God is Not an Elephant

It's true...God is not an Elephant. You know why? Because an elephant never forgets....but God FORGETS!!

And you know what? We need to forget also. FORGIVE AND FORGET.

Easier said than done right? Trust us, we know. Sometimes people hurt us deeper than we ever thought imaginable. We can't help replaying the hurtful actions and words in our heads over and over again. We think we've been treated unfairly so it's ok for us to hold a bitter grudge. But that's not right...it's not what God calls us to do.

Look at what the Lord has done for us:

Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases...

Psalm 103:2,3

He forgives ALL our sins!

Let's follow in the Lord's footsteps. Stop holding on to anger. Stop replaying the hurtful scene in your head. Stop holding on to bitterness. FORGIVE. LOVE. FORGET. BE LIKE JESUS.

He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;  
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:9,10

Forgiving and forgetting doesn't always mean the relationship will be restored. Some relationships can not and should not be restored to the way they once were. Sometimes all we can do is forgive with no strings attached. Make sure your attitude towards that person/people is right in your own heart, pray for the one who has hurt you, and ALWAYS be ready to offer verbal forgiveness if they come to you with an apology.

We love this new song "LOSING" by Tenth Avenue North. Take a few minutes to listen to it. It will rock your socks off!

"We think pain is owed apologies and then it'll stop
But truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of Mercy and Your Grace"

Pictures of our new place!

We are finally moved into our new house and boy does it feel good! After 2 months of living out of a suitcase, it feels incredibly wonderful to unpack and put things in their proper place! I don't think we realized how ready we were to settle until we were actually able to!

The Lord really blessed us in giving us the place that He did! It's a beautiful 4 bedroom home with lots of space for Isaiah. We are the first occupants so everything feels new and clean. It is in a great location- 5 minutes from the grocery store (with traffic), less than 10 minutes to Drew's work, and close by to many other amenities and places we go often. Another bonus is that it is up and away from the main road a bit so we don't get much "African dirt" in through the windows (a problem that many houses here have).

We still have a long way to go as far as "setting up" goes. We only have the bare bones in the furniture department and haven't even begun to think about decorating yet! =) But, little by little we know we'll be able to buy the things we need and begin to make this place feel like "home." For now, we're just thankful to have some place to call our own!

Here are some photos so you can get a visual picture of where we are living. 



Our bedroom.



Different angle of our bedroom.



Our bed (We had our bed frame made so that we could get an "American" size queen bed instead of a "Ugandan" size! Hoping to get it next week).



Master bathroom off of our room.



Guest bathroom



Guest bathroom.



Bedroom for our new baby!



New baby's bedroom.



Isaiah's room. We're waiting for his bunk bed/trundle bed to be finished being made and then all these mattresses will be up off the floor (and ready for guests to come sleep in)!)



Isaiah's room.



Zai's room.



Hallway



Hallway



Front porch (and Isaiah playing with our house girl, Suzy). He loves Suzy!!!



Living room.



Living room.



Dining room/ living room.



Kitchen.



Kitchen.

Kitchen.



Pantry

Our washing machine!!! Yay!!



Another bathroom.



Our fourth bedroom which is now being used as a spot to put our deep freezer and a laundry room.



Back porch.

Well that's it for now, folks! I'll post more pictures once we get more furniture and things decorated a bit. =)

Some Photos From the Field



The below pictures are from a legal education clinic the department I work in put on. We do several of these throughout the year and they prove quite integral to the work we do at IJM in Uganda. Namely because it is at these legal education clinics and will writing clinics in which we do case intake and thus, receive new clients, those being widows and orphans being victimized by property grabbing (otherwise known as illegal property seizure). After receiving their case, we pass it over to IJM investigators who collect evidence (depending on what kind of case it is) and allow the lawyers to proceed in court from there.

Introducing IJM and why we're there to teach the law.



Our department's fearless leader and my boss rendering some introductory words as well.



Explaining what property grabbing is and defining who is a victim, who is a perpatrator.

We rarely ever go hungry in the work we do. Matoke hits the spot every time!

Getting the word out!

Contentment

Hebrews 13:5

Be content with what you have. Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you."

Lately God has been teaching me a lot about contentment.

The dictionary defines content as: satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

I wish I could be more content.

We have had a wonderful time in Uganda but since we have been here we have had some things happen that could cause us to feel discontent. We've lost two houses we wanted to rent, Drew has a 2 1/2 hour drive to work each day and back (which doesn't allow me and Isaiah to see him much), we are still living out of suitcases (which gets old after more than 2 months), we have yet to find a house and start feeling settled, and in light of moving overseas, money has been tight in some areas of our budget.

Luke 12:15

Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Proverbs 14:30

A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body;
jealousy is like cancer in the bones.

I want so many things...

I want to be settled.
I want to move into our new place and begin figuring out what our "normal" is going to look like here.
I want to unpack all of our boxes that have been packed up for more than 2 months now.
I want to have our new baby in our arms.
I want to see Drew more often.
I want...
I want...
I want...

I wish God would drill into me the secret of being content no matter what my circumstances. I try to focus on the all the things I do have. I have a wonderful marriage, an amazing son, a free place to stay while we look for a house, the ability to rent a house, some exciting leads on our adoption, and a healthy family. I am blessed!!!

Being content means fully trusting Christ with whatever he desires to give or not to give me. As I grow closer to Christ I am slowly learning to trust more and more in HIS sovereignty and submit to HIS will and plan for my life. I'm seeing progress but, I think I'll always be learning this better!

God, you are good and you do all things well. I trust in you!

1 Timothy 6:6-7

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.

An Update on Our Financial Support



Out for a Saturday afternoon walk by the Nile River.

As we are adjusting to life here in Uganda, we are also adapting to prices of items here. Having lived here for roughly a month, we can already conclude that certain items are far more expensive than back in the US and others are not.

As we continue to modify our budget accordingly, we thought it would be helpful to post an update on our support raising for anyone interested in supporting us or anyone who has questions. We cannot be more thankful for the ways God has provided for us financially through our friends and family, as well as those we don't even know, but who have given in light of seeing the work we're a part of!



Through gracious support, we can purchase typical items such as these mattresses we bought for our new home.

Current Finance Report
Many of you know we have raised 100% of the support which IJM budgeted for us to raise. What may not be known is the amount raised through IJM is not quite enough for us being in Uganda as a family of 3, soon to be 4.

The amount we were allowed to raise is the same amount budgeted for IJM personnel whether single or with a family. Hence, for a single person this amount will suffice. For a family, it is doable, but it is very tight.

In light of this, we began a while back raising additional support through our home church in Jacksonville, FL for out going expenses and the purchase of a vehicle. In the time we have been here we have come to realize that we need to continue raising additional support in order to help offset additional start-up expenses and regular budgetary items which exceed the amount of support raised through IJM.

We would be humbled and honored to have you financially support us during this next year either regularly and/or through special occasional gifts. If you feel led to do so, please visit the Start up & Support page of our blog for more details.

For those of you who have been supporting us monthly or through special gifts, we cannot thank you enough for you gracious offering. Words cannot describe what it means to us to have such wonderful people in God's economy giving so faithfully. Truly, God's love and provision is being experienced in our lives through you.

Fish Lips for Dinner!

Tonight Isaiah had fish for dinner. Not frozen fish fillets that you buy at Meijer. Fresh Nile River Tilapia that just last night was swimming around happily until today they met their doom! We wanted Isaiah to kiss the fish before chowing down on it but instead he decided to bite the lips off! And he preceded to eat them...and loved them! This boy was made for Africa!

Posing for the camera!

"Mom, I'll smile for you but I really want to start eating my fish lips!"

"Ok, this is the last smile guys. I'm starving!"

Isaiah started moving in to kiss the fishy.

But wait! His mouth starts to open and.....

Yuck! He bites the lips right off and starts munching away on them!!

Mommy's reaction was quite dramatic.

The lipless fish.

"What, mom? Did I do something wrong? Them fishy lips tasted goooooood!!"