DAY ONE OF MANY TO COME

Well, today was day one of the Berrytribe legitamately going Tribal.  Our kids are now sleeping in their bunk beds in our room and so here's the scoop. 

THE ITINERARY:

• Shannon and I started the day with our last few hours of "just us" time, doing some shopping and hanging out downtown.  We found a local artist we liked and contracted him to do two paintings for us:  one large one for our family room and one smaller one for our daughter's room.
  
• Then we went to the orphanage and grabbed our kids.
  
• They wanted to go to our room so we went back and did some puzzles and stories and then we headed downtown for lunch.
• After lunch we swung by a local seamstress shop and hired her to make coordinating traditional African shirts for us to wear in our first family photo when we get back to the states.
• Then it was naptime.  The orphanage has nap time so they went straight to their beds and were instantly quiet.  Amazing.  Our daughter went straight to bed and fell asleep. Her twin brother however just layed there until I invited him to sleep on me, and in a matter of minutes, he was out.
  
• Finally, we did return to the orphanage today one last time to get the kid's some exrtra clothes, say our goodbyes, let the kids give their friends some suckers, and then pass out hugs and kisses before it was time to leave.  
• Then we had a local Ugandan dinner cooked by our guest house, some play time, our first bath experience, and then bed.

THE LESSONS SO FAR:

• Our daughter is affection motivated.  Our son is task oriented.  Sounds like text book men and women stuff, but it's 100% true for them.
• Our kids will share everything, unless they feel threatened, which will bring out the animal inside.
• I need to learn more Lugandan, so I can know what my kids are saying about me behind my back :)  It's also really hard to parent when charades is sometimes more effective than words.  Time to get creative. 
  
• I am famous.  :)  Three separate times on this trip, someone from the community has stopped me on the street downtown by yelling, "Pastor Brian! Is that you?"   Totally weird.  Guess we met a few people with great memories last summer.
• Ugandan's are genuinely nice people
• I wish I had a bigger budget, house, and 500 arms.  It's hard not to bring all the kids home.  
• My son is as skinny as a twig and eats like a horse. I think he has a hole in his foot it squeezes out while he runs. 
  

 Ok.. that's all for now.  13 new pics up on facebook.