Daughter of the King

As I write this, I find it hard to believe that 2015 is coming to an end and 2016 is about to begin. I find it hard to believe that I have been home for 6 months and that in 6 days I will be traveling down to Nashville for a few days before I head to Uganda. In less than 2 weeks I will be back in the country that I called home for a year, the country that I will once again call home for this coming year. It's a bit surreal as I prepare to leave my family and friends once again to go and serve the people that I fell in love with over 7,000 miles away.  My best friends from my alma mater  Saying goodbye to people is never easy. There are no guarantees in this life and each moment that we are allowed to breath is a blessing. Recently, there have been many deaths and medical scares among my friends and it helps remind me that each moment that we have is precious. We should make the best of what we have been given and never take a second for granted. I'm very thankful for thi

Looking back at my blog, I can't believe it's been 6 months to today that I last posted here. Writing blogs has always been a struggle for me and since I've been home, it completely slipped my mind. I apologize! I have quite a few updates for you... Sarah's Graduation I came home mid June for my sister's high school graduation. I was happy that I was able to come home to be with her for such a major event in her life. It hurt my heart to leave the people that I had been with for a year, but I left knowing that I would be going back. I also got to go on vacation with my family which I haven't been able to do in a very long time. It was nice to get away and spend some quality time with them. At the beach When I initially went home, I went with the intention of being home for about a month and a half and then I would be moving to Nashville to do work for HEAL stateside through December. Proverbs 16:9 says "The heart of man plans his way, but

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:           a time to be born, and a time to die;           a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;           a time to kill, and a time to heal;           a time to break down, and a time to build up;           a time to weep, and a time to laugh;           a time to mourn, and a time to dance;           a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;           a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;           a time to seek, and a time to lose;           a time to keep, and a time to cast away;           a time to tear, and a time to sew;           a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;           a time to love, and a time to hate;           a time for war, and a time for peace.                     Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV This verse was part of a devotion that I did about a month ago. I started writing this blog then b

I was sitting poolside at The Haven when the song "Finally Home" by MercyMe came on with the rain pouring down around me. The first line of the song was talking about wrapping your arms around your Father's neck. My initial thought was that when I come home, I am going to get to hug my Dad for the first time in a year. I'll also get to hug the rest of my family and my friends when I get to see them again. And then the song continued. And I realized that it was talking of going home to our Heavenly Father.  By the pool next to the Nile  As the song continued, I thought about what home meant to me. Home here on this earth is being with the people you love. And that made me realize that never again on this earth will I ever feel at home. I have people that I love all over this world. And I don't think my heart will ever be content again being in one place. However, I think that's how this life is supposed to be lived. We are supposed to love others a

He's not even two and a half, but he's stolen a huge piece of my heart. This little boy is near and dear to me, and he's gone through more pain than many will in in their lifetime. Meet Joshua. Or Musa (Pronounced "Moo-sey" which is Luganda for Moses - because he's wise for his years). He's an old man in a little boy's body. And he has the biggest smile that lights up his entire face and everyone around him.    This precious little boy suffers from sickle cell disease. Sickle cell is a blood disorder where your red blood cells are actually shaped like sickles or crescents, hence the name.  Normal red blood cells are soft and round and can squeeze through tiny blood tubes (vessels). Normally, red blood cells live for about 120 days before new ones replace them.  People with sickle cell conditions make a different form of hemoglobin A called hemoglobin S (S stands for sickle). Red blood cells containing mostly hemoglobin S do not live as

The last two weeks have been extremely busy. Tina arrived on Monday two weeks ago, and then the next day I had to go to Entebbe to pick a team that was arriving that night. Since then, it’s been balancing trying to go over everything that’s happened during the time that Tina was away and getting stuff that she needs done with doing all of the activities with the team. The team that is here is from Harpeth Hall, an all girls high school in Nashville, TN. Every time this year, they send a team of girls here to work with HEAL for a few weeks. There were originally supposed to be 22 girls coming, however, a lot of their parents freaked out about ebola (even though ebola is closer to them in Tennessee than it is to us here in Uganda. So, the trip ended up being only 7 girls, led by a woman who is on our board.  The last morning the team had at The James Place The Lord chose these 7 girls to be the ones to come on this trip, and it has been an honor getting to know them during the