Reuniting with Victor!

Hi Everyone!

I am writing this post with such a happy heart right now! Arielle and I went to visit Victor today. (Victor was at Amani last year and was my special little boy- I was devestated to here that he had left while I was home.) He is at a new orphanage about an hour away while he waits for his new parents to be able to pick him up. The new orphanage is one that his new adoptive parents already support, and the parents are good friends with the directors. We went with Mama Agatha, the Ugandan social worker from Amani so that she could check up on him too. I was a little nervous at first...not sure what it would be like, and worried that I wouldn't feel completely happy about where he is. We pulled into the compound and were immediately at ease. The buildings were nice, the compound was big and the staff was really friendly. We first met his mama (the one who cares for him), Mama Barbara and she went to bring him to us. In another second a chubby little Victor came literally galloping into the room. He ran right to us and jumped into my arms for a hug. It was truly one of the best moments in my life. My heart was bursting when I held him again! While I don't think he really remembered me, he was eager to say, "Auntie Rachel," and told Mama Barbara that he remembered us. He let me hold him and hug him and I gave him some skittles that I had brought for him. He speaks English very well and was soooo happy and healthy!
We walked all around his compound, with the director, a Kenyan man, whom he calls, "daddy." He was a wonderful man and I could tell he loved Victor! Victor is the youngest child there and has a best friend, also called Victor, who is about his age whom the director and his wife are adopting. Victor was free to play in the director's house and was showing off putting train pieces together. He was giggling and chatting and so affectionate. I had to fight back tears of happiness literally 10 times while I was there because I felt so great about the whole situation. My eyes kept filling with tears and I would have to turn away from him so that I wouldn't lose it. Victor will be adopted by what sounds like a wonderful couple, and I could not be happier for all of them.
I have prayed for Victor for a year now. I remember last year, holding him in church, not being able to understand the language here, but praying for him as he slept on my shoulder. I have thought about him and prayed for him in literally every prayer I say. I am sooo thankful to God for the plan that He has prepared for Victor. Victor is loved, and happy and healthy and will go to a great family! He was so sweet giving me kisses and when I told him I loved him he said, "sooooo much!" We got back in the car and, again, had to cry about it all. I am just so relieved and overjoyed! Thank you God for little Victor and the people who love and care for him!

Out for Ice Cream with Melody and Christina

These last two pictures are of Melody and Christina dancing "Calypso", which is a popular, traditional style of dance here in Uganda. They were having so much fun singing and dancing away from us, then stopping, turning around, and running back to us giggling and squealing with their arms open wide for huge hugs. Too cute!!!

More Amani Babies

Marvin

Hunter

Ashariff

Sophia

Holly's First Steps

Holly is a little girl who came to Amani a few months ago. She was found, abandoned, and has since been living in Baby Room 2. We aren't exactly sure of her age because she was abandoned and was malnourished and tiny, but I would guess at least 2. She rarely smiles and is pretty lifeless. She does enjoy being held, but is also content to sit by herself for hours.
A few days ago we witnessed Holly taking her first steps! She was in her own little area of the yard and was attempting to stand on her own. She has the skinniest little legs and is so weak, but we watched her little feet slowly move forward and she walked! She was so unsteady and each step shook her whole body and made her almost fall. She wasn't quite smiling, but the look on her face was priceless- it was obvious she was proud and surprised! Now that it has been a few days, it's been really fun to call to her, "tambale (walk) Holly," and watch her stumble over to us. She is so sweet and we are so proud of her. This is such a good sign of her adjustment at Amani. What a blessing to be able to watch this big accomplishment in her little life!

Hi Everyone!
Things are continuing to go really well for us and we are both happy and staying healthy! We are really excited to announce that we will start teaching preschool to the 3+ age group on Monday. For those of you who followed us through Peru, you know we taught there too and absolutly loved it! We will have 10 children, and will have class Monday through Fridays.
One of the best things about being here is being able to spend time with the mamas. We love the staff here and each and every mama is so much fun and they have really been good friends to us. They have treated us like we never left and are excited to greet us each morning. Amani is such a wonderful place for the children who live here and they are given the best care you could ask for. The mamas work so incredibly hard and really do love each child. Last night we were talking about how while we love to serve these children by feeding, bathing, changing and loving them, it is just as rewarding to serve the mamas. We know that these women are perfectly capable of performing each task that comes up, but it is so nice to be able to give them a much needed break. These women don't go home at the end of the day and kick up their feet to watch tv. Most of them have children of their own and families to take care of. While the children are the most important part of our mission work, it is so great to know we are also serving these wonderful mamas. We are looking forward to visiting some of their homes and have already received some invitations. While you pray for the children, please remember to include their Amani mamas too! We love them!
We have heard some disappointing news about one of the other orphanages we were planning to work with. We found out that Save The Aids Orphans is probably not the best fit for us due to some administrative issues. We are pretty bummed but are excited about starting work at Canaan and a few other places we have found. There are so many wonderful opportunities to serve around here.
Pictures coming soon! Thanks everyone for the comments, we really love to get them and appreciate you guys so much!

Quick Update

We have been working long days at Amani and have been loving it! Unfortunately that means we don't have very much time to be on the internet to update everyone. We love being busy though, and we can't imagine a better way to spend our days
Lots of fun things are going on at Amani lately because in just a few short days/weeks 10 children will be going home with their parents to America. We have had the honor of meeting these parents and it has been such a neat experience to be able to get to know the families. The adopted kids are loving spending time with their parents as they wait for all of the paperwork to be completed so that they can finally fly home! We are all praising God for what He is doing for these families!
We are now here at an internet cafe with 2 of the toddler girls, Melody and Christina (Teeny Beany) and have been having quite a fun afternoon outing with them. We took them to get ice cream and when Arielle suggested to Mel that she offer me a bite of her ice cream, Mel smiled and said, "Auntie Rachel, I want to give you a kiss." Nice try Mel...but I probably wouldn't want to share either-ice cream is a rare treat here!
We will write a more lengthy, interesting update soon, when we don't have 2 little balls of energy wanting to be tickled and chased right here. Love to you all!
Happy Thanksgiving! We will be celebrating by making our own pumpkin pie (including a fresh pumpkin from the market) and having our Ugandan volunteer friend, Peter (whom we call Petah) over for his first taste of pumpkin pie.

A few pictures from our first week back!

We Are Ea-ah!!!

Hi Everyone!
We've already been in Uganda for a week and are LOVING it! Honestly, it was really strange driving "home." It's like we were never even gone. All of the sights and smells (mostly disgusting ones) are the same and it was and is just cool to be back. After going straight to bed the first night, we woke up the next morning and went straight to the babies. We were greeted in the front yard by the mamas who ran over to us with open arms and were cheering. It was such a warm welcome and we were pumped to see everyone! It was a blast seeing all of the kids!!! For all of our past readers, you might remember baby Katie...she was a baby who was here last year who was on the edge of death. She's HIV positive and was incredibly sick. She's now about 18 months and is a different child (yet still our little baby girl). She's a chunker and is babbling up a storm in her tiny little voice. She has just started walking and it's so cute and fun to see how much she has grown and changed. Arielle's little girl, Melody is still talking about "soda and chicken" and everyone looks awesome.
We have been to two other orphanages that we will also be working with. The first, Canaan Children's Home is about 20 minutes away on a piki in a village called Buziika. Canaan has about 100 children ages 2 and up. Most are in school right now, but will have a large break starting in about 2 weeks. We will be spending a few days a week there, playing with the children and helping in any way that we can. The orphanage is run by Ugandans and does not have many volunteers, so we really look forward to being a part of these kids lives.
The other orphanage we visited is called Save The Aids Orphans (STAO). STAO is a 10 minute piki ride away and in a very poor village in Mafubiira. This orphanage is also Ugandan run and is completely different than any orphanage we have worked in. The compound is mostly mud and the children are crammed into rooms that smell like an outhouse. Their clothes are raggy and many don't have shoes. The school rooms are narrow hallways that are dirty and too small. There are 45 children living there, 25 of them are HIV positive and all of them have lost their parents to AIDS. When we entered the gates the children came running to us, cheering and hugging us. Even the older ones, some 14-years-old, wanted to hug us and hold our hands. We sat with them in their school room and sang songs to each other while they piled on our laps. Our favorite was when they sang "we are the world." They have no toys to play with or things to do so we played hand clapping games and let them do our hair. They were all so anxious to know when we would be back and we told them very soon. Despite the impoverished condition of STAO, we loved it and instantly loved the children. We are very excited to spend time there, working with the kids and providing some fun for them.
We are excited about the schedule we are putting together for ourselves, working with a few orphanages and meeting lots of orphans! When we have been here for a few more weeks we will start to distribute all of our shoes. We are excited to say that we have given 5 pairs already to children that live down the street from Amani. Margaret, Barbara, Rachel, Tara, and Okech are the proud owners of new shoes. Their smiles and "sank yous" were enough to make our hearts burst. Africa is the best!!!
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts and comments. We appreciate and love you all and can't wait to update again soon as we learn more about each of the hundreds of precious children we will work with.

P.S. On our way to Buziika yesterday Ar and I were convinced that a gasoline truck that was tipped on the side of the road was going to blow up. We were driving slowly by on our piki and a large crowd started to run from the truck. Out of a panic I tried to jump off the piki and our driver, Fred, had to kind of pull over so that Ar and I would stay on. We found out people were only running away because the police were coming and they were trying to collect fuel and didn't want to get in trouble. When we told Fred that we were "fearing explosion" he laughed for the next 5 minutes!

Living our dream (Part 2)...Leaving tomorrow

Our flight leaves for Uganda at 3:20pm tomorrow. We will have a layover in Amsterdam and will then fly directly to Entebbe, Uganda arriving at 9:00pm on Friday (9 hour time difference). We will be flying with 7, as in seven, pieces of luggage! We are taking lots of extra bags full of shoes.
We are wishing now that we could just snap our fingers and be there rather than all of the packing, sitting on the plane, sitting in airports, etc. But, it's all part of the adventure and we are excited to get to the other side...Uganda!!!

We would really appreciate everyone's prayers for safe travel, some good rest on the journey there, and for us to settle into Jinja with not too many problems along the way. We will update the blog as soon as we can when we arrive in Africa (this could take days.)

We LOVE you all and appreciate all the help and support you have given us!!!!!!!!!!

Why we are going back...

People often ask us why we feel like we need to go back to Africa, back to orphanages and back to service...here is the final journal entry in my journal on the plane coming home from Peru last spring.

May 21, 2007.
Just thinking about truly stepping out of this life for a while makes me have a nervous feeling. I don't even know how to describe it or what it is even, but I know I am coming home a changed person. It's not because of reverse culture shock but because God has planted a new dream in my heart. I have never felt so much passion for anything in my life and feel like my purpose is to serve orphans and the desparate and I only feel truly alive when I think about going back. I want to make a difference and I feel like I really have been chosen to do something.
Sometimes I think to myself, "can God really be calling ME to do something special- to serve Him in such an awesome way?" Why me? Why not someone who is more Godly or has more knowledge of the Bible or has talent in evengelizing? Why me, a girl who isn't perfect and doesn't have the best "God record." Only God knows this answer, but I am soooo very honored to be able to serve God in this way!!!
How will I step off this plane and into the first world lifestyle again? Of course I will appreciate the comforts of home, but I have found the truest of joy in the poorest of situations- because to me God is strongest within me there. It will be hard to be home away from my babies and children and the daily purpose I feel- it will be too hard to walk away from this work- I must simply prepare for the next part of my journey.

We leave in less than a week!