One more "bird" leaving the nest

 

I'm sitting in an airport lounge with tears rolling down my cheeks. It's a mixture of overflowing thankfulness and overwhelming sadness. Grateful because the last few weeks in the States have been some of the sweetest of my life. Sadness because I had to say goodbye to my 3 older boys and I don't think I'll see them for another 18 months!! 

The gift that God has given me as I've helped my third son get settled into university is seeing how he is already thriving and embracing this next step in his life. He is ready and able. So I can get on this plane and know he's going to be more than OK. He's going to thrive... just like his older brothers have. 

It's also such a blessing that these 2 get to be at the same school!

In the last few days I've had the chance to meet and spend time with so many of Evan's friends. God has given him such an incredible community!

Evan and Josh aren't the only 2 I got to see. I got to fly to WA to spend a few days with Isaac and Leah too.

A few weeks ago I didn't know how in the world I was going to be able to get on this plane and leave these 4 and head back across the ocean. But God answered my prayer and prepared my heart. He's been reminding me that I am not alone and He will give me strength every step of the way. 

I've also realized something beautiful. As we launch our kids, it's when we step away and let them go that they blossom into the young men we always prayed they would be. So i guess I'm ready... to get on that plane... and to watch them blossom. 

A Reminder that I'm living in the Dream

A 

The first reason I feel like I'm living The Dream is because my oldest son is going to get married in ONE MONTH! 3 weeks from today we'll fly to Minnesota to reunite with our other 2 boys and work together to get ready for this special wedding. This is beyond exciting!

Meanwhile, tonight as I was doing the "normal" evening things like taking an evening walk at sunset, enjoying the most delicious cool breeze I thought to myself, "I can't believe I get to live here!"

After finishing school today the boys and I wandered over to the church where most of the women of the church were shelling the groundnut harvest. This is just normal, every day stuff and yet my heart was full as I listened to the women chatter in Madi and tried to follow along. "This is the dream."

Soccer right outside our gate (where our dog Otis won't interfere) is a daily afternoon occurrence.So even though life has been so full and some days I feel like I'm going to lose my head because it's got so many different things swirling around in it, I'm thankful for the simple reminders of all that we get to take part in here in our corner of Uganda. Tonight I was outside feeding our dogs and noticed Judah's giant Tonka dumptruck just sitting there. I thought to myself, "Oh how well I know that soon the Tonka trucks will be gone and our little ones will be growing up and leaving home too." So I paused in my nightime routine and thanked the Lord for the reminder of how blessed I am to have these little boys who leave Tonka trucks and legos laying around. And the thought crossed my mind again..." I really am living The Dream."

Girls Program

I taught from 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Yesterday we had a special time with young women in our community. I teamed up with my good friend Sydney, who is also a missionary here in Adjumani, for an afternoon of Bible teaching on purity and saving ourselves for marriage and other topics for young ladies. It was perfect timing as the youth are out of school for a short break. We also gave out packs of reusable sanitary pads which are such a lifesaver here. The girls were so grateful and it was a joy to have an afternoon where we could play games, eat cake, encourage them to be strong in the Lord and pray over them.

This is my friend Sydney - a real God send

 

Trip Across the Nile

A couple weeks ago we set out on a fun getaway trip with our good friends the Mugume family, fellow missionaries here in Adjumani. We had reserved a few nights at a new retreat center for people in ministry so we wanted to go check it out plus we were eager to see some teammates we hadn't seen in a while. Arua is only 60 miles from Adjumani but the roads are rough and you have to cross the Nile River by ferry. We set out on what we thought would be a 4 hour trip and ended up being 12 hours!

I don't need to go into all the details but basically the first ferry we went to ended up being closed down so we had to back track all the way back to Adjumani and head to the other ferry. By then there was a long line since all the river traffic had to cross in one place. We waited for almost 3 hours to cross! Thankfully, upon arrival at the retreat center after dark, we discovered a place of rest and refreshment and the rest of our time was sooo wonderful. So much so that we ended up staying an extra night!

Mornings on the porch with coffee and our Bibles was the best way to start our days!

Bonfire with our friends

 Hiking the waterfalls

 Hanging out with 2 AIM AIR pilot families was such an encouragement for all of us.

 Even our trip home wasn't perfectly smooth but my friend Sydney and I reminded each other that when we do hard things TOGETHER, it doesn't seem so bad. We are so very thankful that God brought the Mugume family to serve here in Adjumani. It's such a joy to have like minded friends to live missionary life with.

Our plans didn't work out but God turned it into a GREAT GIFT!

At the end of May we traveled the 2 day car journey to Josh's school in Kenya to surprise him in time to watch him play a rugby game. We also stayed for his junior banquet and his 4 day midterm break. It was while we were on his break that we realized our car was having major troubles. We took it to the mechanic just days before we were supposed to drive home and found out that it needed lots of new parts and major work done. It ended up delaying us almost 2 weeks. At first we were flustered about the change in our plans because we had things we needed to get back to in Uganda. But those extra weeks were the grestest gift for our family! Not only did Eli and I get some much needed rest but during a year that we've really struggled to be so far away from our older boys, God gave us the gift of extra quality time doing life with Josh.

During our time in Kenya we celebrated Eli's birthday, Father's Day, and my birthday.

On Father's Day, Joshua and Eli went on an epic motorcycle safari with some other guys from RVA.

 

Carson had never played baseball before but since Josh was playing softball for PE, Carson got to join in and learned how to bat! The PE teacher ended up giving him his own bat and ball to bring back to Adjumani!

Rift Valley Academy is a wonderful place and the community there totally enfolded us while we were there. They even gave us our own place to stay when they heard we needed to stay longer. One of the perks of our own house was that I was able to cook our own meals and Josh LOVED having home cooked meals. He took turns inviting friends to join us.

The 2nd day of  our drive back to Uganda was our 23rd wedding anniversary. We concluded our wonderful month away with giant cappuccinos to celebrate.

 

Carson and Judah were delighted to return to their friends. They definitely love their life here in Uganda!

As I have reflected on the month of June, the lesson I've learned is that when our plans don't go the way we expected, often God has something even better in store! I'm going to try to remember that next time our plans change.

Uganda Exploration

Sitting on the roof rack on safari

The last time I wrote on our blog, we'd only been back in Adjumani for a week and I shared about how hard the transition back was. Well, it continued for a few months to be hard. But still we have pressed on knowing we are exactly where God wants us to be.

During the month of April Joshua was home from school and it was such a treasure to enjoy our days together. He and Eli went on an overnight motorcycle trip, he played endlessly with his little brothers, reconnected with his old friends and best of all lots of good family time! We are so thankful for who Joshua is growing up to be and can't believe he's now in his final term of 11th grade!

Today I want to tell you about a trip we just got back from. Traveling in Uganda isn't easy especially since we don't have AC in our truck but this trip we saw a lot of Uganda we'd never seen before and it was so beautiful. We had several missions:

1. To visit 2 locations with AIM teammates to see their ministry and check in on them.

2. Eli is helping to set up new TEE programs in these locations so he did a teacher training.

3. Josh joined another family with kids from RVA (Rift Valley Academy) who were driving to meet the bus to Kenya so he got a ride with them.

On our way to these parts of Northeastern Uganda, we did a day of safari in the beautifully green Kidepo National Park. We love to sit on the top of the car to see the animals.

Breakfast on safari

The day came when we had to say goodbye to Josh. We are so proud of this kid. Also thankful that we've got a trip planned in a month to go spend some time at his school to watch some of his rugby games and help him and his class with the Junior/Senior Banquet.

Tea with Teammates

A beautiful sunset over Kotido

 

This was "Sliding Rock" in Kotido - a huge walk that many people have slid down, wearing a smooth path down the side of the rock. Carson and Judah went over and over!

Moroto was right in front of Mount Moroto and I loved seeing the mountains every day. It was so beautiful there and we loved the Karamajong people! It is so encouraging to see what God is doing in different parts of this amazing country.
 

I forgot how hard this is

 I don't want to make you feel sorry for me. But I do want to be honest about how my journey as a missionary woman goes. We have now been back in Adjumani, our home town in Uganda, for almost a week. Our bags are unpacked, I have re-organized most of the house, and I even started home school up again with Carson this morning. On the outside I look like I'm back in the swing of things, like I've got this switching back and forth between cultures down.

But it's feeling really hard. 

A few years ago a missionary friend introduced me to the idea of heart lag. As we are recovering from jet lag, our hearts are often processing a lot too. Our last month in the States was so full, having all our kids home and lots of fun activities. Suddenly we were packing up our home in South Carolina and taking multiple flights to arrive in Uganda. We had to say some hard goodbyes, especially to our 2 college boys, and switch gears back to the way life goes on this side of the globe.

I've already shared how challenging our homecoming was. No power, no fridge or freezer, layers of dirt, spider webs and dead lizards. We've now gotten past that thanks to my dear Asunta (our house helper) and yet my heart still feels heavy. I always feel tired and just don't feel myself. This is all normal, I keep telling myself. I wish I could be more patient with myself and allow myself the time to adjust. My "world" in Columbia, South Carolina and my "world" in Adjumani, Uganda could not be more different so why do I wonder why I feel so out of whack?

I guess I'm sharing this because I want people to know these transitions aren't easy. There are indeed many joys about coming back to Uganda but the time in between before we find our normal again can be hard. And I'm saying, that's OK. I don't have to be at 100% right now. I can ease in slowly. I have no one but myself pushing me to get it together.