Oops

Jesse's had a terrible fever the last few days. He went to the surgery to have a malaria test done... just in case. Thankfully it came back negative, but they also ran a few other tests as well. When Jesse went in to see the doctor he was asked if he had taken all his medicine for his bilharzia 6 months ago. WHAT?!

Jesse & Rachel had gone in about 6 months ago to get tested for Bilharzia, b/c they had been in the local water here. Jesse was told his test came back negative, and Rachel's came back positive, so we gave Rachel the medication for it, and thought Jesse was in the clear. Well turns out Jesse's wasn't negative but positive. So the poor guy has been not feeling quite himself the past 6 months and had no idea why. So I am very thankful that he now knows what's been going on, and can now get treated for it. But it's still a little frustrating. My guess is that Rachel's test was negative and they switched the results around in their heads when they were giving them to Jesse. Thankfully there's no harm in taking the medicine.

Oh, the joys of healthcare in Uganda. : )

HELP WANTED

My friend had this dropped off at her house the other day. I just couldn't resist posting it.





Any takers?! : )

refreshment

refreshment |riˈfre sh mənt|noun- the giving of fresh mental or physical strength or energy
The last month has been a time of refreshment for me. My parents came for almost a whole month in September! It was wonderful. It's always nice to close the gap between your life in another country and the people you hold so dear. I often feel like I live in two different worlds that don't ever intersect, so it's really nice when they do.
Some highlights of my parents trip. 1. Going on safari w/ them to Murchison Falls. We didn't see any Lion, but it was great to get away with them. 2. My dad making my garden beautiful! He was out there everyday working, and wow, what a difference! 3. Going on a last minute get away to Sipi Falls. 4. Having them lavish their attention on the kids. It is so wonderful to have not only someone else entertain the kids for a while, but i love just seeing the kids playing with my parents. 5. My dad's birthday dinner. We were able to go out without the kids for a nice dinner, and it was a great night of some good adult conversation! I could go on, but you get the point. It was good for me to have them here. It refreshed me.
Secondly, we are very blessed to work for a wonderful organization who takes really good care of the people who work for them. Just 2 weeks ago, Jesse and I got to go to Malindi, Kenya (on the coast) for some R&R. There are 4 offices in Africa, and all the directors and spouses were invited to come. We stayed here. It was a small group of us, but we had a great time. The mornings we listened to John Ortberg and his teachings on FLOW. Then we had 2 hours of solitude. Yes 2 HOURS! It's very, very rare, when I have 2 hours to just spend with God. & I can't even tell you how much it refreshed my soul. The afternoons were filled with eating, drinking, laying out by the pool, snorkeling, reading, & swimming. WONDERFUL!
I was overwhelmed at how good God has been to me this past year. I feel very undeserving, but oh so loved. Life is not easy, but God is good and faithful, and it was so nice to be able to look back and see that.
And I just have to say that we have some wonderful Interns here that were willing to watch our kids for the four days we were gone! The kids had a blast, and we didn't worry about them a second!

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.