A lot has been going on around here, but I’d have to say one of the most exciting things has been the arrival of Tia Jia! We’ve been initiating her into our daily life here in Uganda and sharing our four whole months of wisdom! The girls have been enjoying having Tia Jia around and are always excited to see her in the morning. Lillie has decided that Jia’s name is now Hannah. Ask her where Jia is and she’ll point to her. Ask her what her name is, and she’ll shout Hannah. I think she may do these things on purpose!

The week that we picked up Jia, we stayed around Kampala to meet up with our director, Tim briefly. We also visited Bamba Forge again where Dustin got to check in on everything, we got the “petting zoo” experience with the cow and pigs, and Gracie got to “help” make a knife.

Now that we have been back in Tororo this week, we have spent time at Smile, caught up with some of our friends here, and enjoyed being back in the swing of things.  Soon we will have been living here for four months! It’s crazy how fast it has gone and how much we have learned and experienced in a short period of time. It is also crazy to think of all that we want to do and see accomplished, and how fast that time will slip away from us. We continue to pray that God will help us build His kingdom and we will not work to build our own.

Last week I failed to post an Africa update because Dustin was at a Farming God’s Way conference in Kampala for six days. The girls and I had a pretty successful and relatively low -stress time together.

This was our first time alone without Dustin for that long. About an hour after he stepped out the door the gas for our gas burner ran out. Our electricity was also out, so we had no way to cook. Called Dustin and the crisis was averted after Dustin called a friend who came and filled up the tank for us!That night I decided to plug in our bug zapper. It was already plugged in so I turned it on and *pop* *spark* *buzz*! Somehow it was plugged in without the additional converter we needed. I thought I’d killed the bug zapper! Thankfully the light bulbs had just blown, so I didn’t totally fry it. Our puppy also got sick that week after another puppy on our compound had recently died. Our puppy sadly died that Saturday-I’ll spare you all the details. I will tell you though that Gracie probably handled it better than I.

“It’s ok mommy. The puppy is in heaven now and can play with the other puppy and the other dogs in heaven can take care of them.” She’s a smart cookie that one.

Why does everything happen when daddy’s away!?  But honestly, over all things went well. It was good for me to feel like I was managing and in some cases thriving in our new environment with the girls. It felt good to support Dustin in his growth and let him be confident that things back at home weren’t completely falling apart while he was gone! Dustin is back home now and we are definitely glad! This last week has been a low stress, laid back week with lots of family time. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support!

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