Your Feet

Where will these feet take you?
Where will these feet take us?
What will these feet look like after you've walked the path that God has set before you?
After you've run that race?
What story do your feet tell? What story will your feet tell?

Pie Your RA

To raise money for Relay for Life, community council planned "Pie Your RA"

It was messy. It was coooold (using practically-still-frozen coolwhip to make pies about to be smashed in someone's face is not a good idea.) It was hard to breathe with that stuff in your nose.
It was fun.

I'm baaaack

It's been a while, but I'm back to the blogging world. I've been reading others' blogs recently and it inspired me to start this back up.

I want to learn cherish everything, in the here and now, just as much as I did while in Uganda. I want to remember all the little moments that pass by so quickly. I want to realize that my life is a story, which can be told beautifully. I'm hoping this blog will help me to do so.

So, what has happened since I last updated?

1. I have cried. And cried. And cried. And then I cried some more.I wish I could say that I came home from Uganda and just went back to my every-day normal life. But that trip, those children, those volunteers, those nannies, forever changed my life. I know that I will never be the same. I have ever-so-sloooowly come to the realization that I will never be "over it". I will never stop crying. My heart will never not be breaking or longing to go back to Uganda. Never. (Oh goodness, that's over-whelming)

Me, on my last day with my babies, holding David and Patience

2. I got engaged :)
To the most incredible guy. I don't believe in soul-mates and I understand that marriage will be work...but he's perfect for me. He's goofy. He's shy. He has dreams to do everything under the sun, the sky is the limit in his eyes. He's got the biggest heart for people. He loves me so much. Basically, he's wonderful.

Our wedding is coming quickly and we couldn't be more excited. But we are loving this stage of planning and preparing our hearts and minds.

Us, on the day we got engaged

3. I started (and have almost completed) my last year at Grand Valley.
I'm still an R.A. in a building of freshmen. The guys drive me absolutely crazy, but my floor of girls are spectacular. They even threw me a surprise bachelorette party (how cute is that?!)
I can't believe how quickly college has flown by. I know that I have learned a lot, but I still have times where I am sitting in class and just feel so stupid. But oh well.

4. I got my appendix taken out.
Haha, I don't even know why I bothered to include this. I have some ugly scars. One of which forever ruined my cute belly-button.

5. I fell in love with multiples.
Twinners. Triplets. The more the merrier.
I volunteer in the nursery at my church, and there are twin boys who are regular attenders in my room. Oh my, are they adorable!! They scream and cry...but if you can calm them down, they are just darling. They giggle at everything. And crawl like champs. My heart melts when I see them being carried up to my room.
I can't wait to be holding my little twinners from somewhere in Africa :) They probably aren't even alive yet...but I will love them. And I can't wait.

Home, Sweet Home

Last Monday, I returned home safe and sound. I apologize to my faithful readers (all 5 of you, haha) that it has been so long since I last updated.

On the Saturday before I left, 35 of the babies were dedicated at the evening Watoto Church service. I was so thrilled that I got to be a part of it before I left. I got to hold and pray over David. Patience was held by another volunteer, Bjorg, but they were right next to us. All the babies were dressed in really sharp outfits, they all looked so good!

My flights...could have been worse. And I made it home, so that's all that matters. Haha. After my early arrival, my family and I went out to lunch at none other but WENDY'S!! I had been craving a Wendy's taco salad. Mmm, mmm!

This past week has been tough for me. A lot of adjusting. It's a strange and not fun feeling when home feels like a foreign place. But I am making slow progress back to a form of my normal life. Thank you all for your support and prayers!!

If anyone wants to get together for coffee or something to hear about my trip I am MORE THAN HAPPY to share my pictures and stories. But beware, I do LOVE to talk about this place :)

Lunch with the Woosters...AHHH!!

Today I was EXTREMELY BLESSED to spend an hour or so with some friends from back home. Aaron and Kacie Wooster, who have been traveling the world all summer, are in Uganda this week! I didn't think there would be a way for us to get together, but I figured that I would give them my cell phone number just in case. Turns out they had today off! They gave me a call and were able to come have a short tour of Baby Watoto and then we headed out for lunch at Garden City. It was so great to see familiar faces and we had some good conversation over lunch (that I was treated to, THANK YOU AARON AND KACIE!) After lunch it was like, "Oh yeah...I'm still in Uganda." Haha. It was a great day!
Photo Credit to Aaron and Kacie, I didn't have my camera on me so I stole the picture they posted on their blog :)

I only have 2 days left at the baby home...CRAZY!! It hit me on Wednesday that I was actually leaving. I had to choose some new people to look after DAVID and Patience (turns out there was a mis-communication and my boy's name is David, not Daniel), we got the new schedule and my name wasn't on there AND I got my volunteer exit evaluation form! It hit me hard and I just burst into tears during lunch. Oh goodness. I am excited to be coming home though. It is bittersweet for sure.

Prayer Requests: That I would have a peace about leaving and wouldn't get too upset these next 2 days and that I will adjust well into my life back home.

Update on Abdul

About three weeks ago, Abdul (the 4 year old boy I wrote about earlier, with the eating problems), was taken to Kenya to try and fix his eating problems once and for all. He had a scope go through his esophagus trying to reach his stomach. However the problem was found before reaching his stomach. Abdul's esophagus, mainly the part that connects to the stomach, was almost completely scar tissue. So essentially, nothing he was eating was making it to his stomach. He underwent a major operation, in which the end of his esophagus was taken out and a new "section" was reconstructed and put in its place. He had about 2 weeks of initial recovery, before heading back home to Kampala.

He came back home late Friday night (last Friday.) He is doing extremely well!! What a blessing it is to have been here to witness the transformation first hand!

The picture is of Abdul EATING his EGGS AND BISCUITS!!! Praise the Lord!

America, America, THIS IS YOU!

I, along with 6 other American volunteers, spent the 4th of July...wait for it...wait for it...
WHITE WATER RAFTING THE NILE!!!

It was absolutely incredible! We had such a great time! There's not much to blog about it. But I thought you would all want to know what I did to celebrate America's independence. I wore our colors proudly and we told everyone we were celebrating America's independence the best way we knew how here in Uganda.

I also had the theme song to "America's Funniest Home Videos" stuck in my head all day. So I kept singing, "You're the red, white and blue! Oh the funny things you do! America, America, this is you!!"

Prayer Requests: That I would make the most of my LAST WEEK, not wish it away. That I would learn to cope with doing everything in a group and not be grumpy with everyone...or that God would bless me with a little bit of "me time" everyday. And lastly, for Patience, who has gotten extremely sick.