Rest and fun in Jinja!

We stayed in Jinja for a night, at a lovely retreat center for missionaries. To be honest, it has taken me five years to feel comfortable going to place like this. But after five years in Uganda

and two kids later, I LOVED IT! Not only was it AFFORDABLE (a little over $50 for all of us to stay, as well as have a DELICIOUS dinner and breakfast) but the atmosphere was restful, beautiful and the people friendly. It’s not a money making place, but one made to minister to missionaries. Well, it sure ministered to me!

We arrived at around 6:30pm, rather tired from the days activities and driving. How relaxing for me to have a hot dinner waiting for us and a nice, big, clean room! Ella was thrilled and kept going through the little banda exclaiming, “This is lovely! This is lovely! Awesome!” She was thrilled to be pieces to be staying and was all enthusiasm. Frank was happy to see the food and scarfed it down like a little lumber jack after a hard days work.

I tucked the youngsters in to bed together, hoping to have a bed to myself. Well, see that look of delight on L’s face? The kids were both exhausted, after getting up at 5:30am and sleeping for maybe 20 to 30 minutes in the car, but about 10 minutes later I heard a “PAUGH!” come from Ella. Needless to say, I separated them and five minutes later they were both sound asleep!

Little Ms Enthusiasm had a bit of difficulty sleeping in a strange bed by herself and freaked out a couple times in her sleep, shouting “MOMMYYYYY!” but calmed down pretty quick and didn’t remember it in the morning. Of course it got me scrambling over Frankie and clawing my way out of the mosquito net to calm her down. She also came down with a runny nose and cough during the night, both of which still could not quell her enthusiasm for the whole venture! Oh to be as chipper as L...

Frank fell out of bed once but the mosquito net broke his fall.

I slept like a rock when I wasn’t clawing my way through the mosquito net to get to screaming Ella or pulling Frankie back up onto the bed :- )

The kids had fun climbing up and playing around in the loft the following morning. Frank could climb up all by himself but he had to have just a bit of help to get down.

They thought the beds up there were the coolest! But of course we couldn’t utilized one because there’s no way they would have been brave enough to sleep up there without me! Nor could I see myself hauling Ella, let alone myself, down the ladder during the night to go to the bathroom.

We went out to tour the place, took a little hike and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and morning.

The Nile river. Gorgeous!

Frank, still sporting his do-not-cooperate-with-the-camera face, and Ella, sitting on/clinging to a bench overlooking the Nile river

Ms Enthusiastic

L climbing the trail in her sturdy hiking boots ;)

Frankie, having broken his do-not-cooperate-for-the-camera policy, after being told NOT to smile. Why didn’t I think of that before?!!!

The dam

By the end of our stay Ella had the great idea of moving our dogs, Ms Dave, and all our stuff here. She did have second thoughts on the way home, wisely thinking that our dogs would probably fight with the other dogs here. She cracks me up!

Dang is it ever hard not to smile!! Keep it in Frankie, keep it in!

We had a delightful breakfast outside, with a beautiful view

Frankie took a spectacular dive off of his chair, smacking his face into the table on the way down and amazingly, didn’t even cut his lip! I swear, God keeps His hand on my children more than most. These kids seem to be perfectly safe whether it’s playing with a five foot cobra in their yard or falling off of chairs.

Ella reminded me of my sister Becky, when she was little. L just LOVED everything about the place, including sitting out and eating the breakfast. It made me think I need to get the poor child out more! It was so fun to see her joy and enthusiasm for everything.

She had so much fun serving herself tea that she served herself the entire pot! I had to tell her to lay off the sugar when she started eating it out of the bottom of her cup with a spoon : -)

One of the kids favorite things was the trampoline!

Ella is afloat ;)

UP!!!

And then, DOWN!!!

Frank’s manly pose – or something!

I am obviously a sucker for trampoline shots : -)

They also had a swing to swing on, which L tried out.

I’d been told that this place wasn’t very child friendly, due I think to the steepness of the hills and the cliffs by the river. I found it very child friendly however, and could easily keep my two from taking a dive off a cliff and into the river. We wont’ be taking a ball or our Tonka truck though and Frankie did take several dives off the chairs....

Little Frank enjoyed sitting on my lap overlooking the river, watching the different kinds of birds, chatting and contemplating life with me, while Ella jumped, talked and sang to us. We are a lot alike and I think eventually, when he grows up a little and we sort through some issues, he’ll be a really good friend. I keep reminding myself that he is only two! Ella can go do her social things and Frank and I’ll go watch some cows eat or something : -)

I was struck this weekend at how God really is the Father and protector of my children. We traveled the “worst” road in Uganda this weekend, in that it has the highest number of fatalities in the entire country being as it’s the only and main road to Kenya. Before we set out I was given a real sense of peace that He would take care of me and my kids and that I didn’t have to worry about them. We traveled over 350 miles and I had peace the entire the time. The driving here is pretty intense and I am not the worlds best driver but yet God kept us safe and our car running and from getting stuck in the mud or a hole.

I also found it eye opening that between the three families with children that attended the dedication, it was my “fatherless” children (in the smallest car no less ;) who were the ones eating a hot meal at 6:30pm safely at a guest house, while the others were just setting out through the rain to drive several hours through the dark to find a guest house. I was made more capable of taking care of my children this weekend than the married mothers because I was relying on my children’s heavenly Father to care for us, rather than an earthly one. I am not a wonder woman, I’m terribly lax concerning safety, and I’m not a great planner yet God cared for my children very well this weekend despite me!

My kids have the very best Father they could ever get :- ) And He made that very evident this weekend.

Glory be, our friends are back!

Our friends and neighbors came back from furlough and we are SO happy! What a joy it is to have other ADULTS, not to mention four lively little girls, around the compound again. There are friends for everyone! YEAH!!!!!

And, an amazing thing happened while they were on furlough. Steve, who had been diagnosed with MS and has been struggling with it for YEARS, found out that in fact he does NOT have MS, but is allergic to MSG! Praise the LORD! So here he went from having a terminal illness to only having a food allergy (and there just isn’t even a lot of that used here). He has his life back again, Melinda has her husband back, and the kids have their dad back!! Thank you Lord!

The kids were SO glad to get back together again. They played from all afternoon until dinner. Frankie got a wee bit overwhelmed at first as he was quite the hot item, being new and cute and all, but soon got used to it and had fun. The best was when he was hugging feisty little 19 month old Hannah. It’s funny how little people just like other little people! Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of the two of them.

The older youngsters got out all their musical instrument toys and L’s microphone and quickly formed a band. Janet is the lead singer : -) Lucky Russian neighbors to be treated with this serenade, eh? They didn’t even have to pay for the concert!

I liked this picture because you can see Ella’s envious looks at Sophia’s guitar. L was doing this the whole time!

The “stage.” Our band consists of two five year olds and two seven year olds. The seven year olds are about six months apart and the five year olds are six months apart. Quite the crew ;)

Ella didn’t last long before abandoning the tambourine and breaking forth with dancing!

I snuck a picture of Frankie so that you could see his new hair due, which I finished on Tuesday. I love it! He is still in the do-not-smile-at-the-camera-whatever-you-do stage so I’ve simply stopped taking pictures of him. It’s a control issue so I’m not going to play that game.

And of course there’s nothing like being reunited with your best friend!

Crazy kids!!! Although two years apart these two are the BEST of friends. Ella has lots of friends but Janet is the FAVORITE!

Then they doubled up on the swing – up, up and away!

Although Janet’s head is chopped off in this picture, you can catch a glimpse of Ella’s look of delight!

Janet was the one interested in Frankie’s background and where he’d come from. She stated that I was his mom now and asked if he’d come from an orphanage (very astute, Janet!). I find kids adopted at “older” ages (Janet was adopted at age three, like Ella) so interesting! They do NOT take having parents for granted, are interested that other kids get parents too, and are very empathetic for kids who don’t. They also seem to really connect with each other. Kinda sweet actually....