We have begun our journey home. We left Tenwek a few hours ago and just passed the "Annointed Candy Shop." I am wondering why in the world we didn't stop there, but now it is too late. What could be better than Annointed Candy!? There are always mixed feelings leaving. This time we made some closer relationships with the other Americans in the guest house because we ate there everyday and played games together at night:)) Hannah is an intern with Tenwek this year, and as I mentioned before, just graduated from Wheaton. She's just Katy's age and I would like to adopt her as my fourth child.  Trouble is she has a family already. Anyway, she was so much fun. I will miss her. Also, Jerry, the guy who helped build the first dam at Tenwek. He was from North Carolina and his deep southern accent and personality stole our hearts. So it was a little hard to leave them, and of course the Kitoben crew.

We visited Kitoben for the last time on Monday. Alot of the older kids have left for school, but those in grade 3 and lower are there and are attending the newly opened "Ketcasa School" right there on the property. I have tried to make an effort to hug each child each time we visited this time around. They were sometimes a little reluctant, but Monday they had warmed up and all gathered around. They approached shyly with chin a little low, one arm outstretched to touch my shoulder and waited for me to hug them. I guess you can imagine that I was trying not to boo hoo loudly. We know the older kids pretty well by now, but there are so many new young ones that I can't keep them straight. I will try to study their pictures when I get home. I need some more people to pray for kids if you are interested. No other obligation and no shame, no guilt, just a picture and a breath prayer when you see it or think of them. One or two prayers a year would be better than none. Alice gave me a complete list of sibling groups this time, so that's been kind of helpful. For some reason, I really want to "see and know" each child, and I want someone else to "see and know" them too. Kind of like with Hagar, God is the God who sees, so I think He wants us to see people too. Some of you are praying for older kids that have grown up, so if you want to add a younger one, let me know.

If you remember, we were thinking about starting a college fund for the kids to take out loans and pay half of back. We pondered it, and decided to just go ahead and open it at Kitoben's bank and let Alice and Samwel administrate it. I went to the bank with Alice this time. Tommy usually does stuff like that because he is better at it, but after some intense discussions with several bankers I think we walked out with an understanding of the difference between dollar accounts, which we opened, and KSh accounts. We wanted her to get the best possible exchange rate. They will write some bylaws for the account, and have the people who borrow sign a document which they will keep at the bank. Someone gave us a gift before we left thru Nations to Nations to do whatever with, so that's what we chose to do. It's kind of exciting really, and Mercy, the clinical officer student, will be one of the first beneficiaries. Right now she owes a lot of money and they won't grade her tests from her first year until she pays.

Tommy hasn't had much of a chance to write, but is planning to do some when he gets home.  Thanks so much for reading along.