Road Trip to the North

The Christmas season is such a great time of the year! This year our Christmas will be different, yet somehow similar. How great that all across the world people are celebrating Christmas, Jesus coming to earth as a baby so that He could live and die for us, to save us, HAPPY CHRISTMAS indeed! That being said, there are people and traditions at home that we are missing, but missing is good it means we love. And what a treat to be able to spend Christmas with beautiful babies that we have come to love. There is a song that I enjoy that is fitting for our Christmas this year…

“All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in. A shoulder to cry on if I loose, shoulders to ride on if I win. So much I could ask for but there’s just one thing I need – all I really want for Christmas is someone who will be here to sing me happy birthday for the next one hundred years. It’s ok if they’re not perfect and even if there a little broken that’s all right cause so am I.

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in tell me in. Tell me I’ll never be alone, someone whose love will never end. Of all that I could ask for well there’s just one thing I need – all I really want for Christmas is a family.”

Kids wanting a mom and a dad for Christmas instead of the newest toy really puts things into perspective!

We are so blessed to have Dan here – WHAT A TREAT!!! We have thoroughly enjoyed having a little piece of home here. He has been working at both the production unit and the babies home and has been introduced to many, many people.

This past week we had the privilege of going on an African Safari! It was a great trip. Something Matt and I have been dreaming about for many years! We saw so many animals and let me tell you seeing them in the wild is sooo much better then the zoo! We did two game drives, one in a bus and the other in a 6 seater open top jeep, which was the full experience, 4x4ing through the African tundra with the sun on your face and animals all around!!! We also took a boat tour down the Nile River to Murchison Falls, surrounded by crocks and hippos the entire way! The hotel that we stayed at was right on the Nile River and had great food and great views. In the evening you couldn’t swim in the pool because the wild hippos would often come up and go for a dip☺ It was fun to experience this with Dan!

On our trip up to the Safari we stopped in at Gulu, a city in the North of Uganda that was very badly affected by the war in Uganda. If you have heard of child soldiers or the LRA this is an area where both were very much present. Watoto is opening a new babies home in Gulu, they have already started another children’s village and their little church that is busting at the seams! They also have a ministry in called Living Hope that cares for the woman who were affected by the war. These women were abused brutally, have been left with HIV and often widowed etc etc. Each lady has her own specific story to tell. They feed 900 women ever week, are teaching women skills so that they can make a living and providing much needed trauma counseling for them. Great things are being done!

We also briefly stopped by an IDP (internally displaced people) camp. These are small areas with rows of small huts that became people’s homes due to the war in the north. The government placed soldiers at these camps to protect the people. The ‘war’ in Uganda ended over three years ago and these camps are still quite full. So much is being done, but so much more needs to be done.

In other news Matt is done at the production unit until the New Year. He had his Christmas party today complete with games, speeches, dancing, local food and the Christmas story. This was the first time Matt has ever gotten a sunburn going to a Christmas party.

We received two new babies this past week, both abandoned at the local hospital. They are beautiful little boys, both just born and doing very well! I have heard that the holiday season is a bad for people abandoning babies, so we shall see what the next couple of weeks entails. I took Nellie to church last Sunday. They were doing a kids Christmas cantata for the service. She loved it!

Stay tuned for the tales of the first Kaminski African Christmas!