A Few Videos

Here are a few videos that I made this past week.  The first is a tour of what our yard looks like during our times of Open Compound...the times when we open our yard up to kids who want to come play.  On this particular day, we ended up with close to 200 kids.  The second is a short clip from our Breakfast Club.  That's when we serve breakfast and have devotions with any primary students that want to come and who are able to say their memory verse to get in the gate.  This past week we had 98 kids.  Both of these times are near and dear to our hearts and we are so thankful that God has allowed us to do this.  The third video is the video that we used on furlough in the churches that we were blessed to present in.  Many people have already seen this one, but just in case you didn't and want to...here it is!

We're back in Uganda!

Thank you for praying for us this past week!  It's hard to believe that a little more than a week ago we packed our bags, said our goodbyes and hopped on the plane.  It's been a good week, although we struggled more with jet lag this time around.  We are thankful to be here!  We have finally finished unpacking and are starting to sleep a little better.  The stress of packing, traveling and jet lag wasn't too kind to my AI, but I'm starting to feel normal again too.  Here are a few pictures from the last week.

We had 25 bags on the plane!

Saying good bye to my sisters...

These two...they look alike and have a similar drive in life (read: high energy with a sprinkling of mischief thrown in).  They traded clothes at the last minute...down to Williams splint... and Daniel jumped in the car with us.  Hmm... Thankful for siblings that are more observant than parents...

More cousin twins...

Our last lunch in America was Cracker Barrel...we got takeaway and went to a local park.  Only problem? We forgot to ask for plates!  Ha! Cardboard it was.

 We flew out of Philidelphia and had to be at the airport very early!

One last prayer before checking in...prayers for safety and many prayers of thanksgiving for how God used our furlough to bless us in so many ways.

On the plane:

Flying over the Nile:

So our first flight had been super delayed and by the time we were landing in Doha our next flight was boarding.  As soon as we were off the plane we began to run!  Our next gate was through another security check and across the airport!!  Eric ran ahead to ask them to hold the plane.  The rest of us ran as fast as Talitha would go.  We passed one man in a suit with a walkie talkie and he asked us which flight we were on.  I called out as we were running, "Entebbe!  There's 11 of us!" He radioed ahead.  Then another lady met us..."Are you the 11 for Entebbe?"  Yes!  And she directed us down the stairs to where Eric was, we all jumped on a bus and were driven out to the plane, still parked and waiting for the party of 11 to board.  Whew... So we barely made it.  Unfortunately, 19 of our bags didn't make it.  When we arrived in Entebbe we had to spend a couple hours in the airport...first Matthew and Jimmy didn't have the proper stamps on their yellow fever cards so the poor guys had to get vaccinated the moment they stepped off the plane.  Then we went through immigration and then the bulk of our time was spent filling out crazy amounts of paperwork to get our bags back.  But Qatar airlines did great.  The next day they met us at a shopping mall in Kampala where we were picking up a few things and brought all the bags to us.

We loaded everything up to travel back to Mbale in this bus.

Then the sweet reunions began!

The Magalas even made a huge Ugandan feast for us!

Moses!!  He's grown up so much!

Talitha is so happy to have her 'big brother' Ivan back.

The kids have done so well throughout our transition!  It's always difficult, but were so blessed and encouraged to see how God carries them.  Goodbyes are hard, but their hearts were full of peace.  They were peace-filled, joy-filled and tear-filled goodbyes...I'm thankful for that.  All of us are happy to be home.  Talitha is very happy to be home...especially since home included a brand new kitty!  Mind you, we have also had many power outages and 2 days without water...haha!  Back to normal life, right? ;-)

Upwards Basket Ball, Cheerleading and a Break

One of the fun things that Rebecca, Jimmy and William got to do on furlough was to participate in Upwards Basketball and Cheerleading.  Upwards is a lovely not-very-intense program that encourages the kids spiritually and helps them to better their skills in basketball and cheerleading.  We ended up traveling more than we planned so they missed some of the practices and games, but they enjoyed it so so much!  And they picked up some new skills while they were at it.

We had to laugh a few times at some Ugandan holdovers that crept their way into even this.  The first was when the kids were asked to find a nickname for themselves for all the games.  Rebecca just decided to use what all her friends...in Uganda...call her: Rebecca Kadaga.  The real Rebecca Kadaga is the speaker of Parliment in Uganda...she's well respected and well liked by the majority of our friends in Mbale and our Rebecca ended up being named that by all her friends.  But of course, 99.999% of Americans wouldn't know this.  And so I asked Rebecca..."did you tell them where your name comes from?" She said, "Yes, I told them that's what my friends call me!" (Leaving out the small detail about how her friends are in Uganda because that's where we live...)  So every game, we not only got a chuckle out of how our last name was slaughtered in its pronunciation during the announcements, but also how her unknown nickname was also slaughtered.  Poor MC...we didn't make it easy on him!  haha!

We also had a small incident with a snake in the gym when we arrived for practice one night.  I totally thought, in my Ugandan mindset, that by the looks on everyone's faces we were going walk in to find a 4 or 5 foot good ol' southern rattler...because that's how we look when we see our cobras.  It turned out to be a garden snake (I think) about 10 inches long and the thickness of my pinkie.  We took care of it for them.  ;-)  

Rebecca and her coaches.  Super sweet ladies... so thankful for how well they loved on all the kiddos.

Every game begins in prayer.

William and Jimmy playing. (Jimmy was No 34 and William was No 3)

Every practice and game the boys got stars ironed on their shirts

Then, 24 hours after basketball season finished, William jumped off this pile of mulch and fractured his arm.

He gets his cast off right before we leave and will be in a splint for a while.  And the $20 I spent to get a waterproof cast?  Worth every penny.... especially when he started digging in the sand, when he fell off the canoe into the water and when he went running in the rain.  So much energy, this one...

Outerbanks Day

This past week we enjoyed a visit from some good friends.  We spent one day at the Outerbanks.  This is a total photo dump from a really fun day in no particular order.  We were thankful for some last days of fellowship with friends and (at the beginning of the week) with my parents.  Now we are turning our attention to full time packing.  We are down to one week before take off now...so there's a lot to do! 

A Week of Vacation to Myrtle Beach

 We just had a blessed vacation with Eric's parents at Myrtle Beach.  We were so thankful for a week of fun and rest.  Here's our photo dump from the week.

The younger members met the chic fil a cow for the first time.

We had some amazingly warm weather for February.  The sun was such a blessing to play in!

7th floor ocean view

A few of the hotels outdoor pools were heated and they would turn on the water slide at our request.  The guy that came was impressed that he had lots of customers and then was shocked to find out that they all called me mama.

Still thanking the Lord for a sweet time of rest.

A little Ugandan influence:

"Look Mama...It's a Bantwe!" (Big headed person and all the shared cultural connotations that go with that phrase)

 Yay for an amazing husband to do life with!

We took the kids bowling for the first time ever.  Lots of fun!

The kids and Eric have been training hard for a 5K.  They weren't to sure about running on the beach, but they are doing great sticking with it, even on vacation!

We also taught the kids Up and Down the River: the tradition card game of the Tuininga clan.

 Probably the most fun we had was going to a jump house.  (Talitha said it was more fun than anything else except going back to Uganda! haha!)  There were trampolines for all of us and then some.

This little guy jumped on my leg and decided to sun himself there while I continued reading my book.

These girls can talk their daddy into just about anything...including waking up before dawn to watch the sunrise.