Uganda Day 2

We started our journey to Palissa, Uganda around 8:00 a.m..  Because of our large team, we have a bus for us and a van four our luggage.  WE stopped in Jinja for lunch and for the Internet cafe.  Internet has been down 95% of the time we've been hearer.  Unfortunately, it wasn't working very well today either.  I want to see my family so bad, I miss my kids!
Back on the bus, our worship team helped us to get back into Him.  It was awesome to have that!  As we started to drive thru Palissa, it started looking very rural. Lots of holes in the small dirt roads, huts everywhere, and beautiful Ugandans surprised to see our big bus in their village.  I'm sure that our big bus full of Mzungus had something to do with it.

At the Country Inn, literally in the sticks, our luggage was being searched…one bag at a time, for explosives.  Explosives…really?!  Yes, they were looking in every bag for explosives!  Our team had approximately 70 bags, and one guy was searching our bags after we were squished into a tight bus for 6 hours.  We were not very happy!  So being the great example of spiritual leadership that I am, I began hiding bags behind me and creating a scene to distract our bag searcher.  Then I proceeded to invite my fellow team members to also partake in my deceiving scheme of sneaking bags past the bag searcher and into our rooms.  Hilarious…I must say, but it did the job!
After sorting out that mess, and getting settled into our rooms, we headed to Kerith Children's Home.  There were not many children there initially, but it didn't take long before the children in the community were watching us.

I was shown the "kitchen" were we will be cooking.  This is going to be an interesting adventure!  I watched the ladies cooking chapati, and gathered some of the other team members to learn as well.  Mercy, Pastor Samuel's wife, was so much fun.  She is full of personality.  They showed us how to form the dough and cook it on a small charcoal fueled skillet.  Chipati is very similar to a tortilla.  It was a lot of fun preparing the dough and watching the Ugandan women laugh at us. In the end, we mastered it.

The feast we are preparing for the staff and the children is going to b e such a special treat.  I will be taking a few of the team members to market to buy food in the morning.  Just talking about our menu and how we will be preparing it makes me laugh.

We started out talking about buying two goats, and having tow of our team members kill and clean it.  Then they started talking about buying a slab of beef from the market…oh boy!

The day before, we were in Jinja.  I had used my coleader's phone to text Brandon.  I said, "Hey Boo, get on FaceTime.  I have internet access.  Don't text back unless it's an emergency."  Well apparently, all Brandon just replied.  All he received was, "Emergency!"  I about wet my pants, I couldn't stop laughing!

As we were about to call it a night, a hotel staff person approached me with a sheet of paper asking about 20 personal questions.  Including name, address, passport number, our tribe, etc..  I told him I could complete on form for the whole team.  He kept insisting everyone needed on.  So again, I do what any spiritual leader would do…lol!  I take the whole stack and hand them over to another team member and have her fill out all of our teams "personal information."  Or at least, her interpretation of everyones information!  Fun times!  I hope to get asked to lead another team soon!

Uganda 2012 Day 1

Why do I do this?  What makes me want to travel all the way to Africa to spend two weeks serving?

I do it because if fuels me.  I love seeing little brown faces with deep brown eyes looking up to me.  I see Him in those eyes.  When I squeeze those tiny bodies, I feel full.  I go thinking I'm going to do something big…make a difference.  But what happens is that the difference that is made, is in me.  I am changed.  Without knowing it, they are the ones that show me what true love is.  They show me how to be completely content in what they have.  They show me how to be in crazy love with Him.  

They. Change. Me.

Day 1

Today was the first day to really get dirty, so to speak.  Our team was scheduled to spend the entered day at My Father's House and Royal Hope Academy. I was very excited to share this awesome experience with my team.  

We pulled up, and they hurried into position to welcome us.  They didn't have enough time to fully welcome us down the path that leads to their school, but it still overwhelmed my team.  Its very emotional to see children with so little be so grateful for us.  Our bus doors open, and its as if we are celebrities.  

Their worship and praise is out of this world.  It truly is my favorite place to worship.  Talk about putting us to shame.  They love Jesus and raise their hands, kneels on the hard red dirt and praise him. I had to leave early and drive with Abus to pick up the team members that didn't make our original flight the day before, and pick up the missing luggage.  

Abus, our driver, and I had a lot of fun learning about each others cultures.  He said that I am good because I talk to thin.  I can't imagine not making conversation with the an who drives, translates and meets all of our crazy needs.   I learned that he has five children and has been married for 15 years.  His wife goes to University for accounting.  He supports this family by driving teams when their are in town.  

When we arrived at the airport, I caught the three team members just as they were about to exit the luggage claim area.  Once you go thru, you can't go back.  I quickly handed them the missing luggage tags, and had them go to find our missing bags.  Thank God for that!  Others were waiting for hours to have an airport worker look for one bag at a time.  We quirky snook out of there before any other delay.  They were so tired, I can imagine!  At dinner, George from Ekubo, came to speak to our team about his love story to his wife Christy (an American), and about his ministry, Ekubo.  HE was hilarious!  He has an obvious passion for bettering his village.  It was such an honor to get to meet him. The team was very tired, but did their best to stay us.  He was very appreciative of the formula we had collected.

Uganda 2012

As you may know, I'm leading my first short term mission team to Uganda this summer!  We leave in just three weeks!  My team is a large one.  We have 30 people on the team. Our team has some big things planned and we would LOVE your help!
How can you help:

• Formula - We will be working with various ministries that have a huge need for formula.  When a child is orphaned or abandoned, a mother's breast milk is no longer an option.  That is where formula comes in.  It is very expensive and difficult to find at times.  You can either purchase it and one of our team members can bring it in their luggage, or you can donate money for us to purchase it.  

• Monetary Support - We have two big projects that we need help funding.  Since food is such a huge need, our team will be preparing and serving a feast for the children and staff at Kerith Children's Home and Canaan's Children's Home.  We will need to purchase animals for meat, fruit and vegetables, drinks and other supplies for this to happen.  Most children eat posho       (rice/porridge) and beans everyday.  Meat, fruits and vegetables are a luxury.  Our prayer is that God allows us so much provision, that the children and staff feel His love thru us serving them and feeding them well.

• There are many needs, as you can assume, in the various Ugandan ministries.  From land, to vehicles, self sustainable projects and teachers salaries. You name it, there is probably a need for it.    

• You can donate directly through Visiting Orphan's website.  This will get you a tax deduction.  Please go here and choose the fund category as Uganda July 21 Waiting List.  Then give away!  That's it!  The money collected through our team will be used for formula, food and whatever the Lord leads our team to do.  

Our team will be working with:

• Return Ministries
• Kerith Children's Home
• Sangaalo Baby Cottage
• Ekisa Special Needs Orphange
• Amani Baby Cottage
• My Father's House 
• Canaan's Children's Home

Last year, I was blown away by how God provided!  He uses people to get stuff done and He used so many of you last year.  I hope that you would consider joining me on a team one day!  

New in 30

What can you accomplish in 30 days?  Is there something that you have been postponing? Maybe you have been wanting to create a new habit. Perhaps it's big household project.  If you could focus on this one thing for 30 days, imagine how achievable your goal would be.

For me, I have been trying to read my One Year bible for almost ten years!  I would always get pumped up every January.  I would get thru to April one year, July another, but never all the way thru.  Bible studies have taken me thru different books in its entirety.  And I have done a ton of those. But I have always wanted to read the bible cover to cover.  My faith is huge part of my life, in fact the biggest.

I am proud to announce that I am half way there in 30 days!  I have read the entire New Testament in 30... okay 40 days! YouVersion, an amazing bible reading app, has several bible reading, devotionals, and study plans.  What made my New in 30 bible reading plan so accomplishable is the audio option.  I LOVE how technology makes this easier!  I listened to YouVersion read me my days worth of reading on the road, while I was cooking dinner, and while I was lying in bed instead of watching TV.  It was amazing.  I learned so much, and am already looking forward to my next reading plan of the Old Testament.

If reading the bible, even just one book of the bible has been something you have been wanting to do, I highly encourage you to try YouVersions, bible reading plans.  And remember, it has an audio option that reads to you!  Seriously, it can't get any easier!

Three

It is so hard to believe that my tiny Ethiopian Princess is growing up so fast.  And boy is she a Princess!  Everything pink for her please!  We had a huge birthday celebration, even tho I am desperately trying to scale down birthday celebrations in our family.  Both grandmothers were here and so was my brother.

Marley's birthday, ironically, fell on Mother's Day this year.  I very vividly remember Mother's Day of 2009.  At that point, our adoption journey had been over 3 years.  We started trying to adopt through Foster Care, and eventually joined the international adoption community hoping to adopt from Ethiopia.  Our paperwork had been in Ethiopia for 10 months.  Looking back, that wasn't that bad, but we were told it would be just a few months.

We went to church on Mother's Day.  The pastor asked for all the mothers to stand and everyone applauded.  I crouched down in my chair and pouted. No balled!  I was already a mother to the most amazing little boy ever.  But my heart hurt for the little girl that I knew was out there, and at the time the Ethiopian adoption program was starting to look like it was going to close to U.S. adoptions.  I thought I was going unnoticed, until another adoptive mother nudged me from behind and told me to stand up…I was a mother.  I reluctantly stood, and then quickly returned to my pouting.

When reading my blog posts from that time, I am so thankful to not be there anymore.  Oh my goodness!  But there is another part to this story!

Marley, my sweet Marley Haset, was mine.  While the circumstances of her coming to me were not ideal, she was still always meant to be mine.  I carried her in my heart, I prayed for her and her birth family.  The Lord prepared me for her arrival, in an amazing adoptive mommy way.  He gave me a dream!  Her birth mother labored, and delivered her.  I admire that.  He also gave her a dream.  A dream of something better for her tiny one…life.

What a Mother's Day gift, then, now and always.  Marley's birth will always be celebrated in our home, as will Mother's day.  How amazing is that?!  I get to celebrate the birth of my daughter, being a mother and celebrating the mother that gave me my daughter all in one day!  I am blessed!   

Attached

Attachment parenting is a big topic in the adoption community, as it should be.  After being home with Marley for almost 2 1/2 years, I sometimes forget where we came from and how far we've come.  I haven't opened up about this until now for many reasons.  First, I didn't want to publicly admit that our daughter wasn't attached to us upon arriving home from Ethiopia.  The busyness of our lives didn't really allow me time to process it and then blog about it.  And finally, I truly needed over two years to see how much progress we have made.

We had read all the books, taken the classes and were very familiar with what an attached child and and unattached child looks like.  The excitement of welcoming a new baby into our home overcame us and accepting that our attachment was "less than perfect" was hard.  Nonetheless, we chose to utilize attachment parenting to help her bond to us and know that we were here for keeps.

What in the heck is attachment parenting?  As related to adoption, it's a method for creating a sense of security, familiarity, consistency and unconditional love.  For our family, we choose to be the only ones that held, changed and fed Marley for about 4-6 months.  After that, we allowed her to go to the nursery at church and stay at home with babysitters.  I carried her in a sling most of the day.  If she cried at night, I quickly ran to meet her needs.  I wanted her to know that I was going to meet her needs, and I wasn't going away.

Marley had never formed an attachment, it was foreign to her.  I recall being handed this perfect, tiny, happy baby and thinking, "well that wasn't so bad."  Not even two minutes later, I could see that she didn't know what it was like to be cuddled, held or loved.  She wouldn't lay her head down on my chest or shoulder.  If I tried to hold her to me, she'd squirm away, awkwardly holding her head up, as if to say, "your too close lady!"  We would try to rock her to sleep and she wouldn't have it.  She wanted to be put down and fall asleep on her own.  I know, some of you are thinking "what a dream!"  But that's all Marley knew, a box and pillow and a propped up bottle.  No holding, no cuddling, no loving.  At the age of 6 months old, she had learned not to trust adults and was relying on herself.

After we came home, she would go to anyone.  She has always been a "social butterfly," but she would go to anyone.  As if she didn't miss me.

That's where the sling came in.  I wanted Marley to know what closeness felt like.  She needed to know that I'm here and I love her.  I'm not going anywhere.  I strapped her in that sling and that's where she spent a good part of her days.  She would still hold her head back, and fought me when it was nap time.  The good thing is I am just a tiny bit more stubborn that she is.  I used attachment parenting to help Marley attach to me as her mother.  She needed to know it was okay to trust me, I'm here to stay.

As time would go by, we would jump up and down for the little milestones we'd make as a family.  The first time Marley fell asleep in my arms was a BIG DEAL!  She was about a year old.  When she was tired, she would lay her head on my shoulder briefly…I was soaking it up!

So Two and a half years later, my tiny, happy girl is attached!  I'm sure she has been for quite some time, but with adoption we always have to be aware of it.  Marley LOVES to be cuddled!  She loves to crawl into bed with me and curl up in my arms.  I have a hard time dropping her off to pre-school because she wants Mommy to stay with her.  While she is still and will probably always be a "social butterfly," when it comes down to it, it's Mommy that she wants!

So Two and a half years later, my tiny, happy girl is attached!  I'm sure she has been for quite some time, but with adoption we always have to be aware of it.  Marley LOVES to be cuddled!  She loves to crawl into bed with me and curl up in my arms.  I have a hard time dropping her off to pre-school because she wants Mommy to stay with her.  While she is still, and will probably always be, a "social butterfly," when it comes down to it, it's Mommy that she wants!

Another Marley Moment...

Oh Baby Spice, what would I do if I didn't have you?  

I Didn't Grow up a MK, PK or go to Bible College

Mission work is my calling.  What it will look like in the next five or ten years, I have no idea.  But I do know that I am where I am supposed to be right now!  It feels good, and it scares the crap out of me at the same time!  I don't have missionary blood.  I'm not a sixth generation missionary.  I didn't grow up on the soil of a mission field.  I didn't even know that there were such things as short term mission trips until just a few years ago.  

Let me give you a brief history.  I grew up a Navy Brat, my father was in the Navy for 22 years.  We traveled quite a bit.  We were Lutheran, and attended various churches mainly on holidays until I was in high school.  I was taught the Lords Prayer at an early age, participated in advent and lent.  I attended Catholic school, and was confirmed Catholic.  The next year I was confirmed Lutheran.  But it was more of just going thru the motions.  I never felt like it was me that was making the decisions and there was no real relationship.

Shortly after Brandon and I met, we started attending a new church together.  We rededicated our lives together and got baptized at the beach.  We were young, but on fire for God.  After being in our pastors small group for a few years, we began leading small groups in our home.  Brandon and I have held various leadership roles in the churches we have belonged to.  

I did not grow up a Missionary Kid (MK).  I was not a Pastor's Kid (PK).  Nor had I ever heard of these terms until just a few years ago.  I have no formal "religous" training and I have not attended Bible College or Seminary.  But I have something greater…a fire in my heart, Jesus.  He has given me everything I need.  He has used my history, my circumstances, and my abilities and passions to grow me into what He wanted me to be…a servant to Him.  

My road to leading short mission teams has been a long one.  Since the Purpose Driven Life book, I have been praying and seeking my calling, my role.  And every new venture, I thought was it.  Parenting. Teaching.  Non-Profit work.  Owning a Business.  I have crazy passions for poverty, orphans and self sustainable living.  We are passionate about living on less than we make.   All of these are no accident…they all prepared me to be the person that I am today.  I needed to know how to parent and to teach.  I needed to know how a non-profit runs.  I needed to know how to run a business.  God has put this crazy desire to live off grid in me for a reason.  He guided us to adoption by no accident.  He put this absurd idea of living off less than you make in us because He knew that we would have to one day.  

I left for Uganda, my very first mission trip, just 11 months ago.  In just three months I will be leading my first mission trip, back to Uganda.  At times I feel very well equipped, knowing that I am doing what He led me to.  Other times I feel underqualified.  I don't have the acolades that others have had.  But I turn back to him, for wisdom and guidance.  While I don't know what it will look like in five or ten years, I do know that right now I am in the right place!

Where in the World have we been?

After many months of a blogging hiatus, I'm ready to get back into the groove of blogging!  I have so much to share and so much to say.  Honestly, I've been hesitant to write.  Not because I don't have anything to say, or that I'm so busy.  But because I have been too worried about what others will think.  Silly, I know.  Actually, if you know me I am quite the opposite in person.  There is something about writing on a public blog that has been intimidating me.  

Getting out of that mindset is a must!  It's not who I am!  So I'm here!  Let's start by a quick update.  

• We are MOVING!!!!  We will be moving to Germany in September for three years.
• I am tutoring part time and preparing to lead my first Short Term Mission Team to Uganda in July!
• Miles is getting VERY tall!  Obviously he has no choice (I'm 6' and B is 6'7")!  He is doing very well in school and in his gifted program and loves taking breakdancing lessons.
• Marley is about to turn three and looking more like a little girl than a toddler!  She is in speech and occupational therapy and it is going well.  
• Brandon's many roles keep him busy.  He is taking classes online and should graduate in the next year!  So proud of him! 

Stay tuned for a better blogger!

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