You should go and read this post. Really, go on & read it! & then let me know what you think....i'll share too. :)

And He's Two!

Have I told you lately how much I love this crazy little guy?! Well I do!

Happy Birthday Levi!

Isn't his hair awesome! : ) Jesse keeps wanting me to cut it, but I don't see why!

A Mom to Five

This summer I watched 2 boys for 3 weeks. They are in the process of being adopted by a single guy here, but he was heading back to the states to raise support for his NGO. He was gone for 5 weeks, and hadn't found anyone to watch the boys, so I volunteered to take them for 3. I figured 3 weeks, no problem!

It was CRAZY! Have I ever told you that growing up I always said that I wanted 7 kids... yep 7. I don't think I want 7 anymore. Plus I'm pretty sure Jesse would leave me.

But honestly, the boys are actually really good. They are 5 & 4 and overall would listen to me.... but they are 5 & 4 and they are BOYS. So they really can only be that good. The whole time they stayed with me, I could only keep thinking of our friends who have 5 boys. & i just kept wondering how they kept their house in order, and I never remember it being very loud at their place.... honestly, i just remembered our kids being the loud ones. But let me tell you, it was loud here for those 3 weeks. Of course it doesn't help that our house is made of marble, so noises just echo off of everything, but it was loud, all the time. & man those boys could eat! Jesse & I were amazed how they could pack it away. But overall it was good, and once they left I realized that having my three kids is EASY! This mom thing is no problem. ; ) It was amazing how easy it felt. I felt like i could really spend time with them, and get some toys put away, and actually have some time to myself.

So maybe not 7.... but I am hoping for at least one more (it's different when they're your own kids, right!?).... but i have to make sure Jesse will stick around first!

p.s. I know, they are adorable!

Broken

My heart is broken. It's not fair that an 8 month old has to die just because she was born in Uganda. My wonderful house-helper's niece has been sick. She's been in the Government run hospital for the past few weeks. She had surgery, but the surgeon messed up a very simple procedure, and now the little girl is dead.

My heart is heavy. A 3 year old who comes from the streets, she can not walk, talk, and is smaller then my 2 year old, and is sick with TB. She is to live in a “rehabilitation” home. It’s worse then a prison. http://sixtyfeet.org

My heart questions. Why should someone who has given so much of their life be told that the cancer is back, again? They have 3 young kids with another on the way. I cry out for answers.

It’s hailing right now. Yes, hailing in 70 degree Uganda. It was a beautiful day, and then within 5 minutes the sky turns black, and hail falls from the sky. It’s a violent storm. I watch as the trees outside bend in the strong wind. I watch our stalks of corn break in two. There is water seeping into the house through the windows and under doors.

It reminds me that this is not how it’s supposed to be. Even the earth knows this. We live in a broken world. And I need to remember that soon (hopefully soon) Jesus will come back and He will restore everything that is wrong. Oh Jesus, please come soon!

"Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory

he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for

that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with

eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will

join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in

the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we

believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit

within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our

bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait

with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full

rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies

he has promised us. We were given this hope when

we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need

to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we

don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)"

Romans 8:18-25 (NLT)

Life After Bombing

July 11th started out like any other Sunday morning... yelling at encouraging the kids to get in the car so we can go to church to learn about the love of Jesus.

Got home, had our Sunday night family movie night, put the kids to bed. & then Jesse & I debated about who was going to go out and watch the Final World Cup game. You might think we were both wanting to go, but sorry to say we are not soccer - i mean "football" fans. It is better here than America, just b/c everyone gets into it, but we still just don’t quite get it. But Jesse ended up getting a call from a friend who was going out to watch the game so he decided to go ahead and go.

At 9pm we heard the fireworks go off around town, just as the game was going to start. Jesse left, and I went up to put in a "chick flick" that i knew Jesse would never want to see. At about 11pm I heard some distant noise, i thought maybe it was thunder, 2 minutes later i heard it again. No it wasn't thunder. Must be something to do with the World Cup... although it didn't sound like fireworks either. It couldn't be a bomb. The only reason that thought even crossed my mind is that about 3 years ago we lived in Sri Lanka.... this isn't the first bomb i've heard.

Anyway, I decided to just sit back down and finished my movie. About 30 minutes later I got a call from one of my friends who works with the embassy, and she told me that there has been a confirmed bombing, and 2 unconfirmed bombings, and that we should stay at home. Well great Jesse is not at home! I quickly start trying to get a hold of Jesse. He doesn't answer his phone. I call 3 other people who are with him. First two, no answer. Finally the third friend picks up. I tell him what's going on, and that they should probably come on home.

We don't know much that night. The next day we start finding out a little more. Our internet is moving slower than molasses. The only website I can access is Facebook. No news sources, no email. It makes it hard to get any good information. Lots of rumors are flying around that there were two other bombs as well (turns out to be false). I guess it was all over the news in the states, since we heard from so many friends & family, making sure we were okay. Thankfully we were & all of Jesse’s colleagues & their families were all fine too.

I went out that very next day. Everything seemed back to normal already. (very weird) Traffic was the same, everyone went to work, stores were open. The biggest difference has been when you go to a store or mall. They are checking every vehicle. One guy opens up all your doors, checks the glove box, and looks inside any boxes you might have in your car. The other guy has a mirror to check under the car. That’s just to get in the parking lot. Then to get in the store there is usually a security line where they are checking your purse and then patting you down. A little weird when you just want to get some milk.

But my guess is that won’t last long, and really it’s not really going to do anything. It just gives people a false sense of security. Today I was waiting for the security guard to check my car, and the car in front of me just decided that it didn’t want to wait for him to finish checking his car, so he just kept driving. Now in the states, the police would be all over you, and you would probably get into a lot of trouble. Here, the security guard waved his finger at him as he drove off, and then came over to check my car. See not real effective. : )

STOP TWO: Aurora, Nebraska

We flew from London to Omaha Nebraska, with a 5 hour lay over in Chicago. One of the things you talk about a lot when you live overseas is the food that you miss. The top five things on my list.... chips & salsa, cheese burgers, pizza, steak, & ice cream. So while we were wainting in Chicago we had to go get some real "American" food! Want to know what the first American food we had?! Jesse & I had Uno's pizza & the kids had McDonald's. Man it was so good!

We spent the next six days in Nebraska with Jesse’s family. Jesse’s step dad picked us up from the airport and started driving to the hotel, and Jesse yells at him for being on the wrong side of the street. (he was driving on the right side). Just one of the things you have to get used to again! That & cars actually obeying traffic signals, lines on the road, and giving you more than 2 inches of space. Crazy stuff I know! :)

It was so fun being w/ everyone. We ate a lot of good home cooked meals. And the kids had a blast playing with all their cousins.

Watching the Easter Egg Hunt

As you can tell Isaac has one too many older girl cousins : )

that and he's a little wired from all the sugar he ate in the previous 24 hours.

Where Have I Been?!

Great question, a better one might be where haven’t I been? In the last 2 months I’ve been in 4 countries, 5 states, and numerous friends & family houses. It’s been great.

In April we were scheduled to be back in Washington D.C. for IJM’s yearly Global Prayer Gathering (GPG). Every year IJM will fly Jesse & myself back to attend this great event. Since we’ve now been in Uganda for a year... yep, let me say that again....ONE FULL YEAR! We thought we would go ahead and extend our trip by two weeks, and bring the kiddos with us as well. So I’ll post a little bit each day on each of our stops...

STOP ONE: Wales via London, England
We arrived in London to visit my parents for 5 days. They actually live in Carlisle which is in the northern most part of England. (right on the border of Scotland). They decided that instead of driving 6 hours up to Carlise, they would drive 5 hours to a rented place in Wales, and we would spend our time there. Jesse has said that my parents should publish a coffee table book titled, “Very Cool Guest Houses In the Middle of Nowhere”. That really just sums it up.

Our view from our cottage

Our cute little cottage

It was a great time to decompress. The kids were a little sick, so that was no fun, but it was nice to just sit and relax.


When we first got there, Rachel got so excited that she could drink water from the tap and that milk came from a carton, “just like in America, mom!”. Awwww the joys of children. :) Okay I was pretty excited about it myself.

We had a wonderful time catching up with my parents. & letting them get up at 6am with the kids. We also went to a castle, ate fish & chips, and saw lots of sheep. Yep a typical day in the U.K.

Over a Week

Well there goes my new year's resolution :) It's been over a week, and you still aren't going to get a post.... i've been sick the past 2 days, and just can't get myself to write anything that actually makes sense. So hopefully i'll be better soon, and then i'll be back.

Caption Please

I feel like this picture is just screaming for a caption... please leave one in the comments section.

Jesse's is "Guys, Where Are We?" (can you tell we've been re-watching LOST?)

Bible Study

I’m attending this women’s bible study once a week. Overall it’s been really good. there are about 12 of us in the group and we come from 5 different countries. We also range in age from 23 to 60. I love the diversity. It is so great to hear so many different perspectives. One of the ladies is a fairly new christian. I love her. She asks really, really good questions. and things you would think as a more mature christian would be able to answer. And yet, i love seeing how we all struggle to answer her questions. Sometime i think we get very comfortable w/ “our” religion. We forget to keep looking and searching for what this is really all about.

This week we are going to be talking about giving. I’m interested to see how the discussion turns out. Money has been brought up in the past, usually under the question should we be giving it all away? And then right away there are strong comments that “no of course we are not supposed to give it all away” “it’s all about our heart” and although these comments could be true, I often find them not genuine. Often just said so that we don’t have to confront the fact that maybe this is what God is calling us to do. Do we really ask these questions, do we really ask God is this what he wants us to do? I know I don’t ever seem to answer these questions. They float around in my mind, and then I just go on with my daily life. But I really don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to miss what God wants for my life.

So i'll let you all know how Monday turns out, and we'll talk more :)

Another First

Yep, Levi's mullet is officially gone. I miss the curls. :) & no judging on the pacifier.

This sign was posted on the door of one of our favorite restaurants here.



It's so nice of them to think of the criminals.

Save The Date

Yep, it's getting to be that time again. IJM's Global Prayer Gathering. It's the weekend of April 9th. & it should not be missed. If you've gone in the past you know what an amazing weekend this is. If you've never gone, you should! I'm telling you all about this now, b/c if you sign up before Feb. 5th the cost is only $119. After that it goes up to $139.

And another bonus.... WE WILL BE THERE! Yep we are planning on all flying back to the states the end of March. We are so excited to come back for a visit! Hope to see you all there! : )

Here's a little more info that I took from an email....

IJM President and CEO Gary Haugen and Sharon Cohn Wu, IJM Senior Vice President of Justice Operations, will lead our time together along with Andy Crouch, Christianity Today International Senior Editor, and IJM field office directors and investigators.

We are also delighted to welcome back Sara Groves and Lamont Hiebert and Ten Shekel Shirt to lead our musical worship.

We hope you will join us to celebrate God’s presence and pray for his continued power in this work of justice.

For additional information about the Global Prayer Gathering including information on the schedule, accommodations and travel, visit www.IJM.org/gpg.

Safari

Two weeks ago I told you about what is one of the hardest things about living in Uganda is, this week I'm going to tell you about one of the best things. SAFARI. I love going on safari. Just ask Jesse I could go all day long for a week, and still not be bored. Unfortunately I’m the only one in my family who feels this strongly about it. (although i think isaac is going to be more like me on this one.) Don’t get me wrong here, Jesse & Rachel like going, just not quite as much as I do.

I’m one of those people who want to be up at 6 in the morning ready for the first sight of day to go out and look and not get back until you really can’t see anything w/ our poor little headlights. I’m not sure what exactly I love most about it, but there is something about being out there and just searching for animals that really could be a few feet from your car, and you not even realize it. When you do find them, it’s just amazing.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking....










*Hopefully that has made you all want to come over and visit! I offer great tour guide rates! : )

Haiti

I had another post written, but I just can't seem to bring myself to post some light & fluffy post when I read about what's all going on in Haiti. It's weird not having t.v. here and not being able to get up to the minute news and to see what's going on. I can read, but even when i try to see pictures it takes about an hour to upload one photo on any major news website. (yes, we have very slow Internet) But even without all the details, my heart breaks for what is going on. & yet, i feel so far away. What can i do?! & then I remember that I have a BIG GOD. a God who can do amazing things & whose heart is breaking even more than mine. I know there are people on the ground in Haiti trying to be God's hands and feet, and so I must pray. I must pray for these people who can be there and can touch the hurting and heal the sick. I must pray that God will somehow use this for His glory. I've been following this blog to get some information on what's going on, I encourage you to check it out, and pray along side me for what our brothers and sisters are doing.

Getting Sick

The worst part of living in Uganda, is getting sick. The first 2 months we were here we constantly weren’t feeling right. Of course our bodies had to adjust to all the new germs, and such. But for me the worst part about it is when my kids are sick I worry constantly about what weird thing they could have: malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, etc.

There is a doctor’s office here that everyone recommended us go to, it’s called “The Surgery”. I’m still not sure why they call it that, since i don’t think there are any surgeries actually going on but none the less it’s a doctor’s office. It looks similar to an American doctors office....just a lot dirtier/older. The first time I took Rachel, the doctor wanted to check her temperature and swung out an old school thermometer that you have to put under your tongue. I know I know the horror! Rachel was scared to death of it. She had no idea what he was about to have her do w/ that thing. (she’s thinking throat culture) Needless to say he ended up having to take her temperature under her armpit.


The head doctor at the surgery is an older gentleman from Britain. He is very smart, but has no bedside manner. There was one pediatrician who was working at the office, but she has since left to go back to India. I have not given my kids any immunizations since we’ve been here. Levi will just be a little behind, but I think I’m just going to wait till we come back on furlough. A lot of people have their kids vaccinated here, but I’m just not comfortable with it yet.

So back to the main reason of this post... I hate it when my kids are sick. & low and behold we’ve all been sick this past week. Levi has had it the worst, which I hate, b/c I worry about him getting too dehydrated and the such. We took him in and were told it’s just a bacteria infection. (thankfully no malaria - since we had been out of Kampala recently) I just really worry about if something more major happens what will we do? The healthcare system is not good here, i’ve heard horror stories of hospitals here, so it just makes me nervous. I know that worrying does no good, and i honestly don’t worry about it when we are all fine, but as soon as someone comes down with something, my mind becomes preoccupied with the what ifs. How do you overcome this?

New Years Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I have a confession to make. I have never ever made New Years resolutions. (I know huge confession) Not only that but I have always cringed when I was supposed to write out goals. I’ve always seen them as pointless. For one it seems like I would always hear people make them, but never keep them or they would be too broad to really be able to tell if you achieved them or not (ie. be a better person). But the main reason that i don’t like making them, is that I don’t know what’s going to happen, I have no idea what the next year has in store. I like to go with the flow, and just see what things happen, and then deal with them as they come. To me putting these goals out there seemed to be confining in some way. Or maybe it’s b/c i don’t like to fail (who does), and so by not making them, I never set myself up to fail. But for whatever reason I don’t make them. That is until this year.

This year has been a big change for our family. & i’ve been confronted by who I am & what I'm doing. Honestly, the transition here has been quite easy, but I think that's what has bothered me. I was expecting to come to Uganda, and be rocked to the core. I was expecting to be able to go out and do all these “good” things for the people here. I was expecting for my life to change. Maybe it’s b/c I’ve been overseas before, and so the I’m not having as much of a culture shock as you do when you are see the poverty for the first time. But i have found myself, doing the exact same things I was doing back in the states. I am a mother to 3 kids 6 and under. So I know that right now my life is sort of spelt out for me. I love staying home with my kids, and really am grateful that I have this time with them. But sometimes I think i get stuck in a rut, and my days pass, and then I think back about what i’ve done... and it makes me sad. I’m not the most disciplined person, and so it’s really easy for me to just do what i need to to get by. But i feel that a lot of life is passing me by.

So this year I’m going to try to make some new years resolutions. I’m not ready to announce all of what they are to everyone (still worried about failing here) but one of them is to do a blog post once a week. I want to work on really thinking about the stuff that has been going on in my head, and maybe sitting down and writing them out will help me. This is a huge thing for me though, b/c I hate to write. I feel like I don’t communicate as well through my writing as I do when i can sit one on one with someone. But I'm going to try it out. Also i don’t know who actually even reads this blog any more, but I know our families enjoy seeing pictures of the kids once in a while, so I’m going to try to do better. :) So here it goes my first New Years Resolution. We’ll see if I still have it by next week.

The Bribe

As we pulled onto the road to leave the Mambo Point Pizzeria with some of our friends piled in the back of the Landcruiser, a police truck with two officers in the cab and six officers in the bed pulled in front of Amy with its high beams on. This, of course, made us a bit nervous, as we knew the police like to shake foreigners down for bribes and we were committing multiple easily identifiable traffic violations, including but not necessarily limited to: (i) too many people (eight) in the car; (ii) no seatbelts on about half the passengers; (iii) one child (Rachel) seated in the front seat; and (iv) that child, riding on a lap instead of in a seat. Yes, we’re bad parents… we know. Try to focus on the story.

One traffic law we didn’t think we had violated was going the wrong way on a one way street. One reason we thought we were compliant in this regard was the complete lack of any markings on the street to suggest that it was a one way. Another was the traffic moving steadily along in both directions. Nonetheless, when the officer came to the window, his infraction of choice for the evening was “wrong way on a one way street.”

Amy immediately went into her dumb foreigner routine, “Oh, I’m so sorry officer;” “ I’m new here and didn’t realize;” “Is there a sign?” “Thank you for explaining this to me;” “Oh, I am going to be such a better driver just having spoken with you this evening;” etc… She is actually quite good at it. The officer seemed to buy it, and told her to turn around in the drive behind her and go the other way. Amy happily obliged and we drove off down the road.

Moments later, there were cherries in the rear view mirror. Amy pulled over, and the same officer came to the window.

“Why did you drive away?” he asked.

“Because you told me to,” she answered, politely.

In the back seat, Levi started wailing – and not just a little bit – big long shrill screams. The officer, trying to ignore the screaming baby, explained to Amy that he could arrest her for fleeing the scene.

“This is a country of laws, madam,” he said. “You cannot just drive away when an officer tells you to pull over.”

Now, this was annoying, because he clearly had not told her to pull over. While I steamed in the passenger seat, Amy kept her cool, and went right back to the dumb foreigner routine. The officer, clearly trying to get away from the piercing cries of Levi asked Amy and I to get out of the car. Since we had three additional adults in the car to watch the kids, we obliged and walked across the street to the police truck that was still flashing its cherries for all to see.

When we arrived at the police truck, the officer explained that “his boss” would have to decide what to do with us. His boss, it turns out, was a clearly intoxicated and half asleep officer slouched in passenger seat of the truck. The first officer then proceeded to explain the process to us.

“We are going to give you a ticket, which you can pay at headquarters. Of course, because it is Friday night, police headquarters is already closed and won’t open until Monday morning. We’ll have to impound your car until then,” he soberly explained, “or… we could forgive you.”

Ahh, the catch.

“We would prefer forgiveness,” I said, trying my best to follow Amy’s lead as a dumb foreigner and knowing full well what was coming next.

The original arresting officer said he would like to talk to me in front of the car. I accompanied him to the front of the car. He put his hand on my shoulder, and just like he was my best friend in the world, he explained to me that if I didn’t want to lose my car for the weekend and deal with the hassle of police headquarters on Monday, all I had to do was pay him 100,000 schillings (about $50).

I smiled, a little shocked that he had been so straight-forward with his request. I had heard that police officers looking for a bribe usually asked for you to buy them a soda, or get them something to eat. This guy was apparently not planning to be so subtle.

I laughed and told him I couldn’t do that, but he was persistent. The exchanges I can recall include the following:
- Me – Do you see my shirt (it was an IJM Shirt with the IJM logo and the words “Seek Justice” emblazoned on the chest)? This is my employer, and they do not allow their employees to pay bribes.
- PO – But it’s not a bribe because I’m not making you pay me. I am just asking.
- Me – Yes, and I appreciate how polite you are being about it, but it is still technically a bribe, and if I pay you I will get fired.
- PO – But why would your employer ever need to find out. You could just pay me and no one would know.
- Me – See those three people in the car with me. Those are all my employees at IJM, and if they see me pay you, they will report me and I will be fired.
- PO – Did you tip your waiter today?
- Me – Yes.
- PO – It is no different. I am not asking for a bribe. I am just asking for a tip for all of us. We have to work hard, and they don’t pay us very well.
- Me – I couldn’t agree more. You do have a hard job, and you are grossly underpaid, but there is nothing I can do about it. I still can’t pay you a bribe.
- PO – It is not a bribe, it is a tip.
- Me – No, a tip is payment I give to someone for personal service. You are asking me to pay you not to give me a ticket. That’s a bribe and I can’t pay a bribe.
- PO – If I were hungry would you give me some money for food.
- Me – If you were hungry, I would take you to dinner.
- PO – We are all very, very hungry.
- Me – It’s too late. You didn’t come asking me for food. You came asking for a bribe, and I can’t pay a bribe.
Most of these exchanges occurred over and over with a lot of laughing, back slapping and false compliments. It was a shockingly friendly and almost pleasant negotiating experience, notwithstanding the fact that we had clearly reached an impasse.

After about 10 minutes of back and forth, I decided I needed to press my only advantage. Seeing that Levi was still screaming in the car across the street, I asked to be allowed to go get him. I happily scooped up the screaming baby and handed him to my wife who held him about six inches from “the boss’s” ear. We continued to happily and politely refuse the officers’ requests for money while Levi continued to cause significant discomfort for “the boss” and his entourage.

After a few more minutes, the original officer apparently figured it was a lost cause. He lightly scolded Amy, telling her that she needed to get her baby home to feed him, as if we had the option to leave at any time. He then let us go without so much as a warning. We loaded back into the car and headed home, none the worse from our little encounter.

What You Should Be Reading

I've been following Katie's blog for a while now, even before we found out we were coming to Uganda. and I have to tell you, that reading her blog moves my heart every time. YOU should read it too. She is an amazing writer, and you will be challenged by what she has to say.

She wrote this a couple of days ago....i don't think i can put it any better.

I DO NOT BELIEVE that the God of the universe created too many children in His image and not enough love or food or care to go around. In fact I believe that He created the Body of Christ for just that, to help these little ones, the least of these. And I believe that except for a handful, the Body of Christ is failing. And its not just me who thinks this. When I'm angry, I like to research so that I can at least feel a bit justified in my rage ;) According to several differnt resources, there are an average of 147 million orphaned children in the world today (this statistic includes children who have lost only one parent as well), 11 million children starve to death each year or die from preventable, treatable illness. 8.5 million children work as child slaves, prostitutes, or in other horrific conditions (making things like that cute baby Gap dress Jane wore today...) 2.3 million children world wide are living with HIV.

That is 168.8 million needy children like Michael and Patricia. Seems like a big number, huh? It shouldn't, because there are 2.1 BILLION people on this earth who profess to be Christians. Jesus followers. Servants. Gospel live-ers. And if only 8 percent of those Christians would care for just ONE of these needy children, they would all be taken care of.


Ouch! Why are we failing so badly as Christians? Why even here in Uganda, can I get into my comfortable little life, and forget about the sufferings of others? I know that I need to step it up, do more, be His hands & feet.

We Have A House

So yes, we have been terrible at keeping you all updated to our life in Uganda. I think mainly for me, I don't love to write (i know, I know, then why do i have a blog!? i’ll let you know if i ever come up w/ an answer to that one), so it takes me forever to write a blog in the first place... & i would just post pictures but it takes hours to download a few pictures...so there is my problem, I don’t want to write & i'm too impatient to post pictures. But I will try to fight through my lack of gifts, and go ahead and catch you up with what's been going on with us.

HOUSING
I had no idea how hard it was going to be to find a place to live. We started looking the day after I got off the plane. Things here are so much more expensive then we thought they would be. Basically it costs just as much here as it does in the D.C. area. There are many suburbs that surround Kampala, so we were trying to decide where Rachel was going to go to school, and then try to see where we wanted to live while taking in consideration where IJM’s offices are. We decided to try to stay as close to the office as possible. Traffic here is terrible and we really didn’t want Jesse to have a 2 hour commute home. So once we narrowed it down to what part of town to live in, we hit the car w/ a real estate agent (actually i went around w/ about 4 of them) to see what was out there.

It was really interesting going out. It seems that no matter what kind of house it is they all cost the same. I saw really nice updated houses, & gross, dark, in great need of updating houses....but they both cost the same. I couldn’t figure it out. They would be in the same neighborhood and everything. Well anyway, early in our search I found a house that I loved! It seemed perfect. Jesse talked with the landlord, who told us he had someone else who was willing to pay X amount ($300 more a month than us) We thought he was bluffing. He wasn’t. House #1 lost.

A side note here. One of the things we were really looking for was a good yard. The weather here is perfect....every day. So we knew we would want to be out a lot. Also Isaac LOVES to run, so if we didn’t have a yard, I would feel like I was caging a large animal. The hard thing about that, is that Kampala is a city of hills. So a lot of the houses we looked at, either had no yard, or a treacherous cliff for one.

But the search went on. In the middle of June we decided on another house. It was a 3 bedroom, with beautiful gardens...Beautiful! Not a ton of running room, but was doable. Also it was only a block from the office, so it just seemed like we should do it. The problem, was again they were asking for more then we could afford. So we met w/ the landlord and negotiated. He was willing to meet us in the middle, we were thrilled. He said his lawyer would send us the contract and we could get in on July 1st. We waited 2 days and didn’t hear from the lawyer so jesse called him, and he said that he didn’t have internet the last 2 days, but he would send it tomorrow. By 4 the next day we still didn’t have it so jesse called again, and the guy said that he was having problems sending it but if jesse wanted to come get it aht he could. So jesse did. Everything looked pretty good, but being the good lawyer jesse is, a couple of words needed to be changed. we sent it back to the lawyer, who said it looked good, just needed the landlord to sign it, and then we could sign it as well. So we waited again. Everytime jesse would call the lawyer, he would have an excuse and say let me call you in 15 minutes, and then never would. Finally Jesse got ahold of the lawyer, who then tells us “sorry it’s been rented” WHAT?! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jesse that mad. He calls the landlord directly, who said he didn’t know what the lawyer was talking about. The next day we find out that the Lawyer wanted a kickback himself, so he was showing the house to other people behind the landlord’s back. But he found someone to pay $700 more a month, so of course the landlord is going to go with them. House #2 lost. (after wasting about 3 weeks of our time)

At this point I can’t imagine going out and start looking again. Every time I would go out I would usually be driven to 5 houses that I have seen before, and maybe see 1 that was new. It was just so frustrating to see that everything cost the same (still over our hopeful budget). The guy (Sam) we had recently been working with knew a Gardner who gave him a call saying the house he worked at was going up for rent. So we hurried over there so we could be the first to look at it. As Sam showed me around, I was getting annoyed b/c this by far was the nicest house we have seen, and so there was no way we were going to be able to afford it. I was a little annoyed that he would waste our time. But he said it doesn’t hurt to call the landlord and tell him what you want to pay. So Jesse hurried over to look the place over, and called the landlord. Now although the landlord wouldn’t agree to the budget we were hoping, he was willing to come down enough so we could swing it. He gave us the contract 2 days later. You can imagine how much we were sweating it. But everything came through great. & we are loving living here! We often feel guilty living here, but then we remember that again, it didn’t seem to matter where we lived, we would be paying the exact same price as we are for this place. & there is something to be said for feeling like you have a safe, comfortable home to come home too when the stress of living overseas gets to you.

Other really cool news, is that our shipment of stuff (our couch, beds, etc) arrived 3 days after we moved into our place. I mean timing could not have been any better! How awesome is our God?!