Rattins living Coram Deo

I made the most delicious Christmas stollen I've ever made! I found dates and raisins in Gulu so we enjoyed the bread for breakfast this morning, sipped our Via coffee (thank you!), made a quick milkshake (horray for electricity and my blender!), and got the children dressed in their Christmas best in record time. We drove to Home of Love with the plan of meeting the rest of our missionary team there and walking to the local church. The local church never opened its doors... (???) So Josh led us in a service which was just perfect for our large "family!" Then we ate a meal that Candis prepared at home and brought to us (wow!) and the children played on familiar ground. We had a cake (Jesus' birthday!) and some small gifts from our directors. Finally, exhausted, we headed home with yet another part remaining to our Christmas day - stockings for all the children! They were a little surprised and mystified but soon caught on to unwrapping all the little presents - th...

Christmas Eve finds Josh unusually sentimental. I'm the sentimental one usually. But Christmas Eve holds so many memories and traditions. Christmas Eve in the States has involved a Christmas Eve service that we have usually been heavily involved in with the music, Josh's sister's birthday (usually celebrated at Jessi's prime time: midnight, after the Christmas Eve service!), lots of delicious food by Josh's mom, and a sense of family togetherness. This year is different - so very different! We had to keep reminding ourselves that it's Christmas Eve! So here is how we celebrated Christmas Eve. Josh took the day off to be home with us, which was so nice, although we kept way too busy with the kids to actually enjoy each others' company! We had a good old fashion water-play-time-in-bins and rowdy water fight - perhaps a first for our visiting boys, but they figured it out soon enough! For dinner, we had chapati burritos - again, perhaps not our boys' fav...

In Uganda, there is a law that the childrens’ homes (orphanages) should empty out over Christmas holiday. That means that the social workers work very hard at finding a relative to take each child during the holiday. For some children, this serves as a trial run to see if that living situation might become later a permanent one. The social worker will make an assessment visit to see how the child is doing. If the relatives show a real interest in the child and the child does well, eventually that child might be “relocated” to the relatives. To date, this has been one of the highest priorities from the government regarding the placement of children. This has been especially pertinent in the years immediately following the war when many of the children in orphanages were actually displaced and not orphaned. It took a long time to find the scattered families and reunite them. For other children, perhaps they were ill and very young and the extended family was not equipped ...

In the market, I bought a knife dedicated to this adventure to save my one and only knife from the stickiness that is... Josh brought home a huge jackfruit. Our Acoli friends decided that it was not quite ready yesterday, but today... today was the jackfruit day! I am SO grateful for our Acoli friends who managed the jackfruit for me! This extremely sticky but yummy fruit is a lot of work to prepare! For Americans who are averse to any food that requires substantial work, jackfruit is NOT the fruit for you (hence why I am so grateful for our friends!). The flesh is so very good raw, but, having some time, some friends to wrangle children while I cook, and some Acoli teenagers who are amazed at what I can do with a gas stove instead of charcoal, I wanted to try my hand at making jackfruit chips. ALSO yummy! NOT healthy for you! A little tumeric, salt, and water thrown into the oil while frying and here's a simple but delicious way to cook jackfruit.

The dogs that came with the house are still alive and present. So we finally found a vet (or so we think) to come see the dogs. When Josh went to the vet's office, he was told the vet was out and then suddenly they produced this other man, so we're not sure if he is a vet or not... such is communication most of the time! The dogs do not trust us much (they have clearly not been treated well in the past) and we don't trust them much. So we have hardly ever touched them. Keep this in mind.... Josh called me two days ago and said that he had found a vet and that this man could come right then to see the dogs. Do I want Josh to come home or am I okay without him? I thought I could handle it, especially because I had two teens with me who could watch the kids while I dealt with the dogs. I started looking for the dogs. Bob (the male) was in Josh's "new" office - he's not allowed in there, but likes the shade, cool tile floor, and the isolation. Bob is p...

O come let us adore HIM, O come let us adore HIM, O come let us adore HIM, CHRIST the LORD!

I've been struggling to make Christmas season feel like Christmas here, in the heat, away from the commercialism of the North American stores and culture. It's refreshing in one sense, but I'll readily admit that I miss Christmas season! My mother-in-law and I could together keep the Christmas season going for months! :) But I made an advent wreath (still in progress - photo above) and the kids and I make Christmas crafts once I find craft supplies that are affordable. A friend has been feeding us Advent readings (thank you, Gina!) and I had a good enough internet connection to download sheet music for Josh to play guitar Christmas songs. I've been playing Christmas music non-stop on my computer - we're already about tired of my few Christmas albums (haha!). I think I have a nativity set on the container that is now in Kampala (good progress!!) but will not probably arrive here, let alone be unpacked by Christmas... BUT, I found brown sugar and ginger, so I shoul...

It came to me in the night that I didn't explain WHY we expect obedience, trust, respect, truth, and happy hearts from our children. WHY do we discipline? WHY do we rebuke? WHY do we interfere when they are hitting another? WHY do we comfort? We believe that God sent up the family to show the Gospel to the world. I could talk about that for a long time, but down to parenting... We are to teach our children to obey, trust, respect, tell the truth, and have happy hearts to teach them to obey God. If my child learns at an early age that she does not have to respect authority, it will be so difficult for her to respect God. If my son learns as a toddler that my instructions are just suggestions, how will he hear God's words, the words of the almighty creator sustainer? It's our job to teach children from the very moment they can comprehend so that they learn how to interact with our amazing Savior and gracious Father. It's our responsibility. When I tire of it (and I ...

The mamas at Home of Love are at a training this week, so during the day, older teens have been brought in to watch the children. The first day, half of the teens slept under a tree and the other half looked bewildered as the younger children ran wild. Today, over the course of a LONG day, I noticed a change in them. Most of my time is still spent hanging back so that I can observe what is done culturally, what is appropriate, and learn how to behave myself. When it comes to children, it's difficult for me to allow some things to pass. So, through many discussion with Lucy, the matron of Home of Love, she has given me full reign to parent the children at Home of Love as if they were my own. Well, I don't take it that far (yet), BUT, I was certainly stepping in today. Breaking up fights... lots of fights. Talking to children about not fighting, hitting, or kicking each other. Hugging, snuggling, kissing the crying ones... wiping those tears away. Trying to figure out WHY a...

I chose carefully which side of the rift to perch the car on in our descent. Some holes in the road are best tackled by going directly through, others by trying to straddle with the car wheels, and others by avoiding all together. I apologized to my riders as we bounced over the ruts, rifts, holes, and dry streams like hyper children at a party. I plunged into the ditch, to avoid a pile of dirt and rubble that had been dumped in the middle of the road for a future road-repair project, and emerged victorious on the other side. I squinted at the cow path and glanced at my companion. She nodded nonchalantly, pointing with pouty lips to a tree, no… to a rock, no… to the goat? “So I go there?” I asked, just to clarify. Babra nodded. I swallowed. “Does she remember that we are in a vehicle?” I thought to myself. I dove in, trusting that some other car must have done this in the past. I cringed as the branches scraped along the roof and sides of the van. We emerged into...

Many of the ministries here are run by Acoli staff who do a marvelous job! But it is also important to gather as a missionary team to pray, fellowship, and support each other. Having a team in ACTION Gulu is really a new thing (and a team that is only growing as the Riegers plan on arriving out here late Jan/early Feb!) so we're all still trying to figure out HOW to be a team. Please pray for us as we work through HOW to be a team, HOW to support each other, HOW to support our directors (the Binghams), etc. We celebrated Thanksgiving together as a team, including a visiting couple, and had a wonderful time! What a feast (mostly thanks to Candis)!

Today's cultural experience was quite a new one for us. Nursery school graduation (called "gradation"). Like many special events, it was an EVENT! We hurried to get to the school by 9:00am, but given the gloomy cold rainy weather we figured that we would not be late for the "9:00am" start. On top of that, the head teacher broke his leg a few weeks ago and is still in the hospital in traction, so he was not around to "make things happen." So we helped put up the tent and decorations. I'm not sure when it started, no earlier than 10:00am. There were speeches, a sermon with an altar call (two folks came forward! Pray for these two souls!), presentations by K1 and K2 (songs and recitations), a full debate by the older children's debate team, a drama and songs by the graduating K3 class... By 3:00pm, lunch hadn' t been served yet and we received the go-ahead to leave. We were grateful since we were exhausted! The most interesting part was...

(our first Thanksgiving in Uganda ) We have SO much to be thankful for! Our first thanksgiving in Uganda was spent out and about. We had a prayer walk with the team and staff at the nursery/primary school and Home of Love orphanage. Ana was thrilled because that meant that she spent the day with Fortunate, Brian, Moses, Innocent, and her other friends. She was off with her friends most of the day, even sitting in Fortunate's class and crying when it was time to leave. Back to the rest of us. Since this prayer day involved people coming from various locations and since it was raining (Acoli DO NOT like the rain!), the start was delayed until Gracie was much too hungry and tired to participate. So I sat and fed her porridge (maize porridge is served mid-morning for "breakfast" at the school) during the first part of the prayer walk. Now, the porridge is stored in a thermos to stay hot as it is walked from the cooking shelter to the office and while people get around ...

We went to the church that is just near Home of Love today. We really enjoyed the worship time - we haven't learned enough Acoli yet to understand the songs, but it was beautiful to be witness to the dancing and singing to the Lord! (Here we are walking to church with the Home of Love children. Gracie has a group working on getting her wheelchair through the clay and mud and ruts and Ana is glued to her best friend!) Ana went to the children's service with her best friend, Fortunate, and they caused problems with all their hugging, giggling, and goofing off together! They are peas in a pod, those two! (This picture started as a cute hugging picture till Fortunate decided that Ana should jump on her back while Brian quietly and sedately watches the circus!) (Gracie got taken "home" by the older girls after church and we found her, some time later, by following her joyous yells and a chorus of giggling children. The girls had taken her into the shade of the eating she...

"Great is Thy faithfulness," O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. "Great is Thy faithfulness!" "Great is Thy faithfulness!" Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— "Great is Thy faithfulness," Lord, unto me! Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

(Ana and her new "best friend" at Home of Love. I asked Ana if she and Fortunate talk to each other and she had to think long and hard. Kids don't need to talk to each other to be friends! Fortunate doesn't understand much English and Ana doesn't know much Acoli yet! I tried to use it as motivation to learn Acoli for Ana. The kids love drawing in the dirt, playing with stones and sticks and the goats and the pigeons!) I’ve never been a really paranoid mother. I wash their hands and vaccinate them and keep them in car seats and helmets but otherwise feel that a little dirt is good for them. But what paranoia I did have is being tested. The first two weeks’ of vehicles that we rode in here did not have functioning seatbelts, so Josh and I were constantly evaluating if a partially or non-conventionally secured car seat was safer than no car seat. Our personal vehicle is equipped with lots of seat belts and we praise God for that! It’s impossible to kee...

(I didn't know Josh was taking this picture - I look really funny - but it gives a little glimpse of my kitchen.) You have probably heard that everything takes longer here… it’s true, for many reasons. Everything is simply more work-intensive. Today, I drove to the market (at least I have a car! That cuts two hours off the endeavor!). I spent just an hour buying 3 green peppers, 1 bunch of greens, 1 papaya, 1 bunch of bananas, 3 avacados, 8 tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 5 passion fruit. Each type of produce was purchased at a different vendor. Each interaction includes a greeting, laughing at my Acoli, asking for the words in Acoli and trying them out back and forth until I pronounce it right. Then I ask for the price, expertly feel and examine the produce, and then make my decision. Then, more greetings and pleasantries, more laughing, and I’m free to move on. It’s quite a nice experience, but there’s no quick errand. Then I drove to another place to buy eggs and conver...

The verdict is in about cloth diapering in the tropics. Fuzzi Bunz are fantastic! Noah is in Fuzzi Bunz and they dry SO quickly that I can get them washed and dried usually before the afternoon rain (we’ll see when rainy season is truly here full force in several months). For what to use to stuff the diapers, I am using several things. I’m using regular old prefolds because I have them – I have the infant size and they work fine. BUT they take a LONG time to dry. What I love are what my friend Gina recommended: car wash cloths. The large ones are fantastic and work even for Gracie (think 8 year old sized bladder in a cloth diaper – yeah!). And the best thing is that they dry very quickly (almost as quickly as the Fuzzi Bunz themselves) AND stay soft despite harsh washing, wringing, and line drying in strong sun. I’m also using an absorbant liner for two reasons: poop and rashes. Noah gets a little rashy in cloth diapers but that was solved by using cloth liners next to...

Tomorrow is Orphan Sunday. God commands us to care for orphans and widows - who has he put in your life? We are so blessed and inspired to know some amazing families caring for those around them! Pray for the orphans that we have in our life now - 60 plus children in Home of Love who have been orphaned by violence/war. Pray that we might be an encouragement and blessing to them and might, in some way, show more of Christ to them by our presence and love. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

In New Hampshire, I was a "bathe-em-once-a-week" kind of mom. Spot clean the kids, bathe them if they're really messy or have an accident, but otherwise, a good thorough bath on Saturday and they're good to go. NOT HERE! This is a "bathe-em-at-least-once-a-day" type of situation. Noah, well, he's a boy. Need I say more? I'm not even sure why I dress him in the morning! Josh's family loves the fact that Josh is getting pay-back for his childhood extraordinary messiness - but even they say that Noah has unfathomable talent in the realm of messy! So add the red clay dirt, the mosquito bites (it seems that two mosquitoes took up residence INSIDE his little tent - oops!), his propensity to sweat profusely, the scratches and bruises that come with exploring new territory, and Noah is a mess 96% of the time. Ana is also busy exploring in the red clay and sweating up a storm so she gets the night-time bath. No complaint from her! She doesn't even...

Gulu itself is trying to be a city - parking tickets (really a permit for the day) along the streets with the shops, electricity some of the time, more and more shops and a more "organized" market. But local living is still largely in traditional huts as soon as you get out of the few blocks of city. This is a scene on the way to Home of Love Orphanage (ACTION's orphanage where we will be spending a fair amount of time!). Notice the neatly swept dirt around the huts - very tidy and keeps snakes and other unwanted critters away from the huts.

So you want to know what life is like right now for us… we’re not sure yet! We have been still settling in. We’ve only been in our home for 5 days so we’ve been unpacking for the most part and figuring out how undertake daily life. But we had a lovely welcome celebration at Home of Love on Sunday and today we met each of the classes at the primary school. The experiences were overwhelming to Grace, exciting to Ana, and normal to Noah who just went about his explorations as if nothing different were happening. The roads around us are mostly dirt, although the main road from the capital through our city is paved. Josh is doing a great job driving a borrowed 15 passenger van on the LEFT side of the road, avoiding the many many bikes, motorcycles, and pedestrians. We have electricity for a few hours a day – enough to charge up our computers and wish for a little more! It’s fine now, because the weather is very cool at night – down to low 70’s. (We'll get a generator before the...

It's been so interesting for us, as parents, to watch various stages of adjustment in our children. The baby doesn't care where he is. If he can nurse and play, he adjusts without any problems. He sleeps eventually and just shows his insecurity during change by being clingy and not sleeping through the night yet again. ('sigh!') Grace, 7 and 1/2, is fairly mature socially and understands the changes and transitions. Since she is nonverbal, we don't know what is going on inside her often, BUT she needs more hugs, snuggles, and kisses, more daddy rough housing play time, and is more picky with the textures that she can or cannot chew and swallow efficiently. She has been quiet, tired, and not as social with strangers as she usually is. She has started throwing major tantrums again when she sees me wear Noah on my back as she wants to be on my back too. She had grown out of that lately but now that back-riding-jealousy is back in full force. She seems to be taki...

Our trip to Uganda could NOT have gone smoother - we made our connection; our baggage cost a lot, but we thought it would; the BA staff was extremely helpful with our complicated travel situation and we had extra seats to spread out and sleep! Praise God! On arrival to Uganda, we made it down the stairs from the plane onto the tarmac. Gracie managed to stay in an adult folding wheelchair that the airport had until we could get her fold-up chair off the baggage belt (they don't provide it right at the aircraft doorway!). We made it through passport control without problems. Ana was about at the end of her rope with fatigue so she could no longer handle her little rolling suitcase and then just went wild, running around in circles! Josh rounded up some porters to help gather our many bins off the belts... 7 items were missing. The baby's carseat came through but the girls' didn't. I praise God that the most important carseat made in on the first day! We spent an hou...

We have excellent internet here in Kampala at the guesthouse, so we're taking advantage of it while we have it!

Well, we're here! I'm writing some reflections on the patio at Adonai House in Kampala, Uganda on about 4 hours of sleep spread thinly over the last TWO nights and days... talk about tiredness and jet-lag! The children are reacting to jet-lag with hyperactivity and a general crazy fast-paced delirium. Mom and Dad are bumps on a log feeling tortured by the children. Our trip to Uganda could not have gone smoother. The attendants and ticket agents with British Airways were more than accomodating to us with our insane amount of luggage and unique travel needs. We ended up on less than full flights which meant that we got extra seats!! Those of you who have traveled with a lap infant (or any aged child) know that an extra seat or two is invaluable for sleep and general peacefulness. Praise God for extra seats on both flights! We made our connection in Heathrow without any difficulty despite having to go through security again (surprise!) and take how many elevators within the s...

Noah got tired of helping me pack for Uganda... so a bin became his napping place!

After all these years of preparing, we leave for Uganda in 10 short days! Our to-do list is long and some challenges seem... well, challenging! For instance, (and I welcome comments and suggestions!): - how to fit Gracie's wheelchair and KidWalk into a bin/box so that no parts are lost or damaged in transit. - what to take for Noah since our pack n' play will arrive a month AFTER we do. He's a crazy sleeper and I might need somewhere to put him to nap safely during the day so I can get things done - a PeaPod Plus? So many unknowns and so many exciting things! :)

taken from: http://www.specialchildrenuganda.org/disability-in-uganda.html Disability in Uganda Although all children have a right to be educated, this right was not easy to be implemented earlier. Children with disability were not being catered for or neither being considered as worthy educable. Uganda like all developing countries saw the need to develop the activities of Special Education to meet the needs of children with disabilities. In the beginning, the provision of Special Education was purely in the hands of the Non Government Organization (NGO) who were mainly missionaries and some relatives who needed to educate their children or relatives. The development of services for persons with disabilities was either hindered or accelerated by the perception and conceptions a community had concerning the target group. Uganda Government did not posses any legislation as regards the education of persons with disability before 1980. People with disabilities were taken as sick, possesse...

Some have asked what small items we need as we move to Uganda, so here's a little wishlist: - rechargeable AA and AAA batteries - men's Mitchum deodorant - women's any type of deodorant - baby training toothpaste - ziplock bags - hand sanitizer - good quality low tech small kitchen tools (peeler, can opener, etc.) - children's vitamins - boys 3T summer clothes

Nice, Ana - appreciate the inside look!

(a little late, but better late than never!) Gracie's sign for "I'm happy!" Oh, she was so happy to head back to school!

Gracie is extremely hard to occupy at home - away from the thrills, equipment, and man-power of school. So I applied for discretionary funds from our local area agency and got them! We were awarded funds to buy Gracie the Rainy Day Indoor playground with adapted swing! Now she can swing safely while I help the other kids rather than having to sit or lay on the floor doing her one and only solo activity: taking items out of bins!

First of all, happy birthday, Noah! Gracie has been doing such wonderful things in her KidWalk! At Mimi's house, the hard-wood floors and open concept are so wonderful for her to move around by herself! She has been turning herself by using one hand on the wheel and pushing with the opposing leg - excellent! She is so silly - always trying to crack us all up and usually succeeding! She has to discover things now that other kids might have discovered at a younger age - like how to not pinch her fingers in drawers....