Last Thoughts...

We've been back from Uganda for almost 5 weeks. I miss Uganda tremendously! Having spent six weeks straight with these babies and these people, it's weird not to be around them at all. It hits me at the weirdest times that I can't just drive over to Sonrise and say hello. They are many miles away! I can't hold the babies or play with them. Miko, Ian, Catherine, and Nulu have started school. I wish I could have been there to see them on their first day.
Brenda has still been sick and was actually in the hospital for several days in Kampala. They tested her again for TB and HIV. All the tests results aren't back yet so we're still waiting. That's the hardest part...waiting.
Lots of people keep asking me how my trip was and it's hard to even begin to describe it in a short conversation. I just keep saying that it was awesome and life-changing. The Lord has really just opened my eyes to the plight of orphans, opened my heart to be available to go wherever He leads whenever He leads, and to trust that He will provide everything that I need.
As you can imagine, this trip was very expensive. I had been working my tail off every chance that I could and saving every cent. I wanted to try to pay for this trip with my own money, but God provided money from people that I never even expected. I have had a large jar on my dresser since I started saving for this trip and kept putting my money into it. I paid for my plane ticket and then as the trip drew closer I knew how much money had to be in the jar in order to meet the budget requirements. I went to church the Sunday before we left and had our church family pray for us. As I was leaving, I had two or three people come up to me and give me some money for the trip. After lunch, I brought out the jar and Mom and Mary Beth helped me count it all. I told them how much I needed and we began. We each tallied up our stacks and then added them up together and the grand total was exactly how much I needed. What a huge blessing!
I can see how the Lord orchestrated every part of this trip and worked in my heart before, during, and even after the trip.
Everyone wants to know if I will be going back and the answer is a very clear yes. The when part is a little bit more foggy. I feel that I can't ask off work for awhile since I was just gone for six weeks, but I feel certain that God will take me back.
So thanks for following us on our trip. Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement. I look forward to seeing where God takes me next!

Rafting the Nile River

Yes, we are back from Uganda, but I still wanted to finish telling you all about the last few days of our trip. Saturday, February 20th we awoke to thunder and rain...the last full day in uganda and also the day we had chosen to go white water rafting down the Nile River. Not good... We headed over to the outpost and they were still gearing up to go. Their philosophy was "you're going to get wet anyway." Oh well! We paid and ate breakfast which was provided then headed to get our lifejackets and helmets. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the river where we would put the rafts in. Each raft could hold 7 people plus a guide. We loaded up (still raining) and paddled around in the open area to practice different skills we would need such as pulling someone into the raft, going down rapids in the correct position, what to do when you fall out of the raft, how to re-flip the raft, etc... I had just gotten my hair braided and wasn't supposed to get it wet. Guess who was chosen as the "volunteer" to model how to get back into the raft? Yep - me! That didn't last long. We went down the river on an all-day excursion which included lunch on the river and dinner back at the camp. We went down rapids from Class I to Class V which was loads of fun. I was scared at some points - not going to lie, but our guide was excellent and we made it safely through them all. We only flipped once on a Class III which seemed pretty puny since we made it through all of the Class V rapids fine.
We got back to the campground for dinner and realized that we didn't have our shoes. They were in the other truck which was supposed to be coming to the campground, but somehow we missed it. We called back to the outpost in jinja and they said they had a box of three pairs of shoes. Great! We had to ride the boda back to Jinja barefooted. Did I mention I was sunburned. Oh yeah! I didn't put on sunscreen that morning because of the rain and then when the sun started coming out I put some on. Then another raft came over and splashed us and it washed off of me. Wonderful!
We got back to Sonrise that night and Betty, Aisha, and Damali had planned a going-away party for us. Lots of people came over who we had met on this trip or who were involved with Sonrise. They thought it would be funny to have an eating contest between Mark, Amy, and I - I came in last place : ) There was a big banner that said Thank You on it and also an individual note for each of us expressing thanks for our being there. It was so sweet! It was very sad to think that we would be leaving the next day.