If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

Wow!  I left only one week ago and it seems like it has been a year (for so many reasons)!!! First of all, I am missing Andy and the kids so badly!  Internet hasn't been great, so I haven't talked to them but once and emails have been sporadic.  Today has been my first real homesick day and it isn't very much fun to be homesick. Secondly, I have met so many amazing people and have made some really great friends!  I mentioned in my first Uganda post about many of the people I've gotten to know and the wonderful things they are doing around the world.  It is humbling and awe inspiring!  I'm the oldest one here in the program and they are all making such big differences in so many different countries!  Wow!  Two girls who are my neighbors in the dorm have been so great to me (even though they were born while I was at prom) and I've had a blast laughing with them until way past midnight every night.  (All of the girls in the dorm have been w...

I made it!  The trip was easy and getting to the University was fine.  It is so nice to be back in East Africa and it made me realize how much I truly love and miss Rwanda.  Our plane stopped there first and we couldn't get out and my heart was being tugged out towards the tarmac.  Next summer. . . . ! Today was our first official day (yesterday was just jet lag recovery).  I've met some really neat people and I'm excited about this new community I am now a part of.  So many people doing so many amazing things in Africa. . .I feel very out of my league.  There are two girls from Georgia living in Kenya and another girl heading to Bolivia and another heading to Saudi.  There is a guy living in a refugee camp (as a worker) in South Sudan and another living in Liberia and others from Uganda. . . they have unbelievable stories.  Some are Americans, some are Africans, some were refugees themselves. . . a few are Rwandan and they told me that I ...

I'm heading to Uganda tomorrow and I have no idea how I am feeling about that.  I'll be gone for nearly a month and the emotions swirling inside my head (heart) are a little bit confusing. I have no attachment for Uganda and I would so much rather be going to Rwanda.  That's a weird feeling.  Plus, I'll be in class from 8-6 six days a week, so I won't be seeing much of the country and that, too, is weird for me. I think the biggest thing is that I haven't really been anywhere alone in nearly 20 years.  Who am I without Andy?  Who am I without my kids (that's even the bigger question)?  I know, I sound pathetic, but it isn't a pathetic "who am I?" it's just that.  I've been a mom since 1998 and I haven't been alone since that time.  I'm heading to school to meet new people and I'm not sure who they are going to meet. . .who is this person sitting in Uganda alone with no kids?  I'm not sure if I can even describe it...

Yesterday was a great Father's Day.  It was our day off and it was much needed!  Andy and Kevin rode their bikes to Silverton and we (the rest of the Braners and the rest of the Blackwells) were their support staff.  The scenery was beautiful (perfect day), but my pictures don't reflect that because my camera was set on some funky setting (again).  Bummer!  After the bike ride, we all went to our house and napped (I took a four hour nap) followed by four more hours of just chilling out and snacking.  It was perfect!

Gabby and Rae may be having the best summer ever!  I have to give 99.99% of the credit to Lesley for making every day more amazing than the day before.  They have a huge calendar of all of the free events in Durango and when they take place, then they have a wish list of things they want to do. . . meanwhile, Lesley keeps discovering more and more wonderful things for them to do around camp.  It's unbelievable!!! Yesterday she made this thing. . . I'm not sure what to call it: slip 'n' slide meets the blob meets the glitter fairy.  She took clear painter's plastic and taped it together and filled it with water and food coloring and glitter and the girls played on it all day long!  It was the hit of the summer (so far).  Last night I walked in to Gabby's room and the three of them have blankets up like a fort and they are reading some of the zillions of library books they checked out and they are giggling and having the time of their lives. What a summe...

Where has the time gone?  I cannot believe that twelve years ago today, I was sitting up here in this office with my very first KCO leadership team and we were talking about how we were going to pull off our very first opening day.  I knew I was in labor, but I had so much to do and I guess I just figured it would go away if I ignored it.  That didn't happen! Maggie is so difficult for me to describe to people.  I have no idea why.  She is so special to me and I just love her so much--we've come a long way from severe colic and postpartum (bad combination for a mother daughter team to start with--to what we have now.  I love her so much.  She is so sweet and so compassionate and loving.  She is easy to be around and easy to get along with and she makes me laugh.  She thinks that I am so weird, but she tolerates (and even loves) me anyway. She is confident in who she is and she doesn't need the world's approval.  She is a good fr...

Last night (here at Kivu), we went around the world.  This could have been one of our best parties in along time!  We got to start in Paris where we ate dinner and were serenaded by actual live music and it was really good.  They made the best Eiffel Tower out of this huge ladder and Christmas lights and they had a crepe stand.  It was super!  After dinner I left the party but the kids continued on to Moscow where they had a variety show and then to Cartegena where they learned to Salsa dance and they finished the party in Tokyo under the stars with a great all camp dance.  This party had fun and they had ever detail covered. It was amazing! Dressing up was so much fun!  Maggie and I were so glad that we shopped so much in India last Fall because everyone had a super outfit from Jaipur (except for mine which was from Saudi).  I really loved last night and the outfits just made the super party perfect! Have I mentioned that we a...