Well the first day of school was today! I had 22 smiling faces staring at me all day long and I am EXHAUSTED...I forgot for a moment what it was like to be standing all day long in heels and to have to re-teach what it means to raise your hand and make a good line as if they have never been in school before. I am happy to know that I have just as much love for these children as ever and was able to be with them in the moment, praising God for them and their precious-ness, and not just wondering why all of them are white lol! (or Chinese for that matter)Afterschool I went and got some of my pictures from Uganda printed ~ SO EXCITED. While I have completely settled back in to life at home and may not think of Uganda every minute, it still hits me quite often...usually quite suddenly too. It could be a comment from someone or something that sets off a flash of memory or a picture that can immediately bring me right back to sitting on that smelly cement with children in my lap and hanging on my back and dirty little hands in my hair. And then it just...hurts. It can be like a wave crashing over me, like an intense longing, a homesick feeling that immediately bring tears and causes me to put the pictures away for the moment. But in a way, I'm thankful for these moments...because it means I won't forget. It means that the children are still real and still so close to my heart and it reminds me to pray for them everyday. I praise the Lord in His faithfulness for not letting me forget, an answer to prayers really. Please continue to pray for them, as they're brought to your minds as well. They need your prayers; I know firsthand that they make a difference! A difficult moment came for me this past Sunday while sitting in orientation for Sunday School teachers. We were talking about what it means to be a mandated reporter as a teacher and how we are required by law to report if we have any reasonable cause to suspect abuse...which includes physical, sexual, neglect (such as malnourishment). Our children's pastor commented that she wanted to draw special attention to the words reasonable cause, which were in bold. Something just clicked in me right then and to be honest I don't think I heard much of the rest of that part of training. All I could hear echoing in my mind was "reasonable cause....reasonable cause". Yes! I have reasonable cause to think that these children have been neglected! They are malnourished! And its like my heart broke all over again thinking about how here it is my job to look out for my kids, to advocate for them. I am required by law to help them if I can, report, if I have any reasonable cause to suspect they are not being taken care of or abused. To think of how much I love these children in Tororo, do have "reasonable cause" to suspect, and yet cannot do anything about it is truly heartbreaking. I hope that we never take for granted some of the systems that we have set up here in the States, however imperfect they may be, that are created to protect our children. And I pray that we would all do our parts...whatever we can, even just through prayer (which is the best way!) to advocate for those children not being advocated for.