We have a God-sized problem with our adoption that just popped up. I don’t want to get into it all here, but please, please, please pray hard for our daughter for the next 2 days. Thank you!!! When I know something for sure, I’ll post it.
Sooo…this is my first blog from a Mac! My PC died last week and I had to buy a new one and decided to try Mac. Anyway, that’s why I’m just now finishing up about our trip…well…I still have several posts in my head but I’ll at least get our tired team home from Adacar. I think when I left off we had left Adacar and arrived in Soroti. So, the next day, we took off for Jinja, taking the long way so that we could feed bananas to the baboons. We saw so many baboons and even a mommy with a baby hanging on her chest! The countryside is so beautiful – the bumpy road so worth the detour – and we arrived in Jinja just in time for a boat ride to the source of the Nile before heading back to the Sunset Hotel and dinner at the Gately. A few of us crossed the rocks to climb up onto the marker at the source…I tried to be so brave, but there was a moment when I thought I might end up swimming with the tilapia that I love to eat. Back at the hotel, we bought paper bead necklaces made by the girls at the Rapha CarePoint nearby. Then we had a yummy dinner at the Gately, overlooking the Nile as the sun went down, a perfect evening to cap off our trip.
The next morning, we drove to Kampala and bought more necklaces and souvenirs at the market, then headed to the Chinese Restaurant, where we ate yummy pineapple rice served in an actual pineapple! Then we drove to Entebbe to the airport, and I tried to fill up all my senses with Uganda, breathe it in, soak it up, until God brings me back. We said goodbye to our Ugandan friends, and watched Uganda fall away underneath us as we lifted off for Addis Ababa. Arriving in Ethiopia, I was filled with an almost unbearable compulsion to run out of the airport and catch a cab to my daughter’s neighborhood. Dad and I had the coffee ceremony in the terminal and drank a toast to our sweet girl, praying that Alex and I would be back soon to bring her home (We just received word this morning from the U.S. Embassy requesting more documentation…so more waiting. Several of the kids in Evie’s room have now gone home. I hope she knows we’re coming for her soon! I hope God is preparing her heart for the goodbyes ahead and also the hellos!).
And that’s it. One 17 hour plane ride to D.C. followed by a little jump to Atlanta and we’re home. I miss everyone. I miss the smell of cook fires. I miss shaking hands with smiling children. The kids are so eager to learn. They crave books. They want to learn language and math and life skills. They are quick to serve; they want to work. I love each one and want to help give them the opportunities to learn and grow and work!
I miss the team. What a privilege to watch each member use his or her gifts. God really did an amazing job selecting each person for the mission. I’ll tell you a story about a couple of the team members in my next post.
