Blessings!

God has blessed us in so many ways this past month!

The biggest gift we were so thankful to receive is our van.  For our first few weeks in the US, all we had was a minivan.  So anywhere we all wanted to go required two trips.  haha...it was quite a juggling feat!  An anonymous donor gifted us a 12 passenger van, that has a nice cargo space in back.  Redeemer OPC in Atlanta did all the leg work to find it and purchase it.  My dad and I went and picked it up last week. Whoever you are, thank you so so much...many tears of joy were spilled when I heard about this gift.

Another great blessing was getting a new puppy.  We had so much loss when we flew back from Uganda, including all our animals...dogs, cat, rabbits, chickens, Guinea fowl, and ducks.  This sweet one, who we named Louisa May, has been a soothing balm to our hearts.  She's a St. Dane...half St Benard and half Great Dane.  She's still a puppy, but oh so sweet.  She comes running with me in the morning and is pretty spoiled the rest of the day.  

 We also were treated to a day at a waterpark.  We had a great time! 

Timothy is now in Oregon for the summer/fall working at an organic dairy farm.  Before he left, he managed to finish his 40 hours of driving time and get his full permit.

The Lord blessed us with a few weeks for the chaos of our move to settle down and then he blessed us with a week of Vacation Bible School at our new church.  This, of course, is a very new experience...my kids were the ones who kept running barefoot and complaining about the air conditioning being too cold. haha!  The kids had a blast though...the three littles as participants and the older ones as helpers.  On the last evening, they had a feast for the kids.  They dressed up like royalty and had a grand time.  The greatest blessing of the week was that it gave my kids a chance to make some new friends.

Updates and Visits

::First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all your prayers after our break-in.  We still praise the Lord that no one was hurt and that we didn't lose any possessions.  The intruder has been in jail this whole time and will appear in court soon.  Eric will need to go to court also.  Please continue to pray that God's will be done.  It appears that this is not his first time in prison.  In the meantime, Eric has a student that is from the same tribe as the intruder and has gone a couple times to meet with him in jail.  He was able to share the gospel with him and pray with him.  It also appears that he was not alone in his plans to break into our house.  His cohort is not locked up at this time however, as the evidence against him is still technically considered "hear-say" and not enough to imprison someone for.    The kids have recovered quite well from all of the trauma.  The first few days were rough, but God carried us through.  To Him be the glory!  It was such an encouragement to know that so many were praying for us!  The Lord has also sustained me, particularly in regards to my adrenal insufficiency which really doesn't like stress (I took lots of extra steroids!) and I praise him for that.  It does seem, however, that the stress and busyness have thrown me into an RA flare and the past couple days have brought lots of joint pain.  I know it will pass soon though!

:: We were blessed this past week with a major distraction from the heaviness of the break-in, by a visit from Eric's mom.  Her timing couldn't have been more perfect as she was not here for the break-in, but was here right after!  We enjoyed introducing her to our friends, our church, the college, and our lives here.  We're eagerly anticipating her and Dad coming back one day soon!

Driving up Mt. Wanale:

Visiting Eric's students at the college: (who's that cute little student right up front?! ;-) )

We also were able to visit some friends in the church.  Mama Evangeline is the oldest member of our church (past 90 years).  She broke her leg a couple months ago and has not been able to recover her mobility.  She's a precious dear sister in the Lord.

42 Years

This past week was my 42nd birthday.  I'm so thankful for my birthday.  The more I have faced chronic illness, the more thankful I have become for LIFE.  My Ugandan friends often remind me to praise God for the "gift of life" and that praise has only become louder as I see the clay vessel of my body become more cracked these past few years.  Every year of life that God chooses to give me on this earth is worth celebrating!

This year, Eric took me out to supper on Monday night, then on Thursday, he bought me fresh roses...wow...what a gift here in Mbale.  (They have fresh cut flowers in Kampala, but only occasionally here in Mbale!)  Then we had dinner with just our family and each of the kids gave me a sweet note.  I was absolutely overwhelmed with God's grace to me.  I see so many failures in my life but God has shown me so much love!

Talitha gave me her kitty for my birthday.  Haha...she was so excited to bless me!  (although the thought has occurred to me that she might be thinking that mama won't give the kitty away if she got it as a birthday gift...haha!)

Here's just a sampling of all the sweet notes that I got!

I love seeing scripture written out in the handwriting of my kids!

 

Katelyn's caricature of our family is hilariously accurate...

 And of course, Benaiah's card is a picture of people dying by lightning strikes and an erupting volcano.  haha!

A Smattering of Happenings

We've just finished up our third week of school.  So far, it's gone very well.  I'm so thankful for that grace from God.  The littles and I do all our work in the pavilion.  We love being out there and make a fair bit of a mess before the days are finished.  I think I can safely blame William for most of the mess though.  I realized that he rotates around the table, picking a new spot for each subject and leaving a trail behind.  haha...  I find it funny to see where my kids choose to do their school.  I have some that claim the same spot day in and day out, only changing every few months.  Others are migrants...they choose a new spot almost daily.  

We've also been busy doing other things.  Here's a smattering:

Our little friend S, is finally done her treatment for her leg.  A little bit more than a year ago, we found her in the hospital by herself (her grandma had gone to the village to find money), with her leg infected to the point that her bone had rotted, broken and then burst through her skin.  But now, she is healed and able to live life to the full.  Here she is with her grandmother who loves her so so much!

Our Saturday night tradition continues to be to have a huge meal followed by a sermon.  It's a highlight of our week.

Our church continues to grow.  Last Sunday we welcomed many new members and had a lot of baptisms.  We rejoice with these dear friends.

The church expands this way too...here's the newest little addition!

Talitha's cat had one little kitty a few weeks ago.  So cute and so sweet!

And Benaiah's duck is finally laying eggs.  He is over the moon excited about it!

The boys built a Lego ship, with a styrofoam hold and attached Timothy's EV3 to it, as well as quite a few LED lights.  The local hotel let us come up one night and send it on its maiden voyage around the pool.  I think now they are working on a second version.

A Smattering of Pictures

Easter morning started bright and early with our traditional big Easter breakfast.  My big girls were so amazing this year.  I was pretty sick the day before and I didn't see how I could do it this year.  But the girls didn't give up so easily and did the whole thing themselves... breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and fruit smoothies.  So yum!

We had several baptisms on Easter morning.  Such a delight!

After church we had sodas and mandazis together.

Later in the day we still had all the kids over.  It was rainy, but fun!

Timothy helping to shelter his little friends from the rain:

School is carrying on.  We're having a lot of fun and getting a lot of work done.

The little kids and I are studying Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day for science.  We started the year studying birds and are finishing the year studying flying insects.  We have quite a collection now.

Williams hen, "Chewbacca" had two little chicks...CP3O and R2D2.

Just an average morning run...

And speaking of runs, CURE hospital in Mbale hosted a 5 (ish) K race recently.  Most of our family plus a few friends from church participated in the fun.

We also enjoyed a visit from men from the OPC head office, as well as a URC representative.

While they were here we drove up to Karamoja for a day to meet with the rest of our team there.  It's always a beautiful drive.