Being "Home"...

So, finally, here is an update after my recent trip back to Uganda.  I wish I could put into words what this trip was for me, and "how" this trip was.  That's the simple question most people ask, and yet I rarely have much more of an answer besides "great", or "amazing".  There are times I truly cannot find the words to describe how amazing this trip was, or the things that God did.  God showed up in some pretty amazing ways, and I will share more in some individual posts, but to say that God went before our team, and with our time there would be an understatement!  Being in that country again with those beautiful people again was, just as I imagined, like being home!  The moment the plane started the approach into the Entebbe airport and I looked out the window and saw those beautiful red dirt roads I immediately felt like I was back home!  Leaving that place and coming back home to the U.S. was even harder than I could have imagined!  I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest and left behind!  Coming home and being home has been pretty difficult for me.  I will be completely honest and say that boarding that plane to come back to the U.S. this time was one of the most difficult things I have ever done!  I felt like I was leaving the place I'm meant to be!  I know that must sound crazy to a lot of you, and that I may have officially gone off the deep end, but everything about Uganda feels so normal and comfortable to me!  God made some things pretty clear to me while I was in Uganda, and one of those things is that He just confirmed even more that my heart is in that country and with those beautiful people, and I will go back!  There is no doubt about that in my mind at all!  That may be pretty hard for some people to understand.  Some may question "Kristin, how can your heart be there, when your friends and family are here? Do you love those people and that place more than you love your own family and being near those you love?"  And the answer to that is No...absolutely not!  I love my family and friends here more than I can put into words!!  What I can tell you is God has placed Uganda and the people there on my heart for a reason!  The comfort I feel there, the love I have experienced there, and the joy I have there is certainly God given!  When you have the opportunity to bless an elderly couple and their family with just a small gift of food, and then see complete joy and gratitude exude from their faces it stays with you!  When you meet people who have absolutely nothing of monetary value, but can teach you what it truly means to be Rich it blesses your soul in a way I can't describe.  Being there with those amazing people and giving back even just a little of what they give me is what makes that place so amazing!  I think this quote states it pretty well!  "You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere.  That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place."  I realize unless you have experienced falling completely in love with a completely foreign place like I have you will probably never understand how torn your heart can feel even when you are in your home town with the family and people you love.  I feel really blessed that God has grown my heart so much to allow two completely different places with completely different people to completely fill it!  I am humbled that He choose me to go to that beautiful country not once, but twice now, and more I'm am certain in the future!  It really is humbling and amazing to think that God picked me...this city slicker of a girl who will barely use a port-a-potty and can't stand bugs, to fall in love and feel so completely at home and comfortable in a place SO far out of my comfort zone!!  People who know me well, will understand how true that statement is!!  But, it just proves how God can take anyone, anywhere to places only He can imagine!  When you are willing to take a leap of faith, and step out of your own little world God can take you places you never dreamed!!  I am so glad I listened to His calling a year ago and let Him take me to places I never could have dreamed!!  If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I ever thought I would be completely in love and feel at home in a country in Africa I would have said you were a crazy person!!  But now, Uganda truly is my second home!!