goodbyes- already?

Wow. Six weeks really flies when all of your days are spent playing with precious orphan babies, running around chasing Abba Home kids (...as they laugh hysterically because you can't catch them), or taking dozens of trips to Kampala where the streets are buzzing with excitement as the obnoxious street vendors constantly try to sell things to you. I can hardly believe that it is already July and that in just two short days I (Maddy) will be coming back to Kansas City. Back to school, back to work, and back to the everyday conveniences that I have always taken for granted.

As many of you know, Hannah made it home safely to the states on Wednesday... Although her luggage failed to arrive with her. Thankfully, her luggage arrived a couple days later. Africa just simply hasn't been the same without her, but we had an incredible last week in Africa together.

Last Saturday Hannah, AmyRose, Stacie, (AmyRose and Stacie are the two girls that we have been staying with throughout our trip) and I decided that it would be a good idea to bring all thirty five Abba kids to the swimming pool. Hannah and I both have been lifeguards in the past, and have seen firsthand how easy accidents can happen. Needless to say, we were a nervous wreck about taking a bunch of children who have never been swimming to a pool. Luckily, we made it through the afternoon without any accidents (praise God- whew!). The kids had an incredible time playing in the water, and they have not stopped asking us to take them back to the pool. We are sure that the chaos of the pool that afternoon is something that we will never forget!

Hannah and I also had the opportunity to go to Watoto Church last Sunday. For those of you who haven't heard of Watoto..It is an internationally known church that began in Uganda. The church formed a childrens choir that has toured with Chris Tomlin and the Passion band! The church was incredible and the message was extremely powerful. We were amazed at how many people came to the service!

This week we also spent time at Remmy's baby orphanage in Abieta. I am continually amazed at how much the babies have improved. Even just by looking at pictures of them from a month ago I can tell that they are slowly gaining strength!

The rest of this week we spent time at Abba Home playing soccer with the kids, coloring, and teaching them to play "stick ball" (...also known as baseball.) Two of the older girls from the orphanage, Faridah & Scovia, completely shocked us at how incredible they are at stick ball! The children in the orphanage are some of the strongest people that I have ever met. The girls have huge arm muscles from cooking and cleaning and carrying around all of the younger kids. Their throwing arm is amazing! Bring any of these kids over to the state and they would dominate at every sport!

Tomorrow will be the last day that I spend at Abba Home.. And it is definitely bitter sweet. I am so excited to come home and see all of my friends and family, but I am also horrified of leaving the kids behind. I know that as soon as I step on that plane I will wish that I was arriving at Abba Home watching all of the kids sprint up to me in excitement. Please be praying that the transition back home is a smoothe one and that I have safe travels home!

I cannot wait to see you all and tell you millions of stories from my time here in Africa!

-Maddy

joy.

This last week has been filled with activities as we try to pack as much into our last weeks here.

Last weekend we went to Kalangala island in Lake Victoria. We had an amazing experience there. Not only was it completely beautiful, but the people we met were just wonderful. It was much more of the Africa you imagine. The people lived in huts and had no electricity or daily conveniences we take for granted. There were about 12 women to 80 children. Some of the fathers were dead, some were away working, and some of the children are just orphans that have wandered there. Most of the women are HIV positive and slowly dying. It was so hard to see these women worry about what will happen to their children. We are working to get vitamins to them because it helps greatly with their disease, for they don't get the proper nutrition they should. Hopefully this will slow the progress of their horrible disease. The most vivid part was that through all of their poverty and pain, their faith in God in incredible. It's almost like that is all they have. Though America is a wonderful country, we have so much that sometimes our faith in God gets covered up and tangled in the mess of money, material objects, relationships, and careers. In a way, it is so refreshing to see these people say they have so much just because they know that God is on their side. Their joy was evident and it reminds us why we always need God.

This week we have traveled to Kampala several times. We saw more street children this week than we usually do there. Street children are children that sit on the sidewalks of Kampala and beg for money. Typically their parents force them to beg while they go do who knows what. Some of the children were literally 1 year old. It breaks our hearts and it takes all we have to fight the urge to pick them up and walk away with them.

We also got to visit the Remand Home, which is a children's prison in Kampala. The sad part is that most of the children have done nothing. In the African culture, when parents divorce and the dad remarries, the step mom hates the kids. Often she will turn them into the police for doing absolutely nothing just because she doesn't want them. Here, the legal system operates on a "guilty until proven innocent" policy so they are automatically thrown in jail until further investigation. The place is so sad and hard to see, but it is also refreshing to hear the children's hearts for God and their faith even through their situations. It again reminds us how God is with us through everything and if these kids can remember that, we sure can.

Please pray for the villages of Kalangala and the people there that have captured our hearts. Pray for their health and the care of the children. Please pray for the street children of Kampala, that they will find comfort and safety amongst their hard lives. Please pray for the children of the Remand Home, that they will get the justice they deserve and that they will continue to feel hope for their futures. Above all, pray for the place of God in each one of these people's hearts. Pray that they will continue to have faith through situations we can't even imagine. Pray for their continuous love of God and that he will forever bring them joy.

Off to the Islands!

Hello again everyone! Just as we are finally getting used to life here in Uganda, we find the end to our trip quickly approaching. Although we are both already extremely excited to come home and see our families and friends, we are still heart broken about having to leave the kids behind. They have stolen our hearts in only a few short weeks. Their smiles and laughs have brought us so much joy throughout our time here and it is going to be so hard to say goodbye. We are confident that the Lord has a plan for each and every child, and we hope that we have made their lives just a little bit better during our time here.

Throughout this week in Uganda, we have been able to spend more time at Abba Home with the orphans. Sitting down with the kids and talking to them about their hopes and dreams for the future was easily one of the most precious moments that we have had here. Their hearts are so full of love and humility. Since we have been here the kids have always played with a deflated plastic soccer ball. When we brought them a brand new soccer ball and pump, they were incredibly grateful. We both have played soccer since we were little girls, and we can easily say that the nine year old boys can school us. They are amazing soccer players, especially now that they have a real ball! Also, through some incredible donations we have a huge bag full of clothing to bring out to the kids at Abba Home. The kids are going to be so happy to recieve their new clothes, and we cannot wait to take pictures of them modeling them for us! We have also slowly but surely been finishing painting the inside and outside of the orphanage. The walls are now finished and they look wonderful with bright colors.

We were also able to go back to the baby orphanage with the eight newborns! It is wonderful to see how how the babies' health is improving. We hope to go back to the orphanage several times before we leave to love on the children and pray ov Please be praying for Remmy, the woman who runs the orphanage. She is a phenomenal Ugandan woman who has taken on the responsibility of raising eight babies while maintaining a full time job. Her love for the Lord is shown through her immense love for the children. She is truly living out what scripture says about loving orphans. She loves each child with her life, as if they were her own child. She is patient and kind, truly a woman of God. We feel incredibly blessed to have met her.

This weekend we are headed out the islands of Lake Victoria to do a childrens ministry. The islands are much more traditional and less westernized than the cities that we have been too. We are looking forward to hanging out with the indigenous people and sharing Jesus with them. The orphan children on the islands recieve far less international aide than the children in the cities. We hope to set up a camp for the children that looks something like vacation bible school! Be praying for our safe travels across the lake and for our outreach to be successful!

When we get back from the islands Hannah will only have one week left in Uganda, & Maddy will have two. We can hardly believe how quickly the month of June gone! Once again we hope that you all are enjoying your summer, and we cannot wait to share our stories with you when we get home! God bless!

such as these.

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."



Our time here is flying by. We cannot believe that we are almost halfway through our trip. The days swirl by in the busy bustle of love and fellowship. We pray to be as useful as possible in our short time here. 5-6 weeks sounds so long until you are here and you see firsthand how much there is to be done.

This week we got the privilege of visiting a baby orphanage that has 8 babies all under the age of 1. In all their pain and weakness, they shined with beauty. Our hearts broke as their stories were unveiled to us. Many were left abandoned and alone. Micah, who is the ripe age of 1 week, was found in a plastic bag near a dam left to die. It leaves us with so many questions and wonders of how people can do that. It seems impossible to be able to leave a little, innocent baby alone to suffer. We are realizing there is much more evil than we can even begin to imagine. Yet the great news is that we are on the good side, the side that has already won. However much evil we have witnessed and hear about, there is much more glory and grace to cover it. This is where the hope lies. These babies are God's gifts and have been found and saved for a very specific and glorious reason. We pray everyday for their health, their love, and their futures. We cannot begin to fathom the plans that God has for them.

Our Abba children are still grasping our hearts tightly. They prove to us more each day how wonderful and lovely they are. We enjoy seeing each of their personalities shine. We are so grateful that they reside in a safe, loving place. We look forward to seeing more of their wonder and savoring our time left with them.

The children here have already taught us so much about life and how special it is. The way that they are so grateful for being alive and enjoy it to the fullest is amazing to watch. We realize how much we take for granted and we are brought back to the simpleness of life. God has placed little children in this world for a reason we often fail to remember. They are his precious gifts and we all have something to realize through them. Their joy, their smiles, their laughs, their innocence show us a sliver of what God's love is. We need to love like children do, enjoy like children do, live like children do.

God's love is beginning to be revealed on earth through
such as these.

"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

Hello everybody! Time is flying here in Uganda, we can hardly believe it has been a whole week since we have updated! This week has been extremely busy, but has also been very exciting! Monday was our first trip to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The trip there was absolutely insane. We took a taxi (African style) with at least twenty people in one mini van. In Kampala we got to spend time at the Ssanyu Baby Home loving and holding all of the little orphan babies. We fell in love with each and every one of them and our hearts broke for their stories. Our hearts especially went out to one baby in particular, a baby named Francis that has cerebral palsy. He lacks the attention and therapy that he needs to improve his condition. We are praying that someone will come along that has the heart to take him in and care for his needs. This week we have spent a lot of our time at Abba Home getting to know each child individually. We have really enjoyed playing with them and bringing them "sweeties." We painted the blank walls of the orphanage a bright and fun yellow. The kids loved it and we were glad to bring some life to the rooms. Trying to keep little kids from running into wet paint has proved to be a challenge. :) This week we have also had the opportunity to visit a couple different orphanages in the area. God has opened our eyes to some of the terrible corruption and dysfunction that some of them have. We pray for the knowledge to be able to help the kids in need of a loving place to live. We look forward to seeing what more God has planned for us here. We appreciate your continuous support and prayers!

Oli Otya!

Greetings from Entebbe, Uganda!!! We made it here safely and we are getting adjusted to our new time zone. Our trip got started off with a four hour delay in Kansas City, but we managed to make it to Entebbe on time. Our only minor setback was losing our luggage along the way. Fortunately, it arrived Friday night! We have been very blessed with a missionary family from Texas that has provided us with a safe place to stay. We have enjoyed getting to know them and their adorable children. So far we've gotten to see a glimpse of how daily life is in Entebbe. We've walked to the closest marketplace and had the opportunity to talk with the people there. Most of the people here have been very welcoming and kind. Yesterday we got to spend the day at the Abba Home, the orphanage that we are going to be spending a lot of time at. The Abba Home is home to about 30 kids the ages of 3 to 14. We fell in love with all the kids instantly! God's love just shined through their warm smiles and joyful attitudes. We are so excited to spend more time with them and get to know each of them individually. We brought them coloring books and jolly ranchers. It was incredible how grateful they were for such small things. We enjoyed spending the afternoon coloring and playing games with them. We got to tour the orphanage and the kids were so proud to show us their rooms. Their rooms were painted a beautiful blue, but there were still rooms that were not painted. We are planning on going back this week to paint the remainder of the building yellow. We are so excited to be able to put bright, cheerful colors on the walls for them! Tomorrow we are traveling to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to visit the Ssanyu Baby Home, which houses many orphan babies. We are looking forward to being able to give them some much needed love. Please continue to be praying for our safety and health and for all the lives we come in contact with. We miss you all and hope you are enjoying your summer!

Love, Maddy & Hannah

Tomorrow.

.....Yes, Tomorrow. Really...?? Tomorrow!? We are going. And we are more excited than ever! We are all packed up with suitcases full of coloring books, bubbles, jump ropes, jolly ranchers, and many more little goodies for the kids. :) We'll be leaving the states bright and early tomorrow morning.. looking forward to twenty two hours of quality airplane/airport time. We'll be landing in Entebbe around 8:00 on Wednesday night! ( Which is about noon Kansas City time...) We are so blessed to have had an incredible amount of love and support poured into our trip from our families & friends, and we could not be more thankful! We are looking forward to embarking on a journey that will surely change our lives and hopefully the lives of the children in Uganda! Thank you to everyone for the endless encouragement and prayers. We're looking forward to updating you all VERY soon on how the first days of our trip turn out!

-M & H

Countdown! 58 Days

Hello friends and family! Our names are Hannah & Maddy, and we are SO excited to be headed off to our big African adventure! We will be leaving on May 26th, 2009.. to Entebbe, Uganda! We plan on updating this blog while we are in Uganda, to let you all know how everything is going. We are so excited to hang out with all of the precious orphans, and love on them in any way that we can. We appreciate your prayers, and thank you all for supporting us!

Always,

Hannah & Maddy