Handfuls of Blessings

It was very special for Stanley to be able to celebrate his birthday with his Grandpa this year, as they share birthdays.  Who knows the next time they will be able to do this again! A special birthday bond I actually made Stanley's cake the night before, since we were going to be traveling on his birthday.  Since he is past the interest in shaped cakes, I have been making specialty rice crispy cakes for his birthdays in the past few years.  This year, I crushed up Oreo-look-alikes and pretzels and added them to the rice crispy cereal before adding the melted marshmallows.  After it cooled in the pan, I drizzled melted white chocolate on top.  It was VERY good! Yikes - two adult children now. On his actual birthdate, we had homemade ice cream for breakfast.  That really earned me the mom-of-the-year award! Cappuccino ice cream, anyone? After lunch we traveled down to Mbarara to stay with Keith's parents.  Any trip to Mbarara brings th...

It began weeks ago.  The anticipation of who would win the shoes was high, and so everyone began inviting and inviting.  Our focus for this Independence Day service was first-time visitors.  Ugandans are full of promises, and we hear people promise us every week that they will come.  However, with a Friday service not being a regular church-day service, we were hoping for a great turnout.  Although we didn't get an official final count, we estimated that we ended up with about 90-100 first-time visitors!  WOW!  Both the man and the woman who brought the most visitors were promised a pair of new shows from our local shoe store.  All our people did great, but the man who brought the most?  It was Paul Sserunjogi - the lame man in our church who doesn't even wear shoes! Paul Sserunjogi Of course, we will be sure to substitute something equally of value, but wow - how convicting to those of us who do wear shoes and have the ability to wa...

August is the busiest month for birthdays in our family, as well as in our extended family, as well as in our surrounding missionary family.  However, August is also when sickness hit our family this year. At the beginning of August we visited one of our village churches that was halfway to Keith's parent's house, so after the service we continued on to Mbarara for a couple of days.  We came back to Masaka on Keith's birthday, but Mom Stensaas celebrated the birthdays the night before with cake and ice cream.  However, I came down with the stomach flu and was up half the night. Keith has started drinking coffee this year, so a BIG cup of "coffee" was his cake. Needless to say, I headed straight to bed after arriving home and still didn't feel well for Skyler's birthday the next day.  I finally recovered on Thursday, and then Friday Stanley began running a fever with shakes and headache. Pizza anyone?  It truly looked like the real thing. S...

I really don't see how time gets away from me so very quickly.  I love to write on this blog, but somehow I need to find a specific time for writing consistently or something!  After all, it has been over a month...again...since I posted.  So much has happened!  Let me start with the most recent and gradually work backwards. The student body of PVI singing. This past Saturday we had Parent's Day for Providence Vocational Institute.  We have been holding classes for 1-1/2 years now and currently enroll 31 students.  Awards were presented from the Sport's Day they recently had, and several local government officials came. Principal James Sebyoto and Director Keith Stensaas Keith and I celebrated 22 years of sweet married life in June; however, our anniversary happened to be on the day we took our oldest son back to the airport.  (The first time he left for the States was on Mother's Day!  We have to stop sending him away on important ...

Somehow, this post got lost in the drafts...oops!  Better late than never, right? I know...we are more than halfway through May, and I am now posting about April?  One thing I have to remind myself is that this blog isn't to govern my life - it is just a way to share my life.  I wish I had more time to sit down and write, but I don't, so I must learn to be content for when I am able. I made this skirt from a dress that was Keith's mom's. Shae-Lynn wore it, Savannah wore it, and now it is being passed down to other cousins. April began with Easter celebration.  The Friday before when Keith and I were in town, we saw a group of Catholics carrying a large cross through the streets, causing traffic to stop as people gathered around to bow down to it.  This brought to the forefront of our minds the blaring reason we are here - to open their eyes to the truth.  We don't worship the cross, but the Savior who died on it and is risen again. The cross k...

We have been SO blessed by having Shane visit us for two weeks, but tomorrow we take him back to the airport.  Today we were able to squeeze in a couple of family photos.  I hope you enjoy them.