Let's Face It...

I suck as a blogger. I have all of these wonderful ideas of things that I want to write about and never get it down on 'electronic paper'. This is another thing that I hope to get better at in 2012, if there are any of you out there that still care.

I am going to be posting about Uganda and all that happened while I was there soon. Trying not to tease, but this mama is BUSY!!!

Thankful Diary--Day 9

I am thankful for my students. Each class is unique! Every student is special! They usually teach me more than I teach them;).

Thankful Diary--Day 8

I am thankful for my Aunt Martha. She travelled to Uganda with me and never slowed down in her work at the orphanage or with the children. I would not have been able to travel back with 2 children without her. She is a great example of what a Christian woman should be!! She cares for everyone she comes into contact with!

Thankful Diary--Day 7

I am thankful for my job as a teacher and for my co-workers. I may not like every new 'education reform' that comes down the pike, but I love my job. The faculty and staff at CES is just a bonus. They are a great bunch of people that support and love one another!

Thankful Diary--Day 8

I am thankful for my Aunt Martha. She travelled to Uganda with me and never slowed down in her work at the orphanage or with the children. I would not have been able to travel back with 2 children without her. She is a great example of what a Christian woman should be!! She cares for everyone she comes into contact with!

Orphan Sunday

Please take a moment and watch this video. We are commanded to help! What can you do to help?

True Religion from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Thankful Diary--Day 6

I am thankful for my wonderful church family. It has been a pleasure to grow, learn and worship with them. I am so glad that God brought us all together.

Thankful Diary--Day 5

I am so very thankful for my wonderful parents. Words cannot express how much I love you and appreciate all that you do for me and my children. I hope I can be as good of parents as you!

Thankful Diary--Day 4

I am thankful for my children. Andrew, my sweet, big ol' mama's boy and Willa Rae, my sassy mama!! I can't imagine my life without you!!

Thankful Diary--Day 3

I am thankful for the Holy Spirit and his guidance. I don't always follow, but I am trying to get better at that, LOL. Forgotten God by Francis Chan is helping. If you haven't read it you might want to add it to your list!

Thankful Diary-Day 2

Today, and really everyday, I am thankful for Jesus, and His blood that saved me.

Thankful Diary-Day 1

I usually do this on facebook, but thanks to another blogging friend, I have decided to do it here too!! Everyday this month I will post something that I am thankful for. I encourage you to do the same thing. It will change the way you look at things. Please join me!

Day 1

Today, I am thankful for God, my Father, from whom all blessings flow!

Help a Sister Out!!

It has been a busy summer and I haven't been able to blog, but I have to help a sister out!! There is a special family in California that needs help. They are special because they are adopting a very special girl!!! A girl that I know that needs to come home to her forever family...along with her brother. Things have been progressing for this family and they need to raise money for their adoption QUICK!!! AND you get to help! AND you could win an IPad2!! Just go and visit their blog for more information and to follow their adoption journey. Click here now!

Visas Have Been Granted!!!!

We want to start by singing praises to the Lord for the answered prayers!!!
We then want to thank everyone who has sent prayers up for the medical visas to be granted!!!
Now we need to ask for help again. Thanks to everyone's generous donations the Lwanga Family's expenses to travel to the US for medical care have been met. We have medical care set up free of charge. We are asking that you consider donating to cover in-country expenses. If you like you can make a donation or you can purchase a paper bead necklace. We are currently running a special sale of $10 per necklace with $1 for shipping. The necklaces are multi-colored in bright or pastel colors. There are also a few solid colors in yellow, blue, red, purple, green and short brown. Please just specify what color you want in the comment section. Please go to the Awaka website and go to the projects page to find the donate button. You can also go to the Awaka crafts blog to see our other crafts that support the village of Kamengo and PCA. There is a donate button located on the blog as well.
Thank you for your support. We hope that the Lwanga family will be able to visit with lots of American friends while they are here. Maybe we will stop by and see you.

Praise! Pray! Pennies!

First of all lets PRAISE!!!!! We have raised enough to pay for Godfrey and his families airfare!!! We still need a little more to cover the expense of visas and passports. God has provided through the amazing people that love Godfrey!

Next PRAY!!!!!! We have a few people that are very close to getting doctors and hospitals to commit to treating Elizabeth Tanya for free! We need to hear something in the next few days!! Please pray that we get answers soon. And that they be favorable! Also pray for the visa applications! Pray that the embassy will see them quickly and that they will grant them visas quickly.

And now for the PENNIES!! We want to thank you all for the contributions you have made and we want to ask you to save up your pennies for the next few days and weeks. We have some exciting things coming from Uganda and all over the US that you are sure to want. We will post pictures and give you details very soon.

Thanks again from everyone in the Awaka family!

Godfrey needs our help

Meet Godfrey and his family. Those of us that have been blessed with having Godfrey come into our lives during our adoptions journey's can honestly say that we have a brother, son, friend for life. Godfrey is one of those amazing men that loves children, loves his family and he cares so deeply about the people that he come into touch with, sometimes to his own detriment. Godfrey will literally give the shirt off his back ( and he has done that!) and now he is in need of our help and support. His 5 month old daughter baby Elizabeth has been diagnosed with a heart condition. It is not a matter of life and death(for now!), but it is a condition that cannot be treated in Uganda and which will need some type of intervention. To be quite honest, two cardiologists that looked at Elizabeth's records here in the US suspect that there might be secondary defects that did not show up on the more rudimentary heart echo done in Uganda.

We need to raise almost 5000$ for plane tickets in the next 10 days. We need to find a hospital and cardiologist willing to see baby Elizabeth for free. We need favor for the visas to be issued by the embassy and we need everyone's support and prayers desperately.

All the crafts on our blog www.awakacrafts.blogspot.com if bought will benefit Godfrey's tickets. Awaka has ZERO overhead. Every penny goes towards what we fundraise for and so all money from crafts being sold will go towards Godfrey's ticket fund from now on out. Also, we will be launching t-shirt next week to benefit Godfrey too so please check in for that and new crafts being uploaded. Info@awaka.org is our paypal account should you simply feel led to donate.

Blessings to you all as you consider helping baby Elizabeth.

Do you want to make a difference?

Do you want to make a difference in the world?
in Africa?
in Uganda?
in a little village?
in a child's life?
in a mother's life?
in a grandfather's life?

If you do please consider helping Awaka complete it's multi-purpose building. God has blessed us so much in the last few months. We have completed the well and are providing the village with clean water. We have completed latrines. We have started a community garden that will help feed the village. We have started an income generating project for the women of the village that is providing them with a means to provide for their families. God has blessed!!! We are asking Him to bless again. We are asking you if you will allow Him to bless through you by giving. We need $4500 to complete the multi-purpose building. The building will be used as a clinic, a school, and a church.
We could have plumbing and electrical fixtures put in. A rainwater collection tank. Plaster the walls inside and out and paint them. Seal the cement floor. The most important thing is putting locking doors and windows on the building. If we can do this, we will be able to keep medications and supplies to help the entire village. Things that they would normally have to go all the way to Kampala to get, will be right there. Think of all the lives that could be saved. Think of all the mother's giving birth in a clean environment. Think of all of the people who can get live saving treatment for HIV and malaria. Think of the education that hundreds of children could be receiving. Think of the gospel being preached to thousands of people waiting to hear it.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

Please visit www.awaka.org and make a donation, or buy some of the craft items from the women of Kamengo at awakacrafts.blogspot.com, or you can mail a check to Awaka Children's Foundation, 368 Evans Lane, Jasper, AL 35504.
You can also keep up with us on facebook. Go to the Awaka Children's Foundation page and 'like' us. or visit theAwaka blog

Working together, we can all make a difference!

Thank you!!

Waiting in the Lord

When I first felt called to adopt, almost 5 years ago, I thought I might be loosing it. Just to make sure I scheduled a meeting with my pastor. I asked him, 'How do you know if God is calling you to do something? or if your just loosing your mind?' He gave me some of the best advice!!! Pray, move forward, if doors close it is your will not God's. God will make a way for it to happen if it is his will. I moved forward and doors opened. But if have to admit, when I strayed from His path, to do what I wanted to do, the door SLAMMED shut. Instead of listening to God I pursued foster care--it is much cheaper. Didn't trust God to show up big with the money=Door slammed shut. Pursued a child available through domestic adoption. Didn't trust God to give me the courage to travel to Africa alone to do something no one I knew had done before=Door slammed shut.
So I learned to trust God. I learned to wait. I learned to listen. God might call you to do something, but it will happen in His timing, not yours. If you try to rush it, it might take longer. DON'T RUSH IT!!! Enjoy it. Savor this time with God! He wants to teach you! He wants to grow you! He wants you to lean on him! I don't know why people think an adoption should only take 3 months. Does a pregnancy only take 3 months? God has a reason for making us wait. Were not ready for what He is about to do! Listen to him! Listen to people who have gone before you! Learn as much as you can about your child's country! culture! and how your family is going to change when you bring home this little(or big) bundle of joy!
Wait in the Lord!! That doesn't mean sit back and do nothing! That means pray! Pray for everything and everyone you can think of ! Pray for your adoption process! Pray for the children you don't know yet! Pray for their birth family! PRAY!!!! And educate yourself! Listen when people who have adopted before give you advice! Seek wise counsel, but ultimately seek the wisest counsel!

By the way, waiting in the Lord doesn't just apply to adoption!!!

PS. Just because God called you to something, doesn't mean it will be easy. There will be heartbreak and heartache. But the rewards are worth it all!!!

Foundations…

Are important. Ask anyone. It doesn’t matter what you are building. A house, a church, a family, an education, a relationship, or a charity. When we were developing Awaka we batted around a lot of names. Awaka means family home, which we hope to help provide for the people in one little corner of Uganda(we are really hoping God helps us go big!!). WE picked the word ‘Foundation’ to be part of our name because it projects stability and we wanted to show our commitment to Uganda. You don’t put down a foundation unless you plan to build on it. Our foundation is God and His word and His calling on our lives. We feel that God brought us together in Uganda at the same time for a reason. Not just to build friendships, but to help Uganda and its beautiful people.

We recently laid another foundation. Thanks to generous donations we have been able to purchase land in Kamengo. We have also been able to put a building on that land, thanks to the support of Craft Aid UK. The foundation footings were dug by hand. The next step was very important. The fate of our building that will be a school, a clinic, a church, a community gathering place depended on the foundation. What makes everything stronger? The Word of God. I sent Godfrey Bible verses to put in the footings. We want our building and everything we build to always have the strongest foundation possible.



The foundation has been built.


The floors have been poured and the walls have gone up.


The roof will be put in soon.
The bore hole has been drilled and has hit clean water!!


The hand pump will be installed this week and the village will have clean water.
A community garden has been started to help feed the village.

The women of the village have begun making paper bead jewelry and basket to make money for themselves. God has blessed more than we would have ever dreamed!

The foundation is there; we will continue to build. Would you like to help us? Go to Awaka.org or our facebook page and see our progress and to see how you can help us build.