Uhuru Peak!!!!-Day 6

OMG we just summited Mount Kilimanjaro with our four young children on our twins 10th birthday !!!! God is sooo good and we are grateful!

I am truly at a lost of words to describe this day plus I’m a bit tired so I will give highlights:

Woke at 3am to start summit from base camp

Tough accent that required a lot of positive mental energy to succeed.

Seeing folks turn around sick on the mountain jared my nerves but we kept going.

Youngest Amara struggled at times but mostly refused the offer of our personal porters to carry her up. I tired at first for all of one minute or so before she said “ mommy I can walk now” but that didn’t last . DH also carried her some distance because she wouldn’t accept help from porters . Eventually with a prayer miracle, she allowed our chief porter Prosper to carry her and he came prepared ….with baby wrap n all, very impressive indeed. Ultimately Amara hiked rest of way herself after receiving very minimal help from all who offered.

Alan, Alex and Adaeze were amaze balls!!! Let’s just say tired or not, their attitude beat the altitude . Alan did the floss at Stella point!

We ALL reached the summit Uhuru peak at exactly noon!

What a sight!! Took in African’s glacier on the left and a crater to the right of the Uhuru peak . God is totally awesome , the best artist and maker of all things beautiful! We said prayers, I bent down with renewed energy to kiss motherland Africa and prayed for its past and its future.

We were all ecstatic and celebrated with many hugs and kisses, even some emotionality at the enormous reality we were living. I was extremely thankful that my DH had envisioned returning to summit Mount Kilimanjaro a second time, this time with us, his family. Here we all were , living this vision turned reality, especially in good health as a significant bonus!

DH even brought a St Louis Blues Hockey team rally towel to the summit for a memorabilia and photo op!

Our chief guide surprised our twin with fruit juice champagne at the summit!!!🥂

They were so happy they immediately stated that they wanted to bring the empty bottle back home with us for a keepsake.

We hung out ,took picture for about 30 mins and it was time to quickly get off the mountain to lower altitude and more oxygen.

Descending was rushed as our guides literally grabbed our arms locked in theirs to move us down the mountain as fast as possible. It also felt tough on my ” runner’s” or should I say -maturing knees especially lol. I did have a slight headache that increased as I pounded my feet each step down the rocky mountain.

Felt much better after having a warm meal once at base camp .

Kids true to form we’re down again wayyyy before DH , Amara and Myself… yes I was last of my crew off the mountain. Ain’t no shame in my game lol

As we descending Kilimanjaro, a storm was approaching and it literally began snowing on us as we were getting off the mountain to base camp…. my first time experiencing SNOW in Africa!

At base camp our hosts had an incredible birthday surprise for the twins complete with dancing , chants and carrot cake by chef Tito! Hope to post video of this below…

Our children’s smiles were priceless, and that warmed my heart. I was so proud to be their mother and to be parenting them with my DH. What a special way to celebrate their 10th birthday.

Following our meals and celebration we had to quickly rush out of base camp for Mweka camp – another 2 hours hike. This camp gets us closer to the gate tomorrow morning when we start the last 6 hrs hike out of the beautiful Kilimanjaro national park.

We came we saw and we are forever impacted for good as a result.

Love to Mother Africa!