Christmas

A few Christmas pics from my first Christmas back in the States in 2 years....

Kaleb, Mom, Me and Dad on Christmas morning.

Kaleb and I with the gradpartents (Mom's side)

The cousins (mom's side)...man I look short! grandparents (dad's side)

Me and my bubby :)

Amy's wedding

On Sunday my good friend, Amy got married in Tampa. We went to nursing school together at Union. It was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends as people came in from all over to be in the wedding. The wedding was outside and the weather was beautiful...it was at least 80 degrees! It was one of the most beautiful God-centered weddings I've ever been ,and Amy was such a gorgeous bride.

Here I am with Lindsey. We are reenacting our 'fight for the bouquet'. There were four of us single gals. Lindsey scratched me with her fingernail and I started bleeding. She won in the end...well I let her have it :)

Here I am with Bethany a fellow Unionite and former journeyman friend to Tanzania. She will be getting married on December 30th!

Some of the bridesmaids: me, Annie (friend from Union), Emily (friend from Union), Lindsey (Amy's friend from FL).

The happy couple....Amy and Adam. Adam is studying graphic design in Orlando. He is such a great guy who loves the Lord...I am so happy for Amy!

A trip to the salon...

The day before the wedding Amy treated all of us bridesmaids (8 total) to pedicures. It was amazing...we got to sit in big massage chairs and soak our feet in hot water. We had fun relaxing and of course talking :)

Union Dearest Union

This past weekend I went back to Union Univeristy www.uu.edu to speak about my time in Uganda for World AIDS Day (Dec 1st). A lot has changed in the last 2 years. The building on the right is the new science hall and nursing will have the entire 2nd floor. We used to only have a couple nursing classrooms and labs. Union is such a great school....I am proud of my alma mater.

I got to visit with several old friends while in Jackson. Cayce and I became friends our Junior year at Union. She is a special education teacher now. It was fun catching up and hanging out.

Thanksgiving

Every year we go to Aunt Julie's for Thanksgiving. The 'Adult Table'...this year they had to clarify as to who qualifies as an adult since there are three of us cousins who are over 18 and two over 21. So the qualification is now 'married adults' sit at the adult table and of course none of the cousins are married.....at least not yet ;) It was nice to be back with family this Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be greatful for!

The Cousins....there are 9 first cousins on my mom's side and we all live in Henderson. As you can see the boys out number the girls. I'm the oldest and Addie is the youngest with all the guys inbetween.

Every Thanksgiving all the cousins are measured to see how much they've grown (excluding me since I haven't grown now in like 12 years). My brother and oldest 3 boy cousins are all over 6 ft so it's a competetion each year to see who's taller. Andy here is the tallest this year at around 6'4''...he's almost 17.

Playing Rook (the best card game ever) with my great aunts and grandmommy. Unfortunately Aunt Katherine and I couldn't get any bids and lost.

My first time to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal...I made a pumkin roll.

Happy Birthday Kaleb

My bubby turned 16 on November 16th! Can it be possible?

Debriefing...

Well my two year term as a journeyman in Uganda is officially over now I guess. Last week I went back to Richmond, VA to the learning center where it all began. It was great to get to hang out with friends from orientation who were my age and could so easily relate to what I was feeling in coming back to the States. It was so neat to hear stories and see how God had worked in their lives during the last 2 years. It was a bitter sweet expereince. I was happy to be back at the learning center and see old friends, but I was also sad that this part of my life is over. I know I'll be overseas again one day most likely, but that place just gets you so excited about going overseas that it's hard to remain at 'home'. I look forward to hopefully going back there again one day for training.

Cheesecake Factory and Bowling

Good food with good friends. These were some of the people at debreifing who I went to orientation with back in the day. It was great catching up. We weren't outside but it was so cold in Cheesecake Factory we're all bundled up!
I hadn't bowled in forever! Didn't do too great either, but we had fun. We bowled under our national names that we used overseas (Kenyangi is mine). I think the guy at the check-out thought we were kind of strange...which we can't argue with. Ryan was the only real competetive one and thankfully he won if you couldn't tell :)
Me and Kim, my friend who served in East Asia and is also a nurse....yea for nurses!

The best time of the year...

Fall....my favorite time of year in one of my favorite places, the learning center in Virginia where I did my training before going to Uganda. These pictures don't do it justice....it was beautiful! I haven't seen leaves changing for 2 years! It was very strange to be in a place without any changing of seasons...it was almost like time wasn't passing. Time is greatly associated with seasons in our America culutre, but for a lot of places in the world they have never seen the beauty of autumn or snow or tulips in the spring.

Isn't it interesting that God made this process of dying for leaves so beautiful so that we not only can see His glory, but also enjoy it.

First attempt to make Indian food....not so good

I've definitely been missing my weekly Indian food fix that I got when I was in Uganda and visited our local Indian restaurant, "City Top". So I decided I would try to make some of my own for my mom, dad, and brother who have never had Indian food. This is my attempt to make chicken masala and garlic naan (a type of indian bread)...Unfortunately it was really bland :( I like spicy things so I was pretty disappointed. I followed the recipe exactly, but just didn't turn out right. It was an internet recipe though, so next time I'm going to try curry from a recipe that I trust more. Hopefully better luck next time.

Nicole's Wedding...

My good friend from college, Nicole, got married this past weekend in Nashville. Isn't she beautiful! This was my first wedding to be a bridesmaid in since I missed several friends' weddings while in Africa. It was nice to get to share in this special day with her. We made our own bouquets...aren't they beautiful! I definitely learned some new things. Nicole and her husband Trey will be living in Alabama now. My friends are spread out everywhere...kind of sad. But definitely exciting for Nicole as she begins this new adventure.

Enjoying American Food!

Finally after 2 years....Chick-fil-A!!! :)

Homecoming....

About 30 people including family, old friends, and church members came to welcome me back from Uganda....what a fun surprise! 

Me and dad 

Back with the fam.... 

Me and my little bubby :) 

Africa Meets America

So I thought that once I left the continent of Africa all my crazy stories would be over, but it turns out I was wrong. After flying for almost 24 hours on my way back from Uganda I boarded my last plane from Detroit to Evansville, IN. I was so tired because I didn't sleep on my two long flights very well so I fell asleep before the plane even took off. Before I fell asleep everyone was complaining that is was really hot because the air vents weren't working, but it didn't seem that hot to me compared to the airport in Uganda, so I fell asleep. After we'd been flying for about 10 minutes I awoke to the flight attendant running down the aisle cussing and the smoke alarm going off. Apparently the cabin was filling with smoke. And of course the air vents weren't working which didn't help anything. People were starting to get pretty nervous, but it didn't seem like such a big deal to me. Maybe cause I was still 'out of it' after not sleeping for so long, plus after living in Africa your idea of a 'big deal' sort of changes. So the pilot decided to turn the plane around and go back to Detroit. I was kind of frustrated cause at this point I just really wanted to see my family and get off the plane!

But it was a good thing because an elderly lady near me started having seizures. I was the only medical person on the plane so I offered to help. The flight attendant got oxygen for her and I just helped 'fan her'. Another lady that had a heart condition was also having difficulty breathing so we gave her some oxygen as well, and then a man complained of a bad headache because of the fumes. Thankfully though we were able to land and an ambulance met us on the runway to help the lady who was seizing. Then we had to get another plane and reboard. We finally reached Evansville 2 hours late. ( I never understood what exactly was wrong with the plane.) I arrived to see my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...everyone!), old friends, and some church members at the airport with signs to welcome me! About 30 people....it was definitely a surprise. But it was fun to see family I hadn't seen for almost 2 years and how much all my cousins had changed!

Then one of the local news stations was at the airport to interview people from the flight so I was interviewed and put on the 5pm news! Everyone was making such a big deal out of it, but it just seemed normal to me for things to go wrong. Nothing ever went as expected in Uganda. But I am thankful to God for His protection and especially for watching over the lady who was seizing. Maybe God was just trying to give me an easy transition back into American life with a situation I could easily relate to :)

One last time from Uganda....

In an hour or so I will put my four pieces of luggage in my Rav 4 and leave Mbarara, this town I've called home for the last almost 2 years. A lot of people think returning to the States, my homeland, should be nothing but a joyous time for me, but it's hard to explain. See I don't really know where 'home' is anymore. It's been almost 6 years since I've really lived at home with my parents in Kentucky for more than a couple months. I've finished college, so Union University isn't home, and now I'm leaving Uganda, my 'home'. My friends are spread out literally all over the world and I feel very disconnected to life in America at this point. 

As believers we all know that this world isn't our home anyways....we are just sojourners in a foreign land awaiting our true heavenly home. But now I'm beginning to realize more than ever before what this really means. It's an uncomfortable place to be....we all want the comforts of a place we call 'home', but no earthly home lasts forever. And really we are all searching for a place to call home. So we must walk by faith and not by sight and take courage that those of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior can rest assured that whether we are at home or away we are never out of God's hand. "So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him." 2 Corinthians 5:6-9

Thanks for your prayers as I leave Uganda Saturday at 10:30pm (2:30pm CST). Today I travel to the capital, Kampala, to finish out my last couple days here. I look forward to seeing many of you in the days to come. Thank you for following my journey....but the journey is not over. While I am leaving Uganda, life is still full of exciting journeys, and I plan to keep blogging even as I return to to the States. So stay tuned!