Bye Nikki and Natalie!!

i.love.life.here

It has been an emotional last couple of days... or week more like...

It started last week when I had to take one of our babies to the hospital in Kampala to get a biopsy. We drove 3 hours to get there only to find out they couldn't do it cause he'd eaten breakfast, which they somehow forgot to mention was necessary for him to get his biopsy done. So basically I spent a day holding this precious, spirited little child and absolutely fell head over heels in love with him. The poor thing has a giant tumor growing on his jaw into his mouth, pushing out his eye, and stretching out his skin so it's cracking. He has a few smaller tumors growing all over his head. He just arrived at the orphanage a few weeks ago and since he's been here the tumor has grown immensely and his condition has gotten much worse.

He got a biopsy done on Tuesday, which is being sent to America to figure out exactly what kind of tumor he has so that they can give him the right treatment. However, at this point it's looking more like they won't bother with treatment since the cancer has spread throughout his body and chemo is more likely just to cause him unnecessary suffering. So we're probably just going to be trying to keep this sweet little boy that I've fallen in love with comfortable while we wait for him to go... Uggggggggghhhh... While I feel like my heart is cracking and it takes all my strength to keep myself composed throughout the day thinking about his sweet little smile and spunky attitude, I know that God is bigger than all of this and has a much bigger plan for this little boy. I also know that once he passes he will finally be free from all the suffering and pain he is in every day that he is alive. I know that he will be surrounded by so much more love and light that I or anyone else here could ever provide him with. I am trying to remain hopeful for him. But your prayers would be GREATLY appreciated. It is going to be SO hard to see him get any worse than he already is.

On a different note... Wednesday Nikki and I travelled 8 hours away to a town called Mbarara to pick up a one month old who'd been abandoned at the hospital there. We had quite an adventure getting there. We stopped for lunch at the equator and took pictures with some men from Nepal that made us wear cowboy hats and do cheesy poses. We saw zebra and caribou and antelope and a warthog on the side of the road as we drove by. When we got there we stayed with a missionary family from Tennessee. We had a picnic dinner at a basically deserted resort with them and their six kids, as well as a fellow missionary family with 3 kids. Yummy American pasta salad and breadsticks and brownies overlooking a gorgeous valley at sunset! There was a crocodile and a crazed mule there, and the family had us tell them stories from our lives and made us feel so welcome. We picked up the baby in the morning and drove back to Jinja, feeding him and changing his diaper in the car, trying to keep him happy, though he must have been so lost and confused being in a car with strangers for an entire day. We decided to call him Charlie, after our good friend and volunteer coordinator here at Amani :) We got back last night in time for a late dinner with our roommates and fellow volunteers, exhausted and stressed about all Nikki and Natalie had left to do before they had to leave.

Nikki and Natalie left today. It was so hard to see them go, though I know their friends and families will be so happy to see them when they get home. Fortunately, I have grown to love the other volunteers here and we've become quite close, but it definitely will not be the same without those two here. They had such a huge heart for the children here, and were so adored. They brought so much joy and light to me every day, and we had some amazing experiences together. I'm going to miss them so much!! We'll be getting a new volunteer tomorrow and another next week. Charlie and I are still planning our safari, and hopefully our trip to Gulu. I can't imagine if I hadn't changed my plane ticket and was on my way back home right now... I'm nowhere near ready to leave. These kids have stolen my heart, and I feel like I have so much still to learn from them. So even though Nikki and Natalie aren't here anymore, I still wanna keep writin in here, so you can keep checkin if you're still interested :)

I found out today that one of my favorite kids is going home to his father tomorrow. The heartbreaking story that Natalie talked about in her last post about the two kids that went to live with her mother in a village... well this is a similar situation. Only this boy has been here for six years and is definitely old enough to remember his life here and know the difference. He is old enough to understand what is going on, and he doesn't seem very excited about the whole thing. I just pray that he will receive love and an education with his father. It is so hard to see these kids go and not know what is going to happen to them. The ones that get adopted to America, you know they're going to get an education. You know they'll have opportunities. They'll have lots of love and support and they will never know poverty like they would here. But the ones that stay here... It's wonderful that they stay in their culture and with their real families, but it's so hard not to know if they will get fed every day or if they will get to go to school. I'm especially having a hard time with this boy, just because he's so much older than the other kids and has been here so long. Amani is all he's ever known. He's so smart and so loveable, and I just wish I knew he was going to a good home. But my sadness is mostly selfish, as I know God will take care of him wherever he is, and I just know how much I will miss him. Ugh. I just wish I could take them all home.

Please pray for these children. Pray for the ones that are being adopted, as many are having issues with the Ugandan government and getting all the paperwork finalized before they can go to America. Pray for the ones going back to their families, that they will receive love and opportunities and live full, joyful lives, and that they would continue to know the love of God. Pray for the ones that are still in limbo, like the one who's mother never came for her when she got out of prison a year ago, or the one who's mother is crazy and unfit to take care of her son so he will most likely be in a home the rest of his youth. Pray for precious little Walter, for his biopsy results to come back quickly, for the rest of his life to be comfortable and without suffering, for treatment to be effective, should he undergo it, and for God's will to be done in his life. Pray for Nikki and Natalie as they travel home. Pray for the riots in Kampala. Pray for Uganda. Pray for me, and my heart to continue to be filled so that I have lots of love to pour out on these kids. Thank you so much for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring. It's comforting knowing that there are people halfway around the world that know what's going on here and actually care. Thank you.

Our Nepalese friend at the equator... I wasn't joking.

Little Charlie on the way to his new home! :)

Sweet Steven with Auntie Natalie.

We visited another widows group in a village close to Kampala whose craft was weaving. We had quite a different experience here than our last one with WOCAP.