Getting settled

 Well we have been in Kapsowar for 3 weeks tomorrow (friday) and we are learning so much! The above picture is at the entrance of the hospital. I (Aaron) am starting to almost have some small sort of idea of how to do medicine here! I'll post soon about my 1st week of work for all you interested out there. I did my first C-Section yesterday with Kyle assisting me. I was slow but everyone involved is doing well (myself included!)

 Last Saturday night we all woke up at 230am from a huge shaking of our house, we thought someone was trying to get into our house. Come to find out it was a huge branch of a tree that had fallen on the power lines. if fell about 30 ft. thankfully no one was hurt

 Here's mom leaving at 5am. She made it home but not the exact way we planned her too! She had to buy another ticket and wait for 9 hours in the Eldoret airport. We miss having her here but as Braelyn says "Nana had to go home to take care of Granddaddy". I'm sure he appreciates us letting her go back home! She is and was such a blessing to us here. Ready for our next visitors, so everyone plan a trip!

 Braelyn Layna and Isaac (the other Jones' youngest boy) watching the Ipad. It was a gift to us from a doctor in the states and has provided hours of entertainment!

 Jason and Anna Lattin and their family were here for a month and we were able to be with them for a couple of weeks. They have 4 children and their niece came with them. They finished the post residency program in 2010 where they served in Bangladesh. She is a family medicine doctor and he is a surgeon. They were so gracious to bring us diapers from the US and it was great letting the kids play together and hearing their wisdom and ideas about our 2 years here. We miss them so much!

 Braelyn and Esther Lattin. They played so well together! Braelyn is now naming her dolls after their family!

 Layna has become well reacquainted with her pacy (she cries for it and calls it her "Bassy, Bassy") It was a step back in my opinion but boy did we need it on the plane and the first weeks here. As Sonya has said "she could really go far in the fussiest kid contest" without it!

The girls are BIG fans of mud puddles. It is tough to keep them out of the mud! And the mud is plentiful when it rains here

Thank you so much for the prayers. We are living off of them right now. Things are good but any adjustment is hard for a while. We are trying to find our role and place in the community and in ministry. So much unfamiliarity but we are blessed to be here right now.
Thanks for reading! We miss you!

More pics of Kapsowar

This was our first Sunday morning here. We are all on our way to church. This is the path from the station area to the hospital. The building you see is the Nursing School.

AIC Kapsowar Church. I can't tell you much about the service because I was outside with the girls most of the time. I think there was a translator though for the sermon. 

This is our backyard. One day we came home to Kenyan kids hitting this tree with sticks to get the fruit off. Braelyn decided to help them! Later we learned that they are not suppose to be doing that :)

This is the foundation of a small guest house they are building in our backyard. The next building is a small house for nursing students, and the roof you see beyond the trees is the Rhodes house. They already have the wall ups on the house now. We will have to post more pics soon.

Coming out of our gate of our front yard this is the "field" and basketball court. It is hard to see, but the court is toward the back. It is a nice play for the kids to run and play.

This is heading left out of our gate. The house beyond the trees is the other Jones'.And that tree line is the driveway that goes left to the hospital.

This is looking toward the hospital, the driveway we walk on to get to church, hospital or town.

During the week there are always ladies sitting here at the end of our road selling produce and things.

Ok, I hope to put up more pics soon. It takes a long time to download them here. It has been a little rainy today and yesterday. Not constant, just overcast. Aaron's first few days at the hospital went really well. Thank you for praying. Please continue to pray for us as we adjust to many new things and pray we can build relationships here quickly. Also pray for me as I get used to being a stay at home mom again and try to work out some type of routine for our family. It has been a challenging few days for me. Thanks for your prayers so much.
   Sorry there aren't more pics of girls. They are missing some of the families that left last week. One of there favorite things lately has been splashing in mud puddles after the rains.
   Hope everyone has a good weekend!
  

Pictures of Travels to Kapsowar

 In the airport in Amsterdam....tired Layna. The girls did so good. Thankful we brought the stroller.

 Enjoying some fruit squeeze snacks. Layna liked having her own seat. About to leave for Nairobi.

 This was a proud moment in the Nairobi airport. Here we are with 15 pieces of luggage!!. It really wasn't that hard getting it all together. Nana kept the girls off to the side and I kept bringing the rolly carts while aaron filled them up. In the pic below I was trying to find a "welcome to kenya" sign. I couldn't find it, so this was the next best thing. It says "Welcome to the place I call home, Kenya" :)

 Here are a couple of pics from the guest house we stayed in in Nairobi. The girls LOVED this tree swing. I would love to figure out how to get them a swing here. I think it could be easily made, just need to find the right tree and make sure it would be ok to have. There would probably be lots of kenyan children to share it with. There is a great space for a playground here on the station. Maybe I will check in to that and make it a project of ours. They do have two small swings at the hospital, but that's all I have seen so far.

Hopefully will post pics of our home and the hospital in the next week or so. It takes a while for pictures to download here.
Thanks for praying for us and loving us! Aaron plans to start work at the hospital on Tuesday. Please pray for him in learning and getting back into the swing of medicine. Also, his mom, Kathy , will be going back to the states on Monday. Pray for her safe travels and for us as we will miss her dearly. So thankful she could come with us and help us get settled.

More to come soon!

We made it to Kapsowar!! Praise the Lord!

Hello everyone! We are so thankful and excited to finally be in our new home in Kapsowar. I could go on and on and on about how gracious and good our Lord is. He has provided so much for us along this journey. I will try to highlight a few things. I'm sure I am forgetting some, but these are a few that stick out to me.....
*on our first LONG flight, there was a lady next to us whose tv screen wasn't working, so she requested to change seats. that left us with an extra seat, so layna could lay down flat and sleep.

*the girls did SO WELL! they both slept for good amount of time on the airplane and behaved themselves very well considering the crazy schedule and long hours we had.

*The guest house we stayed in was such a blessing. We were all able to stay in the same "room", including Kathy, which made it more convenient. They had a great swing and little slide there that the girls really enjoyed. We had one evening of "down time" there, which was much needed.

*On the second LONG flight, there were a lot of empty seats in the back of the plane. Aaron was able to go lay down on a row of seats and actually get a few hours of sleep. Then I rested for a little while too.

*Our travels were all safe and nice. Everyone has stayed healthy!!!!

*Vanessa Jones (one of the other missionary wives who lives in Kapsowar) was able to pick us up in Eldoret and help me do a month's worth of grocery shopping!! It was SO helpful to have her there to show me what i needed and which brands were better.

*We recieved ALL our luggage!! Even after one piece was delayed in Nairobi, we were able to locate it Friday morning and send it along with all our other luggage in the van. (our luggage was driven to Kapsowar separate from us).

Braelyn said it well when we pulled up to our new house here...."Praise the Lord for our new home"!
I think we are all so happy to finally be here and to get to be settled in to a routine and family life.

We are so thankful to have Kathy, Aaron's mom, here with us. She has been so helpful in so many ways.

Pray for us as we get adjusted to this new life. Pray that we can get settled in and makes this "home" soon. We appreciate your prayers so much! Thank you all for the encouraging words and love you have showed us.

Looking forward to posting some pictures soon of our journey here!

It's Go Time

Wow what a whirlwind week...or year for that matter. In the last week we have successfully packed all 15 suitcases and Rubbermaid boxes for our next two years. We have moved out of the mission house and into my (Aaron) parents house for 3 nights. We had our last round of shots and Sonya was diagnosed with Graves Disease! Yes that's right it actually all happened in the last 5 days. Not to go into too much detail, Sonya had been feeling bad for a couple of months. Weight loss, to which I attributed to stress ( we have moved 2 times in 3 months and now moving again to Africa!), heart palpitations to which I told her she needed to exercise (I admit I was wrong!). Nausea and near passing out some mornings (no not pregnant). So we thought it would be a good idea to have her thyroid checked before we leave although she has never had any thyroid problems in the past. Labs were drawn Wednesday (6 days before we leave), results called Thursday, special trip to Bristol (2 hours away) for part of a thyroid scan then a return trip the next day for the rest of the scan, a meeting with an endocrinologist and 2 medicines later she is starting to feel a smidgen better (yes, no thanks to me).  We know this was allowed by God and for a couple of days last week we weren't sure if we would be able to keep the flight tomorrow but God worked and allowed us to get 2 months worth of waiting and appointments and test done in 2 days! Dr. Beasey (the endocrinologist) encouraged us to go so here we go. leaving for the airport in 10 hours! Just a few requests before we go:

• please continue to pray for our health as we go and for Sonya as she adjusts to these meds.
• We will need to have her thyroid checked in a month or so to see whether to go up or down on the dose of meds and I'm sure this can be done in Kenya but we have not been able to nail down any details of where it can be done.
• Please pray for the kids to sleep and obey and the flights/connections to be smooth.
• That all our luggage would arrive when we do...intact!
• Grace as we adjust to all the changes we have been experiencing and will be experiencing 
• Pray for our families as they adjust to us being (a little) further away

Thank you for praying and thank you for giving. We are blessed over and over by you. We are SO excited to go and see what God has in store. It has been a long time coming and it is finally here! To God be the Glory, Lord Willing next update will be from Kenya!

Yay! Progress in Packing!!

Just wanted to give an update on how our week of packing has been going. First of all, thank you all so much for your prayers. This is a tough process, but it is encouraging to know we are being prayed for.
   The first of the week started out slow, but I was glad that my Mom was able to come and help me out some. Another highlight was that my good friend Stephanie offered to bring us dinner Tuesday night! What a blessing it was to have a good meal and get to see her too.
   Today, my sister and my brother and his wife (Carla, Michael & Katy) were able to come to the mission house and help us with many things. My sister has become my personal shopper the past week trying to help me locate random things like sippy cups and make up at several wal-marts and targets. She has been such a great help.
    The most exciting news I would like to share is that after working hard all day today, with the help of my family, we were able to pack SEVEN pieces of luggage!! Woohooo!
    It felt so good to see this progress. I am SO thankful that they were able to come and help. We could not have gotten it all done without them. To top it off, Aaron's mom surprised us by bringing over homemade vegetable beef soup!!

    We are not sure how many pieces of luggage we will have altogether....maybe 12 or 14. That means we are hopefully halfway done!
 
    Tomorrow night we will celebrate Braelyn's 4th birthday! I am thankful that we get to share this special time with family before we go. 
     Praising God for such amazing provision today! And here are some pictures of the process. Actually, these were taken after we got them all done, so the floors are actually much cleaner than they were!

  

New look

Yes, because I have so much free time...I decided to change the look of the blog a little bit :). Really I just didn't like the other one that much. So, hope you like it. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Prayer Request: I have blocked off all of next week for "packing".....real packing, like in action packers and suitcases! So, we would really appreciate your prayers for that process. Pray that I can be quick in my decision making and not get overwhelmed. Thanks!

Tickets... check!

Well it's official we are leaving September 25th 2012 for Kenya! We booked our tickets last week. We will be leaving on that Tuesday at 2:30pm from Knoxville then to Atlanta and on to Amsterdam. Then Amsterdam to Nairobi...scheduled to arrive at 8:15pm on Wednesday night. Total of about 24 hours of travel time. Spend the night in Nairobi then pick up a few items Thursday in Nairobi and spend the night again there. Then Friday morning flying to Eldoret where we will do the grocery shopping and be picked up by the hospital ambulance and ride to Kapsowar. We are told it's about 2 hours unless you take the "scenic route". I'm not sure we want to find out what that means!
My (Aaron) mother is taking the trip with us to give us an extra hand (or two) on the way there and while we unpack. She will be in Kapsowar about a week with us, which is such a blessing!

Still lots to do here. We are still gathering the last few "needed" items. It's hard buying so much but at the same time I'm pretty sure we won't be buying much in the way of clothes and shoes while we are there. No amazon free shipping there!

Please pray for Layna she has another ear infection and started antibiotics yesterday. That stinker ran a fever of 105.5! Last night was much better.
Also pray for our packing. We NEED wisdom! How to pack, what to pack in. How much to pack and what to take.
Please also pray for all of our health (including my mother) as we prepare and as we travel.

We are so thankful to be able to go! Thank you for your prayers and love. 20 days from now we will be checking in at the airport!

I heard a quote in college that really stuck with me that I want to share.
"If being named an ambassador for your home country in a foreign land is considered an honor in this world, why should we consider being an ambassador for Christ in a foreign land a sacrifice!"
Thank you Lord for the privilege to serve!

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

                                         Camping with Sonya's family over Labor Day Weekend

                                                                      Cousins!

                                            Braelyn staying warm after playing in the river

Braelyn's results

Thank you all for your prayers for Braelyn. The test did come back positive, so she is allergic to penicilin. We are very thankful that we were able to find this out before we leave. Now we know to avoid those medicines in the future. The doctor did say that she could be tested again when we return. He said sometimes they grow out of it.
  
Braelyn was so brave during the appointment!! Aaron said she did so good. No crying, no complaining. Thank you again for your prayers for her.

On today's agenda......trying to find me a new pair of glasses and another list of more things to purchase before we leave. I have never really been a "shopper" and so this process of having to find and buy so many things has been tough. I think I will be totally fine with not entering a Wal-Mart for another two years :). At least that's how I feel right now.

We appreciate your prayers so much! We are working on getting our email list put together so that we can send out our first email update before we leave.

Update and Prayer Request for Braelyn

Just a quick update....

Things are going pretty well. We have been having a lot of opportunities to share at churches which has been great. Last Sunday we shared at the church I grew up in, FBC Dandridge, and a lot of my extended family was able to come and spend the afternoon with us. It was a great time of fellowship. I'm very thankful to my mom for getting it all together.
    This weekend we are traveling to Christiansburg, VA to speak at Good Shepherd Baptist Church. This was our home church during four years of medical school. We are excited to see everyone there and see how God is working.

 Prayer Request: This past January Braelyn had an allergic reaction while taking Augmentin. However, it was not the typical presentation of an allergic reaction to this medicine, so we have a doctor's appt this Monday morning with a children's allergist to try and figure out if she is truly allergic to this medicine or not. Please pray that the tests come back negative and that she is not allergic.

Also, it is looking like our leave date might be Oct. 2nd. We were looking at the end of the last week in September, but we are told it would be better if we leave at the beginning of the week.

We are busy trying to make our final purchases and sorting through the rest of our "stuff". I practiced packing an action packer full of the girls toys.....unfortunately, we can find our scale to weigh it and see if it is under the 50 lb limit. But it is a pretty amazing thought to think that most all of our toys can fit in one trunk! That is minus any books......probably going to have to spread those out in a few different pieces of luggage. Hopefully it will meet the weight requirement and I will know how to pack at least one thing :).

 My Pop, who is 90 years old, was able to make the trip and spend the day with us!

 

Thanks for your prayers and support. This season of transition seems like an emotional rollercoaster at times. We are excited for the opportunity, but it is a lot of work getting there.

Progress?

For the record we are still alive! Sorry for the delay in updates. We have been so busy with orientation in both Bristol and Boone for a week at the end of July. It was great meeting the other 14 physicians and their families who are in the same boat we are going with Samaritan's Purse to mission hospitals in Central America, Asia and Africa. 2 other couples are also going to Kenya but to different hospitals than we are. It was a lot of great info at both locations. Bristol orientation was at the CMDA and was a great time of learning from missionaries who had a combined 50+ years of missionary service. It was more of a big picture...setting goals, being aware of culture, how to mentor and be mentored.Things these missionaries wish they would have known on the front end.

Boone orientation was at the SP headquarter which impressed us with the amount of work and quality of work that goes on there in all their ministries. There it was more focused on the details such as conflict on the mission field, Q & A time with missionary doctors who recently returned from the mission field. How to do your taxes overseas, what banks to use, security training and some fellowship and hang out time.

Then I (Aaron) visited a great friend from medical school who lives in Seattle, Washington. That took us through the end of July and so far August has been summarized by DOLLYWOOD. 2 trips in 1 week! First with cousins and second with friends from med school and residency. As the pictures show, the kids love it but we were WORN OUT.

I've had the opportunity to speak at 2 different churches and have 3 more on the schedule tomorrow, next week and early Sept. Please pray God would speak through me to encourage and motivate through His word.

We have moved our leave date to the last week of September. I keep telling everyone "we want to leave as soon as possible but we are realizing we have no idea what is possible!". We are buying and buying (2 years worth of clothes for the girls) and hope to start packing soon. So many little details that we are trying to trust God to provide. We know He will, we are just so faithless sometimes. Thanks for keeping up!

Learning and Preparing

Sorry I have not updated much lately. We are really busy these days trying to figure out what we need to take to Kapsowar and trying to spend time with family and friends.

Today was our first day of orientation and we heard a lot of great information. It is so encouraging to be in a setting with other young people and young families that are going through the same thing we are. We are hoping to feel a little more prepared when we come back home next week.

We have changed our leave date to the end of September. We appreciate your prayers so much even during this time of preparation and decision making for the future. This is an overwhelming process at times, but we know that the Lord has called us to it and we know He is faithful to provide for what we need.

Specific Prayer Requests:

*Please pray that God would teach us a lot through our orientation

*For continued wisdom in packing and planning for the next two years in Kapsowar

*Wisdom in managing the time we have left here before we leave

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!