Friend Time - fun and a great help!

Julia and I have had a fabulous time with our great friends, the Omondi's. Dennis and Allison and their precious kids, Anjela and Benjamin, came to help us transition back to life in Kenya. They live in Mombasa, on the Kenya coast, and work with  Serve International of Denton Bible Church.

Allison has been here to help me get settled and to watch Julia, who is loving all this play time with her best friend, Anjela. I have thoroughly enjoyed having this time with Allison, cooking, unpacking, taking care of the girls, working at the baby house. And Dennis has been my resident advisor, helping with everything from telling my grounds workers how to repair broken pipes, getting insurance for my car, looking at possible land purchases with me, beginning the dealings to research land purchase options, and talking through so many ministry issues I can't even count. Usually, he is my long distance advisor, but it has been great to have him here as I delve back into work and begin to work on some new things.

These girls are two peas in a pod! They have very similar stories of their life beginnings, and it is so fun to see how God has interlinked their lives. They keep talking about being sisters, and they act like it! Spending an entire week together has brought out their sister sides, but they do truly love each other. Julia kept asking last night, "Anjela, we're sisters, right? And BJ is our brother."

I think she thinks she is really part of their family! We were taking "family" pictures the other day and this is what we got (in addition to the one above):

 Look at her, so proud of herself for bee-bopping into their family picture as if she belonged there! 

They also have an amazing adoption story with their son, Benjamin! You can see a recent piece on MSNBC featuring their story and the agency where BJ came from on their blog: Safari za Omondis.

Thanks, Omondi's, for coming to visit us! We had such a great time and miss you already! This house is quiet! Good thing you'll be back Friday and we still have more time to hang out!