home is where the heart is!

i have been back in the US for a week now. it is absolutely awesome spending time with family members, friends, my church family and my dogs! even though i have two absolutley adorable ugandan pups, the saying goes that 'old friends' are the best friends goes for dogs too. i absolutely love turning on the faucet and feeling HOT water....!!!! sometime i will explain the term 'coffee pot shower' to y'all, or maybe i will just leave it to your imaginations. and mexican food...heaven on a plate. how much is too much? i don't know because i haven't reached that point yet! i was awestruck in kroger's the other day just looking at the frozen food aisleS....yes aisleS....so much frozen food! i had compleely forgotten how a journey down a frozen food aisle is like a trip around the world...mexican, italian, thai, chinese....not to mention the ore-ida section, ice creams and yogurts, cakes, mac & cheese.....all colors, all sizes, all calling my name! i resisted as best i could because my tummy is no longer accustomed to a cheese stuffed crust pizza followed by a klondike bar. after 3 months of rice and beans, i need to slowly ease back into my bad eating habits!

as i said, i have only been home a week and already chaos reigns at the safe house. i don't understand, but apparently 20 of the residents decided to destroy the interior of the safe house including doors, door frames, windows, the shower, the sinks and the toilet.....leaving a huge pile of debris and then fleeing back to the streets. 17 boys and the 3 girls are gone. will they be invited back to live in the only place where they were safe, were fed and were loved? probably not......it's hard to believe what they did and even harder to imagine why they did it. other questions present themselves, like 'where was the housemother' and why didn't they just steal what they could rather then be destructive...i know that we, patrick, andrew and illona, william, george and i are heartbroken. we love these kids and wonder what we could have done differently. i am reminded that this is God's plan for them, for us, and that we must work through this to reach something better.....but still, we can't help but worry about them. mercy and gloria are HIV+....are they taking their medicines? really, so many concerns for the children whose parents and society discarded and who were given a chance for a better life by patrick. it's so sad....what will i do if i see one of them again? well, that's really easy.....i'd stretch out my arms and insist on a hug and say 'i'm glad you're ok.' in the meantime, i'll pray and ask our Lord to watch over them and protect them and let them know that we still care.
the safe house will continue. andrew and patrick are repairing it, but it is time to move to another facility. this time with more structure, more rules, more consequences, more supervision.....it's all we can do, keep trying and praying and hoping. there are still about 15 great kids that need a safe place to sleep, food, an education and much love. there are still thousands, oh actually a million street kids in uganda that need this opportunity. maybe when all is said and done, all that counts is the love and the knowledge that someone cares about you.
i will be here in tennessee for another month. then george and i will travel to russia to visit our dear friend and russian project director, elena antropyanskaya. we will spend time at the kind heart shelter and also journey to the transition hospital at petrokamensk, the children's village at zaimka and the handicapped children's hospital at karpinsk. when we return tot he US, we will exchange our russia clothing for our uganda duds and head back to africa.....this time with kaleigh and erin and demetra. woo-hoo! sometimes i think i need wings or that it would be so nice to teleport like in the old star trek shows. i don't really mind the travelling and the endless hours in airplanes and airports because in some strange way, it is always like i am going home......home is where the heart is...home is where your friends and family live....home is anywhere you feel loved!
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