Flashback Friday: "Kenya"

In the spring of 1994, I spent seven weeks in Kenya, Africa. I went there to meet up with my then-fiance, Lance, who had arrived in Kenya in January to help his mother who was a full-time missionary to orphaned street children. The trip was not pre-planned - one night in February, Lance called (way long distance) and asked me to join him - to see if we could make a life work together in missions overseas.

Obviously, knowing that I'm not married to a man named Lance, the answer to that question was, "No, we can't make that work". The experience was VERY emotionally challenging for me, particularly the second half following Lance's decision to postpone our wedding date indefinitely, up to him to decide if it ever would happen. Yuck, what a sad time in my life when I allowed a man to have so much power over how I viewed myself......

But, along with the heartbreak, there were some extraordinary experiences. When we were crawling around in the attic a couple of weeks ago, John found the album and we laughed at some of the pics. I picked my three favorites - two of them were taken in Mombasa, the last week we were there, when the three of us took a vacation at a resort on the Indian Ocean. Knowing I was soon to be home at that point, and the "more luxurious" accommodations of that locale certainly contributed to lifted spirits. Of course, the pic with the camel is self-explanatory. The second picture shows me with some members of the Masai Tribe. I am very proud of that picture. =) Finally, the third picture shows us actually at the equator, with a friend's son.