We have a high school graduate! Our daughter Mary graduated from Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi last May. Last school year was exhausting for us in many ways—2 surgeries for Mary’s knees, other medical needs, various staff and student hospitalizations and illnesses, and sadly a tragic accident and loss of an elementary staff child—in addition to regular chaplaincy tasks. The year left us overloaded with responsibilities and more needs than we could effectively meet.
We prayerfully made the decision to take a full year furlough for this current academic year — it’s been 7 years since we spent a full year stateside.
We are connecting with supporting churches across the US as scheduling permits, managing medical and academic needs for our kids, and supporting Mary as she has started college.
Rosslyn has a host of people who are covering Kevin’s role for this school year—8 people carrying various portions of what he usually covers himself, and we are praying that some of them love those tasks enough to keep them so that he can spend more time focusing on students when we return next year! Robin had already decided to take a break from teaching, and the school found a fantastic replacement.
We chose our “home base” for this year according to where the majority of family is currently living, and also to be close to Mary to support her. We’ve never lived in Texas before, but we are glad to be so close to grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins!
Our first several months were consumed with setting up the basic needs of a home for one year, and all the logistics involved to enroll our kids into three different schools (college for Mary, high school for Christina and middle school for Jonathan), as well as finding all new doctors. Family helped us source donations and cheap furniture for our household needs, other friends donated gifts, and we even found a perfect couch on the side of the street!
Our Family Life:
Mary is attending Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, TX, just south of Dallas. We are thankful to be living just over an hour’s drive from her college campus, so we can be a tangible support to her as she adjusts to living in the USA after spending 12 years growing up in Kenya.
Christina is in 11th grade, and was provided a generous tuition scholarship to
attend Bethesda Christian School in Fort Worth. She loves chemistry and volunteering for a kids program one afternoon a week and in the church nursery. Jonathan is in 6th grade at Timberview Middle School in Keller, where he receives helpful academic support. He has been a trouper joining a public school three times the size of our school in Kenya, with only 5th-8th grades!
We enjoyed spending Christmas with Robin’s parents — it’s been 8 years! And it was the first Christmas together with all the cousins on the McGee side!