The view from here.

Kampala, the city where we are staying, is the capital of Uganda. The terrain in and around Kampala is hilly. In fact the name Kampala means "seven hills" because the original city was founded on seven hills. It is a very green city with lots of trees. Here's the view from the balcony on the house we are staying in. The next 3 pictures are our attempt at a panoramic view. They are in order from left to right. (as you can see we have a pretty green yard to play in.)

(we also have a big 'ol fence to keep out the bad guys!)

Note the house under construction in the neighboring lot. Yesterday, we noticed a goat on the second floor of the half-built house. He was checking it out.

The next thing we noticed is that he took a flying leap onto the ground. We hope he was OK but we didn't go check to see. Sorry, goat!

We continue to enjoy the city and the adventures we are having BUT our primary task is to bring Gideon home. We hope to have news tomorrow (Tuesday) of our new court date. Please pray!

Getting to know you.

While we have met with some (well, many) delays so far, we have found great joy in getting to know our little Gideon. It will be great to continue to discover new things about him. Look at these lovely hands. God has big plans for these hands....we can't wait to see!! We are so thankful that God has plans for each of our hands to serve him and show his love to others. Look at these beautiful feet.......God, may you teach Gideon how to walk with you daily and guide his footsteps in your way!!

Food, Glorious Food!

One of the great things about traveling is trying the local food. One of the things we discovered about Ugandan food is that it is somewhat similar to Louisiana food. They eat a lot of rice, usually with some kind of sauce. They have a type of greens that they cook. They eat beans. Again, not identical but similar. Here is a meal we had with the staff of the Babies Home. It is rice with G-Nut (almost the same as peanuts) sauce. Oh and the G-nut sauce had smoked fish in it. The orange on the side is pumpkin. The yellow dish is called matoke--it's made from green bananas. Bananas are eaten everywhere here. In fact there are a couple of banana trees in the backyard of the house in which we are staying. There's also an avocado tree that we have been eating from. Mango, guava, and pineapples are also everywhere. We discovered a coffee shop across from a craft market called 1000 Cups. They roast their own coffee--it's very good. We have been there a couple of times already.

You can get a GOOD grilled cheese with tomato or ham for 10,000 shillings (less that $5). It comes with a cup of coffee and some veggies on the side.

Overall, we haven't had to eat anything really weird. The food that Ugandans eat is heavy on starch and light on meat, but we have found it to be pretty tasty. We actually have eaten a lot of other types of international food while here. There's a Greek restaurant down the hill from us that we've eaten at a few times. We've had Chinese and Indian food as well--not to mention a couple of different versions of pizza.

I'll have to post some pictures another time of chapati and street food called rolex!! We'll continue to keep you posted!

Wash Day!

Uganda is full of new experiences for us. One "fun" thing that we get to do is wash our clothes by hand. For some reason, we thought we would have access to a washing machine...we were wrong! Mary does the scrubbing and I do the wringing. Good times!

Mary says that she is going to kiss our washing machine when she gets home.

Things we like about Gideon

Okay so we have only been physically with him for almost 2 weeks now, but we have loved him since the day we began this process. Here are some of our observations of our sweet little Gideon: 1. He has a sweet, shy demeanor. 2. He rubs the side of his face and scratches his belly when he is tired or upset. 3. He has beautiful big brown eyes with the longest eyelashes 4. He has the sweetest smile! 5. He is SO ticklish, even touching his back makes him giggle. 6. He is a popular guy with the ladies!! 7. His feet are very long and skinny, unlike his big brothers who always had super fat feet. I guess this is his way of ensuring that he wont be wearing his brothers' hand-me-down shoes!! 8. He likes to growl at us. He makes this funny sound like a growl when he is responding to us. So, hopefully, since we can't post pics yet, this gives you a picture of our little guy!! Can't wait for the day everything is official!!!