Our Ugandan Adoption: Renewed Spirit

Gosh I was tired. I have not gotten much sleep over the past few nights. I actually am not a real happy and focused person if I get more than hours or so, but last night, I did not sleep at all.

I am on the board for Anawim Uganda. They are a great group of individuals who are inspired to create real change. Our mission statement reads, "Anawim Uganda seeks to provide Christ centered support to Ugandan youth to inspire their futures, improve their communities, better their education, and to nurture the spiritual growth of young Catholic leaders." What a blessing to be involved with such dedicated people.

Anyway, I spent most of the day answering questions from my home study packet, and I was feeling a little down about the continual questions about race, and how I will handle your hardships and help you through. As soon as your brothers and sister were fed, I sat down to start the process of updating our organization's website. This is a bit of a chore because sometimes the computer just refuses to upload fonts, or pictures, or whole page changes. It just takes a long time to do. Also, I have to open up the email from the past few weeks, download and save all of the pictures we receive from Uganda about different projects and such, update Father's blog, contact info, etc. Around 2 or 3 AM I was on a mission to find a new picture for one of the pages, and I just got caught up in it.

I have maybe a hundred to two hundred different pictures of kids, homes, schools, and places, in Masaka. I couldn't help but feel overcome by the beauty of the nature there, the courage behind tiny smiles, the simplicity and yet the hardships of daily living. I thought maybe I would share a few pictures and the link to our website. Anawim Uganda is the name of our non-profit, and happens to be the web address as well. The "Anawim" in scripture are the poor ones of God.

As you will see, the kids are always so joyful; huge smiles, big innocent eyes. The Ugandan people are really some of the most steadfast peoples I have ever come to know. I cannot wait until it is my turn to go visit the wonderful Delta Center in Masaka. Flipping through all of these digital files last night, I could not help but feel renewed, excited, happy, and joyful. I hope that your smile is as big as theirs when you come home to us.