Overwhelmed.

Where do I even begin? 

The children are beautiful. This country is beautiful. I'm slowly falling in love with this place.

After about 26 hours of travel time, our team made it all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, to Washington D.C., to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and finally to Entebbe, Uganda. Once we arrived at the airport in Uganda, we retrieved majority of our bags (the rest of which we are getting tomorrow afternoon), went through customs and then walked out to the lobby to meet our greeters: Nate, Tom, Peggy and William.  We got onto a bus where our driver, Moses, skillfully drove us through Entebbe, Kampala, and onto Mokono where the orphanage and our hotel are. We unloaded all of our belongings into our rooms and I was able to wash my face and brush my teeth for the first time in what felt like forever! We had dinner and shortly thereafter went to bed. We were so very thankful for a full night of rest!

This morning, we had breakfast and a devotion before we left for the morning. We got on the bus again to drive to the orphanage where William and all of the children were waiting for us to arrive for church. What an incredibly overwhelming experience! When we drove into the parking area of the orphanage, all of the children ran to the door of the bus and were so incredibly excited to see all of us. They wanted to hug and hold hands with each of us before we even had a chance to ask their names. Their smiles are completely infectious and it was all I could do to keep the tears from streaming down my face. I know I have said this before, but I have been dreaming of this moment for years and to finally be able to see all of the children for the first time was a memory I will never want to forget. I don't think I will ever be able to.

We arrived at 10am and spent the entire morning under a white tent, sitting in white plastic chairs, sitting next to people who I have never met before, holding their hands, listening to another language, all while singing praises to our Lord. We continued all of this and didn't even think about eating lunch until almost 2pm. The food here is very good. Rice, potatoes, peppers, pumpkin (a lot like our Seminole pumpkins at SIFAT), plantains, different kinds of meat that I seriously don't ever really know what it is, and lots of pineapple that tastes likes gold! After we ate lunch, we sang some more songs, played a couple of games, did some Vacation Bible School with the kids, and then had a dance party in the parking area for a couple of hours! 

Today was a full, long, blessed, glorious day. 

It was just as I expected, but even more than I could have ever imagined.

Tomorrow we begin work. I don't know the specifics. I don't really care for the specifics (except for the fact that breakfast is at 6:15am and we leave at 7am for the orphanage). 

I am just making myself available.

Please continue prayers. There is so much love here, but also so much need. Please be praying for us as we are figuring out how the best way to serve this place might be and look like. 

Gratitude goes out to: a full and open heart, sweet Jamima who cleaned my cut foot, William and his dedication to the children, this country and it's people, the love and openness shown to us today.

(I will try and post pictures later. The internet here is slow!)

Also, check out fumcscottsboromission.blogspot.com and agape4uganda.blogspot.com 

for more info and maybe pictures!