The month of May flew by with a vengeance. We took some weeks off of school and lest we grow too lazy on our break, life threw some crazy busy times at us to keep us relying on the Lord and looking to him for strength. Here are some of the highlights.
:: We had, what we hope, will be the first of many training sessions for the pastors and wives. The pastors are going through very practical material such as "how to run a session meeting." The wives are getting encouragement to keep pressing on in their roles as pastors wives. (The role of pastor's wife is even more difficult here than in the states since the husband will put in many hours of labor for the church with no pay. Often times the family struggles for food and school fees and yet the husband presses on working for free for the church. It is easy for Satan to use that opportunity to discourage the wives, as you can well imagine)
For the ladies, I taught one session and Mama Rachel and her mama (Mama Maria) taught the other session. It was a real blessing to all of us.
:: Our other big event of the month was that Timothy flew by himself back to America to work for his uncle for the summer. It's hard to believe that this kid is 15 years old and old enough to even consider such an opportunity! We are praying that we will get Denise's visa in order to be able to join him in August. This whole "leaving the nest" thing is killing my mommy heart, but we are so much at peace with where he is staying (With his Uncle, Aunt and 7...soon to be 8...cousins) that we can't help but be very happy for him! It was quite brutal on my little ones though. They just don't get the whole idea of "America." It seems so far away to them...truly a place people go to and don't come back. ("Does America have playgrounds?" "Is Timothy going to die there?" "Will we ever see him again?") Little Talitha has cried herself to sleep more than once, but she seems to be settling down now. We were so thankful for how Emirates airline took care of him. We didn't pay for any additional escorts for him, but as soon as they found out that he was flying alone, they walked him through everything...from leaving here, to a special lobby during his layover, to his next plane, and all the way through customs and out to his waiting grandparents. We were so thankful for that!
::Today there was a Fun Run in town. Anna (our current visitor) and I decided to go for it. It was announced as a 7 km race, but in reality it ended up being 5.5 km. And it only started an hour and a half late this time. :-)
They had people going around taking pictures and then when we finished, it turned out that they had printed them and were selling them for 30 cents. Here's our "snap."
::With the start of June, also came the start of our new school year. We are trying to get 6 weeks done before we hopefully head to America. After our crazy month, I'm thankful for a bit of settling into a schedule.
:: We don't have much to update concerning Denise's adoption. We are still waiting for a very important document called an I600a (from the American side of things). We are also still waiting for the judges written ruling.(From the Ugandan side of things). We need both of these documents before we can ask for a visa appointment at the embassy. Please continue to pray with us that these things will come together in time. Even once we get the appointment, it could take a bit of time as we have heard that the embassy has started doing their own investigations on each case. We really want to go on furlough in August. Having Timothy there waiting for us puts even more pressure on that August date. Please continue to pray for our hearts: we don't want to make an idol of getting on a plane in August. We know with certainty that God's timing will be perfect regardless of when it is. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold the date on an open hand. We want to plan. A family our size can't just show up with no plans in place. We also want to know when we will see Timothy again. This is especially true for the littles who tend to struggle a bit more. Pray also for Denise's heart...whether or not she gets into America (although we presume she will, we won't know for sure until it happens) is a HUGE deal for her life...it's a fairly large weight for a 13 year old to carry. We appreciate prayers for this!
Thank you friends! Hopefully June won't be as quiet as May was in bloggy land.
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