Hope House

New Hope's baby house is called Hope House. These babies now have hope for a bright future! We weren't able to get as many pictures as we have in the past because they have a new policy about picture taking to protect the babies and so they are not living in a "fishbowl" (because every mzungu who comes wants to take hundreds of pictures of the adorable babies and they need to maintain normalcy & consistently in their daily routine). So we were only supposed to take from afar or from behind, but they let us get a couple close ups to say THANKYOU to Donna Spakes for making and donating these beautiful blankets:

The highlight of Alea's day was getting to join the babies for their afternoon walk every day. 

We also got to join them for morning devotions, which was a precious time of drums, tambourines and all variety of of hand-held instruments mingled with sweet little voices and Ugandan staff's voices.

Home Visits

This is one of my absolute favorite things to do when we come!  Traveling out to the villages surrounding New Hope Uganda, we get see the "real" Uganda. It is so precious getting to visit the care givers for our sponsored children who are day students--meaning they walk in for school every day but don't live not he property because they have a grandmother or auntie or other next of kin who can care for them--in some cases even a mother (see my earlier post called "Father's Day").  Their families are sooo grateful for our sponsorship and we have a special bond with each one.

This is the new house we helped pay for, for one of our sponsored daughters (her old house was falling down):

One reoccurring theme from these home visits is gratitude! They are oozing with thankfulness to us for sponsoring their child and we always defer to God for His provision. It's His money, we are just passing it along.

They always laden us with gifts such as fruit, nuts, produce from their garden. Some of you will remember that we were even given a chicken one year!  We are so blessed by their generosity as they give from the heart and share what little they have with us.

In the van ride thru one of the towns, Jonas had been begging to stop at the market and buy sugar cane because we've been here 2 whole weeks and he never got any yet...so of course he was THRILLED when one of our sponsored sons handed him this bundle of it:

This year's prize was a huge pumpkin that our guest house cook turned into soup (she makes the most delicious soups!!!).

Knocking down avacodos out of her tree for us:

So touched by these beautiful flowers set out in our honor! One mother even swept the dirt in her front yard for our visit! 

 This was the sweetest thing ever....one of our younger daughters showed us her room and I happened to notice this on the wall:

Images of their houses, outdoor kitchens, gardens, yards & "stores" (storage sheds):

Goat stew anyone?

Chicken coop:

Dish drying racks:

When they invite us into their homes, they give the traditional Ugandan greeting by kneeling on the floor in frontof us and welcoming us in the Luganda language....talk about feeling like an honored guest!!! They sit on the floor and offer us the seats.

This is our son who lives in one of the family groups on the New Hope property. We had fun visiting him for devotions in the evenings and grow to love all the kids. Joey & Anissa both took a turn leading devotions.

And watching them cook supper:

(Traditional posha & beans)

The white ants were a special treat the week we were there (they are the ones that all crawled out of the ground overnight, mated and lost their wings all at once.) We found out the kids had all gotten up at 3am to got collect them! It was the big buzz of the week! ;)

The folded paper into cones to hold the ants. They had to make sure each kid got their fair share:

Look at that face full of anticipation:

2 "Mothers" loving & caring for the child....one long distance, one day to day. It's a beautiful thing!