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...