Heading back :)

When I was writing people from Kenya in July, my sister Alli replied to one of my emails with a simple question:”Why can’t you actually end up there in Kenya? Sounds like they need you. Sounds like you fit in just a few short weeks.” It was the question that had been echoing in our minds all week. Kijabe, in 2 weeks, felt like home. It felt like our hearts were taking root it a way neither of us could explain.

After my crazy call, I sat down to dinner. . .
David looked at me, smiled, and said:

“You want to come back.”
I nodded.
“Me too,” he said.

And I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I realized, that once again, in this crazy, life changing thought that I feared was too strange to be shared, we were on the same page.

It was a quiet whisper in the middle of the storm.

From that moment we started a whirlwind –  a spontaneous coffee break at Mardi’s kitchen table, some pointed emails with certain pleas to Samaritan’s purse, two 30 page applications, and 7 letters of recommendation in 3 days, two interviews, uncertain moments, redirection. And then a phone call on my way home from work from an unknown number in Boone only 6 short weeks after we landed in Kenya. . .

“We are excited to welcome you into the Post-Residency program for Samaritan’s Purse. . .”

I’m sure things were said after that, but it’s one of those moment’s where time stood still and I realized the entire course of our lives had shifted –  and I was ecstatic, a bit terrified, and so grateful as another door was swinging open for us, taking us back to a place and people that we loved already. 

A couple of days ago, we received final confirmation that we have an official place in Kijabe, starting next September for at least the next two years.

David will keep shooting weddings while we are in the States, I will keep learning and soaking in every bit of wisdom from the doctors and nurses here and finish my fellowship.  And we will start preparing to sell everything we own and move to a place we cannot imagine not calling our new home.  

Stay tuned for the continuation of the adventure. . . 

-ari

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 1 Kings 19