supplies and surprises...

sunday, june 6
today was our final team meeting. everyone came to our house with all of the supplies they had gathered and an empty suitcase. we sorted everything and and opened our bags. they were quickly filled with individual mirrors (these kids don't know what they look like), pencil boxes filled with markers, glue sticks, colored pencils, construction paper, toothpaste, hair clips, coloring books, dum dum suckers, some recreational items, beads and twine and more. we got the business taken care of so that when our families and prayer partners joined us it would be a time of relaxation and fun. we had more than 40 people here. kids running everywhere, good eats and sweet prayer time. we are so excited to get there! frankly, when the plane lands in entebbe, i will be fired up! i totally, totally dread the flights. please pray for me and our team!


monday, june 7
today i had two early phone conversations with two friends from my childhood. these are friends who are friends for life. crystal and sally. they both wanted to hear about the plans for the trip and see if i needed anything and asked if i was ready. these are friends who i can be totally honest with about excitement as well as trepidation. they understand and support. i am so blessed to have such sweet people in my life who truly care for me. this is crazy but it turns out that crystal will be in london at the same time we will be on our return flight from entebbe. we will actually be spending the night in london that night so we are planning to meet for dinner. yay! she will be able to get a fresh account of our experience complete with pictures. i am truly hoping that one day these sweet friends (including you, suzanne) can accompany me on another trip! later in the day i went to my mother's for a little bit to sit in the sun with her, caitlin, emily, julianne and sandy (my sister in law). i acted like i had nothing in the world to do. maybe i am in denial...? i got home and checked the mail. yay to abigail and julianne who got their grades today. proud of them and so thankful julianne pulled it together and finished english strong! the summer school possibility was looming :/ i then started on the huge mounds of clothes that needed washing. we do not plan to take much but i needed to make sure that what we did want to take was clean. we will most likely be wearing a lot of the same clothes several different times. when we shower with untreated water (eww!)we will be washing off all of the 40% deet bug spray and the at least 30 spf sunscreen only to spray the bug spray on again once we get out of the shower. does that sound clean to you? i don't think we will feel clean at all the entire time we are there. that's ok. we are prepared for that. we are also trying to prepare ourselves for the actual showering. we cannot open our mouths. i am taking duct tape to put over our mouths. you think i am crazy, right? i have already stated that i a am germ freak. but seriously, all i know is that once we check into that london hotel on the way home we will be so excited to take a clean shower and put on clean clothes. i am already thinking, as i type this, that we may not want to "wash away" our experience. once we board the plane home, we may want to continue to live in the little slice of world that will most likely be ingrained in our souls.


i continue to be amazed by acts of kindness that are being shown. i love how i see God putting a exclamation mark where i sometimes want to put a question mark. today, i received two unsolicited checks from people who just want to help out. this, to me, solidifies that i am doing the right thing. it's very easy to get down and think negatively but when so much around me is positive, i have to just trust and hand it over to God. i remain so humbled that i get this opportunity and especially the fact that i get to experience it with two of my girls.