What a whirlwind of travel and emotions! We spent our time the weekend before alternating between stressing over packing all of our stuff, finding time to see family and friends one more time and enjoying quality time with our parents before we left. We were blessed to have parents who enjoyed hanging out with Adalyn while we packed. It turns out it’s a lot harder to pack to move across the world than we imagined…
And this was just the stuff we accumulated after we shipped our container. But we did it with 9 free bags and only 1 of them overweight. Once we made it through the weekend, it was time to say goodbyes and that was so difficult.

As we walked through the airport with tear-filled eyes, I wish we could’ve worn a sign that said “we’re not just traveling, we’re moving across the world.” So please have some grace as we look like pack mules carrying stuff to get through the 25 hours of traveling, please be patient with us as we let our child have some fun in the midst of a pretty stressful time, please be understanding as our exhausted child is restless and cranky, please be loving as we might cry any minute from the emotions of it all. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a sign, but we also didn’t care what anyone said or did. This is a huge achievement for me since I am usually super aware of everyone’s reaction to Adalyn and trying not to disturb anyone. I would say God granted me blinders for the travel. In the middle of our first 8-hour flight, it was the first time I had some regret for our move. I thought, “what were we thinking?” And I realized we have been so focused on the preparation that this was the first time since the beginning of our decision process that I really thought about the move and how big it was. We are entering a world so foreign for us; we will always stand out and be different; we are so far away from such an amazing network of family and friends – this is going to be hard! And then, just like every time I have questions or doubts, I felt a calm peace as if God was saying “Peace be with you. I’ve got this and I’ve got you. Continue to be faithful.” Argh! How can you argue with that? So on we went and we survived, just like many others before us.

Everything went smoother than I anticipated with only a few exhausted fits from Adalyn. We felt the prayers of so many and we had a calm that was certainly from God. Once we landed, gathered all our luggage that arrived safely and got waved through customs (thank goodness), a couple of our teammates, JP & Jill Robinson, greeted us and took us to a guest house for the night. After a night of exhausted but not enough sleep, we had a good 6-hour drive to Mbale where our team welcomed us and we got settled into our temporary home at the Robinson’s until our house is ready. It was quite an eventful night with no electricity and the back-up system not working, a lot of crazy loud noises that kept us awake and brought us all into one room to sleep restlessly, a visit from a rat friend who ate one of our bananas and waking up sweaty and stinky. Welcome to Africa! But the crazy thing is that while we are exhausted and overwhelmed, we can only laugh at the electricity coming and going, taking a quick shower before we lose hot water, getting settled with no light and quite honestly just taking some time to breathe after a hectic experience. 

We appreciate your continued prayers throughout this journey; we definitely feel them. Please continue to pray as we transition to our new life in Uganda.