May 11, 2007 – Friday

Wow, it has been too long since I have been able to journal. That means I have a lot to write. Life has been busy with small stresses and Josh has been busy working on the computer so I haven't had time to write. But my mind is always thinking about what I need to journal about and I even write things down so I don't forget.

While last week we were in Kampala. I find our time in Kampala is a mix of being too busy getting supplies, stress of traffic and waiting, and a needed time away enjoying being a family. I really enjoy our time just playing at the pool. Lydia and Grace love to swim with their Daddy. Grace has learned to “swim”. She bobs up and down in the water with great joy. Lydia and her could jump, splash, and play for hours. It is so cute and I love to sit back and soak it all in.

We were really encouraged by our visit with Stoners, Terpstras, and Dean and Paul from Set Free Ministries. Angie and I were really blessed by Patty (Stoner) and Donna (Terpstra). They are mothers and they understand, care, and love. They have hearts for God and we were touched by them. They were good listeners and gave appreciated hugs. We went for supper with Dean and Paul and they too brought great encouragement. They are men of God and we greatly appreciate their ministry. We had a very full day with everyone and it was a bit much with the girls but the refreshment it brought to all of us was worth it.

I hate to say it but I allowed the stresses of Kampala get the better of me again. I really hate when that happens. Traffic jams, so much to do and can't do it, Grace crying for miles, Lydia whining... I needed a time out! I just needed to stop, cry a bit, pray, and enjoy being with my family again. I feel like I often ruin plans and we don't get everything done we wanted to, but I also need to stop for my sake and my girls. We can only do so much. We will figure out a good system some day.

We did find some good new restaurants to eat at. Handi is an Indian restaurant that was the nicest atmosphere we have been in yet and the guys found one called Javas. Javas is at a gas station but it is the nicest, most American place we have been at. That was fun.

Josh and Tim had to go to see Ben and get things moving for them. Ben isn't doing well and has to this day not had any chem done. The whole situation is sad. When the guys or the doctor is there things get done but when they aren't nothing is done. There are too many patients and too few nurses. The suffering is unthinkable! All we can do is pray and keep helping the best we can.
Angie needed blood work and Grace need Hep A vaccine so we got to see Kampala International Hospital. It was really nice and impressive! I was so thankful. Everyone was so helpful and nice to work with. Isn't that good to know.

And now we are home and getting back into routine. Tim and Angie were both sick at the same time so that make things busy and we were all a bit down. Thankfully Tim was only sick for a couple days but Angie is just now getting better. We are pretty sure she had giardia. Yuck.

The girls are doing well. Lydia has really begun to pray. The other night after supper she thanked God for the rocks. The small rocks, medium, and large rocks. Josh and I just giggled with joy. But she also prays for those who are sick and thanks God that Jesus came and dies to save us. She is really questioning Bible stories. “Why did David kill Goliath? Why was Goliath bad? Why did God tell His people to fight the bad people? Why did Jesus have to die? Why didn't people like Him?...” Real questions, hard answers. I am quite thankful for her Christian videos like Donut Man. They help her to understand the stories on her level. I am so thankful and excited to see her little faith grow! Lydia is a preacher too. One day at the pool she was shouting out God's love to everyone and telling her Bible stories. The lady by the pool said, “I guess we know what she will be when she grows up.”

Lydia also likes to be called Olivia quite often. Tim thinks she is convinced some days that she really is Olivia. Imagination! She has been walking about with her baby and telling us her baby likes to drink from her stomach. Lydia asked the other day why Patrick, our guard, has a gun. I said to protect us. She said, “To protect us from mosquitoes right Mom.”

Lydia still struggles with peeing her pants some days. We are being loving yet encouraging her to go pee in the toilet before it is too late. She has gone through a lot. She was watching Winnie the Pooh the other day and Tigger was sad because his friend had to leave and the next thing we knew Lydia was crying. She can't express it but she too has had to leave friends. It makes all of us sad sometimes.

Grace is full of words. She is learning and growing. She loves to say “dirty” because of a pig in one of her books. The other day she said my Daddy, Mommy, Lilyan, and then I asked who she was and she said, “me!” Grace can challenge me but she sure can make me smile when she looks at me with curls in her hair, smiles, and says, “dank-do (thank-you).”

Before we went to Kampala we took a Sunday afternoon mountain climb. I was a little worried before we went with two little kids but Lydia (and U. Tim) really wanted to go. I was so glad we did. The view was beautiful and it was just nice to do something different together. Lydia climbed all by herself, holding my hand of course.

And as most of you know Steven is no longer a daily part of our lives. We finally found the truth. Steven has a mother and chooses not to go to the school his mother has paid for him to go to. They do live in the IDP camp though. Josh and Tim told him not to come back unless he was ready to tell the truth. Since then people have told us that he hangs around with bad people, steals, and as we already knew he hangs around the video hall watching bad movies. When we were in Kampala (which Steven knew we were) Steven came to our house around midnight with another guy and I guess tried to break in. Patrick thankfully was there and they ran away. When we got back Steven came but Patrick wouldn't let him in. He came with a note for us saying he needed us but Patrick just throw the note away so we never saw it. The whole thing is really sad. First of all people here don't seem to trust anyone and that really bothers us. Even the Christians the wrong attitude. And now with this it just confirms to them once again that unbelievers are bad and you can't trust them. Secondly, all Steven needed to do was tell us the truth which he was given many chances to do and he chose to lie. We would have helped him but now we just can't trust him. I still believe God had a plan in all of this. Steven was able to experience the love of Christ through our families and Josh was able to present the Gospel to him. We just pray that the seed with take root and not be strangles by all the weeds.