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!