From Lawyer To Missionary: Carrie, Kenya and You

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 We finally get to meet with Hellen and Vicky today the lawyer and psychologist I am working with on the adoption work.  Very excited about that.   They picked us up.  Once in the car we headed right out to view a property for a possible site of the offices of Pilgrim ’ s Adoption Resource Center (PARC).  There was a building that was a little more than half built by a German man who appeared to be working with some kids here.  He was married to an Africian woman I believe.    He fell ill and had to return to German and has since died.  Now the house is sitting here half built and running into ill-repair because of it.  It has a great size plot that is already fenced in on all sides and with a gate in the front.  The bottom floor is an open conference room type area, one bedroom which would be an office and the kitchen in the back.  That would most likely be the floor for PARC's offices.  ...

Monday, March 26, 2012 Well, today is filled too.  We started with a meeting with Allan - the person who has been getting me various meetings with government officials and has introduced me to almost everyone that I know here in Kenya outside of the schools.   He is remarkable guy that does so much for the children and churches of Kenya.  He works night and day raising funds, doing business, and brainstorming of better ways to serve the kids.   Well Allan met us at our place at 10am good thing because even that way, I almost overslept.   I was up quite a bit of the night last night and wasn't feeling very well this morning.  We talked about the status on the adoption work and the possible building purchase for the organization to house our offices as well as a Children's Home down the road.   He suggested that it would be a good way to go.   He also had some suggestions on people to help with the Children's Home in vario...

MARCH 25, 2012 We arrived into Nairobi at 1 am.   Sue and I waited patiently till 5:30 for our Kenya Airways flight to leave to get us to Mombasa and had some good talks which kept us awake somehow as we went the full night with no sleep.    Sue and I hardly know each other.  Other than the briefly meeting 2 times in early January, we had one conversation on the bus on the trip last July.  So it was good to get to know each other a little bit.  An on time departure from Kenya Airways between Nairobi and Mombasa has been less and less likely but this one took off early and get to Mombasa early and our luggage was unloaded so quickly.   We are 1 hour early hoping our driver was there early to get us.    Luckily for us, they were early.   We went right to the Nakumatt (Kenyan Walmart/Walgreens) so we could get our food for the week and shampoo and other things we couldn't take because the suitcases were to heavy al...

March 23-24, 2012 Well, its been a trip alright already.   I was fighting sickness since last Monday night - throat, headache, sinuses, cough, chest pains when coughing and then stomach troubles on top of that.    Went to the Dr. at 2:15 and we are scheduled to leave at 5.   Hadn't slept in over a day and was so emotionally shot over being sick and the lack of sleep I'm in tears at the Dr.'s office simply by hearing that I have a 101.2 temperature even though I felt cold and at times have felt like I was burning up over the last few days which must have been an enormously high fever.   Well the Dr. at Pro health was very, very understanding and supportive and helpful.  He gave me a Z pack of antibiotics for the sinuses and listened to my lungs a few times to make sure there wasn't any start of pneumonia.   He encouraged me to follow up once I got to Kenya if I didn't feel any better.       This is...

I know there are some of you out there following that I don't know of so I wanted to put a post. I am finally returning to Kenya on March 23 through April 6 with a friend Sue that came with Fox River to Kenya last summer. We are both day care providers here in the states. We will be visiting orphanages while we are there bringing gifts, crafts, and fun and most importantly God's love to hurting children. We are very excited about this! Thanks to all those in Kenya helping to set up these meetings for us before we get there. We will also be hosting an adoption event for people that have already adopted children. We will also reaching out to the woman of our churches schools encouraging them to follow God's plans for their lives. Finally we will be heading to Nairobi to visit with anyone we can that can help us further our mission of making adoption an easier process and also keeping kids safe in orphanages. We will be visiting orphanages while in Nairobi to...

Hey all, Another update though we uploaded some of the photos to FB directly already we didn't get all of them up so I thought I'd update a little on the last trip.  Went in July with by daughter Brooklyn and her friend Josie.  We had a great time.   Spent a lot of time in the schools that Fox River church in Waukesha runs doing activities with the kids and going out into the village to see how the people there live.  It was graet to see some of the qualities that drive me nuts in Brooklyn being but to good use teaching and interacting with a lot of kids (over 100) at one time teaching them English and other fun things.    Josie saw it for the first time and I think she was really enjoyed spending time with kids and they  both realize how much they have to be grateful for here at home and they are motivated to do better in school so they can be the best they can be and share that with the rest of the world whereever that might be in the f...

As many of you have asked, I just wanted to share a little of what was accomplished in Kenya in May 2011.    I meet with some government officials in Nairobi in the first few days I was there, including the person in charge of adoptions and the full adoption process.  She is in the process of writing new regulations for adoption which will facility more international adoptions.      I got a chance to visit three of the four accredited adoption agencies in Nairobi and talk with their staff about international adoptions, their processes and where they see problems in the process.  I was also able to meet with and refer a very good children's law lawyer to the agencies.     Once we arrived in Mombasa, I was able to visit a school in Ribe (just outside of Mombasa on the east coast of africa).   They had a full library sitting in a room of their school, but they had never been in a library so they had no idea how to o...