Bye-Bye

Our hope was to be able to blog to our family and friends about our life here in Africa. We have failed. Not because we are having too much fun with the kids at ROHI, or because we spend a lot of our day cooking, or because we get to go on cool safaris, nope not at all. It's because we live in Africa and our internet is way too slow to post anything on our sweet blog.

We do hope, however, to keep you updated through pictures and blurbs about what is going on here through our Facebook account. We have noticed writing and putting pictures on that site is doable. So, please look at our sites and comment. We would love to know if anyone wants to keep up with our live:-)

We love you all and thank you so much for your love and support with us being here. We know we could not do it without any of you.

The Sammons'

Great times with the parents...

we are going to miss them, a lot!

Last week we had an emotional week when we found out a good friend tested positive for HIV. I was with her at the appointment when they gave her to confirmatory result that it was HIV. My heart broke. I could see her heart break. I just held her as she cried. I reassured her we won't leave her and that we will help her through this. But hearing those words are devastating and scary. It's frustrating and confusing because 5 yrs ago and last yr she tested negative so it was a big shock. The only time she could have contacted it was 6 yrs ago.
I would appreciate your prayers. For my friend and how she will see God through all of this. That she will cling to the Lord and not run. Praise the Lord there are good medicines out there so can live a good life, just like normal.
Please pray for me that I will have the Lord's words flowing from my mouth. That I can show Christ unconditional love and that I will be able to help her however I can.
God has a perfect timing of her finding out when we are here to help her. I know the Lord has a plan in all of this.
I hope you have a great week filled with many sweet times with our Lord.

little Hope...

These are a week old but at least I am getting them on:-) Little Hope is such a sweetie. She is very easy and very cute. She sleeps really well at night and eats really well. I couldn't ask for anything different. Dakota and Kate love her. They are always helping and wanting to hold her. The above picture looks a lot like one of my baby pictures. When she was first born we thought she looked a lot like Dakota's baby pictures, but now we are thinking she looks more like my baby pictures.

This past month my mom has been here. She has been extremely helpful. She plays with Dakota and Kate all day, puts them down for nap and bedtime and makes me and Troy go on a date every week.:-) She has been so fun to be with. She will be with us for another 1 1/2 weeks, yeah! My dad comes in tonight for 10 days. We are very excited to have him here. The girls miss him a lot.

Thank you all for your prayers. We have felt them and we appreciate them more then you'll know. We hope all is well with everyone. Please if you think of it keep us up-dated on your life...we love to hear whats going on with others. :-)

cuteness...

Zed

Emmanuel, Zed and Gilbert

These are the cute boys who live on our property. Their dad, Douglas is our groundskeeper/guard. They are a very sweet family.

Hope has arrived!

Hello world, she is here! Hope arrive last night at 10:25pm Kenyan time with great health and is doing good. She is 6.7lbs and 19in long. Her full name is Hope Noelle Sammons. Depending on how Kenya votes on a new constitution she could be considered for dual citizenship, but we are not holding our breath as we are excited about the freedoms she will have as an American citizen. Bekah did amazing as the labor went from normal hard to accelerated and ridiculous after she past 5cm at 9:30pm. One hour later, she was out before the doctor had time to leave her house. The nurse did a great job delivering her and no complications were present other than the obvious of getting a baby out of mommy.

Her sisters visited early this morning with expected mixed responses. Dakota did great and immediately commented that Hope's hair needed a bit of gel. Kate was a little more stoic about her excitement and liked being close to mom or dad with a bit of a harder time. We are resting up at the hospital today and will probably leave sometime tomorrow to wait for Yia Yia to arrive.

Thanks for all the encouragement, and notes we are soaking them up and have been blessed to have the technology to connect with people rather easily. Thank you for all the prayers we know her birth is a miracle, like each, but with the army we had praying she was well covered, praise the Lord for a safe and healthy transition.

She is almost here...

I just wanted to let you know we leave tomorrow, Wednesday, January 6th, for Nairobi. We will be staying with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Liz Bussell awaiting the arrival of little Hope. We are SO grateful to have family nearby that are so hospitable and let us stay with them. They have been more then gracious in helping us in every way possible.

We would appreciate your prayers while we stay with them. It will be tight courters, they have two girls. Please pray the girls will do exceptionally well and that we all will not get too cramped in the house.

Also, please pray for the arrival of baby Hope. We re very excited for her to come... we can't wait! We do hope she will come early so we can get back home and enjoy our new bundle. Please pray for her health and safety.

Last, my mom arrives next Wednesday! Please pray for her safe travels. We are more then excited to have her here with us. The girls are always talking about Yia Yia sleeping with them in their room. We know it's going to be so good for Dakota to have my mom here because she has been missing family and friends a lot more lately. So praise the Lord He is bringing Yia Yia at the right time.

Thanks for all your prayers. We hope everyone is doing well. We pray for you often and praise the Lord for your faithfulness for praying for us and supporting us during our time here.

Thank you!

A bible study group from LBC adopted our family for the year. They are committed to praying for us and sending us goodies throughout the year. We are so blessed to have them doing this for us. They sent us a ginger bread cookie decorating box. They girls had so much fun decorating the cookies and eating the candy. They would eat a lot of pieces of candy then put one piece on their cookie.

Thanks Allison's bible study group. We had so much fun!!

We hope everyone is having a blessed December. We hope your week this week is full of remembrance of what the season is all about. May you enjoy your time with friends and family.

We love you and

Merry Christmas!

My loves...

Dakota trying to carry Kate on her back

the gansta face

Just wanted to share a few pictures of my 3

favorite people