Why did the octopus hop onto land?!?

Well, here we are in Uganda, AT LAST...

It's still almost unreal. We have been planning for months and months and now that we are finally here, after a 36 hour plane ride, it just does not seem real.

We left KCI Monday evening @ 6pm, which we almost missed boarding time. This is how it went.

Overhead speaker going off:
"Tomlinson and Shaw please report to Gate 77. Tomlinson and Shaw please report to Gate 77."

AmyRose: Stacie, I think that they just said my name.
Stacie thinking AmyRose is crazy: Uh, no way. I don't think they did.

"Tomlinson and Shaw please report to Gate 77. Tomlinson and Shaw please report to Gate 77."

AmyRose: Yes. I heard my name for sure that time. And they are calling yours as well.
Stacie: Why would they be calling our names. This doesn't make any sense.
AmyRose: I don't know but we have to go find out.

Sure enough boarding began @ 5:30 and it is now 5:48pm... They had been calling our names repeatedly for over ten minutes. The not-so-nice gentlemen at the gate accused us of sipping on our lattes far too long and not paying attention.

So our families and boyfriends watched through the window as we ran to the plane--the very last to board :)

We get to Chicago in plenty of time and head straight to the Gate, which we happened to arrive at our gate an hour BEFORE boarding time just to be on the safe side. Lo and behold walking upon the gate we hear "Shaw and Tomlinson, please return to Gate 55." We both, out of breath from running to our gate, look at each other and laugh saying," Not again." This time, it was a mess up from KCI and they had said that we did not pay for the extra baggage, which we had. They got it figured out and we made it in time for our flight.

We got to Lond0n with a nine our layover awaiting us. We decide to take a bus to Windsor castle. There we took lots of pictures of the castle and visited a STARBUCKS...Yes can you believe that they had a STARBUCKS??? Stacie was ecstatic...AmyRose wanted to run the opposite direction... :-) Stacie says this is for real the last time Stacie gets treated to Starbucks over the last six months..Unless someone wants to send her some.. hint hint..
We had a great ministry opportunity to an elderly gentlemen named Bill in Starbucks. You always meet the loveliest people at any Starbucks you go...(That goes out to all of Stacie's customers :-)) We got to share with him about how the Lord has led us to Uganda and how we know that we are doing the Lord's will. After sharing about Jesus, He tells us that he had zero desire to know Jesus...So I think he may have thought we were a bit crazy...but we told him that he would be in our prayers.

We actually slept really well on the first nine hour flight from Chicago to London. But the second flight from London to Uganda was not the same. Since we had such a long layover in London, and it was bitterly cold outside (Some locals said it was the coldest day they had in over 15 years) we headed back to the airport early where we pushed some couches together in Starbucks to make a little cozy cot and to take a nap. Many comments were made by passersby concerning the two young women passed out in the coffee shop booths :) The nap turned into five hours which caused us to be insomniacs on the 2nd plane ride. The entire plane was passed out and in the dark, at around 3:00AM, while we had our little overhead lights on, watching movies and reading. When the rest of the plane woke up, we met the man sitting next to us. His name is David and he is from Kampala! (about an hr. from where we are staying) He was such a blessing to talk to, and very encouraging of our mission in Uganda.

ALL of our luggage arrived with us to Uganda which is a huge blessing!! Getting our visas went well--for the most part. We were told we could not get a 6-month visa and were given a 90 day pass and told to apply for a longer one when our 90 days expires. Alma, or "Judga" as most call her (meaning Grandma), and Ivan and Jimmy were awaiting our arrival at the airport. Cramming three large suitcases, 2 large tubberware bins, a guitar, two carry-ons, and 5 people into the car was quite a site.

Alma's house is BEAUTIFUL!!! We feel like we are living in a mansion. The house is gated, and we live right next to quite a wealthy engineer. House also comes equipped with a night guard :) Almost as soon as we got to Entebbe we went grocery shopping and had our money exchanged into shillings, then we headed back to the house and visited with several of Alma's friends including Pastor Kaya and his wife. We were EXHAUSTED from jet lag, so we passed out for almost 8 hrs!! This was most def. NOT a good idea, as we had much trouble sleeping at night because of it...

Alma made sure to make us feel very welcome in our home and reminded us that this is 'our' home as well for the next 6 months--we are not visitors, but her daughters :) Thomas and Reuben called right before we went to bed--such a blessing to hear their voices! Stacie and I went to bed tired but both woke up at 3:30AM wide awake!!! This is when we realized the 8hr. nap was a terrible idea. We were both starving so we broke into the 'hot n' spicy' cheez-its (perfect late-night snack), and then attempted to go back to sleep....pointless. We were wired all morning, which ended up being a total God thing, as we had some wonderful late-night conversation.

I don't think either one of us has ever been so excited to see the sun rise!! At about 6:30AM, the phone alarm clock went off.
AmyRose's thoughts: "Seriously!?!? She was actually planning on waking up this early on purpose?? This will be a long 6 months."

hahaha :) We began our first morning watching the Ugandan rain and thunder, eating fresh pineapple, and ... doing sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, and jumping jacks. ALL Stacie's idea, of course :) Then we decided to put our expert chef skills to work. We made Alma a delicious meal of fried diced potatoes, red onions, garlic and eggs, with a side of bread and strawberry jam. YUM. (the electricity decided to go off in the middle of this, by the way, which thank goodness didn't matter b/c it was a gas stove).

So we think we may be without electricity for the day...so we may have to cut this pretty soon.

I bet you are all, especially Harold Hartzler, just dying to find out the answer to the ocotopus question...

While in Chicago we met a lovely little boy named Benedict Thomas Lloyd. He was a five year old boy from England and had the cutest accent. He took a strong liking to the both of us and was flooding us with jokes.

Why did the octopus hop onto land was his question. The answer is that the octopus wanted to find out what heaven was like. We didn't realize the depth of this joke until much later.

The octopus represents us in many ways. Just like the octopus being curious and coming out of its natural environment, so are we. We came to Uganda, away from what was comfortable and natural to experience heaven in a sense. We know that God has something so much greater for us and in order for us to experience that, we must be available. So we have come up onto land and have made ourselves available to experiencing his kingdom on earth...

So, we must go now. But we want you all to know that we love you and appreciate all of your support and your prayers. Continue to pray for us and keep commenting. We love to read your comments!!!