Snippets from a furlough

I call this one "jet lag". This is as soon as he got out of the car from the airport.

True story:
1. Middle son orders corn dog at restaurant.
2. Son receives and bites into corn dog.
3. Son exclaims with delight, "Whoa! There's a HOT DOG in there!"

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My oldest, to his sister following her apology during a conflict in the car: "Whatever."
Me: "Now, do you think that was an interactive, helpful response?"
Him: "I was not trying to be interactive and helpful. I was trying to be an irritating jerk!"
Well. Points for honesty (?)--and that's about it. #thatsmymissionarykid
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"MOM! Their bathroom has TWO sinks and TWO faucets!"

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"Mom, are you sure we can drink the water from the faucet?"

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Grandpa made his famous shaped pancakes on our first morning back. My boys' choice: bodas (Ugandan motorcycle taxis). You can take the boys out of Africa, but you can't take the Africa out of the boys...

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"But Mom, I don't know how to use the drain!"
"Now, stop being helpless. You know how to use the... Oh, yeah. Sorry. See this little thing in the back? You pull it up..."
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"Mom, can we stay in this country forever?"

eMi's response to Typhoon Haiyan

Many of you share our deep concern over the welfare of Filipinos who've been left homeless, and worse, from the utter devastation of Typhoon Haiyan. We wanted to let you in on our organization's disaster relief response, particularly in the event that you're interested in helping. Here's a recent word from eMi:

 

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Since 1983, Engineering Ministries International (EMI) has been mobilizing Disaster Response Teams for major international disasters like Typhoon Haiyan. Motivated out of God’s love, we serve survivors vulnerable to exploitation. More than technical experts, we seek to be Christ-like, by bringing clean water and the hope of living water. On December 1st, EMI will send our initial teams of water and sanitation experts to come alongside Samaritan’s Purse in Tacloban and Bantayan. As our other partners—the Filipino Church and local & international relief agencies—identify specific needs, we will send additional design professionals to provide services throughout relief (before Christmas) and recovery (after Christmas) phases:
Water/Wastewater Engineers: • Design and set up various water, sanitation and hygiene systems
• Design and establish clean water distribution centers
• Design flood water mitigation solutions Structural Engineers and Architects: • Assess damaged buildings for safe reoccupation, retrofit or repair
• Design structurally sound and culturally appropriate transitional shelters
• Design retrofits and repairs to damaged buildings
• Master plan Internally Displaced People camps Transportation Engineers: Design retrofits and repairs to damaged roads and bridges
Geotechnical Engineers: Assess slope stability and soil erosion
Construction Managers: Oversee teams for construction of buildings and infrastructure




You can help


Experienced design professionals can volunteer for disaster response by contacting EMI’s Disaster Response Ministry Program director at disasters@emiworld.org. If you can’t go, you can give. Help mobilize disaster response assessment and design teams by donating to EMI’s Philippines Relief (emiworld.org/dr_philippines.php). By meeting a survivor’s immediate physical need in their desperate hour, we demonstrate Jesus Christ’s love in a practical way and open a door to share His Good News, meeting their deepest spiritual need.


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Pray with us, please, for the restoration and Godward hope of the Philippines!

Little Rock friends: Meet us at the park!

Our family is back in the U.S. on furlough!
We're headed to the playground at Pinnacle Mountain,
and we'd love to see you there for a casual catch-up.

DROP BY AND CATCH UP WITH THE BREITENSTEINS
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7
2-4 PM
Pinnacle Park, 11901 Pinnacle Valley Road, Little Rock, 72223

In case of inclement weather, we'll reschedule.

Some big "little" news

This is reposted from my post this week on MomLifeToday. We weren't actually able to file the paperwork at the embassy upon our visit, but plan on doing so when we arrive back in Uganda.



I am, as they say, “paperwork pregnant.”

It wasn’t coursing hormones or a full bladder that stirred me this morning at 5:06, but a chirpy text alert from my cell phone: My lawyer letting me know my file was, at long last, complete. Sinking back on my pillow, sedated in a thick haze of half-sleep, I felt my mind drift to that moment when we will finally get a call to come meet our little girl. And that was it, folks. My mind is now fully awake, ready to blog to you.

Today, after nearly nine months of waiting, my husband and I will weave rather perilously through Kampala traffic, bypassing a few OB-GYN offices on our way to our city’s U.S. embassy. We will place our hands on electronic fingerprint sensors and turn over a steep amount of cash. We will present a stack of identification, along with a photocopied, long-awaited home study representing months of slightly intrusive questioning regarding the suitability of our family and home.
We will then hand through the window advance paperwork petitioning the U.S. government to pre-approve us as adoptive parents. Then it’s two more months of waiting as our envelope makes its circuitous way to Nairobi, then back to Uganda, at which point I hope to accept it with a pudgy, African hand encircling my index finger.

Folks, we’re having a baby.

…I hope.

I was realizing this week that with my other four children, I have prayed for them, for their spouses, for their walk with God since the moment I saw a faint pink line appear on that fateful stick of white plastic. For this child, too, I have petitioned God—sometimes silently, sometimes aloud—as I pray for my other children, picturing her fuzzy African head and soft, chocolate-colored shoulders bent over whatever toddler activity in which she might be engaged at the moment. Lord, help them to treat her kindly in the orphanage, especially so she can have healthy relationships later. Help them to feed her well so her brain can develop. Prepare her heart to adore you. Watch her for me, Lord. Please be her Father while she is fatherless.

But after so many months of waiting and so many exasperating, often humbling, lay-my-head-against-the-wall-and-sigh hurdles, I must admit...

Click here to read the rest!

The little things

In the past 24 hours, I:
1. drank water out of the tap
2. walked on carpet
3. ate at Chick-Fil-A
4. traveled on a road without a SINGLE pothole, folks!
5. passed about 20x the number of stoplights in Kampala
6. chose between, literally, about 30 different varieties of butter or margarine (good grief!)
7. saw a person wearing braces on their teeth
8. watched my kids wolf down breakfast cereal to their hearts' content
9. drank coffee from a Keurig
10. sat on a comfortable couch

11. whipped up a casserole with cream-of-something soups (okay, not the healthiest...but oh-so-easy!)

12. taught two of my kids to use a water fountain; got a fun little squeal!

13. went jogging on a sidewalk 

14. watched my kids play on a public playground
15. took a hot shower!

16. recycled something

17. picked out my own hair products, and shipped them nowhere

18. watched the kids drink up unlimited wi-fi

19. listened to my kids chant, "Christmas came early this year! We went to Chick-fil-A AND Target AND the grocery store with Grandma!"
20. threw my arms around the neck of my relatives

It's good to be back.

 

:)

Control

Went on my third indoor Ugandan bat hunt tonight. As in, in my house. Not as fun as you might think, but it can just be disconcerting to have it fly through the living room, you know? I confess to shrieking once. ....Twice. The guard, a.k.a. my minion, laughed good-naturedly. Maybe I'm just one of those hyper-controlling types who has to keep tabs on every single breathing mammal in her house.

I think I'm comfortable with that.

No place like...

It's official.

We have TICKETS!

Folks, we are coming home.

(Well, to one of them, anyway. Home is so complicated a concept now--!)

 

Sadly, John won’t be in until November. So I’m coming in with the kids on my own mid-October.

 

Let's see. That's takeoff at 4 AM...nineteen hours to Houston, via Istanbul. Good grief. Talk about kicking off furlough with a bang. (I've heard that 90% of missionaries could use a vacation when they get home from furlough. Let's just leave that statistic be for now, shall we?)

 

The kids are beside themselves about the plane ride. Last spring (U.S. spring, that is; it is always spring here!), J. asked if we could get on a plane, watch movies all day, and then come back to our orange house in Uganda. I told him that was a pretty expensive movie day. But, ta-da! Kid, it's a wish come true--with Grandma and Grandpa on the other end!

 

Because the reality is, each of us is so excited to see our families and friends and church. It has been so long. I get to meet my niece for the very first time, and we can hardly believe we will be hugging so many dear people in person.

 

Not to mention a few creature comforts, and a land where everything takes about three steps less! When my dad was here, he remarked that in talking to people about America, it sounded as mysterious and baffling as John's Revelation! Sure enough, one of my co-op students who has always lived in Uganda had the most interesting story to tell everyone about his grandparents who live in the UK: "They have this box. And you open it, and put in dirty dishes, and then close the box. Then you press a button. And when you open the box, the dishes are CLEAN!" Indeed!

 

So, hitting at least four U.S. states when all is said and done, we are returning to the land of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles...and Chik-fil-A, and dishwashers. We'll hang around until the new Year, with John joining us around November 2. I'm thankful our kids are already talking about people and things they'll miss here, and that with relationships and ministry here, we'll be ready to return.

 

But for now, there's no place like home.