Gotcha, Little Man



The day I met my eldest...

He wouldn't look at me.

And certainly wouldn't talk to me.

 He was completely and utterly terrified.

And who wouldn't be?!?!

 But the minute I met him, I knew he was ours.

 Terrified tho he was

 He would relax on and off....

 More off than on initially.

This far away look frequented his face.

 But the stinker was never far behind!

 This is Carol, who runs Manna Rescue Home.

LOVE HER.

 And this is beautiful Fort Portal Uganda!



The journey continues

We woke up to the phone ringing the morning after we landed in Entebbe

Both the kids and I slept until 9 (?!?!?) when Moreen called us.

I managed to pull myself out of bed enough to go say hello to her and start repacking.

(We had ripped everything apart to find jammies....)

Before we left, Seth started jumping around our room and with a big smile said, "I'm so excited!!!"

Remembering he isn't yet five years old, I thought I'd better check to see the source of this excitement.

I asked, "What are you excited about, buddy?"

"I GET TO MEET MY BRUDDER!!!"

Ah, yes.  Me too, little man.  Me too.

About 10, we hopped into the car to head to Fort Portal. 

The ride takes about six hours from Entebbe and it was gorgeous.

We did sleep a bit along the way but I still enjoyed the beautiful scenery and was reminded of why people believe that this is the site of the Garden of Eden.  Gorgeous.

We arrived at Manna Rescue Home about 4:30 in the afternoon.

When we pulled up, a few of the children were outside.

I frantically looked around for a familiar face and didn't see one.

We jumped out of the car and Seth and Leah ran off to play.

One of the caretakers greeted us and said Asaba Vincent is inside.

We went into one of the buildings to wait.

Seth and Leah barged into where he was getting dressed.

(nice)

About ten minutes later, he emerged.

Terrified.

I felt so bad for the little guy.

His eyes were wide and he wouldn't look at me.

Awww, sweet boy.

I can only imagine.

We visited a while longer and then we swooped him into the car to go to the guest house.

And that's how our journey began!

{Literal} Journey to Zechariah

On Sunday, October 28, in the morning before church, I got an email from Uganda suggesting that I come "soon."  I turned to Bill and Lynsay who were visiting and said that I was going to plan to leave in a week.

Ten minutes later, I got an email from our Ugandan attorney saying that I needed to leave as soon as possible -- that day or the next -- because the Judge was leaving town at the end of the week.

I flew into a panic.  I started packing and cleaning and making lists and panicking....

Lynsay was amazing (Bill too) and we were able to get ourselves onto a flight leaving Monday at 6 p.m.

Remarkably, Tesney agreed to fly up from Alabama to go with us on Monday.

I went to bed thinking that we would get on that flight.... somehow.

Tesney arrived around 2 on Monday and told me she had been airsick on her flight up.

Hmm.

We left for the airport at 3:30 -- heavy bags in tow and kiddos excited to meet big brudder.

At the airport, Tes started to look a little green again and ran to, ehm, take care of it while we were in line for the baggage check.

Nevertheless, she persevered and boarded the plane.

But it wasn't good.

And it was obvious.

She had to leave the plane.

Just like that, it was me with the kiddos.....

Instead of panicking, I decided to look at the situation positively as a chance to view this as our family adventure.  Just the three of us for, Lord willing, the last time.

We took off on time and thankfully avoided Sandy that was ravaging the East Coast.

Our first flight was fine and we arrived in Brussels.

Seth and Leah both slept some... despite Leah being across the aisle from me.

I slept, well, zero.

Seth and I were blessed to be in the last row of Economy Plus seating so I had a nice wide space for my legs.  But (must there always be a but???) the row behind me was "normal" economy and my seat was already in their lap so when I reclined, they declined and straight back up I went.

No sleep for me at a 90 degree angle!  Ugh.

Fortunately, our lay over in Brussels was only a couple of hours and we left for Uganda (Kigali) mostly on time and the kids still (largely) intact.

Well, there was that one incident where Seth refused to stand in line to board, ran around the terminal and chucked his legos all over the floor.  Oy.

But we survived.

Seth did.... barely.

The flight attendants on Air Brussels were not quite the peaches we had on United.

And I guess that puts it kindly.

United was ah-ma-zing.  (And they refunded Tesney's entire ticket like it never happened.  Not even a service charge!!!)

Brussels was nothing but irritated by any of my {reasonable} requests.

It was hard.

And the plane was old.

BUT my seat reclined.

Before we even took off, I was tilted WAY back and snoozing.

So was Seth.

Leah was coloring.

All of us slept some and Seth wet his pants.

Awesome.

We had to land in Kigali, Uganda to let off some passengers and this was hard.

Really hard.

A thirty minute flight away and yet so far.....

Don't recommend it.

But again, we made it.

At last, Entebbe!!!

I grabbed our bags and ran for the door.

At this point, I had slept a total of about four hours since Sunday night and was exhausted.

So were the kids, to state the obvious.

I had two kids' backpacks, a roller board, and my bag carry-on.

Thus I had no arms/hands for children.

They had to walk.

Like troopers, they did. 

Nooo help from the wonderful flight attendants.

In Entebbe, visitors deplane onto the ground from {very} steep metal stairs.

Because my arms were full and no one was helping, the kids had to go it alone.

At one point, a helper came up and then took the bags of a single woman who had on eight inch heels.

HA.  Oh brother.

We did it ourselves.

By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, I was irritated.

Leah was only half way down and some kind passenger with his hands full grabbed Leah by the arm and carried her down.

I was grateful for the help.

We trekked over to the visa line and I remember thinking to myself, "Well, this line isn't too bad.  The kids may survive."

Just then, a security guard marched over to me and asked if these kids were traveling with me.

Um, yes.

Now let's press pause for a moment and realize that I have an irrational fear that someone may challenge whether my brown babies are mine when we are traveling.

When this man marched over, I was terrified.

After I told him I was traveling with my kids, he said, "You come with me."

And so we did.... marching RIGHT to the front of the line.

Suh-WEET! 

I nearly kissed the man on the mouth.

(Just kidding... kinda)

Getting our visa was a breeze.

Getting our luggage was long but fine.

We were off with "Daniel" to Sunset Guest House in Entebbe for the night.

And so the adventure began....

Beach Vaca 2012