A Taste of Home

Early Saturday morning, the Newsome's all left to go on a safari.  We share our living room/kitchen area with them (family of 6), so our weekend has been a little quieter that usual.  We started our morning with breakfast, then school work.  We've had some great meals, but nothing like 'home', so I made my mom's chicken salad for lunch...it suprisingly tasted just like what I make at home, except we ate it with chapat's.

While Jude Daniel was napping Chapel and I put a 300 piece 'Frozen' puzzle together.  The rest of the day was spent trying to pass the time.

 Today we rode boda bodas to Watoto church.  We enjoyed a great, lively service, then walked to a restaurant to have lunch.  We were negotiating price with the boda boda drivers to take us back to The Lodge and a mzungo lady pulled up in her car with her 2 Ugandan children. She began to scold the boda boda drivers for charging us to much.  She told us we shouldn't pay what they were wanting and said she would be happy to drive us 'home'.  In the grand scheme of things, we are talking what would be equivalent to about $1 more, but, I will take a free car ride any day instead of a boda boda.  She was a pastors wife of another local church, originally from Italy and had moved permanently to Uganda 8 years ago. 

Once 'home' we napped, made Grandbobbie's dressed eggs for dinner (another craving of home) and that's about it. 

 Not a very adventurous weekend.  Now, the kids are asleep next to me in the bed, Andrew's watching football and I'm enjoyed my fall 'Apple Pumpkin' candle....

 

...similar to home except we don't have Trust and we are laying under a mosquito net. 

Friday Market

Yesterday we had breakfast and headed into town to go to the Friday Market.  We went last Friday, but the Newsome family wasn't able to go.  I didn't take my camera the first time and really regretted it. The amount of paper beads lined up is impressive and beautiful. 

 

We walked throughout the market, adding to what we had already bought the previous week, more beads, a few decorations for Jude Daniel's room and gifts for friends and family.

 

This lady was outside the second market we went to. She was sewing little purses and baskets. She wanted 4,00 shillings, which is less than $2.  As we started to walk into the market she quickly came down to 3,000.  So little money for such a lot of time. 

After market shopping, we headed to Acasia mall to have lunch.  It took extremely long to go a short distance because of traffic, but Chapel and Cara entertained themselves by playing with their new stuffed animals. 

  

After lunch, we paid 6,000 to let the kids play in the mall play area.  The Acasia mall is brand new, so this play area seemed like Disney World compared to the last one.  Trampolines, slides, inflatables, swings....they had a blast.

 

Last stop on the way home was Quality Supermarket.  We ran into a mzungo family who knew us from pictures our safari guide, Martin, had shown them on his ipad from our safari.  They had been talking to him about going on a safari as well.  They had adopted from Uganda about 4 years ago, and had just gotten here to adopt another child.  I noticed they had Ritz crackers in their basket, which I had tried to find at our last Quality visit.  They informed us the store had just gotten them and they go fast.  So we left Quality with Ritz crackers, Oreos, Doritos and some ingredients to try to make chicken salad.  :) 

Jude Daniel had a great day. I guess you could say he is potty trained...as long as we remember to take him, he goes in the potty.  We haven't had any accidents in a week, so that's nice!  We are working on him telling us when he has to go.  He's a great traveler...granted he can just stretch out and sleep on our lap while we are sitting in traffic for 2 hours. He is saying a lot more words that we can actually understand.  He's also getting better about trying to communicate what he wants before bursting into tears, but we still have several melt downs a day.  

We are anxious to get home. It's hard to believe we haven't held our Trust in over 3 weeks! :(  I know he is getting extra attention from his teachers and therapists at school and from our friends and family at church and we greatly appreciate that! Anyone at anytime, feel free to send us pictures of him (and you) through iMessage or Facebook.  It helps us feel a little more connected!

Guest blooger, Chapel Brown

my top 5 favoret memores so far in uganda (not in order because i don't have a favorets)

 

1.  meating jude and seeing where he was born and nowing his story. i also enjoyed meating his bilogecel mom and his grandfather.

2.  i also enjoyed walking to the pool then going to quality supermarket and allwase riding back on a boda boda. i like the boda boda because they go fast.

3.  last night me and my family went to see an african show.i liked it because the men balenst huge drums on thier heads while they played it and kick it.they had neat outfits.

 

4. it is neat that i have new friends from difrent places.

5. safari!! the safari was fun because mom fell of the roof on to the botum seat! my favert animil was the baby giraffe.

Passport, Pickpocket, Play Area

We left this morning to head into town to apply for our passport! Once in town, things weren't quite ready so we stopped in a few sports stores looking for an authentic Ugandan soccer jersey for Jude Daniel.  Eric and Misty and their kids rode into town with us to meet a lady to make them some clothes, so next we headed to find her shop in a 'mall'.  It was the most confusing 'mall' with halls and stairs going in different directions.  No one knew which way shop #153 was....it was like we were on an episode of 'The Amazing Race'! Once we found her, she lead us downtown Kampala to a fabric store.  This walk was INTENSE! Very crowed...4 white adults with 6 kids all trying to follow 1 person down narrow sidewalks and crossing streets.  Let me remind you there are no stop lights or stop signs or any rules when it comes to driving, so you basically step out in front of boda bodas and van taxis and just hope they see you and then decide to stop! We had to walk in between van taxis that were so close together I couldn't hold Jude on my hip...I had to turn side ways, holding him out to the side.  To make it more interesting, Andrew had a backpack on with our passports and money in it, so I was the caboose...trying to stay close and keep an eye on his bag. Sure enough a guy slipped in between me and Andrew and unzipped a pocket of his bag! I was shoulder to shoulder with this other guy, not far and yelled, "HEY!"  He casually walked away while Andrew gave him the evil eye! No one did anything..the boda boda drivers just watched and laughed.   The fabric store was just as interesting...narrow halls with small rooms of fabric.

 

Chapel picked out a fabric and we are going to have an authentic African dress made, called a gomesi.  After our downtown adventure we headed to the passport office.  'Office' is used lightly. It is a parking lot with several tents and sections of benches. We moved from one section of benches to the next, then finally to a desk where our file was looked at.  We were told we were missing a document, but we were still able to apply today! Thankfully, this morning felt like a fall day in Kentucky and we were only there about 45 minutes.  The next stop was lunch and then to a play area in a mall.  The play area was 2000 shillings, which is less than $1.  It included a 'carousel' ride...they plugged it in and let them go and go and go. Eventually Misty just pulled the plug and they headed to play on the less than safe and sanitary McDonald's like play area. The seat belt type net tubes (not sure if that makes sense) had clearly been broke and tied back, but with larger holes...so large that when Jude was scooting on his bottom, he ended up falling through and was holding on my his feet and hands.  Chapel was not far away and lifted him out...just adds to the adventure! 

Now we just wait to receive our passport...then we will be able to take our next step.

Take 2

Days like today are loooooong! We had thought we were going into town sometime late morning afternoon so after breakfast we got ready and waited. Not much happens around here, so when we think we are going into town we plan our day around that and look forward to getting out.  When it doesn't happen it makes for a long, uneventful day.  We received texts throughout the morning that the electric was out in the city so therefore they couldn't send the payments they needed to before our appointment. :(

So the majority of our day was spent with me editing pictures and Andrew playing Clash of the Clans.  He did take a break from his game to teach the other families 'Euker'.  We had PB&J for lunch and made noodles with tomato sauce for dinner. That was basically our day!

We will try to apply for the passport again tomorrow.  

Next Step, Passport!

We have our order! Friday we found out we had received our order, unfortunately it was to late in the day to do anything about it.  So our next step is to apply for Jude's passport.  We are supposed to go into town tomorrow morning to do this.  It took the family ahead of us just under 2 weeks to receive theirs...please pray the same (or less!) for us.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go see some animals.  We had to drive about 6 hours to Murchison Falls, but it was worth it.  We had to keep reminding Chapel (and ourselves) that we were not in a zoo....that we were seeing wild animals!

 When we arrived we ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant where there were 3 warthogs hanging out. We could have touched them, but were advised they can not be friendly...which then was kinda scary because we were so close! 

We then took a ferry across the Nile River to get to the other side of the park.  Chapel thought this was great, because all the cars drive on it to be taken across. 

We rode on top of the vehicle which was a lot of fun.  Once, when trying to track a lion, they took us off of the dirt road where we hit a large, covered hole.  I flew forward and fell into the opening on the car seats below...with  Jude Daniel in my lap!  Neither of us were hurt and we all got a good laugh because it happened so suddenly.  :)

We looked for animals from 2:00-6:20.  We saw many 'antelope' type things...there were several different kinds, all with different names.  We also saw elephants, baboons and giraffes!  We looked for lions, but never spotted any.  They tried so hard to find us a lion that we ended up pushing our time to make it back to the last ferry, so our ride back was very fast and bumpy...so much that Jude and I opted to sit inside the jeep for fear of being popped off..Andrew and Chapel followed a few mintues later.  Thankfully, the ferry was running a few minutes behind so we made it.

 

We came back and had dinner at the same restaurant. Instead of warthogs, there were now hippos! I don't think I have ever seen a hippo that was not covered in water up to its nose.  They are crazy huge, and we were so close we could have touched it, but were told to stay away. We stayed the night in a very small concrete building. It had 1 small fan that was solar powered, so it quit about midnight, which made it very hot...plus there were only 2 twin beds for all of us to share.  About 10 minutes after we turned out the lights to go to sleep I heard something outside eating. I looked our our "window" (a large hole with a screen and curtain over it) to find a hippo outside our room.  If the screen not been there I could have touched it!  It made me a little nervous, because it could just as easily pop its head right through the screen! I watched it leave around the corner, only to hear it a few minutes later on the other side of our room.  So crazy!

Before heading back to The Lodge we stopped at the falls which were beautiful! We had a great time with our family...definitely a once in a lifetime experience that we will always remember!

No News

We didn't hear anything about our order. Maybe tomorrow. 

Earlier this week we had planned to go to the pool today.  We have to kinda plan these things, only because it gives us something to look forward to.  After breakfast us and the 2 other families began the walk to Lindsay Cottages.  Chapel had a much more enjoyable time this time because she had friends to swim and play with.  Jude Daniel started right where he left off.  He now 'steps' off into the water without having to hold onto our hands.  He even lets go of Andrew to go under the water.

After our swim we kept walking to a pizza restaurant, Cafe Roma.  We picked up extra passport pictures of Jude at the 'Studio', looked for UNO cards at Quality Supermarket with no luck, then rode bodas home.  It rained after we got back. When it rains, the electric goes out.  Eventually, they turn on a generator, but for a little while we were without electricity. 

Chapel had a crochet lesson from Miss Marrisa, we played a game of UNO (with the other families cards), we sang 'Happy Birthday' to Uriah (Marrisa's son) and turned in for an early bedtime.

We have no plans tomorrow...maybe we will have to go into town to apply for a passport. Fingers crossed!

Waiting for an order.

We did not get our order last night. :( We have no plans today, so we hope to get it today so we can go to the passport office.

Last night we went to a new mall in town. It was very nice and we enjoyed walking around with the other families.  We ate dinner at the food court in the mall.  It is set up just like one in the U.S., but after you order you sit down and they bring you the food out like you were at a restaurant.  You don't pay until after you are finished eating.  It was nice to get out and do something different.

We are trying to teach Jude Daniel to ask us for things.  If he wants more to eat or needs help doing something he just breaks down at a level 10 cry.  He has started bringing us bottles of water and will say, "Open it."  He hasn't cried as much when he has had to put a toy down.  It's been a learning process, but I think we are all figuring each other out.

Last night, Linda said that Jude fit well with our family...that Chapel was strong and 'thick' like Jude.  Jude's tribe is called M.  She said Chapel was a Mzungo (White) Muchiga.  Other than him physical fitting into our family, his personality fits perfectly too! We are so thankful God chose him for us!

2 Weeks Down!

Today marks 2 weeks since we met Jude Daniel! He's already a different boy! I wish I could show him off to you, but we still haven't heard anything about guardianship.  Linda, who works for our lawyer, was supposed to let us know when she heard something about our ruling. We never heard from her today, so hopefully tomorrow we will hear and maybe can apply for Jude's passport by Wednesday. 

Chapel & Ms. Linda

It's taken us about 2 weeks to figure out local places to eat, how much it should cost to take a boda places (they like to charge us 'mzungus' more), that our room does have hot water (yay!) you just have to flip a light switch to turn it on 30 minutes before you shower.  In 2 weeks we've learned that the 'jam' (traffic) in town is always bad, how to warm up pizza in skillet, and discovered something similar to Nutella that makes the perfect dessert!

Today we had nothing on the agenda. Chapel is constantly playing outside with Micah, Anna and Kara.  Jude and Judah joined in the fun today when Misty broke out the bubbles.  The boys had a lot of fun, running, smiling and screaming.  They are interacting and talking to each other in Lugandan.  Judah was even yelling for Jude saying, "Danny!"

Tonight, is Africa documentary movie night. Chapel loves them! Jude Daniel is more concerned about climbing up and down Andrew.

Birthdays!

September 12th was Chapel's 8th birthday and September 1st was Jude's 2nd birthday! To celebrate, 13 of us loaded up in a van and headed to the Entebbe Zoo.  It was probably the hottest day that we have had since we have been here, but we enjoyed it.  Chapel's favorite animal was the Shoebill....she and Andrew have been watching Africa documentaries at night and the Shoebill was one of the animals it talked about.

 

Jude enjoyed looking at the animals that were close, like the monkeys and the ostriches. 

 

 

After the zoo we ate lunch at a restaurant in Entebbe.  We sat outside on the deck where there was a nice breeze and view of Lake Victoria.  

 I didn't feel well for the majority of the day, so our evening consisted of me laying in the room while Chapel and Andrew skyped friends and family to wish Chapel a happy birthday.  I held off on making anything with my cake mix because Misty knew a lady who lives here who has an oven.  So yesterday, September 13, we walked to the gas station to buy oil and eggs.  The eggs aren't refrigerated, they just sit out in crates to buy as needed, so I only bought the 3 the recipe called for.  We headed down the road and summoned a boda-boda to ride several miles to the house.  I'm sure we were a sight...2 white women squished on a boda-boda, me holding a bag with 3 eggs ever so carefully! 

 

We went back to the ladie's house today for lunch...here is where I baked the cake.  We forgot to bring a bottle of water, so we scooped water out of the white bucket with the yellow lid which has freshly boiled water in it.  The last hurdle was converting the oven from Celsius to Fahrenheit, which ended up being simple thanks to the internet. A couple of hours later we were given a ride back to our 'home' in a vehicle....carrying a pan on a boda may have been a bit of a challenge.

So...here is the cake! It's probably the least fancy or expensive one we've had, but it was made with much time, love and energy!

 

We had some of the staff here at The Lodge and the other 2 families over to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jude and to Chapel.  

 

Tomorrow, Andrew will be going into Kampala to pick up a form we need at the U.S. Embassy.  We have had this appointment scheduled for several days and it will hopefully be fairly quick.  We also will hear about the judge's ruling tomorrow regarding legal guardianship.  From that we should be able to apply for Jude's passport.  The family that was here before us received their passport a week and a half after applying.  While at the passport office they were with other adoptive families who had been waiting for their passport for 6 weeks.  Continue to pray for a fast process! We are really missing our Trust!

Good Days

Yesterday morning we got to breakfast about 8:30, sat down and had a great home cooked breakfast with fresh juice...same as every other day, except Jude Daniel did not stuff his face full of food the moment we sat down. :) He usually looks like Anna from 'Frozen' when she sings, "...want to stuff some chocolate in my face." Not today! He even had food left on his plate that he didn't eat. He also took drinks of his juice whenever he wanted without us having to cue him to "take a drink." 

We have seen a lot of smiles and as Chapel says, "He's really breakin' his shell!" He's a happy boy unless we take something out of his hands, which results in huge alligator tears and loud crying (this happened twice while in the supermarket today). He now moves around when we are eating at a restaurant, drops things on the floor, reaches and grabs for things off the table...the first week he sat like a statue! We are glad we are seeing some more typical 2 behavior!  

Chapel is having a blast playing with Cara and Micah (Misty and Eric's kids). They have created a secret club with secret places and secret codes.  The other kids, our Jude and Judah (Misty and Eric's adopted son) held hands and were walked around by their other daughter, Anna. 

(Jude, Judah, Anna)

We played here until about 2:30 p.m. before heading closer to town to look at other places we could stay at for less.  We ate dinner and made it home at 10:00 p.m.  Anytime we go into town it makes for a long day, guaranteeing we will sit in traffic, in a hot van for several hours. :(

 
Today, we walked 2 miles (down the same road we go to the pool) to a clinic to get Jude tested for parasites. 

On our way we saw cows....

monkeys....

and many local people.

We continued up the road to Quality Supermarket where we ate lunch, took Passport photos and bought flour, vanilla extract and sugar.  I had hoped to make Chapel a birthday cake tomorrow.  I brought the cake mix and icing from home...but The Lodge's oven is broke.  So, thanks to Pinterest, I found a no bake truffle recipe I'm going to try.

We found a pool!

Today was a great day!  Earlier this week we were told there was a small hotel with a pool, Lindsay Cottages, that was 1 1/2 miles away from us, so after breakfast we stuck Jude in a backpack carrier and took off.

We arrived at Lindsay Cottages where we paid $10 for our family to swim for the day.  We felt like we were at a Caribbean resort...it was well worth it! Both Jude and Uriah really liked it, which was surprising since they both cry during baths and since it was SO COLD! Jude loved dipping his face in the water.  We have been trying to teach him to jump on the bed..he hasn't quite figured it out yet, so it was the same with 'jumping' into the pool.  He would bend his knees up and down and then step off the edge.

After swimming we continued another mile to Quality Supermarket, where there are several restaurants.  Josh, Marrisa and Uriah came with us, so we celebrated Marrisa's birthday by eating pizza and ice cream!

Instead of walking the 2.5 miles back to The Lodge, we paid $4 to ride on a Boda Boda....a moped taxi.  Since the traffic is so bad here, these are very popular and much cheaper than a van taxi.  Our family takes 2...they make Andrew get on one and Chapel, Jude, Me on the other.  Chapel thinks it's the greatest thing ever.  We are truly experiencing Uganda..it's an adventure!

Another adoptive family (Misty and Eric) arrived at 2 a.m. today.  Once we were back from our outing, we got to talk with them and Chapel got to play with their children.  They have to girls, 8 and 4, and a 5 year old son.  We hardly saw Chapel the entire night...she had so much fun playing with other kids!  They're adopting a boy from the same orphanage who is around Jude's age, so it will be interesting to see how Jude and him interact.

Jude's first church service

Today was unintentionally a long day.  It started with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. followed by a drive into town to Sojourn, a church plant in Kampala.  Shortly after we arrived where the church was meeting it began to rain.  The roof of the building is tin so it was very loud.  It continued to rain harder and became louder.  The Pastor was persistent and continued to preach, although it was very distracting and hard to hear.  By the time the service was over the rain had stopped and the sun was out, which seems typical here.

While we were at the church, Chapel had to use the potty, so we made our way through a narrow, muddy path to an outhouse type structure.  When I opened the door there was a rectangle hole in the ground.  Chapel looked at me confused then said, "Um..no."  I can't say I blame her. :)

We had a great lunch with our driver, Mr. Gilbert and his 4 year old daughter, Comfort, along with another adoptive family and their son.  After lunch we headed to a store and home.  Again, we sat in traffic, creeping down the road for nearly 2 hours.  With 9 of us in a small van there was no stretching room and when you aren't moving there is no air.  I'm thankful Jude is so content...wherever he sits, he stays and doesn't move.  Today he even fell asleep sitting straight up.

By the time we got home is was almost 6:00 p.m.  I provided a "home cooked" dinner of Ramon Noodles and toast....we had to do something quick because Fantasy Football has started and with the time change it's about dinner time.  Andrew ate his dinner outside in order to get the best wireless signal. This is him and Chapel outside our room.  (Our laundry is still drying)!

 

Just Another Ordinary Miracle Today

When I was thinking of the title for today's post, the song from a Tinkerbell movie, "Ordinary Miracle" kept  popping in my head.  Our days are very simple and ordinary here, but full of little miracles.

Here are some of the lyrics:

It's not that unusual
When everything is beautiful
It's just another ordinary miracle today

The sky knows when it's time to snow
Don't need to teach a seed to grow
It's just another ordinary miracle today

Life is like a gift they say

Wrapped up for you everyday
Open up and find a way
To give some of your own

When you wake up everyday
Please don't throw your dreams away
Hold them close to your heart
'Cause we're all a part of the ordinary miracle

Ordinary miracle
Do you want to see a miracle?

It seems so exceptional
The things just work out after all
It's just another ordinary miracle today

Sun comes up and shines so bright
And disappears again at night
It's just another ordinary miracle today

Yesterday and today have been the first days we haven't had to go into the city.  It's been nice, but different.  In the mornings we come down to the Lodge 'kitchen' and get a homemade breakfast from the owner.  It always comes with fresh mixed juice which is something to look forward to.

Today after breakfast, we walked to the orphanage.  We talked with the owner, then got a tour.  In my mind I had imagined more of a 'foster home' atmosphere with a handful of children.  I'm not sure why I assumed that, but this is definitely an orphanage, with 35 children in it.

All the children were sitting on the floor on a blanket and Jude walked right over and joined them. They were happy to see him, yelling, "Dan!" and "Danny!" He contently sat and played while we walked around the orphanage.  When it was time to leave he happily let Andrew pick him up and leave.  This was a relief...we were a little nervous he may want to stay or be confused and cry.

After we got back to The Lodge we ate lunch, leftovers from dinner for Andrew and I and PB&J and an apple for the kids.

Jude was much more talkative (even though we can't understand him) and happy this afternoon. He and Andrew giggled a lot this afternoon...melts your heart.

We ventured out for dinner tonight...walked a little way to a restaurant and stopped at a little store to buy laundry soap and a bucket...yes a bucket....so we could wash our clothes!

Jude is learning his mouth, eyes, nose, ears, ect... He is also learning who we are, mom, dad, and chapel.  He is starting to hold my hand when we walk.  He used to hold his arm and hand funny and not hold ours back.  He also now knows after using the potty to wash his hands.

It's fun to watch him learn and remember things we have taught him.  Simple things like how to hold a marker or drink out of a straw. (I'm sure the staff was entertained at dinner by my facial expressions, trying to show how to suck out of a straw).

So nothing to entertaining happened today, it was just another ordinary miracle kinda day.  

Long day at court

Today we left The Lodge at 8:00 a.m. and drove into town to visit Parliament and the Palace.  This was strongly encouraged to do before court at 11:00.  We enjoyed learning about different tribes in Uganda and have learned what tribe Jude is from, which is known for being a very strong, hard working people.

After our visit we headed to court. We sat in a room with his biological mom, grandfather and other witnesses from 11:00 a.m. until about 4:30 p.m.  Chapel was amazing...especially given the fact that we forgot to bring any entertainment for her (oops!). We had no ipad or games on our phones or books or any activity for her other than playing with Jude, who is currently perfectly content sitting next to us on a wooden bench.  So besides a trip to the potty, we sat... in a room... for 5 hours...without food.

Jude did fall asleep on me, so for 2 hours I did. not. move!

Once in court, the judge asked to speak to Jude's biological mother.  She had an interpreter, so hearing the interpreter and even understanding him was very difficult.  There were several times during this conversation/questioning of the mother that we got a little anxious.  At one point he asked her to hold Jude and repeatedly asked, "Do you want this boy?!" I never heard or understood her (the interpreters) answer.  After court Andrew said she responded by saying she wanted our family to take care of him. So thankful!

Next up was ME! Many of you know I prefer not to speak in public, so speaking in front of a judge was very intimidating, especially one who has the power to give or take away your child! He asked me questions for about 20 minutes!

So, the judge will not make a decision until Monday, September 15th at 4:00 p.m.  He will hopefully grant us verbal guardianship, then we will wait for a written statement of guardianship.

We believe everything will work out for what is best for Jude. Until then we will be lifting up many prayers and enjoy spending time with Chapel and Jude in Uganda. 

We are so thankful for all of your prayers! Please continue to pray for the process as well as for us and Jude.  He is very content...almost like he is scared to do anything.  I can't imagine what he is thinking, so as you pray, remember him too!

On another note...we really enjoy the place we are staying, BUT, have you ever seen a cockroach this ginormous?!  Let's just say when one of these decided to make its presence known on the headboard of Chapel and Jude's bed...when they were in it...bedtime was not happening! Keep in mind they were trapped in the bed by a mosquito net!

It's 4 a.m...and we are wide awake!

We are here!!!

It's 4:08 a.m. and Andrew and I are laying in bed, under a mosquito net, with no air, in Uganda, with Jude sound asleep beside us!

It's crazy we are actually here! 

On Monday we left out of Lexington on a 7:00 a.m. flight to Philadelphia then a 12 hour plane ride (which Chapel thought was the GREATEST...access to Disney movies and they brought food to us in our seat!) to Qatar followed by a 5 hour plane ride to Entebbe.  We then were picked up by someone from Lifeline, Ms. Linda, who took us to buy water and bread and helped us exchange money.  It was about an hour drive from the airport until we arrived at The Lodge...our home for the time we are here.  I want to say it was about 3:00 p.m. but couldn't be for sure.

At 5:00 we were told we could walk to the children's home to meet Daniel!  We are here with another adoptive family from Lifeline, so they showed us the way.  We arrived to find that Daniel was asleep and the director was not there.  :(  Disappointed we walked back to The Lodge to load our phone with minutes so we could call the director to find out when she would be back. 

We were told they would bring him to us, so at about 7:00 the director of the home pulled in with Daniel...in the front seat, in her lap. He had his little arm resting on the door with the window down.

Andrew got him from the car and Daniel held around his neck so tight! We took him over the grassy area here at The Lodge where he sat in Chapel's lap. He didn't cry...but he looked scared.  Shortly after we headed to our room where we played with a ball and cars.

Dinner was 30-45 minutes after we had Jude...he sat in my lap and ate off my plate.  It was kind of a "what do we now?" moment. We don't know what he's been eating, or if he feeds himself, if he drinks out of a cup or bottle or sippy. He ate great and never made a peep.

While Andrew and I finished eating, Chapel and Daniel played.  She tickled his belly and it was the first time we saw him smile and heard him laugh.

Tomorrow we are supposed to meet with Daniel's mom and grandfather.  They are coming in to be present at court on Thursday.  Please continue to pray for a smooth process!

I hope to post pictures of where we are staying...as soon as I find the cord to connect my camera to the computer!