Ella Jo

The story of how this little precious girl came into the world will have to wait. I figured I would at least share some pictures of her first few days with us.

FaceTime with Mimi.

Hanging out with Daddy. 

Quality time with brother.

Full tummy. 

She has the same color hair that I was born with. She has a similar look to her brother when he was just a few days old. She has long limbs like her daddy and I don't have a picture yet but her toes are most defiantly the "Fox toes." 

We are in love with this little bundle and are thanking the Lord for her life and her health. 

36 Weeks

Ok well actually 35 and a half weeks... but here is to rounding up. 

This week we have had our dear friends Brady and Shannon Daniels stay with us. Brady is the Video/Worship Coordinator at our church in AZ and he has come here to get some video and stories about what the Lord is doing here in Kampala. 

I can't wait to see and share all that Brady is gathering while he is here. As we wait for all that he is compiling I wanted to share some photos with you. Brady took these photos today for us to help document our family in this season. In a few short weeks Miss Ella will make her appearance. 

Here is what we have been staring at the last few weeks as we wait to hold our little girl in our arms. 

African Sunday

At least once a year UCF has what we call "African Sunday." On this Sunday we have church as normal but all of our worship songs are African songs, usually sung in several different languages. I think we sang songs in 4 different languages. Many of my east African friends are so good at languages, I don't think I have any friends here that don't know less than 3 languages. Most of the languages we sang in on Sunday were from the Bantu language family of languages so they are at least familiar sounding to most of the congregation. The diversity of language is unfortunately lost in America compared to what we experience in Uganda. It is a beautiful thing to worship Yahweh in this way. 

Another aspect of "African Sunday" is to wear specifically African clothes. Kyle just so happened to be preaching this Sunday so he had to wear something African. I have gotten a few dresses since living here but my choice was based on what dress actually fit me at 7 1/2 months pregnant. Obie had his shirt made by a woman who works in a shop near our house, who had it made in just a matter of hours. I went into her shop one day with Obie on my hip and asked her if she could make a shirt for him. She looked him up and down, said "He is about 2 years right?" and told me to come back in a few hours. 

Erin and I could not handle the cuteness of these kiddos all dressed in their African clothes. 

 

32 Weeks

Well 31 weeks and 5 days if you want to be exact. 

We have failed to take as many pictures as we would like recently, so today we decided to snap a few before we headed out to the store.

This little cute boy finally has gotten a hair cut. I had to consider this decisions for a while before I could go through with it. 

The curls are still there just will less intensity. 

Moving

I have been putting this blog post off for a little bit. Initially, when it was decided that we were moving I wanted to tell the world the news. As we waited for the right time to communicate, I experienced more and more complex emotions about our move.

Starting sometime in July, Kyle will begin working as the associate pastor at Red Mountain Community Church in Mesa, AZ and will be a candidate for the next lead pastor. 

On May 11th we will be flying back to Arizona with our TWO children and will begin to try to figure out how to live in America again. In many ways things are the same as they were three years ago when we moved to Uganda BUT in several other ways I am very uncertain of the changes that we are going to experience.

Why are we leaving Uganda?
We always knew that coming to Uganda would not be a permanent thing. We knew from the beginning that the Lord's desire for us was to work alongside the leadership of University Community Fellowship, providing them with help and encouragement as long as the Lord saw fit. Over the last several months we have become confident that the Lord desires us to be back serving at Red Mountain Community Church (RMCC). We are also confident that the Lord has been leading and working in the leadership of UCF and we are excited to see how the Lord will lead Pastor Micah and the team around him in the coming years. The relationship between RMCC and UCF has been a consistent one over the last 14 years and we know the Lord will continue to link these two churches together to further his kingdom.

In no particular order...

We are EXCITED: to be following where the Lord is directing us, to be living near family again, to be back where so many things are familiar, to be amongst so many friends that we have missed.

We are SCARED: to be leaving this place that has become our home, to re-adjust to American culture, to transition our kids to a completely new place.

We are SAD: to leave so many good friends that we have made over the last few years, to not know how long it will be till we return for a visit, to leave a country and culture that has so much beauty.

We are NERVOUS: to have a baby sometime in April and then move all the way across the world in May, to experience many unknowns as we transition, to be taking on a new job at RMCC and all the responsibility that it holds.

We are TRUSTING that this is where the Lord wants us and that he is leading us and guiding us. He is so faithful to us. He taught us much over the past three years and transformed us in amazing ways.  We know that he will continue to do so as we follow his leading.

We are HOPEFUL to see how the Lord works and moves at RMCC and at UCF.

Depending on the day or the moment in the day I am feeling something different.
We are so thankful that in the midst of these emotions Yahweh is providing us with such great PEACE that surpasses all understanding.


Would you pray for us during this time? For our marriage and for our kids, would you pray that we walk by the Spirit? Please pray how the Spirit leads you to.

If you are financially supporting us we would ask that you continue to support us for the two months that we transition back to the states before Kyle starts work at RMCC. We will communicate further via email with how those details will be worked out.

Christmas in the Village

We have been wanting to go to the village with our dear friends the Lamas (Emmanuel, Dorcus, Jezreel and Ariella) for a long time. As it turned out, Christmas was the best time to go because of Dorcus's time off of work. We have been looking forward for this trip for awhile now. We traveled about 320 km (about 220 miles) to the village of Kashenshero and then went a little bit further till we got to Dorcus's dad's house. Because of traffic and a few extra stops our journey there lasted about 9 hours. Obadiah did great as he had much entertainment in the car. We took our good friend Rhona and her son Hamlet with us and dropped them off at Rhona's mom's house along the way. Obie loves Hamlet and Jezreel and the boys kept each other laughing for a lot of the time.  Most of our travels were on good paved road but the last hour was on winding dirt roads that went over rolling hills. 

Soon after arriving at Dorcus's dad's house, we were told that a goat was going to be slaughtered and should go watch and learn about how it was done. Goat is a favorite Ugandan meat and is a Christmas tradition no matter what tribe you are from. 

We arrived on the 24th and stayed until the 27th and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and cooler temperatures. Obadiah loved running around and exploring with Jez. 

On Christmas we headed to church for their service that ended up being around four hours long. Even though we were late we were ushered to the front of the church as special guests. Obie managed to get a nap in during the sermon, and we managed to understand a bit of what was going on even though the service was spoken in Runyankore (Luganda is the language spoken in Kampala). It is always great to hear the celebratory worship that takes place in a church in the village. We also got to witness offerings of thanksgivings that were brought to the church which included goats, chickens, eggs, maize, sugar cane, millet flour, pumpkins and various other things. At the end of the service these things were sold and the profit went back to the church offering. 

Kyle was asked to share a few words and shared 1 Cor 15:1-4 while Emanuel translated for him.

We managed to get a few pictures at church, below I am with Dorcus and her step-mom. We are actually wearing a style of dress that originates in Rwanda. Emannuel is half Rwandese and being that these tribes in the south west of Uganda share a few similarities with some tribes in Rwanda, several other women at church were wearing this style of dress as well. 

In previous visits to more rural parts of Uganda, Kyle and I have experienced the attention that comes from having different color skin form everyone around us. We expected this again on this trip bit were surprised to see the reaction to Obadiah. I think being a little white person in this area is very rare and so after church we had this group and a few not pictured, following us around and eating to touch Obie. 

After getting home from church we had to take several pictures with the family in from of the house, here we are with Dorcus's dad and his wife. 

I had to get one of Obie, Jezreel and Blessing (Jez's cousin) who spent most of the days running around and playing together.

The following day we got to visit with more friends that either came to the house or we visited in their homes. We had the opportunity to pray with many people that are followers of Yahweh and experience some of his Kingdom that is here on earth. We had such a wonderful time and were treated with so much love and hospitality by the Lamas and their family. It is a wonderful thing to be in the family of God and to share these sweet memories with loved ones. 

On the way home we made much better time as we made it in less than six hours. It is a very "touristy" thing to stop at the equator and take pictures. Even though Rhona, Dorcus and Emanuel have crossed the equator hundreds of times they have never stopped to take a picture here. It just so happened that Obie needed a diaper change so we decide to stop and take a picture.  This is such a special picture to me, I love these people so much! 

We had a great Christmas we hope you did too! 

Merry Christmas

This is our second Christmas in Uganda (last year we were in the States for the Holidays). Just like two years ago, it is a bit challenging to get in "the Christmas Spirit" when it is 85 degrees outside. We have been doing advent as a family and are enjoying it, Obadiah enjoys playing (and breaking) the nativity set that we have set up. Despite the weather, these things help to get us feeling like it is Christmas. One other thing that will add to our Christmas festivities is that we will be traveling to the village with our good friends, the Lamas (Emmanuel, Dorcus, Jezreel, and Ariella). The village that Dorcus' family is from is about a 5 hour drive west from Kampala. We are looking forward to the three days we will spend there and the new Christmas memories we will make. 

The Allen's were taking family pictures because Sophia was dedicated today. In order to get a picture for Christmas we had to take these pictures before church on Sunday, before Obadiah had the chance to get dirty. I couldn't resist getting these two cute boys in a picture together. Aren't they just darling? They are becoming such good friends and it is so fun to watch them play together. Sometimes they are in their own little world talking to each other and laughing. Of course they both still try to take toys from the other but they really do love each other. 

I will try to take some pictures of our trip so that you can get the idea of how we celebrate Christmas in the village in Uganda. 

No matter how or who you will be celebrating with, our desire is that this Christmas you know what great love was demonstrated when Yahweh sent his son to this earth to make a way for us to be in relationship with His people. 

Merry Christmas from the Foxes