Missing Uganda....

Music: I Refuse by Josh Wilson

Celebrating Claire

This past week we celebrated Claire!  On July 20, Claire turned 6 and on July 21 we celebrated her 3rd "gotcha day".  Where has the time gone?  It seems like she has always been a part of our family and yet it has only been 3 short years.  Amazing how time just goes by when you are busy living life and keeping up with 5 kids!!  

What is significant about this gotcha day?  We can finally say that Claire has been with us longer than she lived in the orphanage!  We have been waiting for this day.  I'm not sure why this was a big deal to me but it really was.  I can never get back those 3 years we missed with her but knowing that we have forever with her makes it easier to accept.  Thank you, Jesus!!

           Claire's referral picture                                                           Claire today

Can you see the difference?  I see it in her eyes..her eyes are now full of life, love and hope.

Claire was so excited about her birthday.  She talked about it non stop for the entire month of July!  We showed her on the calendar over and over again when her birthday was and when her party was...that satisfied her for a little while and then the birthday questions would start all over again!  Every time we were at the store she would point out things that she hoped to get for her birthday.  So needless to say, she was beyond thrilled when she woke up on her birthday and found her chair decorated!

The crazy girl wanted her favorite chips and dip for breakfast.  Believe me, I offered to make her eggs, toast, or cereal but she only wanted the chip and dip.  Only because it was her birthday I let her have it.  My dear "fb" friends made me feel better telling me it looked like grains and dairy so it was all healthy!

For lunch she had her favorite noodles!  Claire and I went on a mommy - daughter date later in the day and we had our nails done.  She loves to have her nails painted so I decided to pamper her a little bit!

For dinner she got to choose what we had.  She picked McDon*lds...she loves the chicken and apples!

Daddy's girl

 A nice gentleman came over and offered to take our picture..however Claire did not want to stop eating for a photo op!

Our girl loves gymnastics so we had a gymnastics birthday party for her.  Here she is in her new leotard that she got for her birthday.

 Doing a hand stand...which she does constantly I might add!

 Climbing out of the foam pit at her party!

Claire and her friend Lexie

 Gracie, Sarah and Claire just hanging around!

 The gang!

 The party goers....minus a few that had to leave early

 On the bars!

I think our girl enjoyed her day, what do you think?

I promise I will finish my Uganda stories soon....

Uganda Day 1 and Day 2 - A Perfect Injustice

Our team of 11 landed in Entebbe, Uganda on Monday morning, June 6. 

Here is the landscape as we were approaching Entebbe

 Here is Lake Victoria (yes, THE LAKE VICTORIA!!)

We were met by Emma and George (Emma's African brother) and 2 taxis. 

Here I am with George at the work site

 Brianna and George

 Our taxis (taken at the work site)

One taxi just for our luggage and the other for us!  We were all very quiet on our ride to our Guest house in Kampala.  I'm not sure if we were all taking in the sights and sounds of Uganda or if we were still recovering from our 3 day trip to Uganda.  As soon as we got to the Guest house we all quickly changed into work clothes and we headed out to the work site where the other half of the team had already been working all morning.  We then traveled about an hour to Bombo to the site of a house being built for A Perfect Injustice.  A Perfect Injustice is an organization that cares for the street boys of Kampala.  They do a feeding program in the slums 5 days a week as well.  They take boys off the street and give them a home, education, and hope in Christ Jesus.  A Perfect Injustice has a Kampala house and the plan is to move the boys currently in that house to the Bombo house when it is finished and then to get more boys off the street for the Kampala house.  After arriving, we met the rest of the team and got right to work throwing bricks.  Imagine a zig zag line of people tossing bricks one to the other for hours.  These bricks weighed approximately 10 pounds and were very dusty.  Here are the piles of bricks that need moved.

I am tossing to Alei

Here is Brianna and Sarah in mid throw

Here is the house we were building

I am laying a brick

 Brianna's turn to lay a brick

Our team!!!

 We spent 2 days working on the house and clearing land with machetes.  I took no part in land clearing once I heard the possibility of snakes were there.  We were told that a cobra was killed there days earlier by workers clearing the land.  We also spent time at Sanyu Baby Home in Kampala but I will save the baby home for it's own post.
I must note that this is the place where I injured my toe on day 2....see the area where the team is standing above?  Sometime during the day I somehow managed to trip and injure my toe.  Unfortunately, I am still having problems with that toe.  Time to see the doctor again.  Ugh...I will spare you the pictures of that!

London

I know I said my next post would be about Uganda but part of our experience was the travel so I must share those stories as well.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:00pm on June 3 out of Chicago.  Gary dropped us off around 2:00 and we said our goodbyes.  I tried to stay strong but I cried anyway.  It is hard to leave my honey and my kiddos.  Brianna and I made it through security and somehow I was lucky enough to get the pat down treatment.  Oops, I am getting ahead of myself, I have got to share our luggage story before I go any further.  Brianna and I had 6 pieces of luggage, 4 to check and 2 carry ons.  Before you say anything about taking the kitchen sink, 2 of those bags were packed full with ministry supplies for our trip.

Exhibit A

 Exhibit B

We were told at the ticket counter that we were going to have to pay for the extra bags which would have been $120.  We were also told that 1 of our bags was overweight and we would have to pay for that too or take some things out.  As soon as the agent told us that the weight on the scale changed to 1 pound below the limit. 

The agent's eyes got big and she said "I have never seen that happen before". 

She then said "take it off and put it back on". 

We did as she requested and guess what?  The bag remained at 1 pound less than the limit!!! 

When she finished checking our bags she said "well nothing came up on the computer so I quess I don't have to charge you for the extra bags"! 

Brianna and I just smiled at each other because we knew that God was already showing up big and we hadn't even left the country yet!! 

Once through security, we found our gate and the half of the team that we would be travelling to Uganda with.  The plan was that we would meet the other half of the team in Brussels, Belgium and we would travel the rest of the way to Uganda together.  However, that was not meant to be for our half of the team.  We were met with mechanical problems.  About 4 hours after our flight was scheduled to depart it was cancelled.  We spent another 2 hours in the airport waiting to be rebooked for the next day and getting hotel arrangements for the night.  We arrived at our hotel just before the restaurant closed.  All 11 of us ate a late dinner and then collapsed in our sleep number beds all compliments of the airline. 

Here we are at the airport waiting for our new flight plan

 It was a great time to get to know our team members...here we are with Sarah and Lexie

Our new flight plan included a trip to London.  We left Chicago on Saturday morning and arrived in London on Saturday night.  We then had all day Sunday to tour London before our Sunday night flight to Uganda.  We arrived in Uganda Monday morning so we only lost 1 full day in Uganda during our detour.  Our time in London, including lodging was on the airlines again!  I guess if you have to detour you can't really complain about it being London!

On the plane finally leaving Chicago

 Team members Candice, Lexie and April

 Team members Jan, Josh and Steve

Windsor Castle (yes the Queen was there)...this was across the street from our hotel!

Downtown London

 Mandatory picture if ever in London

 We took a double decker bus tour

 Westminster Abbey

 Big Ben

 The London Eye

I have many more pictures I could share but I have gone on long enough already.  Next post, Uganda!!!  I mean it this time!!