Well - we have all been home for almost a week now and to say that it is an adjustment returning home is an understatement. Not only the recovery from jet lag and getting adjusted to our own food again...but an adjustment to every day life. I know we will never take forgranted a comfortable place to sit and some of the little luxuries we just expect in our lives.
For the first few days, I didn't have the words to even describe the trip or our experiences - our time in Kenya was so radically different than our lives here it took some time to put our thoughts together and begin to articulate what we have learned through this experience. In some ways the time in Kenya felt like a dream. But, as we talk through our experiences, read through our journals and look at our pictures our thoughts are coming together and I feel better able to articulate things. Maybe my brain has also recovered from the lack of sleep!
My thoughts so far (and I'll speak on behalf of the group)...
Somehow we have to take what we learned, what we saw and experienced in Kenya and incorporate that into our lives here in America - our experiences were LIFE CHANGING and I know each of us on the trip will never approach our day-to-day lives quite the same. However that doesn't minimize our stresses, problems and struggles here. I had a friend talk to me about some of her stresses and problems while we were gone and she said, "but I know that is nothing in comparison to the problems you saw and what people to through in Kenya". While this is true - I want to make sure to not minimize our problems here - they are our reality. And, I don't know why we were born into life in America and not in Kenya - that is a part of God's plan for our lives. I hope we can learn to approach our lives here with a new way of thinking, a new paradigm...and a rewnewed energy to do the best we can with what we have been given and help the children in Kenya in any way possible.
We are also experiencing a bit of a let down (or at least I am) - which makes complete sense, but was another piece of the puzzle I wasn't quite prepared for. When planning for such an experience, you tend to focus solely on your time in country...what you will do, what you need to plan for, what the culture will be like. But, you fail (or at least I did) to plan for life after such an adventure. I have to admit that life seems a little quiet now...not that I entirely mind the extra time to relax and focus on areas of my own life I have neglected for some time...but there is a definite let down.
We are giving ourselves a couple of weeks to recover and clear our heads and then our team will be coming together, gathering pictures and developing a presentation to share with people about our time in Kenya and what our next steps are with the Kenyan Orphan Project at Glorious Academy. We will be sharing this with our church family and are open to talking with other groups or churches...just let us know if you are interested and we'll see what we can schedule!
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