I Love My Hair. . . Well it's actually WRs hair!!

Can I just say I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!! We will be singing it at our house a lot!!!

Shoe Celebration!!!!

This past weekend Awaka was able to help some of the children we are sponsoring. We were able to give them a hot meal and a new pair of crocs!!! I hope you enjoy the video. It blesses my heart each time I watch it. We are working on a website and hope to have it all up and running soon. You can visit it here. Keep checking back with us for updates, family sponsorships, Ugandan crafts for sale, and other ways to donate.

Awaka Update

I have written before about Awaka Children's Foundation. It is the baby/brainchild of 4 Ugandan adoptive moms, including me. We are moving forward, YEAHHHHHH!!! We have profiles of some of the children and elderly of Kamengo-ffunvu up on our blog. Please go and visit our blog here. There are so many people that need help and you can help with as little as $5 and of course with your prayers!

Help Needed--Praying for Orphans

Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 7th. Churches around the US are preparing for this Sunday. One of the ways we are preparing is in prayer. Please join us in 40 days of prayer. Even if your chuch is not planning anything for Orphan Sunday please join us in praying for all of the churches that are. I am posting the prayer suggestions for the next 40 days, be prepared it is long. You can also find many resources at the Orphan Sunday website. orphansunday.org

40 Day Prayer Guide for Orphan Care
Begin praying September 28th. Thank you for being a part of this!!!

Day 1—Pray that the Lord would give you a personal sense of responsibility for the next 40 days(and beyond) for praying for orphans, your pastor, your church, and your community. Ask Him to break your heart for the orphans. Ask that He would help you see orphans with His eyes and His heart. Ask Him to use this 40 days of prayer to change you and your church.
Day 2—Pray for your Pastor to have guidance and provision as he seeks to follow the Lord’s commands to care for the orphans.
Day 3—Ask God that of the 2 billion Christians in the world, 7% would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress. Ask the Lord to convict the church and the world that if we did this, there would effectively be no more orphans. Ask the Lord to show each of His followers that we can each do something.
Day 4—Ask the Lord to help your church congregation to feel His heart for the orphans as seen in Psalm 68:5: “A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. . . “
Day 5—Pray for the fatherless in your community. Ask the Lord to protect them and to care for them and to defend them and keep them safe,
Day 6—Ask the Lord to help your church family to live out Proverbs 31:8: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.”
Day 7—Thank the Lord in advance for all that He is going to do to bring glory to His name in your church and community. Thank Him for the care He is going to provide for orphans through your church.
Day 8—Pray for the Lord to raise up workers for the harvest from your church and community. Ask Him to call Christians to go to the ‘fields of the fatherless’ to experience the joy of caring for orphans as we are commanded in Isaiah 1:16-17 “Give up your wicked ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.”
Day 9—Pray that God would break the heart of your city’s pastors with the plight of orphans. Ask that he would convict them to lead their churches to pray, go, and love in Jesus’ name.
Day 10—Ask the Father to set the lonely in families. Pray specifically for families in your community who may be in the process of adopting an orphan. Ask for God’s provision for all of their needs: physical, emotional, and spiritual.
Day 11—Pray specifically for any orphans you may know by name. Pray for their health and safety. Pray for their shelter. Pray that they will be brought into loving families who will provide for their education.
Day 12—Pray that God, the Defender of the orphan, will rise up and secure justice for the oppressed.
Day 13—Ask the Lord to lead the lawmakers in every nation to protect and provide for orphans.
Day 14—Pray that your whole congregation will believe and be convicted by Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” Ask for the Lord’s blessings on those who share their food with orphans.
Day 15—Pray for yourself as a church member. Ask the Lord to lead you on, that you might walk in obedience. Ask God to show you how to encourage your church family or youth to care for the needs of orphans.
Day 16—Pray that because of God’s mercy, He will provide caregivers and counselors for children who have been abused.
Day 17—Ask for forgiveness for Christians around the world who forget the orphans and forget to heed 1 John 3:17: “ If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”
Day 18—Ask the Lord to raise up respite care providers to support and give relief to the caregivers caring for orphans who are waiting to have families adopt them.
Day 19—Pray for your Pastor. Ask God to provide him with resources, encouragement, courage, and a strong prayer team to support him as he seeks to live out James 1:27: “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
Day 20—Pray that the Christians in your village, town, city, and country would believe and live out the truth of Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Day 21—Pray for government leaders in your country. Ask the Lord to burden their hearts for the orphans. Ask that they would feel compelled to protect and provide for orphans.
Day 22—Pray for families who have members living with HIV and AIDS. Pray for the children orphaned by this disease. Ask God to provide treatment, care, and support through the church.
Day 23—Ask the Lord to strengthen the faith and resolve of Christians working in orphan ministries.
Day 24—Pray for any church staff members and leaders. Ask for the Lord’s hand of blessing on their lives. Lift up the health and safety of them and their families. Ask also that the Lord would break their hearts for the orphans in you community.
Day 25—Pray for God’s provision for your church’s orphan care ministry. Ask Him to provide people and prayers and money and food and supplies to give the orphans all the care they need.
Day 26—Pray for children who are not yet orphans but may only have one parent who may be sick or dying. Pray for the health and safety of their parent. Pray for God’s provision. Pray for protection for the children in these households.
Day 27—Ask God to care for child-headed households. Pray that the Lord will provide for their needs. Pray that an adult would come alongside them and adopt them. Ask the Lord to protect them from abuse.
Day 28—Pray for families who are taking care of their grandchildren or nieces or nephews in addition to their own children. Ask the Lord to bless them for their sacrifice and to provide enough food, clothes, education, and shelter for all of their children.
Day 29—Pray for mothers or fathers who might be having trouble caring for their children and feel they need to give them up or abandon them. Ask God to help them find support. Ask the Lord to meet their needs and give them the resources to be able to take care of their children.
Day 30—Ask God to protect children affected by war and violent conflicts. Pray that the Lord will protect their vulnerable hearts and keep them safe. Pray that a church will reach out to them.
Day 31—Pray for families in countries all over the world who have room in their homes and hearts for a fatherless child. Ask that the Lord would speak to them even now, leading them to consider adoption or foster care.
Day 32—Pray that every member of your church would remember and acknowledge and praise the Lord that before the world was made, He loved us and chose us, and that His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ and that this gave Him great pleasure.(Ephesians 1:3-5)
Day 33—Ask the Lord to help your church be an example of the Lord’s love for orphans as written in Psalm 10:17-18: “The helpless put their trust in You. You are the defender of orphans Lord, You know the hopes of the helpless. Surely You will listen to their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so people can no longer terrify them.”
Day 34—Pray for youself and the other prayer team members. Ask the Lord for strength. Ask Him to help you no grow weary in battling for the orphans on you knees.
Day 35—Ask the Lord to encourage and strengthen your church. Caring for orphans and changing attitudes and beliefs and actions is togh work and the enemy is bound to attack. Ask for protection for your pastor, his family, their health, and their ministry. Ask for God’s hand of blessing on their lives.
Day 36—Ask the Lord to release and speed any care supplies to refugee camps where many orphans live and need even the most basic necessities. Ask Him to cut through any governmental regulations or corrupt leaders to miraculously get the supplies delivered to where they are needed most.
Day 37—Pray for families who are in the adoption process. Pray that God will provide the funds and help them with all the necessary details.
Day 38—Pray for street children. These children live under bushes and in dumps and sewage pipes. They may eat meals out of trash cans. Many people walk by them without seeing them or view them as pests. Ask God to open the churches’ eyes to help them see the orphans all around them. Ask the Lord to provide food and shelter for the street children.
Day 39—Pray for the health of orphans around the world. Ask the Lord to provide medications and treatment for the simple things that are unnecessarily killing children like unclean drinking water, malaria, dysentery, AIDS, and malnutrition.
Day 40—Thank the Lord for the past 40 days of prayer for orphans. Ask Him to bring more prayer warriors into the battle. Ask Him to help you to continue praying diligently. Ask Him to continue to give you His love for the orphans. Ask Him to continue to challenge the hearts of your congregation that “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward him for what he has

Make a Dream a Reality!!

Awaka

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that Uganda has made a big impact on my life. Not just by giving me my children. But by making me fall in love with the country and its people. I have been working with 3 other wonderful ladies that I met while in Uganda, they feel the same way as I do and they are adoptive moms too. We decided to start Awaka Children's Foundation. We have travelled a winding road, trying to find what it is specifically that God wants us to do for Uganda. We have helped some people already, but we are beginning to focus in on a couple of projects that are near and dear to our hearts. We have also picked up a partner along the way. Lara Gordon a wonderfully organized Brit, has already started her non profit, Craft Aid UK. Lara was a volunteer at the orphanage that we all adopted from and has a heart for Uganda as we do. She is already helping an organization, Peace for Children Africa. They work with 'street' children. Children that have no home to go to, no one to look after them. Children as young as 4. We want to help too.
Our dear friend Godfrey, who is our eyes, arms and legs in Uganda has also found a project for us. It is the village of Kamengo Ffunvu. Godfrey has spent a lot of time there and has sent us a report of his findings.

Kamengo Ffunvu Village Report

Kamengo is located in the south of Uganda, 45 Kilometers from Kampala. Depending on traffic it takes 1 ½ hours to drive, ther road is 70% tarmac and 30% terrible(dirt) as you turn off the main Masaka Road. Kamengo is a big county having over 80 villages, these villages are headed by village local council chairmen, who head a committee of 8 people, women being part of the committee. I basically did not move and check out the 80 villages, I did concentrate on one call Ffunvu village. I met the local leaders on my several visits and these are my findings.
The population of Kamengo-Ffunvu village is about 1000 people, children below the age of 7 years taking the greatest percentage, followed by women and men last. Kamengo has a good number of elderly, poverty stricken people with special needs. I was delighted to meet kids with special needs. I met a couple of deaf children who were deaf since they were born, they have never attended school, because they count of Kamengo has no schools for deaf. I believe there are more deaf people in the other villages that make up Kamengo.
I also met kids with eye problems, when I asked, people told me its because of bugs, dirty water that is a major cause. Parents neglect taking their kids to hospitals because they have no money and believe the local herbs will heal their children.
I also saw people who were crippled with no wheel chairs, children with big heads full of water that need attention.

Education
Ffunvu village has only two primary schools and one secondary school where all children between age of 4 years and 16 years go for school. One of the schools is called Andelo Primary Infant School and they chare 35,000shs-40,000shs as school fees from primary 1 to primary 7. The other primary school is called Kamengo Grammar School. This is a little further from Ffunvu village. It means kids walk long distances to the school, but is has good teachers and better buildings. As regards to secondary school, I went and viited St. Mark Secondary School. They cahre 80,000shs for school fees, but and additional 50,000 as registration fees for candidate clases like s.4 and s.6. Most children don’t have school uniforms, those who have one have torn shirts and shorts. Untiformsa for primary kids costs 10,000shs for girls and 9,000shs for boys, but parents cannot afford, no school fees. Books are very hard to get, especially children in candidate classes, need lots of books and parents cannot afford. Kids walk long distance and this affects the kindergarten kids especially who spend lots of time on the way and some times they never make it to school. 90 percent of children did not have shoes on their feet, no pencils, no toys to play with like balls, ropes for girls. Teachers are demotivated.

Health
Kamengo Ffunvu village has got a inadequate health clinic run by and old lady call SSebuyingo Florence. She’s a qualified mid-wife and she has helped lots of pregnant ladies. 90% of ladies have given birth from this house clinic. She charges a small amount of 10,000shs from every woman that comes to give birth. She has 2 extra rooms behind that house where she admits sick people, especially those ladies that come to give birth and need medical attention afterwards. She really needs help as regards to birthing kits. These village ladies come with nothing and she told me that one challenge she has is that sometimes she fails to protect new borns from getting HIV from their sick mothers.
HIV is quite high in Ffunvu village, many men and women are drunkards, besides they cannot afford buying condoms as at times they fail to get money for food, so they don’t have any for condoms. The lady told me she needs help as in mattresses, sheets, gloves, basins, soap, and besides the inadequate facility needs to be buil well with at least ten beds. She actually asked for any volunteers. As I was talking to her bugs did bite me till today my skin is itchy. She needs to fumigate her clinic. She always pays a boda boda guy to take people with complicated cases. She receives a little fund from the county council at the end of the month to carry out that good work.
Ffunvu village has a lot of Malaria cases, many die fo malaria, ania, ring worms, syphilis, skin problems due to bad dirty bedding, jiggers as a result of walking bear footed. I saw maggots in one of the mattresses which come as a result of too much urine in the bedding. Children have dental problems, like decays.

Elderly
Like I said Ffunvu village has a good number of old. Many don’t have good shelter. Most of their children are married to drunkards and many run to the city for greener pasture and never return home to help the elderly. Many need wheel chairs, need eye glasses as they have poor sight. Many don’t have mattresses. Many go to bed at 6pm as they don’t have kerosene lights to keep them going in the night. Many have back problems and need ointments.

Girls
Many girls are in their teenage age, and they have a problem of monthly menstruations. They don’t have sanitary towels, they use dirty clothes and end up with infections. They lack knickers, bras, clothes and many smell bad. They need deodorants.

Religion
Many are Catholics and Protestants, but by my survey, they are willing to give up anything for Jesus Christ if we do something. We need to evangelize and let them know Jesus cares.

Activities
Many rear an animal at least at home. Mainly pigs, goats and cows. Many depend on agriculture for sustainability. They gorw mainly cassava, maize, matooke. They love growing corn for sale and ginger. If at all possible we need to help them with seeds.


Ffunvu village have many single orphans, a few cases of double orphans, many youth have HIV and any help as regards to ARVs is welcome. We need also to come up with a feeding program for kids, as Katie Davis does it. Many women also do craft for survival though they lack market for their products. They manily do baskets and mats.

Many homes in Kamengo do not have toilets. I saw people using the bushes.
The water source is a problem. Like the picture I sent before, they share wter source with animals. I still have itchy skin from that water. Many cannot afford things like soap, sugar mattresses, mosquito nets. Awaka needs to com in and help as in sponsoring kids to school, helping the medical clinic, school uniforms, books, shoes, eyeglasses for elderly, wheel chairs, immunizations, and ARVs. I thank you.


I hope this report moved you as it moved us. We are trying to get money together for a well for the village and to help with some of the medical issues quickly. We would then like to start a feeding program and school sponsorships for the children. This is a chance for those with an abundance to give to those in need.

Would you be Jesus for someone today? someone a world away? someone you will never meet here on this earth, but maybe, just maybe in heaven one day?

Since we are just beginning Awaka, we do not have our non-profit status with the IRS yet. If you would like to make a donation anyway, it would be most appreciated. Please leave me a comment. We will have an Awaka website soon, with an easier way to donate and craft items you can buy. I just felt the need in Kamnego Ffunvu was great enough to start asking for help immediately.
Thank you for your help.

Another Year Ago Today

A year ago today, we left Uganda. At the time I was so ready to get my children, my aunt and my self home. I am still holding a grudge against the Belgium airport and Newark airport. They didn't make it easy, but we made it home finally.
It has been quite a year. We hit the ground running, as I went back to work 2 days after we got home. The kids have grown and changed and so have I. They have both grown over 6 inches taller. Andrew has put on 14 pounds and Willa Rae has put on 8. They learned to walk 2 weeks after we got home on the same day!!!! and haven't slowed down yet. They are talking, singing, laughing, giggling, drumming, and playing tornadoes. I can't think of what my life would be without them. It makes me cry to think of their birth mothers that no longer have them.
I am looking forward to what the next year will bring. More growth and changes for us all. And as much as I was ready to leave Uganda, I want to return just as bad!!!!! I hope that will happen in the next year also.