments here!) and emails all mean so much! We are one week into this adventure and I think it is going very well indeed!