1 year of marriage has flown by and what a full year it has been! For many different reasons it has been a roller coaster year: getting married, enjoying a busy few weeks in America, saying goodbye to family and friends, mourning the loss of a young child and little friend at Ekisa, a number of months working through the steps of foster care for two adorable boys and bringing them into our home, the busyness of working on many different cases at Ekisa and Hope Smiles, Alicia finishing work at Ekisa, Hope Smiles saying goodbye to staff members and welcoming new ones, enjoying visitors - family and friends, Michigan football - shocking endings and beautiful victories, working through Alicia's back issues, and continually learning about each other, and consequently, about ourselves.
The past couple of months with the boys has also been a great adventure. Their transition into our home has been relatively smooth, considering how big of a move it was for the boys. We praise the Lord as we can see that the long process of working through paperwork, getting approval and moving them in allowed us to focus our attention on building stronger relationships with them. Bringing them over occasionally gradually grew into bringing them over more frequently once we received official approval and were only waiting on necessary paperwork to be signed. Unknowingly, the Lord was using the waiting to build a stronger bond and allowing the boys to become more familiar with our home, which seemed to make moving in a more natural step than it otherwise would have been. Of course, it hasn't been seamless, we are learning about each other every day. The boys are learning how we work together/do family life together, and we are learning how to best parent each of the them and continue to build closer relationships. It's been a lot of fun going on adventures, teaching the boys all about Michigan (including the Fight Song - yes, they know it well, and in fact, it seems to be one of their most favorite songs), playing with them, going swimming, celebrating Grace's 4th birthday, reading stories together, and having family dinners. The boys have also become friends with our neighbors and it has been fun to see them get excited to play with their new friends when they have free time on the weekends or evenings.
Hope Smiles News:
As for Ryan and Hope Smiles, he is busy, busy as per usual. He always has something new that he is working on as Hope Smiles expands, adds new staff members and builds new relationships. He has recently hired a new assistant who is completely new to dentistry, as most have been. However, it is evident that seeking people who are like minded, having similar goals and attitudes, in their work life seems to go a long way. Skills can be taught, but you can't often teach graciousness, patience, perseverance or a self-sacrificing/others-focused attitude. You can live by example and you can preach what you are living out, but how the other person responds is ultimately out of your control. This is so apparent with Hope Smiles Uganda, his most trusted and diligent workers are the ones who are in it for the right reasons, and who have bought into what Hope Smiles is trying to accomplish. It's not always easy, but it is good.
On top of the usual day-to-day work, Ryan has now begun teaching Pediatric Dentistry at the Dental School in Kampala every other Monday, and, along with Kamu Medical Centre (the Medical Centre that Hope Smiles clinic is currently located in), Hope Smiles will be moving to another facility in the next couple of weeks - hopefully, you never really know what timelines will look like out here. This new facility is much larger and will be a good step forward for both Kamu and Hope Smiles to expand their programs, and to assist more patients comfortably. Currently, Hope Smiles' clinic space fits two chairs, equipment & supplies, and all staff members into one not so big room. There is one small room for sterilization, and occasionally for Ryan to get away to take notes or reply to emails, but you can imagine how comfortable everyone is in the clinic when it's dry season and the temperatures are over 100 degrees F everyday with no air condition.
All that being said, the progress of Hope Smiles Uganda and the relationships they have built have been astounding. Just last week Hope Smiles began offering Orthodontic treatment, thanks to Dr. Anil Idiculla who came to visit, teach and begin this new journey and partnership with Hope Smiles. There is a bright future for Hope Smiles here in Uganda, and we hope the impact we have already seen continues to ripple through the dental community so that great dental care can be accessed by all communities in this beautiful country.
Moving on to Alicia's back...for the curious minds.
In the middle of October, Alicia went to Kampala to get an MRI taken of her lower back after a fairly slow recovery from an injury back in July. We sent the scans and reports back to a few people in North America to check out, and just a few weeks ago she went to see a neurosurgeon regarding the results. The upside is that everyone seems to be on the same page as far as diagnosis and treatment goes. It turns out Alicia has a couple of herniated discs, issues relating to the herniations, and damage and inflammation due to a fairly substantial sprain from the incident in July. One of the herniated discs is compressing a nerve, which is the issue of biggest concern at this point. Thankfully, everyone agrees with a conservative approach to treatment, for now at least. The neurosurgeon also advised some serious rest, as in bed rest, for a brief period, and to be more serious about taking anti-inflammatories, which she has not been on since July. "Bed rest" has begun, but you can imagine how that is going with two active boys and a guilty conscience about adding to Ryan's workload.
In the meantime, we are on the lookout for a good physical therapist/physiotherapist to work with her and hopefully in the next few months we see improvement! Thankfully, Ryan isn't just "up to the challenge", but to quote him, "he lives for the challenge" or "it only makes him stronger." He has been an incredible support, taking care of things at home, making sure the boys don't jump on Alicia, and also ensuring Alicia actually rests, doesn't lift things or that she takes the anti-inflammatories prescribed. We also have a pretty great support network out here, and so there is a cooking class for young single mothers making most of our meals, this takes a load off of Ryan's plate since it is difficult/painful for Alicia to stand long enough to make a decent meal. We have also had friends offer to help clean our home, hang our laundry, or pick up groceries, etc. Praise the Lord for the supportive community we have in Jinja!
That is it for the writings portion of our update. There are plenty of funny or random stories to tell, but too many to fill a blog update. Living in another culture will bring many interesting stories or experiences. Whether it's trying a new food, seeing the most random thing on the back of a boda, enjoying beautiful sunrises that turn into terrible (terribly cool) storms, or a Monkey trapping Alicia inside our apartment and swinging around on wires to get a look/attempt to get inside - true story. There are, of course, also stories about funny or sweet things the boys say or do, such as falling asleep on the toilet or using the wrong word to describe something, for example, using crap instead of crumbs: "There's crap all over the table and the floor." All stories that make for some good laughs or that simply melt your heart. Alicia hopes to keep record of more of these stories and perhaps share one or two of them with you in future to make these updates a bit more interesting. For now, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves!
If you are interested, check out a few pictures below of the last couple of months. As always, feel free to visit us or just shoot us an email or message to check in!
Muscles & that face - "Can't Stop Won't Stop!"
Lost a tooth up top!
Out for a walk - Handsome boys.
Holding hands for the picture - didn't ask them to do this. :)
Best buds...most of the time.
He really wanted a picture with the Stop sign.
A walk over the "bridge of the train" on Uganda's Independence Day. Yep, that would be the River Nile in the background, as well as the bridge of the train.
Walking back from the bridge to catch boda's (motorcycle taxi's) home.
Independence day dinner out attire. Those are three good looking guys.
Unreal sunrise.
No words.
So excited to receive a package from Auntie Meggie and Uncle Derek!
Football!
Football!
Lions sweatshirts - they love to wear them because they are just so soft and have a lion on the front!
On another walk by our place.
Stud.
They wanted a picture near the "Tree with Hair."
The "Michigan" and "Beast Model" T-shirts are pretty much their favorites.
Sqeeeeeeeeeeze.
Another beautiful sunrise. A perk of waking up early to get the boys ready for school.
Race you down the driveway and back!
Rainy season brought this incredible rainbow.
The boys thought the rainbow was pretty great and wanted to get in the picture.
Early morning picture before school, sorry boys, but you are still adorable when you are looking sleepy!
Gray's birthday, Jamil is reading a story to Grace and Debra. "Go Dog Go!"
Opening his gift from his friends at Ekisa!
Thank you to all his Ekisa friends!
Seeing his "bicycle" for the first time. (All kids in this pic are excited!)
Brothers.
Halloween fun, painting pictures and enjoying the decorations that Nana and Papa sent.
Also, look who lost his other front tooth!
Look at those painting skills ;)
Our little superheroes in homemade costumes. They looked great at the start, but as soon as they went out into the rain they quickly fell apart. :P
Captain America.
Action shot.
Spiderman.
Another great action shot.
Their finished paintings, and them in what is left over of their costumes after trick or treating. Halloween is not celebrated here, with the exception of North Americans and Brits, and so we visited a restaurant who was giving treat bags to kids dressed up, as well as a few friends places around town. Needless to say, they had a pretty great Halloween.
Carving a pumpkin! They do exist, green ones, but they are tough to carve, so although it looks as though the boys were the carvers, Alicia was actually the "talented" carver of the pumpkin. The boys decided how the face should look and enjoyed scooping out the "guts & slime."
End result.
