Pictures from Safari

Picture #1:  We had just returned from dinner after a day in the car traveling around the park and looking at animals when these two warthogs walked up.  We watched them from our porch for over an hour before they left to find other food.  They are great at mowing the lawn.  They walk on their front legs bent on their knee so they can almost crawl and eat grass and a decent pace.  We were all amazed they were this comfortable with us after seeing them on safari and having them run off as soon as we pulled up in the car.

Picture #2: This is a close-up of the warthog at our doorstep.  Literally the kids were just feet away from them.  Joshua ran after one to pet him and Uncle PK went out and grabbed him a foot away from the hog!  Thank God for Uncles!

Picture #3: This is a herd of elephants that we saw on the shore of Lake George in the evening getting cool.  We saw many elephants on safari and literally you would b driving on a game trail and an elephant would step out and start eating tree leaves!  This herd was rather large and just getting water in the afternoon heat before heading back out to the Savannah.  I have video of a couple of the teenage elephants having a pushing match with their tusks to prove who is boss.  How are we different from elephants again?

Picture #4:  This is a herd of Cape Buffalo getting cooled off in the water.  They are extremely dangerous animals who will charge you if you get close.  We were approximately 100 feet from this herd on a boat, so you can see the "stink eye" you can see we are getting from the lead men in the herd that put themselves at the head of danger from the crocodile for the sake of the herd.  Don't you love chivalry?

Picture #5:  The nile croc, need I say more.  This is the world's largest croc!  They grow to almost twenty feet long and can easily take down one of the Cape Buffalo or most any other animal that gets close to the shore of the Nile.  This one is close to the source of the Nile and is much smaller than it's relatives that grow larger down stream.  At the head of the Nile they eat mostly fish and grow bigger and stronger as they go down stream.  This croc is approximately 12 feet and is cooling himself by keeping his mouth open.  It is awesome to see only a few feet away.  It is better than a defibrillator!

Picture #6:  The hippo!  This animal is responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other animal!  It is an amazing creature!  Every night the hippo leaves the water to go eat grass, and will travel 45 kilometers and then return to the water in the late morning/early evening to cool off from the heat.  If you are unfortunate enough to get in between the water and a hippo, or a baby hippo and a mother hippo, you are in trouble!  They can run faster than people can and the strength of their jaws is enough to snap a person in two!  They are incredibly humbly beasts, and a reminder that our God has a sense of humor!  How can an animal that funny looking, that fat and that weird, be so fast, agile and aggressive?  What an animal!

Picture #7:  This is obviously a picture of our five kids.  It is taken in one of the last sets of elephant tusks that were legally allowed to be taken from an elephant.  It is sad that the elephant was killed for these tusks, but terrific that people, though as sinful as we may be, can look past profits to see that is better to keep the elephant alive and save a future one from being killed for the sake of his tusks!  They make more money on tourism to see the live elephant, than from the hunters who come to kill them, or the black-market value for ivory from the tusk.  Praise God!!!

Picture #8:  This is a picture of the patriarch Baboon from a herd of the that we stumbled upon.  He was in the road blocking his extended family from danger as his lineage ate leaves in the tree and went on with life.  Incredibly intelligent animals and extremely fierce, you simply look into their eyes and know there is something more going on inside them.  I have plenty of video of their behavior which is intimidating and incredible at the same time if that makes sense.  I promise more when we get home, thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.

R & H + 5

Back to Kampala, Sorry for Delay

Okay so here is what happened... Uganda is having their elections for President next year and right now they have just finalized their final 8 candidates for election.  That finalization of their primaries sparked an impromptu meeting of all high courts to discuss potential fall-out and changes.  That made all court hearings on Tuesday (our scheduled day) get delayed until Wednesday.  To make the plot thicken our assigned judge is in her late sixties and has had a stroke in recent years that has left her with debilitating right side paralysis.  The way their system works is every four to six years a judge is rotated from each division in which they served within their court system.  Our judge has been serving in the "Family Court" division for almost twenty years because of her stroke and proximity to care!  If you ca believe this, after twenty years they have decided to re-assign her to another division of court starting November 1st.  What that means is that she was unwilling to see new cases within her court that would require her to conduct work beyond that Nov. 1st deadline.  Now to the God part... She initially refused to see our case and wanted us to be re-assigned to another judge which meant to us another two to three weeks, just for a court date (another 3 weeks of paperwork after that!).  Our lawyer, a christian man in his early forties with a son about Joshua's age, pleaded with the judge to hear and rule on our case without re-assignment.  His pleading work and not only did she hear and rule on our case on Wednesday, she gave her short ruling before 5 pm that day (usually takes 3-7 days) and will give us her long ruling (usually another 7-14 days) by Monday November 1st!!!  After the short ruling you are allowed to proceed with US Embassy paperwork for VISA (which we did Wed. afternoon) and begin requesting for a health physical (scheduled for Monday), passport pictures (done Wednesday) and ministry of gender letter (scheduled for next week).  All told God shortened this trip tremendously by re-assigning our judge and giving us Isaac as our attorney!  To celebrate we scheduled an impromptu safari to Queen Elizabeth National Park.  The downside was a 9 hour drive with 10 people in a mid 1980's caravan complete with crazy roads with pot-holes, 5 children and ants all over the seats (you do the math).  The park was amazing and we saw incredible amounts of cool animals that could kill and eat you if they wanted to just a few feet away from us (all on video for those interested).  There are too many stories to share of that adventure to spell them all out here (bats above doorway to room, beetles the size your hand, mongooses, chasing baboons, warthogs within two feet of our room).  We have most on video or pictures and can't wait to share them with you. 

Joshua has not missed a beat.  I mean this without exaggeration that this young man was made for our family.  He is gregarious, kind, out-going, fun loving, rolls with all the changes and is an endless source of smiles for all of us.  Blessed be the name of our Lord!!  More to share, but all is wonderful for a family of seven plus three in a hotel room in Kampala.

Today we went to church at Watoto.  I wish I had words to describe the spiritual experience we all had.  My chest was ready to explode from the Holy Spirit within.  All I could think of was when the Pharisees asked Jesus to quiet the crowd and He simply said, "If they were to be silenced, the stones would cry out."  Watoto church has 8 places of worship (churches) within the surrounding Uganda country.  Each church has two services on Saturday and five services on Sunday.  Each service has roughly one thousand people jammed into the building for worship.  That is 56,000 individual people each weekend.  It was nothing short of life changing.  They had a guest pastor from London who was incredible and inspiring.  We were all covered in sweat and tears from the service from all the dancing and singing and preaching.  The Holy Spirit is alive and well in Uganda!

Tomorrow we will take Joshua for his visa physical.  We are trying to secure a visit to the Watoto village for tomorrow afternoon and tour one of their facilities where they care for the orphans by sending them to school all the way through university.  At Watoto church today as we were worshipping we noticed that the woman who stayed at our house a couple of years ago, was one of the worship leaders on the stage singing.  We got to meet her again, coupled with hugs and tears and would you believe she remembered every one of our names and knew things about us and our church and home that I could not believe she could remember!  Our God is BIG!! and our planet is small.

We are trying to arrange a trip to the source of the Nile River and a trip to really cool waterfall!  More on this later.  I will post some pictures once I get them downloaded on the computer.  We can feel the presence of your prayers through the Holy Spirit, please do not relent until we get home!

quick update ;)

Hello from the other side of the world!  I apologize that I have not updated in several days… We need to get ready for church so I will do a more thorough update this afternoon. But here is a rundown of the happenings since the last update.

Went to court on Wed morning… went off without a hitch!

The Judge told us she’d get us the piece of paper that is needed to make any further progress, that afternoon! (an unbelievable turnaround!)

We went to the US Embassy to get the list of “to-do’s”

Got Joshua’s passport photos taken.

Came back to the hotel and met with a woman about the in-laws going on a 3 day safari

Decided we would regret if all we ever saw of Africa was the city, so at the last minute decided to take the kids and go on a safari in Queen Elizabeth’s National park with the entire family, and leave in a matter of hours!

Packed for 7 people for a 3 day trip in the middle of Africa.

Brought the computer so I could update when we got to the park.

Drove 8 ½ hours in an ant and roach infested non air-conditioned van with no seat belts, no A/C, and my children on laps!

Seriously questioned my sanity.

Got to the Lodge and unloaded the sticky troops & tried to log on to update ya’ll.

It dawned on me that we were in the middle of the Savannah and that internet access was really not an option.

Saw incredible African wildlife and landscape.

Drove 8 ½ hours back to the hotel, in the same character building vehicle.

Crashed in our beds like you can’t believe!

And here we are… now ready to go get my children ready for church.

I’ll fill in more later.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!

I love you

I woke early this morning (4:00 am) to the sound of Joshua yelling “Jacoba” in his sleep.  Fortunately everyone else slept through it and all is quiet on the home front now.  But I lay there unable to go back to sleep wondering what he yelled out.  95% of the time he speaks  Lugandan, but he understands most English. (we just have to remember to speak slowly, because although he is used to English, it is with with a thick Ugandan accent).  Anyway I lay there wondering what did he just say, is he o.k.? What was happening in his little brain while he sleeps, how was his subconscious processing all that is happening to him? He seems to be doing remarkably well and adjusting with few bumps in the road. But he must have so many questions that he is unable to articulate. We are praying that God gives him a peace that surpasses all understanding during this transition.  

My first words to him at the orphanage were “I love you” and we have all repeated those words to him a million times a day.  I am not sure if he knows what we are saying but he is hearing it ALL THE TIME.  Last night while we were cooking dinner he popped his head in the kitchen and yelled “Mama!” and then as soon as I look over, he hid behind the door laughing in hysterics.  He wanted to play peek a boo and it was game on!  He’d peek around the corner yell “Mama!”, I’d gasp in surprise  and yell back with a big smile “I love you!”, hiding and hysterics to follow each time… that is until he peeked his head around the corner and yelled “Mama! I love you!”  My gasp of surprise was 110% genuine this time  as I got on my knees, grabbed him in my arms, and with tears in my eyes, I kissed his face and said “I love you too baby.”  Now, it was clear that I had abruptly put a stop to one of the most exciting games of all time and the look on his face said “are you done? Cuz I’d like to get back to the business of our game now.”   Although I know very well that he had no idea what he was saying to me, he said it nonetheless, “mama, I love you.” and it was amazing to hear!  That moment will forever be etched in my heart. 

Now about 20 min later he toddled back into the kitchen where Nana and I were cooking and touched the knobs on the stove.  I said “No touching Joshua. Owie!”   He laughed and did it again.  I firmly said it again “No Joshua!” and I pointed to the knob.   He laughed hesitantly and touched it again.  Much firmer I said “No touching Joshua. No No.” Then he looked at me with such determination in his eyes, as if to say “Bring it lady! I plan to win this battle” and reached out and touched it again. I wanted to stop and explain that he has 4 older siblings who have tried this and failed each time.  They all have wills of iron and yet mommy and daddy’s wills are always stronger.  I wanted to say “Sweet boy, you can attempt to overpower and bully your parents but you will never win.  Therefore, life would be significantly easier if we could just establish right now that we are in charge and avoid any future battles.”  But unfortunately he is 2 years old and too much would be lost in translation anyway.  So I attempted the next best solution.  I grabbed his hand that was touching the stove and squeezed it.  I looked him in the eye, not 3 inches from his face, and again firmly said “No.”   What happened next reminded me of those little handheld toys that I got as a child. You know the ones where you push the button under the standing animal and the whole thing collapses at every joint. And as soon as you release the button the animal springs back into its original form.  Remember those?  Well, that was my son, a pile of collapsed limbs on the floor, like a mess of Jello, wailing at the top of his lungs.  I thought “Well, looks like the honeymoon is over.  Here we go!”  (note: we allow our children to be sad and disappointed when they are punished, who wouldn’t be?  But they are not allowed to throw tantrums and collapse in the middle of the room to scream at the injustice if life.)  All I could see was a little mini Nelly Olson on the floor (minus the blond ringlets) and I said “Not my child”. So I scooped him up and put him on a chair in the other room and walked away.  More wailing followed, which again, is illegal in our house because the intent is to punish others by making them uncomfortable by your screams.   I gave him a minute to try and control himself, but as the screams got louder I went back in and said “Enough.”  He instantly stopped crying and I squatted down with open arms.  He hesitantly came to me and I kissed him on the cheek and said “I love you Joshua, no touching the stove.” He looked at me with a huge grin and hugged my neck.  We were friends again and it was a fairly quick lesson on “who’s the boss”.  A few minutes later he came back into the kitchen and pointed at the knobs on the stove and said “No.”  I smiled and said “Good boy, no touching.” He smiled with pride and the he was off to play with his siblings.   Oh, if only it could be this easy 14 years from now! 

              

Take 2

Well, we are in Africa.  We were told before we leftto expect delays and just embrace the laid back culture.  We went to court today for our scheduled appointment at 10 and were told we need to come back tomorrow. No one seemed to blink an eye or have any concern so we will follow suit. We are going to head to the market this afternoon and experience that side of this beautiful culture! 

more precious faces

We are off to court this morning but I wanted to share a few pictures before we head off.  Love you all!!!

Pictures of our first meeting

The top picture is the first time Heather held Joshua, words cannot describe what a picture shows.  The second picture is a car that I (Russ) brought for him because I was told he liked cars.  His smile confirmed it.  The third picture is about 3 minutes after Heather first held Joshua and another little boy named Mitshuna (sp?) asked me if I would hold him (extremely outoing and gregarious, an amaizing little boy, I wanted to take them all home).  The 4th picture is of Joshua doing his school dance.  Everyday at school they sing a little song welcoming everyone to school and during that song Joshua created this little dance and then everyone else does it.  The dance will live on with his legacy at Open Door Orphanage.  The fifth picture is of Joshua playing with his car on my leg.  Joshua is extremely intelligent (they nicknamed him the professor), he is pensive, organized and often very serious.  When he is uncomfortable he bottles up and has a very concerned look on his face.  On the flip side he is the life of the party, extremely extroverted and comic relief when he is comfortable with you.  This picture of him running the car on my leg is after about fifteen minutes of him taking a more "serious" approach to my presence and I got him to feel comfortable and play with me.  The 5th picture is of our family the first day together, about 4 hours after first meeting and on our way to dinner.  I wish I had words to describe the experience.  The only common words I know to share is that we have a big God, and our hearts were sewn together even before we each entered to world.  The Koehler family is finally complete!  More pictures coming later, and I am sure that Heather will be back on soon for more updates. 

Will the real Joshua please stand?

Continued from yesterdays post...
When we arrived at the hotel, Simon and Hank were playing with cars on the floor we opened the door and they ran over and without skipping a beat the said "Hi Joshua, you are home now!, do you want to play cars with us?"  I reminded them that this was all strange and new for him and we needed to take it easy and let him get used to things for a while. (little did I know what lie ahead... or is it lay ahead?...Dad? anyway…) Nana and Papa were there and greeted him with respect and love. He was still totally overwhelmed and stressed. (I think I still have nail marks where he was grabbing me so tight) And then we asked where the girls were so they could meet him too.  They were in the pool swimming with uncle P.K. so we all headed down.  They ran over and greeted their baby brother and asked to hold him. Again with the reminding that this is all new and scary for Joshy.  Russ walked them through what it would feel like if they were taken from our home by strange people they had never met before and even if they were expecting it, they would still not be ready to jump in and play with their new siblings right away.  They understood, but were not more than 2 1/2 inches from some part of his body for the next several hours.  We went up and got changed and realized it was way past lunch and we were all ready to eat. I wondered if Joshua would be able to eat while on this emotional rollercoaster, but we needed to eat & had no food in the room yet so we ventured over to the food court at the mall next door.  We all ordered from different places and offered a pot luck to Joshua.  THAT BOY ATE LIKE A MAN!  Whether he needed a spike in blood sugar or assurance that we were now the ones to feed him, his entire demeanor changed!  He smiled and laughed a bit and then we walked home. And then the real Joshua showed up!  He came into his own.  he sang songs for us, danced, played cars with the boys, let the girls tickled him, he winked (simultaneously with both eyes) but none the less flirting with all of us in the room, snacked on fishy crackers, backwashed into his very own water bottle, he was Happy to be in this place at this time!!! But secretly I was worried it was temporary (and it still might be) so I am cherishing every second of happiness we get during this transition.  He fell asleep on the bed watching the kids get in their p'j's.  I slipped him into his own pair, placed him in his little bed (the loveseat turned against the wall) and finally, for the first time, we kissed our child goodnight and prayed over his sweet little body!  How could I not be a mess?   

This morning I was up at 3 am, Carmen and Hank by 3:30 and Faith and Dad by 4! We all went down stairs and watched a movie and waited for our baby to wake up.  The anticipation was palpable!  Simon came down at 5:30 and asked "Why do I have to go to sleep and they get to watch a movie?" I explained it was morning, but the sun wasn’t up yet, and that he was welcome to join his siblings on the couch until Joshy woke up.  from 5:30 to 6:45 there was a "runner" every 6-7 minutes to peek and see if Joshua was awake yet.  By 6:45 he was the one peeking over the couch at the girls... but to my dismay he had "that look".  Concerned, worried, confussed.  I held him and reassured him and wondered if food would do the trick again.  He tentatively ate a few scrambled eggs and little pineapple, and then played much more quietly on the floor with daddy while I made the first blog post... and then we needed to get ready for church.  When the Agency staff came to pick us up, he went further into his shell.  He snuggled me through church with that same intense grip... that is until Simon vomited all over the pew! (life would be so boring without kids!) Russ and I spent the rest of the service outside with our sick Simon and worried Joshua. Nana, papa and Uncle P.K. sat with the other kids through the long service like pros! We met up after and Russ, p.k., hank and simon went back to the hotel. Carmen, Faith, Nana and papa wanted to see Joshua’s orphanage so we went with them and the staff to go visit.  Joshua stayed in his shell until we arrived at the Orphanage.   But then he saw familiar sites and he instantly knew where he was.  He was obviously so happy to be back.  As we walked towards the building, he started yelling all of the names of the children who were yelling back at him "Professor, professor!" (his nickname at the orphanage)   It was like this boy was an A list celebrity... and he was flaunting his stuff like you couldn’t believe!  Showing off his Spiderman sandals with beaming pride (most of the children do not have shoes and they were all totally enamored.)  You would have thought he pulled up in a cherry red Ferrari! He chatted with everyone like a smooth politician and loved on all the house nannies.  I just knew that he must be thinking “I had had a great time on my 24 hour vacation and I am so happy with my parting gifts, but I sure am glad to be home now!”  The staff was bringing out lunch, so he went to his old room.  I asked what he was doing (as all the older children were giggling because they knew what he was doing and that he did not live there anymore.) The staff said it is a rule that you never eat in the nice "outing clothes", so he was just following protocol. He came out in his new tattered duds, he sat in his usual spot and was handed a plate of beans and rice and boiled potato with theother children. 
Now, I had seen this boy eat like a sumo wrestler, and I knew he had not had a big breakfast, I knew he was hungry and I knew he was comfortable now that he was back on his home turf, it was time to get his grub on! But he sat there and looked around the room with the potato in his hand not taking one bite of anything.  After a few minutes, the agency staff asked him if he was o.k. he shook his head no.  She said “do you want to leave and go home with mama?”  He shook his head yes.  She said " go wash your hands then."  He bolted out of his seat washed his hands in the basin and was back dressed in his "outing clothes" in 2.2 seconds! His arms were reaching for me to pick him up and she said "He is ready to go now, let us leave." He fell asleep in my arms on the way home... not from lack of sleep, i dont think, but more likely from the sheer exhaustion of this rollercoaster!  back at the hotel, the rest of the day was filled with happy giggles, hide and seek, more food, more tickles, more love.  The real Joshua was back, safe at home with his family! I just had the honor of tucking in all 5 of my children for the second night in a row!  I am humbled at the gifts our Father chooses to give me! It was a good day!  (Simon felt MUCH better by the afternoon and has kept everything down Ahhhhh Africa!)

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!

We made it! I am SOO sorry for the delay in communication. The internet has been spotty to say the least and the (weebly) blog we set up before we left is banned in Uganda. My fantastic brother in law, Todd, saved the day by figuring out that this blog site would work here.

o.k. so here is the scoop... we got in late friday night, and when we arrived at the hotel with seventeen 50lb. bags of luggage (filled with supplies and clothes for the orphanage, it was quite a site to see!) we checked in and I was handed a message from the front desk.  It said to call the local agency we are working with as soon as we arrive URGENT!  So we got to the room and I called. She said they pulled some strings and the orphanage decided to bend the hard and fast "NO VISITORS ON THE WEEKEND" policy, and we could go see Joshua in the morning!! Mind you, we were working on almost no sleep over the last 48 hours... and I am shaking from exhaustion. I know i  need sleep, but my baby is hours away!  Try as I may, no sleep, night 3!  but God is good, and I just dont seem to need sleep right now! (says the lady who feels like a monster without 7-8 hours of sleep a night!)

So the next morning (Saturday...yesterday!) we meet the staff at our hotel so they could brief us on what to expect over the next month, and then we were off to meet our son!  Just Russ and I went and the 4 older kids stayed back at the hotel with Nana, Papa and uncle P.K.   They said "if he bonds well with you you can take him home today".  We were originally told we would not be allowed to meet him until Monday and now we were on our way after only being in country for a few hours!  God is so Good!!! We pulled up to a gate with the name of his orphanage next to it, and were let in by a man guarding the gate.  we drove down a short dirt road that resembled a creek bed more than a road, and parked.  The children were all peeking at us through the bushes as the adults approached us.  We greeted all of the adults and made appropriate small talk and all the time I'm thinking "Any other day, I'd love to chat but...WHERE IS MY BABY?!" we walked down the "creek bed" and entered another small gate into a "play yard" (if you could call a small dirt patio with no toys a "play yard").  I instantly saw Joshua near the back being held by a nanny, looking at us with concern as she reassured him.  There were children everywhere one little boy ran up to Russ and said "Daddy!" Russ scooped him up and held him while the nanny handed Joshua to me. I tried not to bawl uncontrollably, but tears started flowing and I kissed him a million times and whispered "I love you Joshua, mommy is here. I love you, I love you, I love you."  after a few min, I swapped babies with Russ so he could meet his son.  Joshua pensively looked back and forth between the huge man holding him and  his nanny.  And then Russ busted out a green match box car and handed it to his son.  Side note: every picture we were given from Holt over the last year and a half, was of Joshua, with that look of concern... never a smile.  But then we saw what we had been longing to see, Joshua's smile!  And then that beautiful smile then turned into the most infectious giggle a parent has ever heard!  He had a toy and that toy was his very own, and his daddy gave it to him! They were best buddies!  we stayed for a couple of hours and took pictures and saw his old room. They then told us it was time to go and Joshua needed to come with us or he would be mad.  I asked what they meant and they said that Joshua thought the last 2 Holt families who came to get their children, were his parents and he was mad when they left without him. They assured him that his parents were coming and that once they did, they would never leave him. But he was still gun-shy.  Lunch was being served to the other children and they said it was time to go. They all said goodbye to Joshua and we walked out the gate.  He stared to cry, and I started to bawl.  All I could think is this is this is his home! These people were his family and we were ripping him away from them.  The staff asked him why he was crying (in Lugandan) he answered and they told me "He wants to eat lunch too, and he is mad that everyone else is eating, and he is not"  I dont know if they were saying that to comfort me, I will never really know what he said.  But my heart tells me he was scared to death and didnt want to leave the comfort of his home.  They reassured him and he stopped crying but held on to me like velcro.  the 30 min drive back to our hotel was really hard on all of our hearts.  While we were rejoicing in the gift of being united with our long lost son, we were greaving the loss that our child was undoubtedly experiencing.  We could do nothing but pray over him and ask Gods peace to shower him.  I will write more later... and upload pictures if i can figure it out...it is time to go to Watoto church now!  I love you all!!  (the story gets happier, i promise!)