Embracing Zero Degrees

Lately? A steady stream of the day to day usuals with a healthy dose of the extraordinary thrown in!!!!! Add on a sketchy internet connection and you have the makings for intense silence in this blog space.

Hey, give us a break, we’ve been busy embracing zero degrees. For the unaware in the bunch, the equator -- zero latitude, is where we live at full speed.

Nothing unusual about Kevin reading on the couch, but notice the little antelope in the right of the photo?

Kambo's little duiker we "babysat" for a few days

"HELLO!!!, I'm Brownie!"

Bubbly and brownie, taking a closer look at each other

Crystal and Kambo's antelope  both tried to exit at the same time

Last post before this one was the 4th of July . . . wow. 

On the 7th we celebrated our annual New Hope Thanksgiving. Former staff, children and friends of the ministry joined us for time of praise, worship and testifying to God’s goodness, grace and mercy.  Uganda’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and her daughter, visited and spoke briefly at the event.  It was an honor to host them as Mrs. Museveni counted this her third visit to New Hope and spoke of her great love for our ministry to the fatherless.

Mrs. Museveni enters our Thanksgiving celebrations 

Nabukeera translated VERY WELL for First Lady Janet Museveni at our Thanksgiving service

The First Lady and her daughter, Patience

Our "Echoes of Hope" singing group (including Toby) sang for the occasion

Mrs. Museveni meets Birungi and Michael, two of our David Family kids that were among our original babies  when our baby house ministry began. As a baby, Birungi was held by Mrs. Museveni on a previous visit.

The very next day, Geoff and I left for a few days in Kampala for our anniversary.  We stayed in a lovely little French place.  It was very relaxing and quiet--a vast change from our activity at Kasana children’s center where we live and serve. 

That Saturday we received a call that Nabukeera’s 90+ year old grandmother (“Jajja”) was not doing well. Geoff, Uncle Mulu and Nabukeera (the young girl in David Family who has been a part of our family since 2000 when we began sponsoring her) went out to the village around 8 pm with the intention of taking her to the hospital--to which she adamantly refused!!!! (She even swatted at one of the gentlemen trying to help her into the van!) Geoff made the quick decision to bring her to our house where, for the next 6 days I kept a close eye on her. I daily cleaned and changed bandages to a festering wound, fed her all the nutritious food I could get her to eat, made sure she slept well and gave her antibiotics on schedule and pain medication around the clock.

Jajja and Bubbly on the veranda. Jajja shared a love-hate relationship with the mbwa (Luganda for dog) 

 It was fun, albeit busy, to have Nabukeera and Jajja in the house for the week and, while we were sad to see her go AND she appreciated our help, she was sooooooo ready to go home that she sat with longing on the veranda with her bags packed for 4 hours before leaving time that next Friday!

Jajja and little Kathryn, the daughter of one of the ladies who helps around our house. Jajja was so energized  when she held her, I wish this photo could have captured her joy!

 She is funny, sweet and full of stories.  It was an honor and a joy to have her for that week and we miss seeing her everyday.  Nabukeera is there this week as it is a holiday for school. (In the middle of that week we also hosted the three kids from the Brown family for two nights--lots of fun and laughter!!!!)

Kakulu of our special needs program playing with Holy, the goat

The following week was a heavy one as we lost three babies!  The first loss was the firstborn child of one of our former son’s and his wife.  She died only hours after her birth. Her emotion-filled burial was on Tuesday afternoon. As we were at her memorial we received a call that baby Dissan, a 4-month old recently brought to our baby house, had died of complications of an aggressive cancer. His tear-filled burial was Wednesday. On Friday I had to take one of our daughter’s to the hospital for a tetanus injection and while there we visited one of our staff members who had just miscarried in the night.  Such great loss certainly pales the pressures of daily life!

But, daily life must go on and to that end we worked tirelessly on the next Tuesday at the maize harvest.  That afternoon our guest of two months, Beth Maisano, said many weepy good-byes to the endless stream of children and staff coming to send her back to America with hugs and prayers. 

Beth, learning how to mingle posho from Jesca in the David Family kitchen

 We left around 2 p.m., dropped our three kids at the Brown’s in Kampala for a 4-day visit, and continued on to Entebbe with Beth where we spent the night before her early a.m. flight on Wednesday.  It was after dropping her off that we received the call regarding the death of a very close auntie to Jennifer, whom I mentor, from David Family.  All day Thursday was spent about 3.5 hours away from New Hope at the burial.  I made it back home with about 45 minutes to spare before we attended an evening at the McFarland’s listening to Jiten and Sika share on their ministry in India--to which our Kasana Community church sends monthly support.

Thankfully, this week has been a wee bit quieter (emphasis on “wee”). The kids at New Hope are now on their holiday between the second and third school terms of the year.  We, the Britton family, are NOT on holiday, however.  We are pushing through our school curriculum at an even pace as we must finish no later than the second week of November.  We will be inundated with end-of-year activities after that point and are leaving for a 6-month home assignment (furlough) beginning December 7th. 

My thoughts have been turned toward home much more than usual these past few weeks as my newborn niece (born on July 5th) has been a mystery to the medical staff at the hospital where she has resided since her birth.  Late last week they definitively diagnosed her with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and yesterday she began her chemo treatment.  She will most likely continue her stay for another 8-10 months. Your prayers are appreciated for my youngest sister and her husband, as well as my other family members who live close by them in Long Beach, California.  My sister’s blog gives almost daily information on Bela’s status if you are interested in further details: 

http://www.betoandlaura.blogspot.com/

Toby--life of the animal party

our personal "animal farm"--holy the goat, Bubbly, Brownie,  and our two cats (we've since this photo also added a chicken!) Can life get any MORE fun???
APPARENTLY, YES  . . . 

sometimes life is just too busy to notice the goat standing on the table until it's just too late!!!!

Thanks for “visiting” us at this very unpredictable blog site . . . I  might post again tomorrow or it could be ????????? who knows how long!!!!!!!

Until whenever, we will continue to embrace zero degrees!!!