I'm in. Don't tell Kim. Shhh!!!!

Here's an update for all those waiting patiently.

Kim is staying in the orphanage guest house with M. She has been there one week now. Things are going okay. The compound is very small, so it is easy to get claustrophobic. Less than an acre of land, and 14 kids crammed inside.

On Sunday, Kim joined the children and workers as they attended the Calvary Chapel in Jinja. It was a small building. Kim said the room held about 10 pews, in 5 rows, and each pew hold 4 people. She had to stand up and introduce herself as she was new. A woman from the worship team talked with her afterwards. She is from Portland OR, and is in Uganda working in an AIDS clinic.

Yesterday, Kim and one of the ladies went to Jinja for about 4 hours. Kim said it was good to get out of the compound away from the kids. They went shopping and looking around town. It was a good experience.

Still no word from the attorney about a court date. We would really like to get one appointed soon. Please keep praying that the courts will open a court date that is available while Kim is there.

M is a very happy and sweet girl. She can be moody, and has not had much discipline. This can make for some challenging confrontations at times. She needs medical attention, the sooner the better. Kim may be able to get her to a clinic while she is there.

There is no internet access at the orphanage. She can get Wi-Fi on the laptop, but she doesn't have an adaptor that fits the three pronged plug. The battery is dead, and she can't get it to turn on. Still working on that little problem.

The winner is....

Darla W. from my hubby's workplace! Yay! Have a great time at the Chrysalis. All who donated, we can't thank you enough! Every little bit is helping get us closer to bringing M. home.

There is a benefit garage and bake sale being planned by some friends from church. It will be at Faith Community Church in Lynden, on August 21, from 8 am to 2 pm. They are asking for good donations to be dropped off at the church any time from Tues. to Fridays 9-4. There is an house behind the church where you can find some people to help you with the donations. If you can preprice them it would be SO helpful. Please come out and see if you can find some treasures!! I so appreciate these friends using their gifts to help us in this way.

An update about M: Got an email this morning that M. is doing worse and had an attack last week that is setting her back again. Please pray for her. Pray that my presence there will be helpful and that we can get things a movin'! I leave on Monday and am a ball of emotions. So much to do to prepare to leave my family. So many unknowns and uncertainty. However I am very excited to finally meet her and start the bonding process.

Five Days Left

There are five days left to enter for the drawing to win a night at the Chrysalis Inn. CLICK HERE for details.

There are around 40 entries, so the chances of winning are great! Please consider donating to help with our travel expenses. I leave in TEN DAYS!

• My ticket is purchased (obviously).
• If we get a court date, J. will have to travel at the last minute.
• A last minute ticket to this part of Africa can be as high as $4,000. Praying it is a lot lower!
• We also must purchase M. a one way ticket home.
• If I need to change my return flight, I will have to pay for change fees and the difference in cost.
• I will need money for food, ground travel and passport and visa expenses too.

Every little bit helps. A ten dollar donation will enter you into the random drawing. Many have chosen to enter more than once.

THANK YOU so much.

To do:

Lots to do and so little time:

• DONE! Pray
• Bake and assemble ice cream sandwiches
• DONE! Blessed with one from a friend! Look for a twin mattress (a friend recently gave us their trundle bed frame, now need a twin mattress for it!)
• Clean and de-clutter
• Drop off garage sale items at the church
• DONE! Finish back to school shopping and organizing (L. and E. are ready, but the girls need some clothes)
• DONE! Pack
• Fill out visa paperwork
• DONE! Write and sign Power of Attorney documents
• Figure out school stuff for the homeschool students
• Collect contact information and other important travel stuff, figure out transportation in country, and confirm meeting with attorney.
• DONE! Grocery shop for family coming to visit
• DONE! Get haircut
• Pray

E. update

E. has come a long way in some areas and not so far in others. He is really starting to talk a lot more and has a really good vocabulary. One of the funny things he does is ask something like, "Are we going to the park? Or no?". I realized he gets that from me, when I ask him many questions repeatedly trying to get an answer. This is one of his weaknesses, answering questions. He really struggles with this. If given a multiple choice question, he does ok, but if I ask an open ended question, he just can't get out an answer most of the time. This was an area I noticed he struggled with during his preschool evaluation. They asked questions like "What does a clock do?", "What do you do when you are tired?" Even if I ask something like, "What's your name?" (we are working on this skill for his younger brother S.) he will answer the question incorrectly at times. Last night he answered "four". I think he was getting confused because we have also been working on their ages.

I have realized that if we want E. to make good choices, we need to remind him of the rules EVERY TIME. I feel like such a nag! Every time he is riding his bike outside we need to remind him of the boundaries. Every time it is bedtime we need to remind him to be quiet and not talk to his sleeping little brother. Every time we eat a meal we need to remind him to take little bites. Every time we go out in public we need to remind him to not hug strangers. Sometimes we forget to remind him, and he makes a bad choice. And he acts as if he didn't know! Maybe he does and we are being bamboozled. He still has a consequence for his bad choice though. But I just don't get why, after all this time of getting in trouble for the same bad choice over and over, wouldn't you start making the right one?

E. has had a great summer. He has been having a good time riding his little bike with training wheels, exploring outside, going to the zoo, and spent a few nights with Grandma and Grandpa all by himself! He is so excited to start preschool again in September. He will be going in the afternoons, four days a week.

I am way overdue!

I hear Uganda calling...or maybe the Holy Spirit? Either way I answered the call, booked tickets are will be arriving on August 17, right after the courts reopen. I was not discouraged from coming by our attorney, in fact he is telling us that he will try to get us a court date in that time frame. We shall see. We are hoping for a miracle. Mercy is excited to meet me. I am sure she really wants to meet her daddy too. If we can get a court date, then J. will be traveling to meet us and we can all come home together, prayerfully!

We are about $3000 short for our plane tickets. There are many ways friends can support us. We are selling coffee www.justlovecoffee.come/showmercy. We are selling ice cream sandwiches, and we are holding a drawing for a nice stay at a beautiful inn in Bellingham, WA. We still have t-shirts for sale. Also friends of ours are hosting a garage sale and bake sale at our church on August 21st! Please pray for the funds to be provided so that can be one less thing to think about.

I have a lot on my mind, as I prepare the kids for back to school, clean and declutter (I'm nesting!) and pack for a three week (or longer) trip to Uganda. Plus getting all the paperwork in order, making sure the kids will be ok at home and thinking about how much I will miss them. Please keep us all in your prayers.