Uganda was a fantastic experience!

We have been back for a week as of today. I had such a wonderful time. It has taken this long to get back to normal. I keep waking up at 3:30 a.m. feeling hungry. Translated into Ugandan time it would be about lunch time. I have also had a little trouble with nausea. I don't know what that is all about. Today was the first day I really felt good. It was good to get back into my regular schedule.

We as a team captured over 3500 pictures that we have had to sort through and it has been so much fun looking through them all and reliving the memories. I will share a few of the highlights that really stuck out to me. I think my favorite thing we did was visit the Amani Baby Cottage which is an orphanage with about 45-50 orphans from new born to 5 years old. It was a nice place compared to every other place we saw. It was clean and the children were very well taken care of. It still made me sad that they didn't have a mother of their own. The first time we went, the baby that captured my heart was an 8 month old girl named Josephine. She was adorable and I had a hard time putting her down.












































I never found out what the little girl's name was in the last picture, but we went back to the orphanage a second time so the men could go with us and see the kids and she was the one that got my attention that time. Josephine was taking a nap so I wasn't able to hold her. This little girl and I took turns sticking our tongue out at each other. It was the cutest thing!


She just cuddled right in and was about to go to sleep. Then they told me we had to go. I put her down and she started crying for me and crawling after me. Needless to say I started crying for her too. It broke my heart! I would love to have brought this little one and Josephine home with me. It was very emotional and really hard to leave.
















I now have a fourth son. His name is Alfred. You may notice the resemblance! (He has the same bald head as his Dad!) We were drawn to one another from the first time we saw each other. He is studying for ministry through Next Generation Ministries. He has been ministering to prisoners on an island prison on Lake Victoria. He is an awesome young man and we have been keeping in touch through email. He usually starts by saying "Hi Mum" from your African son.



Another highlight was the Rock of Ages Nursery School. It is a preschool that Betty started for children of prostitutes. It was a very interesting place. Again, these kids were absolutely adorable. I had the privilege of telling them a Bible story about Jonah and the big fish. Betty translated for me since most of the kids didn't speak much English. As you can see they weren't really paying a lot of attention to what I was saying. At least I tried!



One of the touristy things we got to do was visit the source of the historic Nile River and Bujagali Falls. It was beautiful and we were very excited to get to see it. Here is a couple of pictures of Justin and I at the source of the Nile.














I was also glad that Lisa got to go with us. It was so good to get to share this trip with her. Here is the three of us at Bujagali Falls.

That is just a tiny sample of the things we did while in Africa. It is an experience I will never forget. I loved every minute of it and I can't wait to go back. I will try to post more about our trip later. We are going to have a mission report at church on Sunday at 3:00, March 8th and I need to prepare a slide show. It will be fun to be able to share with our friends and family.