Friday, May 29, 2009

Birthday Boy!

Tristan getting some help blowing
out the candle on his birthday pie!

Tristan turned 10 today! We began our celebration with an early "Birthday Breakfast"out at Java House. Today was the last day of school, so after breakfast the kids collected their report cards and participated in the closing assembly at Rosslyn Academy. Since it was only a half day, we picked Tristan and Emma up at noon and surprised them with an afternoon at the cinema where we took in a matinee of "Night at the Museum 2". As he already had a cake at his party, Tristan asked mommy for a birthday pie on his real birthday. We enjoyed mommy's fabulous apple pie tonight with our friends Mel and Kerrry.

Tristan and Daddy awaiting our Java breakfast
Tristan had some surprise hugs...

and birthday kisses from our good friends
Melanie and Kerry
Gotta love those birthday smooches TK!!



Wednesday, May 27, 2009

May in Eastleigh

Erica and Hawa showing some of the latest creations
from the Eastleigh Jewelry Project

May has been a very busy month in Eastleigh on all fronts. In the Jewelry Project, Erica and James have been working with the ladies to complete their first jewelry line. They are hoping to have their first sale as part of an exhibition in Nairobi early in June. We are praying that it will be a good success for the women.


Teacher Nelius during one of the
Somali Women's English literacy classes
While Zahra has been away for development training, Nelius has been doing a fantastic job continuing on with the ESL classes. We have twenty students in the new beginner class and we have benefited from a wonderful volunteer, Aisha, helping out from the advanced class.

Khadija and some of her new friends
during the primary school recess
The child sponsorship program has had great success with assisting over twenty new refugee children this month in entering the primary school. Thanks to the generous support of Canadian churches and individuals, we've been able to provide new uniforms for all of the new arrivals. One of our youngest ESL students, Khadija, has completed the advanced English class and is now enrolled in the primary school where she has become something of a "big sister" to her classmates in standard three. We hope that she, along with other members of Iftin, will be a help in organizing other Somali children into a youth club at the community centre.
The newest batch of ceramic water filters ready to go!

We want to send a BIG thanks out to the members of First Baptist Church, Charlottetown, who raised enough money to purchase over fifty ceramic water filters for distribution in Eastleigh. Thirty of these filters will be going out on June 8th to provide clean drinking water to vulnerable households. We also want to thank everyone who has made contributions to "The Sharing Way Eastleigh Project". Your generous support is making an important impact in the lives of many displaced people.

IN PRAYER
* Please remember the Somali children, like Khadija, who have begun school for the first time. Many of these students are young girls who have never been enrolled in school before. We pray for patience as they and their teachers work to overcome not only language barriers, but also building basic learning strategies and habits that many of us take for granted.
* Pray for our Somali friend ZamZam (name changed), as she is struggling with eye problems resulting from untreated diabetes. She will be going to see a specialist soon, but her poor nutrition has made her very weak.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A.R.Celebration!


Emma tucking Reese & Henry in
as the sun went down

Emma was very excited last night as we put the puppies to bed and she got into her own pjs: She was on pins and needles over her A.R. party today at school. Both she and Tristan have been in Rosslyn Academy's accelerated reading program pretty much since we arrived in Kenya. She along with six other second graders were treated to a Java House picnic today by the High School fields.


Emma's teacher, Mr. Dunning, and his wife
with the A.R. students enjoying lunch
under the shade of a big tree.

The kids playing games before dessert
Erica made brownies and sprinkle-covered ice cream for dessert, and we all played several games (A part of the reward was that the kids were able to miss a class for the party!)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

The Great Nairobi Murder Mystery

Today we celebrated Tristan's 10th birthday with a murder mystery set 100 years ago in British East Africa. All of Tristan's 4th grade class were invited and several of our good friends came in costume. It was a lot of fun!

The Delamere family--
Doris, Hugh, Dot, Dolores, D.D. and Edward
The mystery was built around the famous Lord Delamere who remains a large figure in Kenyan history. Unlike the true story of Lord Delamere, our fictional family was torn apart by jealousy and ended in murder. Today's party, everyone was a suspect as we tried to get to the bottom of this crime.
Happy Family-- Lord Hugh Delamere with his lovely wife Doris
and darling son D.D.

D.D. Delamere bobbing for apples

Searching for clues

Opening Speech

D.D. cutting his cake

The party was a great success with lots of help from friends.
Tiffany,Melanie, Jean, Sue,Wes, Kerry, Tim, Diane, Jon, Stephen and Erica at the scene of the crime.


Parish Priest, Father James King


Makayla as Dr. Shelby Givan-Paine, Katie as Dandy Lion
and Caeli as Anita Clue

The party carries on tonight as Michael, Tristan and Ezra have a sleep over and plan to stay up late playing games.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Praise God

It was an answer to prayer today as the Kenyan High Court officially granted our adoption request for Ava. At the end of the proceedings, the judge officially changed her name from Hope Wanjera to Ava Kazuri Hope Kenny.
Immediately after court
Sam Mutisiya is our Guardian Ad Litem which means that he served as an advocate for Ava until the adoption process was complete. We are so thankful that Sam was able to come today even though he has been ill.

Our good friend Kerry Jividen also came to support us today. She sat in the hallway while we were in the judge's chambers and prayed us through the morning.

The first stop after court was to Rosslyn Academy to share with Tristan and Emma the wonderful news. Both their classes cheered and clapped as they have been praying as well.
We don't have an official Five Kennys photo yet but stay tuned...

From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16