NEW Pictures Below!!!

I made this video this morning, and I just wanted to send this to Amy, Leah, Mark, and all of the Sonrise workers. This is one of my all-time favorite songs, and I thought it very appropriate.

Love you guys! -Deanna

*After you click on it to start playing - you can click on it again to take you to where it is on youtube- and the video will be a little bigger there.

OR if the video does not show up - Click here to go to the video on Youtube! =)

Adorable Pictures To Brighten Your Day!

Here are a few SMILES from Sonrise to brighten your day, and remind you how blessed we all are!

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, He must be the very last, and the servant of all." He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in His arms, He said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me, but the One who sent Me."

Mark 9:35-37

Leah and precious Gift, what a beautiful baby girl!

Mark and Baby Gift =)

Leah and Miko, beautiful girls!

Mama Amy and her Baby Doll (Gift) =)

Mark is such a huge help, and great with the babies! He's helping feed Brenda, even in the midst of craziness! :)

Junior and Amy (me), laughing and giggling! Catherine LOVES using the camera and taking pictures - so Amy gave her the camera and she started taking pictures of them - SO CUTE. and so darling! and then she started taking pictures of everything else - it got quite funny :) (but as a side note - this is one of my favorites :) THIS is the love and happiness these babies give me)

Auntie Leah is so loved by the precious babies! Edrn came over to get a special hug :)

Absolutely adorable, Baby Gift! I (Amy) keep calling them all "pumpkin" or some sort of variation of that - it gets quite interesting! - but today she was actually dressed like a Little Pumpkin :)


Mark and beautiful Anisha! This is the night after she was so sick with fever, and all she wanted was love :) Uncle Mark supplied some good one-on-one time!

Baby Mark is all giggles!! Betty got such great pictures of him smiling and smiling! He smiles and nearly turns inside out whe somone gives him love and attention :)

Baby Mark loves the swings so much! =)

Baby Mark -SO cute! The swings have been an absolute life-saver with him! He LOVES them!

Quick Update...

(Leah) - I hope that everyone is enjoying the pictures that we were finally able to upload. Betty told us that if we compressed the photos more and then e-mailed them to someone it would be faster. So, thanks, Deanna!!!
I have still been feeling kind of yucky. My stomach just doesn't feel right. I have been drinking lots of Sprite and eating crackers (back to the "Bland Diet" I go). Today, I went into town with Amy, Betty, and Moses and ate a little bit of chicken and chips...a LITTLE BIT. It almost wasn't worth buying because I hardly touched it. Please pray that I feel better real soon because I'm getting tired of tummy problems as you can imagine!
This morning, we awoke and did our normal routine of slowly getting ready. I was exhausted because I had baby duty with Moses and couldn't go to sleep at first and then being awakened every few hours...tiring indeed! I know you Mom's are laughing now because you know what I'm feeling. Don't worry...this doesn't deter me in the least of fulfilling one of God's callings on my life to become a mother myself one day. : )
Anyway, Moses was feeling hot so we took his temperature...101.3F. We knew that wasn't good! Amy was planning on going into town anyway to meet with Damali, so Betty and I rode along to take Moses to the clinic. They tested him for malaria which came back negative, so then the doctor said that he had septicemia...I think that means infection in the blood?? (a little help from the nurses out there is appreciated). They were going to give him an IV, but we chose to give him liquid medicine instead. So, we marched out of the clinic with antibiotics and something to supposedly bring his fever down although we aren't sure it works. We ended up giving him a few drops of the Children's Ibuprofin we brought. Please pray that he gets better. We took his temperature again tonight and it was 99.7F which is much better! Amy has baby duty with him tonight, so she will keep a close eye on him.
One of Betty's friends, Mercy, is here spending the night with us tonight. She and Betty go to University together and are on the same dance team. They were showing us some of their moves today and let me tell you they are GOOD!! Betty was trying to each Amy and me some choreography to a song...it's coming along but it isn't pretty : )
We are about to head to bed...all five babies in our room tonight with four people=one interesting night ahead of us. Thanks for everything!!! Tomorrow we are taking 4 of the babies into town to get immunized. I heard we are getting an early start (8:00am) because it may take awhile. Better hurry up and bathe and get to bed. Goodnight from Uganda!!
Oh, and a little note to my family. I would LOVE to talk with everyone (Dad included) on Saturday if you are home. I certainly hope you are : ) LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Lots of Awesome New Pictures!!!

Here are some more pictures! Please remember to keep them all in your prayers!!!  =) 

Brenda “smiling”! :) 

Leah and I driving: First time on the Ugandan roads! We made it, thank the Lord!

Trust covered in dirt! He played in this dirt pile for about a hour and was completely covered from head to toe! And might we mention that this was AFTER bathtime!

Brenda after bathtime –dressed in her cute bath towel! 

Leah and Brenda after bathtime! Auntie Leah does such a great job – and Brenda just loves her! They keep calling Leah her “mother” and everyone thinks they have the same eyes :)

Mark with Catherine and Nulu – so precious! Uncle Mark was making them giggle and giggle!

Brenda in her cute STRAWBERRY DRESS!!!! Future Washington Farms little helper??!!

Amy feeding Baby Moses on the bed right before bed time. – hence my hair tied up!

Moses with his eyes OPEN!!!! Please note – he does this a lot at NIGHT!  - ALL night!

Amy and Trust after morning dressing time – Catherine had the camera and was trying to take pictures! We actually made it IN this one! :)

Mark with new BABY GIFT!!!! She is 6 months old and so beautiful! And she loves to smile! So adorable! (we might get her to give Brenda smiling lessons!)

Anisha in her adorable watermelon dress! Still so sick with fever, but I got her medicine in her pretty fast and hopefully she’ll be fine soon. But this dress was one of my favorite donation clothes, and I couldn’t wait to see it on her!

Norah, Julia, and Loyce modeling their new “clothes”! Betty and I bought these at the market because we needed more RAGS! So the lady sold us t-shirts, and when we got back to Sonrise, the ladies put them on and started laughing and laughing!!! Betty called me in there because they were going crazy with these shirts! It was so cute, even though they knew they were rags :)

Amy with Anisha – after our trip to the clinic. Anisha has malaria and was flaming hot with fever. I bought pineapple at the market and she must have eaten 4 pieces – a girl after my own heart! :)

Leah and Amy – finally a picture together! We realized after having Betty take this one that we haven’t had very many – for some reason babies keep making it in all the pictures???!!

Baby GIFT!!!! Preciousness Abounding! :) 

Leah and Baby Gift: MOVIE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! Leah and Amy decided to have a movie night Wednesday night – at 10:30pm! Star Trek was delightfully entertaining and Leah hadn’t even seen it before, so it was extra fun :) We had 3 babies with us that night –Moses, Mark, and new Gift! But they did fairly well throughout the movie –only a few interruptions! Oh, and we also enjoyed a few M&M’s that somehow made it into our suitcases before we left :)

Amy and Baby Gift right before bed time! Thank you, Leah for this LOVELY photo of Mama Amy right before bed with her stylish hair-do :)

Misc. Funny Moments...

(Leah) So, I'm writing from the "sick room". Yes, I started getting sick last night much to my dismay. We had all been doing so much better...it's really frustrating not knowning what foods will be ok for you and what foods are going to make you sick. I had been lying in bed all day dozing when Amy received a phone call that a new baby is on its way here. Not sure if we mentioned that in a previous post or not, but Damali told us that a 3-4 month old baby was coming to Sonrise. I'm not sure how accurate the age thing will be since we were told Brenda was 4 months old. But, I guess we'll wait and see. Anyway, I threw on some clothes and now we are waiting...
I had started feeling better later this morning and then ate three crackers. Now I'm starting to feel bad again. This too shall pass.
I wanted to share some funny moments that have happened here recently. Both of them happened on Sunday. We got up to go to church with most of the older babies. We left Miko and Anisha at home since they tend to cry and be disruptive, so we thought it would be smooth sailing. It is quite a job finding nice clothes for everyone and then finding shoes that fit, but eventually all were dressed and ready. We squished in the car...8 babies and 4 adults...tight squeeze. The church we went to this week was different than last week, so when we got there they had already started. Amy waited outside while Mark and I went inside to listen to the worship. They sang "How Great Is Our God" and I started getting teary-eyed. I have experienced church in other countries, and it never ceases to amaze me that even halfway around the world we are serving the same God. It made me think of Brother Bill (my pastor) - that is his favorite song and I know he would have loved it! Anyway, the kids were dismissed for Sunday School so Amy and I went with them. We arrived in this open room outside and it was already pretty squished. I didn't see Amy right away so I was getting a little worried, but then she marched around the corner with everyone in tow...apparently they had to make a stop at the bathroom. I need to mention that we put diapers on all of the babies, but the oldest three so as to cut down on bathroom stops and little accidents. We waited in the Sunday School area for awhile and Trust started crying for no reason. Amy got up and left with him because he was being disruptive and about three of the children left with her. This left four with me and four with her. We waited some more for the teachers and finally they showed up and were about to divide up into smaller classes by age. All of a sudden, I see Amy walking up waving for me to come and help her. I'm a little confused, but we make a huge scene leaving with my four kids in tow. I felt bad because they were about to head to Sunday School, but I knew that whatever it was it must be important. We made our way to the bathroom area and I could hear Trust still wailing about something. We walked over to one of the bathrooms and there was Ian with his pants and underwear down and poop ALL OVER HIM. I had a hard time not busting out laughing. Apparently, he said he needed to go to the bathroom and so Amy rushed him over to the toilet. As he was pulling down his pants, he started going and couldn't stop so he ended up going all over his pants and underwear. There was no way to even salvage them. Trust was still crying, so Amy kept getting onto him to be quiet. I felt like everyone could hear us as it was kind of open between the church, bathrooms, and Sunday School area. Amy was trying to clean up Ian and I got all the kids to sit down in the grass. Trust was still crying and then a few of the others started tearing up for who knows what reason. Ali, I later found out, had already found a basin of water and dumped it on his shorts and shoes...always into something. All of a sudden, Amy lets out a scream and backs away from the bathroom door - out walks a huge ROACH! DISGUISTING!!! By this time, Amy had had enough so she walked into the church, up to the second row where Mark and Chris were, got the keys, and we loaded everyone up in the car to head home. Ian was naked from the waist down, Trust was still crying, and we were trying to be inconspicuous with two Mzungos driving and eight children stuffed into a car. We had a hard time not laughing on the way home at the hilarity of the situation. I still don't know about this whole church thing. I know it's important, but it seems like so much trouble and something has gone wrong both weeks they have been while we've been here. Hopefully one week will be good.
Amy and I later had to go back to church and pick up Chris and Mark. That afternoon, Mark and I were talking in the room and I mentioned about the roach at church. All of a sudden I hear a huge commotion coming from the kitchen, so thinking there's another roach I decide to investigate. I head in that direction and hear Amy squealing about something. I walk into the kitchen and there is the ugliest black bird I have ever seen laying on the floor with its feet tied (I later found out it was a chicken). Betty proceeds to pick it up by its feet and chase me around the house with it. The chicken doesn't like this, so she spreads her wings and starts squawking in protest. Did I mention it was ugly? It reminded me of a vulture. Anyway, I run back to my room (all the while screaming) and lock the door. After a few minutes, I don't hear her so I decide to sneak out and see if this episode is over. NO...she sees me coming and corners me in the dining room. There I am standing with my face to the wall covering my eyes (still screaming) while Betty has this ugly chicken mere inches from my face. I think at one point it touched me, but I can't be sure. She finally agreed to put it down and quit scaring Amy and I with it which is fine with me. Adrenaline was pumping, so after this episode is over Amy and I busted out laughing. The nannies and cook were laughing hysterically over mine and Amy being scared of a chicken. I think it's pretty funny myself, but you didn't see this chicken...UGLY!!! I have never seen a chicken like this in my entire life!

I did get to drive yesterday. We went into town to take Brenda to the clinic and then found out that Richard was at the clinic being admitted for malaria. Amy was staying in town to talk to Damali, so that left me and Betty with the car. Betty is learning to drive so the task fell to me. I was a little nervous at first, but all went well. I didn't have a problem remembering to stay on the left side of the road, but it was really weird sitting on the right side of the car. I think I did quite well, although I hit a few potholes too hard and went over a few speed bumps too fast because I didn't see them...they don't color them bright yellow here in Uganda. I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. Amy finally figured out how to compress the images so it was faster to upload...PTL!! Today, Anisha is going to the clinic. It is so frustrating because it seems that almost every day someone needs to go to the clinic or is feeling sick so might need to go to the clinic. Thanks for everyone's prayers and support. It has been a really great trip so far. So hard to believe that two weeks have already passed. Just under 4 to go! I have never been away from home for this long or not seen at least part of my family for this amount of time. So, it has been great to talk to them on the phone, but every so often I wish they were here with me or that I could at least see their faces (love you fam!). I will have a new niece being born on February 11th, so that will be sad not to be there although Mom has promised that pictures will be posted quickly after the birth. Until next time...Leah : )

Baby Moses!! (aka His Royal Cuteness!)

(Amy) So, I wanted to dedicate an entire blog post to the youngest member of our Sonrise family :) I just can't believe God has blessed us with these new babies as soon as we got here - who could have imagined??!!
I have had the privilege of having baby duty with Baby Moses many nights lately - and His Royal Cuteness has been just as cute as ever! One of my favorite things to do is smell him! He has that wonderful newborn baby smell, which i just love :) So, half the time (as Betty just told me, "say ALL of the time!) I'm just kissing him and smelling him! We have kept him VERY wrapped up, because Betty has been a Nazi about keeping him "warm"! - THIS IS AFRICA!!! It is flaming hot all the time, and Betty INSISTS that he is cold! COLD! ahh! Lan and I have been going crazy! we are sweating all the time, and Baby Moses is supposedly freezing?! :)
But we have been very good about it though - such obedient mommies! and yes, we think he was born prematurely, so he does need ot be kept very warmed -and of course loved a lot!!!
Oh, and have we mentioned that Baby Moses is not a true Ugandan??! We're not sure exactly what he is, but we don't think he's a Ugandan :) His little hair looks like a little Indian's!
his little face scrunches up in the cutest way when he starts to cry! and he uses his whole body when he cries - so in the middle of the night, I can tell when he's about to wail!
I sleep with him right up next to the left side of my pillow. I have him wrapped up in about 4 blankets - they also add support so he doen't feel like he's sleeping on a hard mattress! :) and then I have discovered that sometimes he likes sleeping on his side, so I'll turn him a little bit sideways, and push another blanket up behind him to prop him up :) then I can stare at his little face while lying on my pillow :)
We put him in the swing for the first time the other day - and he really seems to like it, but not as much as baby Mark does - that boy LOVES thet swings!! As soo as he is put in it, he falls asleep! :) It is a beautiful thing!
Oh, and Baby Moses also gets the hiccups all of the time! Leah said she's not sure she's seen another baby get them as much as he does. But he's so cute hen he does, cause he looks so confused :)
So, I continue to love him, smell him, and kiss him! How can I help it??!

So...Betty just took the computer from me and here is what she just wrote and made me promise not to erase it...
"please pray that Amy washington gets a guy to kiss around cause every single minute she,s kissing.your prayers are welcome and much appreciated please follow her up." - Betty

Laughter should be ensuing right about now! :)
ok, so there's a little tid bit about Baby Moses - His Royal Cuteness :)
Welcome to the Sonrise Family Baby Moses! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugandan Hairstyle! :)

(Amy) Oh, and by the way - I LOVE MY UGANDAN HAIR-DO!!!! Not many white mzungus get their hair done, although a few have - the lady how did my hair had done another white girl before so she knew how to do it, as it is SO different with my type of hair! I went into town yesterday and kept getting looks and stares - I look kid of funny being completely white with an African hairstyle :) I actually think I look more Egyptian than anything - I think because of the WHITE skin with the hairstyle!?! And Leah and Richard said the same thing! That 's one of the first things that Leah said after she said she really liked it! :) I walked in the front gate with it done and pulled back and Leah and Mark just stared! It was so funny! Mark just sat on the porch with this look of "Woah - that looks really weird, but prety good" on his face - with this funny little grin! And Leah said "It looks so different, but I LIKE IT!" :)
and then later she said - "You know, I think you look like an Egyptian?!" Then yesterday, Richard said, "Have you ever seen that movie about Joseph from the Bible?? You look like one of the ladies on there from Egypt!" (after telling me it looked great and he loved it :))
It has been so easy to take care of -I just have to put a bandana over it at night and I can't get it wet. Leah is still thinking about it - she might wait a couple weeks and the get it done.
Oh, and for everyone's information - we had the appointement at 7:30am - gave the lady money to go buy the hair extentions, and then we actually got started at around 8:30am...
My hair was finished at 3:00pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was one of the longest days ever!!!! I sat in someone's house, on a 2 inch mattress, then finally sat on a pillow at around 12pm, and by 1:30 - I was ready to quit! They said a lot of girls can't do it - they get halfway done and say take it out - I just want to leave! I was SO tired of sitting! You have no idea! The lady doig my hair was sitting on a stool behind me and let me just say that we became quite close during those 6 1/2 hours! towards the end - when she was doing the front of my head (she started at the back), I was sitting in between her legs - had been all day, but I was laying my head back in her lap completely too tired to hold up my head anymore!!!! I'm still getting used to having extra hair on my head and having stiff hair, but it's really great!
But it was worth it! :) I am so glad that I finally got it done, and Betty told the lady a great hairstyle to do! Thank you, Betty! :) I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and Betty just handled it all! It was so great! Hope you liked the pics! :)

- your ugandan hair model :)

Good Morning!!!

(Amy) This lovely morning started with a medicine time for Brenda - not so much fun! Leah is not feeling very well this morning, but she took Cipro and is beginning to feel a smidgen better as of a few seconds ago! She started out with Brenda last night, but after Brenda started crying a lot, Betty wanted to give her to Auntie Norah - so at about midnight, Betty marched into Auntie Norah's room and switched out Brenda for Steven- for Leah to have for baby duty last night! I was pretty sound asleep during all of this, BTW! Moses had falle asleep pretty quickly after feeding him, but that was short-lived, let me asure you! I think he has gotte spoiled...he was doing so wel last wekk. (Well, for me at least - Leah still had major problems with him, so at one point we had to have an Amy train Leah session on baby duty with Baby Moses! But this is common here - when we swap babies, the one usually tells the other what works with that particular baby and what doesn't! It helps SO much! We have to stick together on this "Mommy" thing!)
Anyways, Medicine time with Brenda! Leah has been doing it and doing a great job, but since Leah wasn't feeling well, Mama Amy took over! We had to take Brenda to the clinic yesterday because her ears are still very infected - prayer request, BTW. They are still very infected and don't seem to be getting much better after a week of treatment - so we took her for an injection of stronger medicine. And they let us bring the injections home with us because they have to be given every 12 hours and that would have been a lot of driving into town to the clinic as well as very inconvenient times! So, in addition to the several mouth medicines she is getting, I had to give her this little tube of injection medicine into a IV type thing in her little hand. I went into Anutie Norah's room to get her - and was attacked by a ton of the most precious kids on earth! So, we all tromped into the bedroom to give baby brenda her medicine - a group job is what it became! I had 8 of them in there at one point helping me :)
Catherine was so cute - I would tell her which medicines I needed and she would hand them to me and have this very serious look on her face while doing it. I kept saying we had to help baby Brenda get better. and then with the IV thing, I would say "Don't Touch" ad they would all repeat it about 10 times - and the Ian would continue telling them every time anyone got too close for his comfort :) He is such the little man - always making sure the "babies" are doing what they are supposed to! And he is always saying something about the "babies" - NOT himself, of course! Sometimes when a guest or adult drinks milk, he'll say "You're drinking the babies milk!" or "You're eating the babies' food!" - all said in Luganda of course :) He is so adorable.
Then after finishing with Brenda (oh and I had to come into the other room to give her the IV meds - to many little hends to bump her!), I went and got baby Moses :) He needed a diaper chage and then I took him back out with everyone - Catherine is such the little mom too. and she is learning English very well - can't speak much, except repeating whatever I say :) But she'll come up and give Baby Moses kisses on the forehead! She did it this morning ,and I said, "Say, 'I love you, Baby Moses'" and of course she leaned down and kissed his little head and said "I love you, Baby Moses".
Melt my heart.
When Catherine kisses me, she puts her hands on each sideof my face, and kisses me twice on the left cheek, then twice on the right cheek and then twice on the forehead and then we say "I love you!" - God is so good.
Ok, well, just wanted to write a little and we apologize for the lack of posts - thankfully I've been able to send a few pics, and thank you deanna for posting those! And I told Lan this morning that a picture is worth a thousand words, right???! so, at least we have a few pics up??!! But again, sorry for the lack of posting. I was thinking baout it last night lying in bed, and reaized that whe I was here this summer, I was at Musana for the forst 5 weeks, and then Sonrise for the last 2. Jessie and I blogged dilligently for th first 5 weeks, and then once she left I had no computer at Sonrise - so no bloggig happened. I didn't realize that it practically isn't even possible!!!! With babies 24/7, it is difficult to make time for having our Quiet Times, and even to just sit and chat with each other, much less write - so we apologize! God is working and doing great things in each of our lives. It has been encouraging! Thank you so much for your prayers.
The babies are doing well and are as cute as ever. I love them so much. That doesn't even begin to describe my feelings, but it's hard to put into words, sometimes. They are precious beyond words.
Love from Sonrise to you all and a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! :)

Precious Children of the King!!! =)

"Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such of the kingdom of heaven!"  Matt 19:14

Mark and Junior! 

Ian is growing up so fast! He's still just as cute as ever! =)

Mark and Mark!! =) SO cute!!

Baby Moses/Musa sound asleep! 

Baby Brenda! =) Or more affectionately known as, "Little Cindy Lou-Who!

So adorable! Just can't get any cuter than that! 

Steven!! =) So, when Amy and the nannies were looking through these pictures, and saw this one of Steven- the nannies said that he looked like a little frog, and busted out laughing! =) SO CUTE!!!!

FRED!!! =) SO adorable! And not to worry anyone, they are aware of girly clothes, and have taken the steps necessary to see that he now has some cute boy clothes for him!!! =) 

Fred Fred Fred! That big smile can light up any room! 

Mark and Junior playing! The kids just love Mark to pieces!

Ugandan hairstyle for the true Ugandan! =)

Enjoy these pictures of Amy getting her hair done- true Ugandan Style!!! =) A lot easier to deal with now!! 

I (deanna) LOVE THIS PICTURE!! =) So beautiful!

Betty and Amy =)

Amy with Baby Steve!!!! =) SO CUTE!!!!

Adorable =)

THIS will make you smile! =)

Mark with all of the babies before church! Everyone loves riding in the car so Sunday morning is a favorite time! :)

Baby Moses! He is so skinny and little. He is eating very well though and has gained weight just since being here! this was early this morning before I clothed him - isn't he a precious little doll???!

To Catch You Up...

This post will serve to catch you up on the happenings from Wednesday-Friday. Sorry we are behind, but the internet has been down and we have been so busy that sometimes the only time to write has been in the evening when we are too tired and opt to go to bed. SORRY!!

WEDNESDAY: We had a "chill day" at Sonrise. It was kind of nice to be here all day and spend time with the babies. One of the things that has been desperately needed in our room is a fan. We close the windows at night to keep out mosquitos so there is NO AIR FLOW. Needless to say I have been sweating to death...not fun!! Anyway, Amy sent Richard into town to get two fans. He returned with the blessed item and Joseph and an electrician set about installing it. When they finished they turned it on and...nothing. Apparantly some wiring was missing so they had to take it apart and head back to town for another one. This one was missing some wiring as well, so they had to make another stop at the "hardware store" to get the missing pieces. WE HAVE A FAN!!!! We turned it on for the first night and it felt glorious! About two hours later, Brenda was up feeding baby Mark and turned it off because she was cold. I almost died inside. I was on the top bunk where the air flow was great...as soon as it went off I could almost feel the beads of sweat forming again. Thankfully Amy opened the window shortly after, but we both determined to have a little talk with the cold Ugandans and set them straight about the fan being essential to us being happy during the night : )
Wednesday afternoon there was a trip to town to pick up Trust from the clinic. He is fine by the way...thank you for all of your prayers. Next stop...the supermarket. Since we have been ill our Mom's have been on us to not eat the food here and to get bland foods (crackers, Sprite, apples, bananas, etc.). Amy came back loaded down with several kinds of crackers, a crate of Sprite and other goodies...the "Bland Diet" began. One of the crackers is called "Digestive Crackers" and if you think really hard tastes exactly like Graham Crackers. Oh for simple tastes from home! The painters came again today to put another coat on the garage. It was all I could do not to rush out there and give them a piece of my mind about leaving out the water bottle with the chemicals in it. I knew that wouldn't solve anything though. Later that night, we ate our supper of crackers, Sprite, and apples. It was so good! Oh, and another plus to the day...Baby Brenda smiled! I had been trying to get her to do it all day and knew she was close and she did it!! I don't think she realized what she was doing, but it was still a smile : ) It did my heart good.

THURSDAY: Mark and I began the morning unpacking the donation bags. Our room is an absolute disaster zone with all of the suitcases stacked up. We organized all of the items and put them in ziploc bags and then had to quit because we have no idea where to put them all. It seems every cabinet we open has something in it. I think we are going to put some shelves in the closets to make more space. While unpacking one of the suitcases we found something that might as well have been a priceless jewel...KRAFT MAC&CHEESE!! Amy brought about 12 boxes for the kids, but we have decided that a few of them will be for us. Just the sight of this familiar food put renewed strength in mine and Mark's heart and body : ) We made a pact that if Amy said we couldn't have any that we were going to steal two boxes apiece and eat them together in the dark of night. Thankfully, such drastic measures didn't have to be taken. Brenda left this morning to get her hair done and as she was leaving said, "I'll see you on Sunday night. " WHAT?? We had no idea she was leaving for the weekend. And when she gets back she will head back to University. That's Ugandan communication for you. We had some more visitors today. It seems hardly a day goes by without someone stopping in. I guess there's an "open gate" policy. A neighbor from up the road decided to stop in and see what we are all about as well as a man named Mr. Kiganga who is a member of a Trust who helps support Sonrise. He can be kind of intimidating and sometimes is all talk and no action. He is apparently going to help support a chicken project for Sonrise for eggs and extra income. We'll see...
Amy finally got a real nap during nap time...she needed the rest. OH YEAH - the puppy is gone. Can I get a little snippet of the Hallelujah Chorus please?? We are so excited! That evening, we all went for a walk (this was Mark's first time), but we left a little bit later than usual. It always takes longer than we think to get shoes on everyone. By the time we left we could tell darkness was approaching fast, so we decided to make it quick. The road that Sonrise is on can be kind of busy and we have taught most of the children to get to the side of the road if a "motorcar" or "boda" comes by. On our way back we must have run into 10 of these vehicles which slows our progress as everyone comes to a halt. By the time we got back it was past dark...we will NOT be doing that again. I started off baby duty with Moses. He was not being very good for me and kept me up for about three hours. I'm not sure what time we finally fell asleep, but he woke up crying again about 2:45am. I could barely open my eyes. Thankfully, Amy was ready so we switched so I could get some sleep. Thank goodness!!

FRIDAY:
The day started off great...we received a text message about 5:00am with the news that our hometown Lady Bulldogs basketball team had beaten our nemesis Tennessee Volunteers coached by the infamous Pat Summit. It was all I could do not to shout for joy!! Way to go ladies!!!!!!!!! The painters came today and finished with the last coat of paint. Now we are waiting for everything to dry before we move beds and supplies in there. It will be nice for the babies to have their own room so that other volunteers not on baby duty can get some rest. We took a morning walk today and had the ambitious idea to go to the old house. That didn't last long. They started whining early on and so we decided to stop on the side of the road and play a little bit. One of the boys dropped his pants to use the bathroom in the bushes which started a chain reaction of about eight of them (girls included ) deciding that they needed to go to the bathroom too. It was quite funny. Mark had the opportunity to go with the group from Canada that has been here. Damali, Betty, and Richard have been working with them all week, so he was invited to go along. Hopefully he will tell you more about it, but they spent the day in the villages delivering family packs with mattresses and at a village school feeding breakfast to the many children who don't normally eat breakfast. I could tell he enjoyed it. During nap time Amy and I headed into town. We decided we needed a break for the afternoon. There was no one to drive us except us...so we drove! Amy drove and I "helped". It's different being on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the road. And we were praying that we wouldn't get stopped especially after we crossed the Nile as there are usually people watching. We prayed the entire time! She did quite well though. First stop - a restaurant for chicken and chips. We had both been feeling a lot better so decided to go off of our "Bland Diet" for the afternoon. It was delicious. I only ate about half of mine with an orange Fanta...delish! We then headed to another restaurant with wireless internet to chill and update the blog and photos. It was so relaxing. Amy then took me to the Source Cafe where we enjoyed a brownie sundae. It was not as delish as in America, but it was so good to have something familiar. Last stop...the supermarket for more water. Amy pulled up to the curb and I ran in. I was probably only inside for two minutes and by the time I came back out there were about 6 street kids surrounding the car asking for money as well as the parking guy wanting us to pay for our brief park on the street. Good grief!!! By the time we arrived back home we felt like true Ugandans : ) It was great! Damali dropped by this evening and wanted to go through clothes. We pulled out all of the kids baskets of clothes and went through matching and throwing out old stuff and replacing it with new. It was so hectic because she wanted all of them in there so we could try the clothes on if necessary. They were trying to crawl on the suitcases, rip off the neon duct tape, unzip the suitcases...definitely trying to my patience. Dad, you would have been going crazy!!!!

That's all...sorry for the length. We could try to shorten the posts, but then we would leave out important things. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers. It really means a lot!
Signing off...Leah

New post from Amy and Leah below these pictures!! =)

 Enjoy the faces of these beautiful babies!!

Mark with cute Trusty! So precious!

Leah with Junior and Fred! SO cute! They were playing and Leah was tickling them and they were just laughing and laughing!!

So much more cuteness! We loved this pic of Junior - he is still as adorable as ever!

Fred - or as he is more commonly known "Little Bo-Peep"! :)

Amy and Catherine! She is growning up so fast and just getting more and more beautiful and smart - her English is getting so much better! :)

Beautiful Catherine! Needless to say...She found the q-tips! and she came outside grinning at me from ear to ear!