we've been daydreaming...

We have been looking at houses for rent, houses for sale, and land for sale. Our plan is to rent a 4 bedroom (or more) house when we first arrive in Kenya so that we can take in a few orphans as soon as our paperwork goes through, while we're working on buying land and building the orphanage (or whatever we end up doing permanently).

We have all kinds of possible ideas about what to build: 1 storey, 2 storeys, 2 wings, 3 wings, a big rectangular floor plan with a courtyard in the middle... Probably our first building will have at least 7 bedrooms, to include space for us, space for up to 16 orphans, and space for 1 other married couple on staff. The price of land is disheartening, though.

There are other ideas, too. We found online a new housing development (called an estate in Kenya), with many 3-4 bedroom houses for sale for fairly cheap. What if we bought 3 or 4 houses in a row in an estate? They have very small yards, but with several together (of course we'd take down the fencing between houses) we'd have enough room for a garden and play area.

Another dream we've had: We buy several acres of land and build the orphange. We have room for a nice garden. Then, we put in a recreation area off to one side, expanding it bit by bit: playground, basketball, volleyball, mini golf... Meanwhile, we'll be taking in more and more kids, so we'll have to build a second home, but there is plenty of space since we've got so much land.

What will we actually end up doing? God knows and will show us when it's time. For now it's exciting to imagine the possibilities.