Spreading Her WIngs - Val's Story, Chapter 7

 Last April, I started sharing stories of my daughter Val's young life. It turns out that now is the time to jump back into it. And today's topic sure does tie in with my last post. As usaul, that's not because I have it together; that's God at work.   

In July 2002, I packed up Nick, Val, and one of her friends, and drove us and our old pop-up camper to Lifest Christian Music Festival in Oshkosh.

I had never heard of it until a flyer arrived in the mail earlier that year, addressed to Nicholas. He was excited and seemed to know all about it, even said he had some friends who were going.

It didn’t take long for Val to become equally excited. It would be three nights and four days of Christian music and speakers on several different stages, with food vendors, lines for the showers, and safe partying late into the night.

The dream of every teenager and pre-teen.

I never imagined how it would change our lives. 

 Val and I continued attending the event for the next several years, with an ever-growing number of girls in tow. The rest of the year, she was involved in a puppet ministry and the youth group at our church, as well as the youth group at another church in town. When she started high school, she joined the drama department and acted in three plays a year. She was busy and seemed to have discovered her place in the world.

While at Lifest in 2005 we both learned of – at different times – a mission trip planned for the following year to Kenya, Africa. It was something I had dreamed about doing as a kid, but by then I felt I was too old for an adventure like that.

Val had her heart set on the trip from the moment she heard about it. She had gone on a mission trip to Mexico earlier that summer and felt called to spread her wings even further. It took a little convincing and a few phone calls to the people in charge of the trip for me to decide.

We were both going to go.

Those two weeks turned out to indeed be the trip of a lifetime. I struggled with being so far out of my comfort zone, but Val’s star shone brightly. She embraced everything about Kenya – the food, the culture, the people we traveled with, the people we met there. She vowed she’d return one day.

The only cloud in her life was that her boyfriend had broken up with her the night before we left. When she wasn’t busy with the kids on the trip or doing work for someone, she would withdraw and break down in tears. Her emotions were a constant roller coaster.

And it didn’t improve when we got home.

I finally took her to the clinic to get her started on an antidepressant and look into counseling. I became so worried about her that I slept on the floor outside her bedroom door at night.

Until the evening she came out of her room and said she had talked to her church’s youth pastor on the phone and told her she was thinking about hurting herself. The young woman was responsible for contacting the authorities, so the police were on the way to our house to check on my daughter. 

They took her to the police station to wait for a county social worker to arrive to talk to her. My husband and I followed in our car.

After what felt like hours, we took Val back home. She promised she wouldn’t harm herself, and I promised I’d take her back to the clinic in the morning.

Coming Full Circle - Kenya 2026, Blog post #13

Today marks exactly one year since we held the memorial for Val. I thought it was time to share what that meant to our friends in Kenya and wrap up this series about our trip. 

One afternoon when we were out at Anyoraa, our friend Izzo’s safari camp, he took us on a tour of the grounds and explained some of the projects he’d like to build in the future. Beehives, a tree house, a restaurant around the pizza oven he’s already built, upgrading the chicken coop we built seven years ago, a car wash, a day care center for the women working at the water bottling plant, and a vertical vegetable garden.

 The wastewater from the bottling plant next door would continually water the plants in the vertical garden. Currently, much of the precious water is just running off on the ground. It’s good water, but because it has been used in the bottling process, it is not good enough to bottle.

Weeks before our trip, I had told Izzo that we had money left from Val’s memorials which we wanted to donate to one of his projects. When we finally had the chance to sit down and talk to Izzo about the money, he offered to build the vertical garden in her memory and call it Val’s Garden. Of all his projects, he thought this one could be completed in a timely manner.

A few weeks after we got home, on the one-year anniversary of learning of my daughter’s death, Izzo sent me pictures of the completed garden. Life always manages to come full circle. This garden belongs to all of you who gave money during that impossible time in our lives last year. Thank you so much.

The last very special thing our friends in Kenya did in Val’s memory was to have this portrait painted. It will hang in the volunteer house where she spent so many hours working to help the people of her adopted country.

Not at all a game drive but still animals – Kenya 2026, Blog post #12

I am so close to finishing telling you about our trip to Africa, but I gotta get in one today. And promise to close this series with an unexpected blog post tomorrow.

Anyway, our last full day in Kenya, we weren’t done with rhinos when we left four of them behind at the Nairobi National Park.

Meet Tytan, an orphaned 20-month-old Black Rhino, and his adopted sister, zebra Notty. They both arrived at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi around the same time, at the same age. Their caretakers decided to put the pair together and their bond is so sweet.   

It’s easy to tell a Black Rhino from a White Rhino. The White has a wide lip, 

While the Black has a pointy lip that almost looks like a hook to me. 

The number of Black Rhinos in the wild in Africa is estimated at 6,500. As they are considered critically endangered, each one of them is vital to the survival of the species. Once Tytan is fully grown, he will be released into the wild, under constant surveillance. Praying that one day he is able to father many little rhinos, and that one day all rhinos – black and white – can live in peace.

Moving along, though, we also saw the baby elephants at home at Sheldrick.

Too adorable for words.

And lastly, after lunch, we got to feed the giraffes at the Giraffe Center. 

A full day for sure.

If you want to learn more about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust or adopt one of the orphans, click on this link. 

Nairobi National Park, Game Drive #6 – Kenya 2026, Blog post #11

Our time in Kenya was winding down. It was Friday, July 31. Nick and Jessica would fly home that night, and the rest of us – the three old ladies - would leave the next day. We had to pack in as much as we could that day. But for me, one thing mattered. One thing I was hoping for, almost counting on.

We left early in the morning for Nairobi National Park, which is only a twenty-minute drive from where we were staying. It’s a small park, less than 30,000 acres, compared to Masa Mara which is ten times bigger, at over 373,000 acres. What would we see here that we hadn’t seen already?

We found wildebeest, hippos, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, and a variety of birds. Our driver, Peter, told us that the lion pride had moved south, out of the park and into the Kitengela Conservation Area. Leopards aren’t known to be in either place, so I was out of luck seeing one this trip. But what about the last of the Big Five? We’d seen elephants, lions, and buffalo. What about number five?

What’s that in the brush?

And what is with it? 

Could it be? Not just one Southern White Rhino, but a mother with her baby. 

There are between 16,000 and 18,000 Southern White Rhinos alive today. Their numbers had dwindled to around 100 in 1900, due mostly to poaching for their horns, which some people, mostly in Asia, believe have medicinal benefits. Their comeback is a conservation success story.

Not so for the closest subspecies. The Northern White Rhino is basically extinct, with only two, aging females remaining, living on a reserve in Kenya, protected 24/7 by armed guards. The last male of their species, Sudan, died in March of 2018, at the age of 45.

These white rhinos in Nairobi Park are also guarded night and day. I didn’t want to zoom in on them, so the picture is not the best. But they were there.

After we left the mom and her calf, we found these two bachelors, living their best life, 

even if they were surrounded by safari vans.

We watched them for a very long time. I'm sure they didn't know how special they are.  

Island Life, Game Drive #5 – Kenya 2026, Blog post #10

This wasn’t actually what you would call a game drive. It was more a “boat ride to a game walk”. But it was cool walking out among the animals.

We started with the boat ride on Lake Naivasha. 

When I was first on that lake in 2019, the water level was much lower, so the island we rode to wasn’t there at the time. It was more of a peninsula where the animals could come and go. 

Since a flood in 2020, Crescent Island has been an island more than a peninsula, averaging around 180 acres of mostly dry land. Which doesn't bother the hippos at all. 

The rest of the animals seem to have adapted.  

And as much as I enjoyed walking around the island, there was one thing that blew me out of the water. This is where my friend Phyllis needs to stop reading and stop scrolling through the pictures. And Phylis, if you don’t heed my warning, well, I warned you.

I wanted to see the leopard and the rhino on this trip, but I never expected to see this guy.

He had recently captured and killed a small antelope, swallowed it whole and then crawled into his hole to digest it, which will take a couple of weeks. And it will be another two months before he needs to eat again, so at least everyone should feel safe on the island for a while.  

He (or maybe, she) is an African Rock Python. Hard to get a decent picture because he is hunkered down in his burrow, but I thought it was still so fascinating to see him. Like I said, something totally unexpected, I've not even seen him on any safari brochures. I was so thankful that our guide walked us over to where he was resting, even if all we saw was his patch of skin.

And that’s about it from the island. 

Game Drive #4 – Kenya 2026, blog post #9

Hard to believe that just shy of five weeks ago, we were in Kenya, heading out on another game drive. This one to the beautiful Masa Mara, where I’ve been several times before. As usual, the number of animals we saw was amazing, but I won’t share all of the pictures of the ones which I’ve already shared here on my posts from Amboseli.  

Amboseli is known for its herds of elephants, but there are very few big cats there. In the Mara, however, prides of lions are readily seen. These beautiful cats were feasting on a fresh kill for breakfast. 

The youngsters wanted to play with Dad, and he seemed good-natured about it

But the male lion will always think he is the coolest creature.

We saw one cheetah that morning.

And another later in the day.

Topis will always be my favorite antelope. Their coats are so beautiful.

Maybe I like them the best because I can easily recognize them. All those other species of antelope?

Sometimes, I’m just not sure.

Another jackal.

And more hyenas.

Lots of wildebeest.

And literal tons of buffalo.

These giraffes were cool, coz they were all laying down. Saw more elephants, hippos, and zebras too. But one guy remained elusive.

Somewhere in these trees or somewhere nearby, the leopard is watching us from his lair.

I’ll need to keep going on safaris until I spy him.