On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

Saturday was the annual city wide Easter egg hunt. It is always fun to go and watch Emma and Ella hunt eggs. It was held at the Historical Society this year and it was a great place to do it. It's always been held around the city park before, but there was so much more room to park this year and it just seemed to work better in my opinion.


Mom and Dad were excited to help them find out what they had in their baskets after the hunt was over!

And no Easter is complete without coloring Easter eggs at Nanny's house!

Things got pretty messy, but they had a lot of fun stirring those eggs around in the color. Ella really wanted to crack the eggs after they were finished and had several cracked before Nanny got a hold of them to put them up.

Sometimes you just have to wonder!

You think you have your kids raised and out of the house and life takes a turn you weren't counting on and it leaves you wondering " Will my kids ever get settled and be independent?" About a month ago, through no fault of his own and because of the economic crunch, Tyler got laid off. He has been applying everywhere he can think of in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Enid and even here at home in Fairview. Of course there are so many in the same situation that the job opportunities are few and far between and he has had no luck in getting a job. We have now made the decision that if he doesn't get something by the end of the week that he will move back in with us until he can find something. The unemployment checks haven't arrived yet and we had to help with his bills this month and our budget won't allow that to continue indefinitely. It's been pretty frustrating for Tyler. I know there is something out there for him somewhere, he just has to be patient.

Between Tyler and Daniel we keep going back and forth between being settled in a job and place to live and being uprooted. Now Daniel seems to be settled in his Deputy Sheriff's job and we are going to Wichita tomorrow to move him into an apartment. I'm ready for both of them to park it somewhere and stay for a while. I guess a parent's job is never done.

A Day at Emma's Preschool

I was invited by Emma's preschool teacher, Mrs. Burrell, to go and talk about my trip to Africa today. I put together a short slide show (since they are only 3,4 and 5 year olds and their attention span is short) and told them all about the schools, the orphanage, the market, about how they do laundry, go to town on a boda (motorcycle) and how the widows baked in a mud oven. To my surprise they were very interested in what I was telling them. I thought I would loose them after a couple of pictures, but they listened very attentively to me for about 30 minutes. Of course, they had to interupt several times and tell me something about themselves that usually had nothing to do with what I was talking about.

They are all so cute. Some of them met me at the door and gave me big hugs. I felt a little like I was back in Uganda! I took the little home sewn dolls I had bought in Uganda for Emma and Ella with me and the girls all wanted to take turns holding them. I gave them some time to ask questions and they had some pretty silly ones, as you could imagine, but just getting to spend time with them was so much fun. I know it meant a lot to Emma that her Grammy came to her school and talked to her friends.

After we were finished we all gathered around and took a group picture.

Sara came and took the pictures. We all had a great time together! Thanks to Mrs. Burrell for asking me to come and share.

All Day at Church

We had a full day at church yesterday. We started our Spring Bible Conference with Pastor Terry Hunt. He has already challenged us with some excellent messages. At 1:30 there was a baby shower that I was a hostess for and before that was completely over, we started our Team Uganda mission report at 3:00. I was very excited to see the dining hall packed out with people that were interested to hear what we had experienced while in Uganda. We all had a great time sharing what we had seen and heard and how God had moved. It was really hard to condense it down into a couple of minutes each, but we tried to relay the most important things.

Justin and I had a real interesting time trying to put the video together for our report. For some odd reason they picked us for that job and we neither one knew what we were doing. We started early Saturday morning with a program called Roxio then we decided maybe we needed to just use power point. When Brad and Marshalene came to pick up Hunter that night, she tried to make heads or tails out of what we were working on. I think it might of even overwhelmed her at the hodge-podge we had come up with. She ended up saying " well if you still need help in the morning, we will see what we can put together." I finally gave up and went to bed and Justin stayed up for quite a while working on it. We started over several times and finally ended up with the Roxio photoshow we started out with in the very beginning. It ended up being about 20 minutes long and everyone seemed to enjoy it. If you are interested in viewing it you can click on this web-site: Team Uganda 09 . We didn't finish visiting with everyone until 5:30 and I was supposed to be at choir practice at 5:45, so why bother leaving!

After evening church we were invited to have Q & A with Pastor Terry in the dining hall. Just a few stayed and we had a very interesting discussion that got pretty deep. We didn't get home until almost 9:00. It was a great day and I enjoyed being at church all day.

Today after school, Holly will be coming over. We try to meet once a week to share together. We just started a new book called Wise Up! Experiencing the Power of Proverbs by Rebecca Ingram Powell. It is for 12 to 13 year old girls dealing with questions that that age girls are asking. I love our time together, and have really enjoyed being a mentor, but this is a challenge for me because I have decided I would do the memorization part with her. I am trying to memorize Deuteronomy 30: 15-20. You may think that is just 5 verses, what's the problem? Well my brain doesn't retain things like it used to! So all morning long I have been repeating and repeating the first part of the verse. WHEWWW!! I WILL MAKE IT! I WILL! I can do it! I just have to keep telling myself that.

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.

Uganda, Here We Come!

The time is finally here! We are to be at the church at 2:30 in the morning to head to the airport. Our flight leaves at 7:00 a.m. and we will fly to St. Paul, Minnesota and from there to Amsterdam and then on into Entebbe, Uganda. I can't believe the time has finally arrived. There have been some anxious moments and some definite attacks from Satan in the last few days. He knows something good is about to happen. I have been fighting a sinus problem and not feeling well for the last few days and today I decided I had better call the doctor to get an antibiotic, because my ears, nose and throat were hurting so bad and I couldn't stop coughing. I knew getting on an airplane with my ears the way they were was not going to be a good thing. I refuse to let the enemy win this battle. God is in control.

Saturday we went to Enid and had lunch with Justin's family. Mike and Kim even came from Tulsa to spend time with all of us, so everyone was there except for Sara. Fairview's Sweetheart banquet was that night so she had to stay and fix hair. We had a really good time and before we left, they all gathered around us and laid hands on us and prayed for us. Then we were handed a manila envelope containing hand written letters from everyone in the family, one to read each day we are gone. It was a very special day and we were very touched by their love.

Then Sunday we had lunch with my family and had a wonderful meal. One of my favorites... Fried Chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was sooo good. It was good to spend time together and we had a great time with Mom and Dad as well. It has been really hard to say goodbye to everyone. Tyler left and went back home Sunday night. Today Mom, Lisa, Daniel and I had lunch together and then Daniel went back to Wichita. I didn't want to dirty up the kitchen tonight, so we decided we would go to El Charro and have our favorite food before we left, since we have no idea what we are in for (food wise) in Uganda. After we got back we went to tell Austin, Sara and the girls bye. We have had some friends (Glenna and Debbie W.) drop by for a hug before we leave. Misti came by for a hug, but I had already left for Enid, so I missed out on that one, but I did get to talk to her on the phone. We are really feeling the love!!! And we appreciate it very much. I'm not sure if I will get to post while I'm gone, so until we get back please keep us in your prayers. You can keep up with our trip on our team blog.

Weekend Wedding

Austin and his family was very busy this last Saturday getting Nicholas and Brook married off. Sara did all the bridesmaids hair and Emma and Ella's as well. Austin and Nicholas have been best friends all through High School and they were each others best man at their weddings. Emma was the bell ringer and she did a great job, but she is shy and got her job over with as quickly as possible. It didn't take her long to make her way down the aisle ringing the bell.

The picture is blurry, because I got a new camera and I'm still learning how to use it. (Sorry)
Ella was the flower girl and she also did a great job. She took her job very seriously and took her time doing it. She would grab a whole handful of petals and throw them down all at once and then stand there and look at them for a few seconds and then do it all again. It was the cutest thing!


This is the finished product, but trying to get to this point was fun. They came to stay with us early Saturday morning so Sara could get started doing everyone else's hair and Austin went to breakfast with all the groomsmen.
The girls always want something to eat the minute they get to our house. Ella's favorite thing to say is "Grammy, I want someping else." That means I want a snack. So Papa got busy and made homemade waffles for breakfast. Then they had baths and played for a little while and then we had to go to the shop and get their hair fixed.



Emma is such a girly girl and loves getting all dolled up. She cracks me up! She is so prissy. Ella is hard to hold down long enough to do anything with her hair, but she does tell me every once in a while she wants a po tail. (ponytail) They were excited to pose for the camera after they got their hair done.

This is a picture of Austin and his High School friends, who were all groomsmen. Eli, he used to come to our house everyday and eat lunch with Austin. Micah, Clint and Austin. They all graduated together. Eli is married, but Micah and Clint like the single life I guess. I asked them who was going to be next and they both just laughed at me. I just love these guys. They are all very special to me. They all looked so handsome in their tuxs.