Happy Birthday Jane and Jackson!

Each month Emma has a birthday party and celebrates any children who have birthdays that month.  For the month of June, Jane and Jackson both had a birthday and she decided to include that party as part of our pool day.  So fun! So, after everyone had there fill of swimming we gathered around the table to sing and partake of cake in honor of Jane and Jackson.  Jackson did not seem to understand exactly what was going on but Emma does a great job of making there life's as "normal" as possible.  Cognitively they may not understand everything but I'm sure they understand more than we know!

Happy Birthday sweet little ones!

Pool day fun!

If these pictures had sound, you would hear squeals and laughter in very high volume!  The children and staff had such a fun day of play experiencing swimming for the first time.  Pure joy is the only way to describe them on pool day!

Michaela with Gift

Karoline with Hannah and Beth with Opio

Carrie Anne with Jeremiah

Fun at the playground!

The pool had a fun playground that we were able to play on before we went swimming!

Molly with Jeremiah and Drew with Joshie

Me with my little guy for the day, Hudson.

Again, the staff had SO much fun!

Ryan with Zachariah

A great day from beginning to end!

Pool Day Prep

On Thursday we had a big outing with the gems. We went to the pool! Oh my! The squeals of delight! Not just from the gems but also the staff. The Gem Foundation has 28 gems (children) and 35 staff. None of the staff had ever been swimming before. Grown adults acted like children, I don't know which was more exciting to watch, the children or the staff. It was a day of pure joy!

 Ryan ready for a day of swimming!

 The preparation was definitely organized chaos!

It took 6 taxi vans to transport wheelchairs and 72 people to the pool.

Everyone left the Gem Foundation in cute blue gem tshirts. All the children ate breakfast and got all cleaned up. Once at the pool we played on the playground for a bit, then we dressed them in bathing suits. These pictures show a little of the prep.

In the picture below I was learning how to feed a child with a feeding tube.

A great day for all!

Next up I'll post more pictures of the day, with the internet I can only post a few at a time.

Work....then play!

We started our day off again at the baby home, helping wherever needed and to hold precious little ones. My little peanut today couldn't have been older than three months. 

After leaving there we headed to Emma's(the Gem Foundation) to help with projects. We first walked down the street to get a coffee, which was quite the experience...we played human frogger as we crossed the street. Glad to say we all survived!😀 Alex, a teen guy, on our team has an aunt and uncle that are missionaries here and came to visit and help with our projects today. They were a very sweet family.  The guys on our team continued their chicken pen and fence project and the ladies and Carrie Anne worked on deep cleaning the kids bedrooms. We scrubbed down cribs, wiped and disinfected mattresses, cleaned baseboards, swept and mopped. We also sorted and organized clothes. The day to day tasks are so many!

Then, came the play part. We went to a dinner show. While we ate from a buffet we watched a show....there were many types of dances representing the different tribes from around this city. It was a great performance. The pictures are from the show.

This picture is a little blurry but it was a fun picture of our team with one of the "tribes".

It was a fun night! Now, time to rest up....tomorrow is a big outing with all of the "gems"!

Busy Day!

Our days start early. We start off our mornings by going to a baby orphanage. They house children younger than three. Oh, precious ones! I had such a hard time yesterday, I fought tears the whole time. So many little ones wanting love and simply not enough people to go around. When we first arrived a little guy ran up with his arms lifted saying, me, me, wanting me to hold him. As we worked changing sheets, bathing and clothing the children they all wanted attention. Today as went back each child I held or cared for I prayed for them. Praying they would know Gods love and be adopted and know the love of a family. Our time at the baby home each day is a precious time for me!

After leaving the baby home the ladies and teen girls on our team headed to a bible study for pregnant teens. What a sweet time! Every time we do something I think this is my favorite part and then the next day we do something different and I think...oh wow this is my favorite part. These girls have lead such hard lives. The lady that offers this ministry takes in pregnant girls that have no one and shows them love, teaches them of Gods love for them, provides them housing, pays for their medical bills, helps them finish school or teaches them a trade. By the time they "graduate" from her house they are able to care for themselves and do not have to live on the streets. Myself and three other ladies from our team shared a testimony  that we felt God had laid on our hearts and three of the pregnant teens shared their stories. What a sweet time of encouragement for all of us. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me! We had the opportunity to buy some jewelry they make to provide for their needs. A beautiful ministry!

While the ladies were at the Bible study the guys on our team stayed back at the Gem Foundation and worked on building a fence and shoveling dirt and trash. They did a great job!

Below is part of the Gem Foundation. A sweet place for special need kiddos to be cared for and receive love!

I had asked some of you to pray for our team because two teammates were sick. I am happy to say the whole team was back together today feeling well. Continue to pray for our health, please.

May God continue to break our hearts for what breaks His! I am confident no one on our team will leave her the same as when we came. Each night we have a team meeting and each of us share our favorite part of the day or what God is teaching us. This has come to be a highlight of my day to hear how God is working in each of our hearts.

Precious!

VBS in Uganda!

VBS in Uganda is an experience I will never forget. The children here are so hungry for love and affection. They want to be held and would quickly fall asleep in your arms. We were told they fall asleep because they feel secure, they lead such a rough life and home is often not safe. What sweet, sweet children! They were so thankful. We were amazed at how simple things made them so happy. When we gave them a coloring sheet they would color for an hour, neatly coloring.

Each day we presented a gospel message, teaching of God's love for them. They seemed to know a lot and were very receptive,we were able to pray with many. Some wanted to pray for sick family members or themselves. We had the privilege and honor to pray with 30 children for salvation! What an honor!

Thank you Jesus for the good things you are doing!

30 saved at VBS!

We had two wonderful days at VBS! 30 precious children asked Jesus to be their Savior! Precious, precious children! 

We are praising God!

I have much more to share and many more pictures, but the Internet is not cooperating. Hope to post more tomorrow! This has been an amazing two days, for many reasons, that I will not forget.

We are in Africa!

We arrived safely last night. Our flights were good. We made it to bed at 1:30am, exhausted! When the alarm went off this morning it was so hard to get up!

We are back at the guest house and will soon head to dinner. The weather here is beautiful! Warm, but not too hot, humidity...not bad, and a wonderful breeze blowing!

Today was our first day at the Gem Foundation, a special need orphanage so named because all children are gems to God. We held, fed and played with the children. We then had the opportunity to participate in their staff meeting. There are 34 staff members. The meeting consisted of a devotion and worship time. Wow! What an amazing experience!! A few ladies sang and then led us in singing, clapping, dancing and prayer time.  I've never experienced anything like that and it is not something I will forget!

I didn't do well taking pictures of our team and time with gems, well because my hands were busy. I'll do better on that part. But I have included a picture of the church behind our guest house, this is the view from my balcony. When we got back this evening a group was playing drums and singing in the church yard, so fun to listen to while sitting here posting on the blog. There is also a picture of downtown on our way back to the guest house today.

Tomorrow we will be up early and head off to an area a couple hours away to start a pastors conference and VBS. Looking forward to seeing how God is going to work! Pray for us as we reach these sweet children for Christ! And our team leader preaches to the pastors.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

GO Time!!

Africa, here we come! May God break our hearts for what breaks His, use us Lord!

Thankful

We are so thankful! One of the best parts of this mission trip so far(I know we haven't left yet :)) has been to see God working! He has provided through our sweet family and friends so much needed funding for this trip....overwhelmed by love.  We also shared an orphanage need list with our church family, we now have 4 loaded up suitcases ready to take to the orphanage with needed supplies, (plus the 2 Carrie Anne and I are taking with our clothes).  

Wow, 200 pounds worth of goodies for these sweet children.....overwhelmed by your love.  Carrie Anne and I may be the ones going to Africa but you, our family and friends, are definitely the hands and feet of Jesus also.  So....:) in just a few short days, those bibs and bottles, craft supplies and medical supplies will be on those sweet children on the other side of the world.  Thank you!

Another neat story of God's provision....last week I stopped at Chick-fil-a, picked up lunch and headed to the park.  While eating lunch I noticed the kids meals came in a bag that had a cow puppet on the side of the bag.  The kids could color the cow and the bag became a hand puppet.  I mentioned to Carrie Anne wouldn't it be fun if we could get some of those to take to Uganda for VBS.  After lunch I called Chick-fil-a and told the lady my daughter and I were going on a mission trip to Uganda is there any way I could get 200 of there cow puppet bags.  She told me to hold on and came back to the phone a moment later and said ma'am we can give you 600, no charge.  I smiled to myself, said thank you, I only need 200.  When I picked them up sure enough the manager said here are 600.  So in the picture above you may notice a cardboard box in one of the suitcases, it has 600 cow puppet bags in it that will be used at our VBS program and at the orphanages!  God gave us another craft!  

I am so excited!

Again, we are so thankful!

Motherhood....

....is a joy!
....is hard!
....has taught me I need to be absolutely, totally dependent on God!

I have missed many months of blogging as I am busy being a mommy! Our family has gone through many moments of joy but also some very difficult times.  Adoption is a beautiful thing, but there would not be a need for adoption if there was not abandonment.  Abandonment, neglect and abuse are ugly things for a small child to deal with and survive. We have dealt with RAD~Reactive Attachment Disorder~ with one of our little guys since he joined our family. We have had many H-A-R-D days in the past several years.  Progress is SLOW, but we have progress.  He is learning to trust and be loved, to be responsible and not steal or hurt others. He is growing a conscience, ever so slowly! Yippee Jesus!

This process has kept me on my knees and truly brought to light my total need for Christ.  It has shown me my brokenness.  It reminds me Christ loves me even when I am so unlovable.  No matter what, Christ loves ME! ...and Christ loves you!  He wants to help us out of our darkness and help us to grow closer to Him each day. 

Parenting a RAD kid is hard, and I truly don't know how someone does it without Christ carrying you through! I am so thankful for my salvation and having a loving, heavenly Father!  When I feel I can't face another rage, Christ says oh yes you can! A verse that has been a source of encouragement has been Galatians 6:9, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Years ago someone gave me that verse framed.  It sits on a shelf in my living room, never at the time I received it did I know how precious those words would become to me.  Each morning as I drink my coffee and read my Bible I see those words framed.  God knew years ago I would need that verse and He laid it on a sweet lady's heart to give them to me.  It is as if as I read that verse in the morning, in the quiet of the day, God is saying, You can do this, attack the day, Shauna!  And, I am here to carry you when you need it! Oh, how HE loves you and me!

As I said, we have had many joyful times as well. Also, as most of you know my heart is still so soft toward the orphan.  I still encourage others to adopt, but I also tell them to be educated and ready for the hard stuff and rejoice if it doesn't happen!  It is NOT these kids fault that they haven't learned love.  They think love hurts...that was what they had experienced......hard stuff!  Now, it's our job to show them that love is beautiful.  Not so that they can love us, but so they can truly experience God's love!

I have so many beautiful memories from the past 10 months since I last posted but I will leave you with just a few pics, if you're still with me at this point ;)!

Life is good!

I love the life that God has called me to and I love the ones in my life I get to share it with.

Stayed tuned.....a big trip is quickly approaching for me and Carrie Anne!  A mission trip to Africa, to love on orphans and share Christ's love with the Ugandan people!!!!