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Longer update

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 hour filling out paperwork to retrieve our luggage and finally emerged to find the Robinettes waiting for us patiently with a lovely "Welcome Rattins!" sign - how sweet!

Josh went through some adventures getting the lost luggage, but 4 days later, ALL pieces of luggage are now in our possession (yes, including the double stroller and Gracie KidWalk and Wheelchair)! NOT BAD! Thank you, Lord!

We've been in Uganda since Wednesday. Wednesday was a blur of tortured exhaustion but we are so glad that we pushed through and stayed up until after dinner. That has made jet-lag so much more manageable. We are all sleeping at night. Our only problem is that we are still so tired that we are sleeping in very late into the morning so we're starting to set an alarm to get ourselves out of bed in the morning.

On Thursday, we spent part of the day with fellow ACTION missionaries who are stationed in Kampala. They focus on street children (mostly Karamojong), pastoral training, a radio ministry, itinerant preaching, and many other ministries. They have been a huge blessing to us in our initial days here and we're quite glad to have had time to become friends with them during these days!

Friday, we sat at "home" and rested. The weather is quite lovely (75-85 degrees, humidity 46-71%) so a nice transition for us till we go up to Gulu which tends to be 10-15 degrees F hotter (per a Gulu missionary). By December/January, the temperature will exceed 100 so we're gearing up to that!

Saturday, our fellow ACTION missionary from Gulu joined us. What a lovely day with her! She has 4 years of experience in Gulu and has been running the vast and varied ministries for the last 15 months on her own in the absence of our field directors who were in the USA for health care. What an amazing woman! Pray for rest and refreshment for her and smooth transitions for our field directors who are now back in Gulu and the Ugandan staff who are adjusting to all the changes while keeping the ministries running.

Today, Sunday, we are having our own family devotions at the guesthouse. The children are still showing some signs of stress - Gracie is quiet, not eating well, and not drinking enough liquid yet; Ana (although incredibly adorable in her exploration of Africa) is hyper and misbehaving; and Noah can't quite figure out when to nap and is exploring new found freedoms. They are overall doing fantastic but need some quiet time with mom and dad and some focused time where we can provide some security, routine, and train as needed. Gracie has NOT had any seizures; we have had little colds but seem to be getting over them. God is so good! :)


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