Its been quite some time since I've written a blog and it could be a little while before the next one comes. I have been very busy at hospital and Dr's appointments, and am now in a lot of pain and am now very heavily medicated which makes any form of brain activity difficult :)
We also had our laptop die when I returned to Australia and have found out its not worth fixing so communicating with you all can only happen when we can borrow a computer.
I returned to Australia in November to prepare for the birth of our next miracle baby ( and once again this baby has defied many odds to be here)
It was incredibly difficult to get on the plane that day.
I don't think I will ever forget the sound of my little man screaming mama, mama as we were pulled apart at the airport.
It was a very hard day.
I am very thankful that my brother Daniel and his wife Brooke and my nieces were still there.
they bought much comfort to Rob and Hezekiah during our time apart.
It was especially difficult to be apart for Christmas.
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| Christmas day - in two different countries. |
Rob was incredibly busy after I left preparing everything for our ministries, businesses and home to be able to come to Australia.
Dan and Brooke were an incredible blessing as they looked after Ziah most days. Hezekiah LOVED having his cousins to play with and it was beautiful to see the love and connection develop between them all.
It was incredibly hard being so far apart but I am thankful that God knew we'd need Dan and Brooke there at that time - because we had no idea how much we would need them then.
Dan and Brooke and the girls enjoyed getting to see more of the country and see a bit of what we do and their support in many ways has been a real gift from God.
Daniel and Brooke and the girls were in Uganda till the end of January, and we decided at the start of January that since we'd be in Australia for a few months it didn't make sense to be spending money on rent.
Soooooo we made the hard decision to pack up all our belongings and furniture and have them stored at our friends spare room while we are out of the country.
This is hard in one regard because it feels like once again we will be starting from scratch but saving the money makes great sense and we believe that before too long we will be able to have a place on our land so this will be last time that coming back to Australia means having to pack up all our items.
Once again we couldn't have done this without Dan and Brooke who did 99% of the packing.
I obviously did nothing since I was already in Australia when we made the decision to give house up once lease ran out at end of January.
I spent our time apart at the hospital and specialists and trying to rest and make sure this bub had best chance of being a better size and being safe.
I was also busy developing and working more on our Mbuyu Designs and Pacha Project - which I will share more about later. We've done a few fundraising stalls and BBQ since home which all helps.
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| One of our Mbuyu Designs Market stalls |
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| Part of the PACHA PROJECT stall - all these items found a home very quickly - we cant wait to give the twin to a precious child in Uganda. |
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| We had a very successful day running a bunnings BBQ on boxing day with the proceeds going to The Mbuyu Foundation - very grateful to all those who came and helped out. |
Rob and Hezekiah were not meant to be arriving in Australia till the end of January and to be honest at the end of December we wondered how we'd make it another month. It was getting a lot harder and ziah was finding it harder also.
In a beautiful surprise on the 3rd of January my two men surprised me and literally turned up unannounced ! I had been stressing and getting quite frustrated why I hadn't been able to get through to them for a few days ( they were flying ). But it was an amazing surprise when they turned up.
It has been a beautiful thing to see Ziah spend time with his grandparents and aunties and uncles and all his cousins and our friends. When he left he was only a baby - not even crawling - and so for him to finally connect real faces to the photos we have around the house and who we talk to on the internet when reception allows has been great.
There are been A LOT of changes for him - jet lag and the time difference, so many food options and choices, extreme heat ( something we do not have in Uganda) .... experiencing the ocean and a big bath, going to only speaking one language - we've had some funny experiences where he asks me for something in another language and I've had to call daddy for a translation because I've had no idea what he was saying :) one day when Rob wasn't here I even had to google it.
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| Loving reading time with nana |
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| Trying all these new fruits has been a highlight for Ziah - he loves Pears! |
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| Getting to enjoy a full size bath |
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| First time at beach - playing with daddy in the sand. |
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| Fun with cousins at the beach |
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| Tasting what a watermelon should taste like :) |
I couldn't believe the change in him in 7 weeks - he had gone from saying individual words to saying sentences, counting in multiple languages and singing! He's always loved music and dancing - but now he sings! Aunty Brooke and uncle dan and his cousins have certainly helped his english and playing with the girls has bought a lot of development.
It has been a huge blessing to be able to have Rob now to come to our weekly Dr's appointments etc.
Once again this pregnancy has bought HUGE challenges and pain and complications - but we have also seen many miracles. Complications they expected because I had them the first time or they thought I'd have because this is my second pregnancy and they'd recommended no more - haven't come about.
God has definitely been protecting us and this baby again.
THE MBUYU FOUNDATION MINISTRY UPDATES
Rob and I are certainly finding it difficult being so far from Uganda and our ministry but we trust our team and the people we have left in charge. We know we need to be here for the bub and that God is also using this time to help us raise much needed funds and spread the word about what God is doing in Uganda and what we are doing in our organisation but it certainly means we feel a lot more pressure to return as soon as possible with much work needing to be done!
2017 is set to be a big year once again.
We have many prayer points and plans for 2017.
Some which won't start till mid year once Rob and I are both back but others which will kick off once the school year starts.
READ FOR LIFE UPDATE
Our Read for Life program has grown so big that we had to have a break over the Christmas break while we looked for new facilities.
This has proved to be a HUGE challenge.
It all comes down to budget and facilities.
We found a perfect location right at the edge of the slums, in its own compound, with enough room for us to even have outdoor activities. It has 10 large rooms which would mean we could take all the students from last year and those on our waiting list, and keep our class sizes small which is our aim since we want to give the best one on one care we can. ( We have plenty of other teachers/social workers ready to come on board to keep class sizes small - just a matter of class rooms)
It would also allow us to have classes to be able to do adult reading classes during school times and would allow us to start skills training with the mothers/aunts/grandmothers connected to Read for Life.
We have women desperate to start this, and we have teachers ready - we just need the facility.
Its in great condition and has good toilet facilities.
But sadly it is out of our budget at the moment. It is approximately $2000 Australian dollars a month to rent. Even though it would be perfect and allow to do so much more and keep the children nice and safe, at the moment finances don't allow us to take this place. Unless God does a miracle - which we know He can if we are meant to have this place.
Other than that everything within the slums area we have looked at is quite unsafe and unsanitary and very, very small. The majority of them aren't in compounds, so safety would be an issue and we'd be sharing the rent. Since the slums are so crammed we have only been able to find facilities where we have to rent buildings that are already being used ( except for the first place i mentioned that would be completely ours)
Most of these places are nursery schools, or primary schools, which would mean we can only do our program on the Saturday and on the extra days during the school holidays.
We are still trying to see if we can find one that will be safe and sanitary at least and allow for the amount of children we have.
We only have a matter of weeks till we are due to start so we are in need of a miracle.
Our teachers, and even our students are ready to return. We have children turning up often to the previous site trying to find out when we are starting back!
So please be at prayer about this !
SKILLS TRAINING & MEDICAL CAMPS
Our skills training with the women will start as soon as a facility is found and Robert returns.
Our medical camps will be kicking off mid year again when Robert returns to Uganda also - we have Dr's and surgeons ready who have agreed to be on team and are excited about helping with our fistula and other medical repair camps.
C-SECTION KITS AND SCHOOL BACKPACK FUNDRAISERS
Over Christmas we were able to raise enough money to buy new school backpacks for 50 children connected to The Salvation Army children's home. This was done through the generous support of many of you.
The children will receive their new bags when school returns next month.
We will be sure to have our workers take photos and videos as the children will be extremely excited and grateful for these bags.
We also were able to raise money to begin our Emergency C-section kits.
Through Rob's work as a Dr and his personal experiences and through his discussions with his other doctor friends and colleagues - one of the many reasons women are still dying from child birth, even when they are in hospital is because they can not get the emergency c-section they need. This is usually due to very basic items not being available in the hospital ( gloves, surgical blades, sterile cotton, catheters etc) Women die daily due to basic items not being available for emergency c-sections. Items that cost very little.
So we have come up with the idea of putting together emergency c-section kits and donating them to local hospitals.
We have worked out that for $50 we can buy all the items we need, and cover the cost of transport and everything in relation to these kits.
We were blessed when over Christmas numbers of our friends and supporters in Australia heard about this idea and got behind it - so Daniel and Brooke and Rob got to work with making up these emergency c-section kits.
We look forward to seeing these kits save lives and we know that this part of the ministry is going to grow and expand.
SEARCH FOR LAND FOR THE MBUYU VILLAGE & FARM
Our search for land continues - Rob, Daniel and Brooke actually found an amazing piece of land not long before Rob returned to Australia. It is right on the lake and perfect for every aspect of the ministry. It is very large, and has amazing potential not only for our Mbuyu Village and work with children, but for farming and skills training for men and women.
It is above what we were planning to pay due to the location, the lake and the quality of the land and soil. But we intend to follow this through and trust that if it's meant to be ours God will provide the money.
We will look more in to this land when we return. We trust if its meant to be ours it will still be available when we return.
MBUYU DESIGNS AND PACHA PROJECT
Our Mbuyu Designs project has been going well - with us selling many beautiful Ugandan items made in Uganda by various women's and disabled young people groups.
We have sold them through Markets, events and on facebook since we have been home. This has given us a great idea of what skills are worth training our women in the most and all proceeds that have been raised from this project are going back in to the skills training for women from the slums.
along side of this our PACHA ( twin) project has been going GREAT - this is the project where women (or men) from Australia knit, or crochet various toys or baby blankets. We then sell one of the items here in Australia through our Mbuyu Designs stalls and then the other item which is exactly the same is donated on their behalf to a child or new mother for her new baby in Uganda.
This project is proving to be a HUGE success with every item selling within moments of me listing them online. We look forward to being able to return with these beautiful items and see the joy that they bring to the children.
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We have many other projects under works for later in this year but for now our current ministries will continue while we are in Australia having our baby and trying to do some fundraisers as well.
We have a movie night coming up in March as a fundraiser where we have booked out local cinema to show the Queen of Katwe ( a movie about Ugandan slums).
If you are interested in attending this event please let us know and we will get details to you.
We plan to have other fundraisers also before we return home.
We thank you for your continued support and we will try to keep you up to date with various ministry events and photos over the coming month, even though we are not there.
We will be having our baby mid February through a csection ( bub will be about 4-5 weeks early) and we will most likely have to spend a few weeks in hospital due to my condition and the bub and me having to be monitored in relation to the medication I am currently on.
We look forward to sharing the news of our next little miracle when they arrive!
GOD BLESS
