Kampala to Gulu

View from our room in Kampala

Well we are officially in Africa!  We arrived in Kampala Thursday night after over 30 hours of travel. I can't remember the last time I watched that many movies.  We drove through the streets of Kampala to our hotel and I must admit I felt a little nervous. There were people all over the streets at midnight and we stuck out like sore thumbs! Our driver was very nice though and we arrived at the hotel with no issues.  After 3 hours if sleep we were up again and headed out to Gulu with our friend Agnes from MAP International.  After all the travel the day before we were not looking forward to being cooped up again but we couldn't wait to actually see Africa!  We all piled into the van with our thousand pieces of luggage and were off. The streets of Kampala are a true assault to the senses. People, color, life everywhere with shops selling household items on every side and meat hanging raw in the "butcher shops." Women carry everything from baskets to firewood perfectly balanced on their heads men cut between cars, flying down the streets on their motor cycles.  We stopped on our way to pick up the Sand Dam engineer (a water collection system we will be building in Kotido) and got ourselves firmly stuck in the traffic of a massive market. We literally sat for over an house not moving as hundreds of people pushed between cars. The clothing here is so beautiful and color is not spared in the least. Made we feel quite dull in all my green and gray.  After sitting for what seemed like an eternity we turned around (I really don't know how we didn't hit the dozen cars smashed around us) and headed back to a gas station for the engineer to meet us. After picking up Livingston our engineer we were off officially to Gulu.  I managed to grab some sleep in between the massive potholes that jolted us awake.  Outside the city you can really appreciate the nature in Uganda. It really is the Pearl of Africa.  About halfway through our trip we passed the Nile river!  Green, green, green and then BAM! The most amazingly beautiful, overwhelming and rushing river I have ever seen. It is truly overwhelming. The water surges past rocks and trees. I can really appreciate why it is so famous. This place truly is the cradle of life. Shortly past the river we came upon a dozen or so baboons!!  I could hardly contain myself from squealing with excitement. The mommas walked along our cars with their babies hanging from them waiting for us to throw down the bananas we had purchased in the roadside market earlier in the day while the males boldly walked in front of our car daring us not to feed them.  Baboons!!! Right in front of us! I am in heaven :)  After what seemed like another eternity we arrived in Gulu.  The hotel is quite nice, minus the ice cold showers and we feel VERY safe.  After a quick rest we headed to the hotel to meet with the local Rotary club (Carrie is a member). After a nice but extremely long dinner (things move a but slower around here) we headed to bed and crashed for a whole 7 hours! 

Today we will make our way to Kotido where we will be doing most of our work. I can't wait to see what we will encounter on the way!

Baboons on the way to Gulu

The Nile river

View from our room in Kampala

Dinner with the Gulu Rotary Club

Uganda or Bust

The plane leaves for Uganda in less than 12 hours and I'm as ready as I'll ever be I suppose.  I am excited, nervous, scared, joyful, hopeful and curious, among 1000 other emotions.  I will try to update this blog as much as possible when I am over there and will be journaling when I am unable to post.  Please pray for our For One Another team that this trip is one where we not only provide clean water to those in need but also experience the grace and love of God.

Love,
Laura

I married an amazing man on June 30th....

.... Just thought you should know :)

XOXO

Burdens

"Stir up your trust in His infinite goodness and honor Him by leaving, in his hands, the care of your persons.

Be not troubled about the present or disquieted about the future, but be concerned only about the moment you must now live.

Do not let anticipation of tomorrow be a burden on the day that is passing.

What you lack in the evening the morrow will bring you, if you know how to hope in God.”

-St. John Baptiste De La Salle

I have been so remis in my posting lately.  It seems work, school, wedding, getting the house ready and 234215 other things have completely taken a hold of my life and attention.  It has left little time for the things in life that truly matter....relationships.  I am hard pressed to find time for my family and friends and most importantly God.  I am so distracted by planning for the future that I take little time to enjoy today and all the blessings it holds.  I have stopped taking time to sit and talk with God, to read His Word and meditate on the meaning of it.  I vowed to not let this hectic season of my life and all the changes that come with it completely overwhelm me and take my eyes off of what really matters but it seems I have fallen into the very trap I tried so hard to avoid.  Its time to take a moment, step back, and place my hope once more in the Lord.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Sneak Peak: Engagement Pics and the Story

Good morning!

Just got back from my Kaia workout and I'm not quite ready to crawl back into bed yet so I thought I'd catch up on my blog since I've neglected it for FAR too long.  So, to get you up to speed a bit.  As mentioned in my last post, I got engaged!  B and I are so happy and can't wait to spend our lives together.  Boy, it's been a doosey of a year with lots of challenges and changes but I can't wait for the road ahead.  I had promised to share the proposal story so here goes.

The Proposal
Last Christmas, one of my gifts from B was a set of three golden tickets (he loves creative gifts) that promised three backpacking trips before the year's end (still need to take two of them haha).  I got such a kick out of them that he decided to carry the theme on into this Christmas and incidentally the proposal. 

It was Christmas Eve and we had just gotten back to my place after a long, lovely day spent with each of our families.  The next morning was going to be crazy with church, breakfast with the fam, and gifts so we decided to exchange our gifts for each other that night.  I decided to go first and proudly presented B with what I thought was a gift that was FINALLY more creative then his (he always beats my in the gift arena).  He gleefully tore the paper from his seed starter kit (total gardening nerd), thumbed through his new Strong's Concordance, checked out the giant veggie seed packets I had gotten him and the proceeded to order me from the room.  Confused, I headed into the living room to wait for my gift to be "set-up."  I wondered what he was up to and racked my brain for things I had mentioned over the months, trips we wanted to take, or any other crazy ideas B may have gotten into his head (mind you...for Valentines Day, B had made my a paper macee heart with a bottle of wine inside, which sadly his brother ran over before he could give it to me...so nothing was out of the question).  Finally, I heard B shout for me to come back in, and I darted off to find what my creative gift would be.

I entered the room and immediately saw gold mistletoe hanging from my bedroom light and B standing on my bed.  B told me that this was a continuation of last year's gift and that he had hidden five golden tickets in the mistletoe for me to pluck out.  I had to pick them in order and give him a kiss after reading each ticket.  I picked out the tickets one by one...15 minute foot massage....backpacking trip of my choice....Norwegian waffles with wine...and the last ticket saved for after we got married.  It wasn't out of the ordinary for B to talk about marriage.  We often sat and dreamed of what we would do after we got hitched...trips we would take, where we would live, how we would raise our kids.  But I thought that actually getting married was still a ways off.  B wanted a better job, I needed to finish school, etc, etc.  As I looked down to give B his kiss, as requested after each ticket, I saw that he was on one knee and there was a dainty little gold band in his hand, strangely similar to the one's I had teased him with during our marriage talks.  My heart stopped as I realized what was happening.  NO WAY!  I tried to bite my tongue so I could hear all of the sweet words that were coming out of his mouth but all I could say was "really? really? really really really really?!"  Then, instead of shouting yes, as my heart wanted, I simply dived on him and began kissing his cheeks and kicking my legs excitedly (Not my most mature moment). 

Needless to say it was was PERFECT.  Just me and B, no big ta do, no onlookers, nothing more than comfy pants , golden tickets and a beautiful dainty gold engagement band. :)  I couldn't have asked for a better proposal or fiance for that matter. 

Alright, enough of that.  Below are a few of our (unedited) engagement pictures from this weekend.  My friend Danielle graciously agreed to take them.  Isn't she so talented!?

I hope you enjoy them!  Have a wonderful week!

Ring a Ling Ling

So...I'm engaged.  Weird, exciting, surreal....so many emotions I can barely stand it.  B, you are my love, my best friend, my silly man who makes me smile, laugh, think.  I can't wait to start the rest of our lives together. 

P.S.  I'll be sharing the proposal story soon!

Until then... have a wonderful Wednesday! :)

Waste Not Want Not

I always imagined that I would have a husband who would make enough for me to stay home.  That I would be able to buy a house after college, travel as I wanted, have a job I enjoyed, and plenty of free time.  That I would know what I wanted to do with my life and would be doing it....at least before 30!  But life has a way of throwing a big fat stick into your spokes and sends you headlong into a future that looks quite different from what you had originally imagined.  I look at the path before me now and see a family that will start well past 30, a house, perhaps, in my distant future, a future husband who may not make enough to keep me at home all the time, less travel, and more work.

Neither had I imagined however, the unexpected blessings that would envelope me in my late 20's.  The richness of the relationships that I would have in my life, that I would laugh nearly as much as I loved with my future husband, that my best friend would sit across the hallway from me at work and we would giggle daily at the stupid messages sent back and forth, that I would see, first hand, the work God would do in my life.  That my cup would runneth over despite all that I lacked in the world's eyes.

I look into my future and I just can't wait to "struggle" a bit by the world's definition because by mine, I have already succeeded. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!