There have been a few developments in our decision making time. Billy's father's health has been on the slow decline for a few years now and the family is beginning to prepare for the inevitable. We are having a difficult time right now with the stress of the situation and of this huge decision that needs to be made. We are probably going to defer the final announement until we can have a good sit-down with Billy's mom to talk it out. We need all the prayers we can get regarding this area of our lives. I, particularly, came away from Uganda with an intense desire to move over there, but there are a lot of things to consider at this point. Thank you for your continued interest in us and your prayers are always appreciated.

We made it home safely late monday night. We were travelling for about 24 hours and were exhausted. My parents had driven us home and decided to spend the night to take care of Jacob for us while we got a good night's rest. Around 4 in the morning we were gently wakened by the soft (yeah right) cry of our sweet little boy. He screamed for a few more hours and cried when we put him down and when we held him, when we gave him water and when we took it away! I gave him some tylenol because if I was crying that hard for that long I would have a headache. He continued to cry and only dozed the rest of the night. My parents went home tired the next morning and we stayed up alright yesturday. Then last night Jacob went to bed at 7pm Billy went at 9 and I went at 10. Then Jake woke up crying again, this time at 1am. We brought him n the bed with us and all layed there awake unil we decided to just get up at 5. The plan is to stay awake until 1pm for nap, then wake him up at 4 and keep him up until 8 if possible.

We are unpacked from the trip and now I am trying to focus on packing for the move, but I am having a difficult time finding the motivation. We have 2 weeks left to find another place to live and be out of this one. I sure hope and pray that we can get over jet lag very fast to make this process easier!

"Daddy, did you eat the brain?"

"No"

"Can I see it?"

"OK"

(Spontaneously this child reached down, picked the eyeball off a fish head from Jeff's lunch and popped it into his mouth and said yum! After a few minutes he turned the head over to consume the other one!)

Jeff the proceeded to open up the scull and take out the brain and gave it to Isaac to eat. I looked away, but was assured it just looked like white fish meat.

"I want to eat the lips, I want to eat the lips"

"It is just bone behind there"

"oh"

All of this coming from a child who had an untouched burger on the plate in front of him! Oh, what a time we are having here in Uganda, where we saw a missionary kid eat the eyeballs and brain of his dad's lunch (didn't think I would ever say that)! This was quite a shock for a person who thought the look of an unconsumed fish carcass on a plate was gross!

Karagutu and Rwebesengo

This is Jacob with his newfound friend Derek.



We went to visit two villages, yesterday we went to check out the building-in-progress at Karagutu. We only stayed a short while. We went out to where the posts for the church are up and then we headed over to where they currently meet. The church is made up of Congolese refugees, mostly women and children. The people there received us warmly and the choir sang songs for us. Jacob had a really great time playing with the children there. Jeff gave a short lesson, which had to be translated into 2 languages, then we prayed and departed for our next stop.

After a bumpy ride we arrived in Rwebesengo just after lunch time. We gave the women some food to be prepared for us and then we went into the church to have a service. We were introduced and the wonderful choir sang a few songs. We all sang together and then the guys in our party all gave a short lesson (this time only translated into one other language). During the service Jacob needed a diaper change and he received one outside while a crowd of children looked on in curiosity. When the service was ended we broke for evening meal and some ladies brought out three pots, two containing rice pilau and one containing potatoes while we set up camp. I found all of the food to be delicious and ate plenty. Jacob was getting tired, so while the fire was being built I took him into the tent and laid down with him until he fell asleep (which took a long time due to the energetic singing around the camp fire). The singing sounded really great and I was tired, but glad to join them. We sang and danced until about 11 and then the visitors turned in for the night. The village people stayed and sang until 3am. The church leader stayed up all night praying very loudly. Some in our party had a very difficult time sleeping, but I was so tired from the bumpy journey that I fell asleep and did not wake up until morning. After we all got up a few of the men went to bathe with water that was collected 3 miles away! We then met for another meal of rice pilau in the church building. Then there was a short lesson given by Jeff and Ronald. Ronald was last to speak and called us up to have the church lay hands on us to pray for us. It was a very different experience than in the states, everyone prayed very loudly at the same time. It was very overwhelming for Jacob and he had to be removed by Derek. It was so amazing to have all those people praying for us and asking guidance for our impending decision about moving to Uganda. The church was extremely warm and it was our pleasure to visit there. We left Rwebesengo right after the church prayed over us, we left the church in a large crowd, everyone shaking our hands and thanking us for coming. It was a wonderful experience that I wish I could share with all of you.

It was a long, tiring drive back to Fort Portal, but it was well worth the journey.

Yesterday was our first time attending church in Fort Portal, it was really wonderful and encouraging. The singins was infectious and harmonious. We really enjoyed the service and meeting so many new people.

We attended a meeting with the village church leaders and got to hear all of the reports of what is going on in their areas. There were about ten of us there and I was the only lady. They were really nice to us and tried to instruct us on how to greet in their language (Rutooro). We set up a schedule for visiting the villages and we will get to go to three, one of which is to be an overnight visit.

We have each been given Empacos (which is basically nicknames that everyone has and uses when talking to one another). I am called Adyeri, Billy is called Arali and Jacob is Akiki. We have had the chance to take a walk on our own around the busy streets, but we didn't go that far because it was the first full day we were here and I was still nervous. We have also visited two elderly women, one of which is 91 years old. They were both wonderful ladies, but very different. One was soft spoken and sweet, and the other was very boisterous and expressive. We have been invited to spend the night at her house and are seriously considering the opportunity.

We went out on a farm of a friend of Derek's and we had our first fresh guava fruits. They are little hard fruits, you eat the skin and all and they have seeds a little smaller than watermelon seeds. They are bitter on the outside and sweet on the inside, but they are not my favorite fruit to eat. I will stick to the juice.

We have been having a great time, we have spent time with Derek, Ronald and David, and they are all really interesting to be around and talk with. Jacob has really enjoyed Derek, he actually cried when we dropped him off after the first day they met! Derek is really great with Jacob teaching him words and introducing him to cows.

The native cuisine is going to take a little getting used to I am doing better at it than Billy and Jacob is doing best of all! Get this, today when we were meeting with the leaders at a restaurant and we were all served the same meals including chicken stew, rice, matoki, yams and cornmeal mash and some yucky vegetable. You are supposed to dip your starches in the stew and it is actually pretty good. I liked the rice like that. As I was eating I look down and count 3 ants floating in my bowl! Anyone who knows me knows that I can't really handle that sort of a thing well. I just looked at them and continued to eat carefully making sure I was not dipping near the ants! That was a huge step for me, I hope you are all very proud! I didn't eat the chicken itself (not really ready to cross that bridge yet) but it was really tasty.

We Made It!

We arrived in Seattle thanks to Brenda’s parents around 3:00 pm. We unloaded our bags and prepared for the eventual argument that we have with the British airway staff. Instead the agent weighed all our bags, confirmed our extra baggage allowance and booked our bulkhead seating all the way to Entebbe. Brenda and I gave each other chest bumps and high fives all the way back to the car. God is good!

We learned that our plane was delayed about an hour. We decided to go back to Brenda's parent’s hotel and wait before we went to dinner. We met up with Brenda's sister Sharon and her friends Sara and Blaine. Jacob was able to show off all his tricks to his auntie and Grammy. We had a great dinner and went to do a little shopping at Old Navy. Yes, you are correct this was not my idea. Anyways we had a great time with our family and the good byes were a little bit easier because of it. Having a supportive family is such a blessing. God is Good!

We arrived at the airport around 8:30 and spent a little time in the terminal with Grammy and Grampy. Thanks to Jacob we were all able to get our evening work out chasing him up and down the terminal. Apparently Jacob does seem to realize what’s coming in the next 22 hours. We made it through the security check point without trouble. Good thing I left the C-4 in the car. Made it to our terminal on time and prayed for a safe trip and endurance. I can’t believe we are going to Africa! God is Good!

We boarded our plane and to our surprise the Bassinet was hard flat board! How was my 19-month-old son supposed to sleep on an eight-hour flight? How am I suppose to sleep?! I then noticed that everyone else had a small TV screen in the seat in front of them but we just had a flat white wall. So I'm not going to get any sleep and I can't watch a movie! I took a few minutes and talked to God and asked for some help. I decided to call my buddy Andrew Martin and have him talk me down. Andrew in a calm voice tells me not to panic. He tells me to look down to under my seat and see if I see anything. I notice a small flat TV screen turned down between my seat. He then tells me to just call the flight attendant over and talk to her about the baby seat. I hung up the phone and the flight attendant came by a few minutes later and told us that she would bring as the Bassinet after we lift off. Thank you lord for good friends (and flight attendants). God is Good.

We are in the air for about three hours and Jacob finally falls asleep. We put him in his bassinet which is simply a car seat that can lay down flat. Brenda was able to get some sleep and I watched a few movies (Rainmaker and Click) and before you know it we were landing in London. We arrived in London around 3:30 pm Tuesday afternoon. We get off our plane and have to go through another security checkpoint before going to our terminal. Security is very high there and police men were walking around with big automatic rifles. We find seats and are settling down when we notice a group of people standing around the television. We see that a plane had been hijacked somewhere. We did not stay long enough to get details we found seats elsewhere. God is Good!

We left London Heathrow at 7:30 pm on our way to Entebbe Uganda. Weird! Jacob did a great job on the first flight so we prepared ourselves for a long flight this time. Jacob instead was his usual happy self and was flirting with Flight attendants (which gets you more juice and snacks by the way). We watched movies and listened to music before he finally was tired enough to fall asleep. He slept through dinner and woke up for the last 3 hours of the flight. The combination of fatigue and excitement created the perfect conditions for the longest three hours in the history of the world. We finally landed in Entebbe at 5:45 am Wednesday morning. We made it through customs and found that all our bags had arrived. God is Good!

Jeff Cash met us and we loaded the truck and went back to their hotel for a much needed shower. We went to town for a while before heading home. We arrived at the cash home around 2:00 pm. Brenda and I were so excited that we stayed awake the entire drive into Fort Portal. We were greeted by a herd of happy and excited kids. We made it through dinnertime before the wall of sleep fell on us all. We went to bed at 6:30pm and had the best nights sleep ever. Jacob was able to take a short nap on the way to Fort Portal and he also crashed right after dinner. He woke up around midnight, so we had to bring him in bed with us where we all slept like the dead until about 6:00. God is Good!

The power has been on for a while so we are taking advantage. I know this was a lot to read but we do not know when we will be able to blog again. We just want to thank everyone who has helped us get here. We LOVE YOU ALL! Please pray for us and we are already looking forward to telling you all about it. God really blessed us with safe and comfortable trip. Thank you Lord. God is Good!