Saturday, August 30, 2014

Friends!



You know those type of friends who you just want to be around? These would be them. This is Peter and Mino and three of their four children.



Sunday we were spending a long time chatting after church. I finally said, why don't you just come over. We are so glad they did. 







I think Peter really enjoyed my chair too :) He wouldn't let anyone else sit in it.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Home Again


Back in Kitemu, Isaac and I are happy to be home in Uganda. Isaac has started his residency in surgery. He is enjoying his classes but says it's like being back in first year of medical school, becoming a student all over again. I am getting the house in working order again before I spread my wings and start volunteering.


It's been great to see friends and family again. There are so many people whom we dearly missed while in the states. Some of which we haven't see yet! Isaac and I are excited for what God has for us in this next season of life as we continue to follow down the path as He calls us to "go farther" and "come closer".

Visitors and the Entebbe Zoo

Back in Uganda we hit the ground running, hosting visitors only 2 days after we arrived.
When hosting visitors you never know what may happen. It is amazing to see people so excited to step off the plane for the first time, either they are scared to death or eager for an adventure. Our most recent guest were just that, ready for an adventure. Not that they didn't have their own reservations, as one should, but they were ready to embrace Uganda.






Without a vehicle of our own our visitors were up for the challenge of balancing on the back of a motorcycle while it bumped and weaved back and forth around the rain carved roads.






Every good trip to Uganda must include a trip to the zoo. We have taken many visitors there before (I love going to the zoo) but today was a special surprise. 












The zoo is actually an wildlife education and rehabilitation site. This means that orphaned or injured animals are cared for.








Charles here is 3 years and 2 months old. His mother was killed by poachers and his umbilical cord was still attached when he was rescued.
Today was the first time Isaac and I got to see him...he was just wondering around for us to visit with him :)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

In Sad Times Like These

Dear Blog readers.
Thank you so much for all your cards, packages, emails, facebook messages and love and support these last few months.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted and when I have it has been about trivial things. Please forgive me. I often think, I should post. But posting means writing something and writing something means siting down and thinking and thinking tends to make me cry. For the first few months after Elijah passed all I wanted to do was cry. Isaac and I learned that if we kept it in and waited to cry then it would come in a mighty wave instead of a flowing faucet. So we cried whenever we felt we needed to. I remember the day when we hadn’t cried in two days. I remember thinking that coping was getting easier. Now just two days short of five months since he was born I’m still sad. Elijah was such a part of our lives, an active boy from just 12 weeks along that he was a regular part of our conversations. He would interrupt us with a kick or a wiggle. It’s not that we think of him less now but now he’s not actively involved in our lives. He has changed our lives, and continues to as we move through this phase of “getting used to what we didn’t expect”.
Life tends to happen that way, sending us something that we didn’t ask for and something we feel we are unprepared for. I guess that’s God’s way of showing us how strong, not only he is but how strong we can be with him.
The first year I lived in Africa I felt that God was teaching me that I could do big things. Now I’m realizing that I, (with the help of the Holy Spirit, Isaac and many others) can manage through big things. Not only can I start and accomplish big things but I can take those big things that come, uninvited or not.
I remember my parents having to say good bye to me at university and having to “let me go”. I feel that every parent has at some point in a child’s life to “let them go”. For Isaac and I our “letting go” was earlier than we expected. We never thought that the day before he was born we would have to let him go.
Someone told me that a large percentage (I don’t remember) of couples lose child end up losing their marriage as well. For Isaac and me, we don’t understand the statistic. We have been each other’s strong towers, a place of refuge, a shoulder to cry on, and a person to point each other in the right direction when we get too discouraged to pray. This experience is one we are taking together, no blame, no shame, just love for one another and united love for our boy, our first child Elijah Mubezi.
I guess I have a hard time blogging because it is a place that I can put down my thought and right now my thoughts are with my son.
Thank you for continuing to think of us, read our story, pray for us, and support us. We still need cheerleaders to encourage us during this season of our lives.
Blessings,

Rachel