Home Sweet Home

it feels so good to be home with my family! i just keep thinking about the past month and all that has brought me to this amazing place in my life. what an incredible journey!

our last day two days in uganda were very special, we had our good-bye party on thursday. it was very emotional for me. all the mamas (nannies) played the drums and were singing songs of praise. before we had the cakes and snacks one of the mamas said a prayer in luganda, i have no idea what she said but many of the mamas would shout out in the middle. i was crying and i didn't even know what she said. then they asked me to say something, i didn't know that i was going to have to do that. i had a hard time getting through it but i thanked everyone of loving and caring for my son for the past 2.5 years. i told them that they have changed my life and that this place will be in my heart forever. i am getting emotional now just thinking back to that moment. we were able to get a 50lb bag of rice and a 50lb bag of sugar for a gift to the mamas. after the cake we divided the rice and sugar into smaller bags for all the mamas. the mamas were so happy, while we were dividing it all up they were all singing and dancing. it was a beautiful moment. i did get some video, i will try to upload it in a few days! it was awesome to do something for all the ladies that work so hard taking care of these children. i think that the mamas only make about $40 a month. i wish i could have done more.

traveling alone with raymond was harder than i had imagined. he was really good for a 2.5 year old that was totally overwhelmed, but he had his moments. he had his first meltdown at the uganda airport when we realized that i had forgotten his juice cup at sanyu. i think i was even more upset than he was since we were going to have to be traveling for 24 hours with no juice cup. raymond fell asleep about 30 minutes after we were in the air and slept just about the whole flight. he woke up crying a few times, but i think he was just confused about where we were. i didn't sleep at all because we were in 2 middle seats so i had someone next to me and raymond has someone next to him. raymond slept with his head on my lap and he kept stretching his legs out and kicking the man that was sitting next to him. so i couldn't sleep, i was worried that raymond would disturb people.

our 5 hour layover was alright, the amsterdam airport has a kids play area and there were not very many kids there so it was nice for raymond to play! we ate mcdonalds... raymonds first time and he wouldn't eat it! i am not sure if he didn't like, or if he was just so overwhelmed. i tried to get a room at a little hotel so that i could get a fresh shower, but they were sold out. we finally got on plane #2, raymond was sooo tired and having many meltdowns so i was ready to get in the air so he would go to sleep. some people on the plane needed to get off the plane, so we had to wait for about one hour for the people to get off and then the airline had to take their bags off the plane. so instead of a 9 hour flight we were on the plane for 10 hours. 10 HOURS!!! raymond slept for about 25 minutes at the very beginning and that's it. i tried many times, but could not get him to go back to sleep. it was the longest hours of my life. i thought we would never be home. but he really did pretty good, and the flight attendant was so great she kept checking on us and bringing special treats for raymond. she always made sure that raymond had juice and snacks. when we were finally landing raymond passed out in my arms. the landing was rough, the plane was rocking and swerving, when we touched down raymond got sick all over the place. within 10 seconds of him throwing up he had an explosion in his diaper, and then he got sick again. it was everywhere... even down my shirt! since we were still taxing in i couldn't do anything. it was awful, and it smelled so bad. i felt so bad for everyone around us, and so bad for raymond. he had no idea what was going on. i waited for everyone to get off the plane and we went to the bathroom to get us all cleaned up.

it was quite overwhelming for me going through customs with raymond, our 2 carry on bags and our 3 checked bags by myself, but we made it! riding in the train to baggage claim was almost like a dream. i cried... almost didn't believe that it was happening. we got to the big escalator to ride up to where all our family was waiting, and it seemed like it was moving so slow. i stepped off the escalator and could see everyone! i can't even describe the feeling, or how to put into words how happy i felt. max and andy came over first and it was sooo good to see them. max is huge, i think he grew 6 inches while i was gone!!! to say that max was excited about meeting raymond is a huge understatement. it was so awesome to see my boys together! it felt so good to have andys arms around us. it was just a huge relief to have so many people that love us with me! after a few moments we introduced raymond to the rest of the family. what an awesome way to end our trip. while we were in uganda i kept trying to imagine what it would be like to come home... i could see it. it felt like it was never going to happen. but it was perfect!!!

it feels so good to be home! raymond is doing as good as we can expect. he is terrified of our dog! hopefully it wont take long for him to get used to her. max and raymond have lots of adjusting to do, it think it will take some time. but really we are doing great! they boys were only up once last night. they are napping right now. i am really tired, and can't wait to get my energy back. my sister took all the pictures at the airport, if you haven't seen them on facebook you can check out her blog, www.loveisspokenhere.wordpress.com when i get some pictures form her i will post them here.

i am going to do my best to update on our progress here, so keeping checking on us! it might not be as often, just depends on how the boys are doing!

thank you so much for all your prayers and your support. i could not have gotten through it without all of you!