A Hard Lesson to Learn

My fingers brush across the keys. Words twirl in my mind. I glance out the window, dark clouds are rolling in. Oh how thankful I am by that sight! Hopefully they will take away they hot weather that has been haunting this little town of Gulu. Just today the temperature was at 131°F in the sun. I'm also thankful for the fan that turns around the room sending its wonderful breeze into the hot house. Sweat trickles on my head. Memories seem to be haunting my brain. Memories of loved ones...ones that i trusted and now have hurt me. Oh God, please help me forgive...Forgiveness..how foolish i was to think that one could forgive once and forget. No, pain haunts you. It is like a snake, you forgive the snake for the bite, but the wound still stings, you must give it time to heal, and sometimes it takes years. Yes you forgave, but the wound still pounds with pain, reminding you of the culprit and how much they hurt you, which brings back the tears and pain. You must keep forgiving. Over and over again! It is a hard lesson that i have learned, but it is a lesson that must be learned. I laugh at my stupidness, thinking that this person has hurt me one too many times. "They don't deserve to be forgiven!" I tell myself..but alas, neither do I. I mess up everyday. And yet my Savior forgave me. And He still forgives me. So why shouldn't i forgive someone again and again? Am i really that selfish? Am i really too selfish to refuse to give others the gift that my dear Jesus lovingly gave me? Sometimes i am. But Jesus still forgives. And i am blessed to be so loved by a King <3

Make allowance for each others faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Colossians 3:13

What we are doing in Uganda!

You might be wondering 'What are you doing in Uganda?' well my dear followers i shall tell you :)

We didn't do much in Kampala, except for wait for God to tell us where to go. And now that we live in Gulu (i can not write words to describe how much we love Gulu!) my dad has been involved with going to the hospital with some of the Ugandan members of the church we go to here (Antioch Church Gulu) and praying and talking with the patients. Many times a patient has been healed and told one of the church members before they left for the village "Come and tell my village this good news that you have told me!"  So my dad and one of the Ugandan men go together to the patient's village and tells them the good news! 

Since moving to Uganda,  my family and I have wanted to work with orphans. But in Kampala we never had a car. Even if we DID own a car, my mom would NOT even dare to drive in Kampala! It is too insane!! 

So right before we moved to Gulu we purchased a CAR!!! It's amazing how free you feel when you can actually get out of the house without relying on a rented car!

So my mom (the stalker she is ;) started looking EVERYWHERE in Gulu for baby homes. We found a few but the one that stuck out most was Watoto Babies Home. So my mom and I went to coffee with Sarah (who goes around checking on all the Watotos in Uganda) and she told us that the little kids wouldn't be able to come, and my mom was only allowed to take us older kids one at a time! Haha no. So we prayed and prayed "God you called us to Uganda, what are you calling us to do? If Watoto is where you want us please change their hearts!" My mom decided that we should schedule a tour of the Watoto babies home in Gulu and then she would talk to the manager and just tell her that we grew up with babies so everyone knows how to handle them. When we got there the manger was not there :( So we took the tour and then they said "Ok now you can interact with the babies!" I went my separate way and went to play with the toddlers while the rest of my family went to help with the LITTLE babies. It was what God had called us to do! We all fell in love the moment we touched the children! I can't help but smile at the moment that i held one of the toddlers hand and the wonderful feeling that shot up my arm, this is what i was called to do while in Uganda! The women working at Watoto told us 'Thank you thank you! Please come back and help!' but we told them the sad news that we could not.

My mom knew that we all need to be working together as a family! So we continued our search. But prayed that God would change the hearts of the people at Watoto and allow our family to volunteer. So we made a plan, my mom was going to go and talk to the house manager of Watoto Gulu and tell her how well everything went and how the women working at Watoto wanted us to come back. Sadly though we set the plan to the side for a couple of weeks as we got very busy.

Then we had a dear friend Jessie over and mom and dad went on a date! There date started off by going to Watoto. We sat at home awaiting the news. The phone called, i happily answered it and my mom said 'She said yes!!!!!' I'm pretty sure that ALL of Gulu heard us scream! Apparently my mom met with the lady in charge of volunteers and my mom went along with the plan that we had so carefully prayed about and thought through :P The woman agreed and asked 'So how old are your children?' my mom knew that once she heard our ages that she would say no, so she quickly said that ages '15, 13, 12, 10, 8, and 6' and with the same breath said 'But they all grew up with babies so they know how to handle them!' The woman nodded and said that we could come Monday and Wednesday 3pm-5pm!! PRAISE JESUS! We are in love! We finally love Uganda! This is where God wants us!!!

We have friends and we have a ministry!! God is amazing!

I will try to post pictures later in the month of the precious babies that we are working with :)

For my mom's perspective on the whole adventure of finding our calling check out her blog SUUBI FAMILY

My homemade notebook

A while back i decided that i wanted to make a notebook! It's somewhat hard to find a 'pretty' notebook in Uganda, so i was going to make one of my own! I looked up online notebook tutorials and came across plenty, but i didn't like how any of them looked. so i ended up doing a notebook binding tutorial that i found on youtube, and coming up with my own cover. I did this a couple months ago and was planning on posting about it, but truth be told i forgot :P So now low and behold my homemade notebook :)

click HERE for the binding tutorial that i used
It's a multiple video tutorial, by the way :)

I cut the pages so that looked jagged and torn :)

After binding it, i cut a piece of leather the size of my notebook, glued it to the spine, then i sewed a strip of leather to the back and voila!

What do you think?

Set Free

The wind rushes past my window, sending the pages of my notebook flying. My mind is filled with words and pictures, my personal inspiration board. My desk is where my imagination soars. I close my eyes and allow my imagination to take over. I block out the noises around me, letting go of all my worries and fears, and allowing my imagination to wrap itself around me like a warm blanket on a cold winter night. I glance out my window and watch the leaves of our banana tree be beaten by the wind. The sky is cloudless. Empty and alone. I look back down at my notebook and write.

I enter the imaginary world i've created. The world in which i can escape to when I'm afraid. I let my imagination be carried by the wind. To fly to the sky, over oceans, to the peaks of the greatest of mountains, to the deepest of the seas. When it returns, it tells me of it's journey. The sights. The smells. The people. But it also tells me of the tragedies. Of the wars. Of the crying. Of the dead. I quickly write down each word of it's tale. I draw maps and people, homes and empty lands. I lean back in my chair and smile at my work. I've created a world. A world of pure imagination. 

My desk is where stories are written. Where drawings are sketched. And where worlds are created. My desk is where my imagination is set free.

The giving tree

I love Snape <3....

....Very very much <3

A Phone Call That Changed Our Lives

Two nights ago the phone kept ringing at 12:30am, 1:30am, and 1:40am. Sadly the phone was in the girls' room..so I got up each time it rung. Finally I got over my laziness and took it to my parent's room. I heard the phone ring two more times, and forgot all about it. When i woke up that morning, I went out and Dad was on the phone. I asked my mom who he was on the phone with and she said "Angel." (Who is Katelyn's wonderful boyfriend) I knew why, but I still asked.

"Angel proposed to Kate!" 

My mouth went dry. I felt as though I couldn't breath.

"Kate said yes, but he had to get dad's permission." Mom kept talking, but it was as though my ears didn't work.

Kate and Me :)

My big sister is engaged. My best friend is engaged. The girl who broke her toe on my shins is engaged. The girl who I stayed up late into the night with laughing, scaring ourselves so bad we had to walk up stairs holding hands, then spend more of the night in her bed laughing about how stupid we are, is engaged. The girl who i shared a bed with for the first 8ish years of my life is engaged. My mind couldn't wrap around it.
The whole day I felt as though i was in a dream. A dream that i knew was coming, but it now here.
The words "Kate's engaged" kept echoing through my head all day.
While eating breakfest.

Kate's engaged.

While reading on my bed.

Kate's engaged.

While playing outside.

Kate's engaged.

It was a very bittersweet moment.
I felt like Miss Potter, in the movie where she's in her country house and she tells herself "No tears!" and then it flashes to the next scene and she let all of the tears that she had been holding in all day fall. Because all day i kept telling myself "No tears" and last night, i cried. Not much, because i was so happy for them. It wasn't the thought that I'm losing her...but the thought that my big sister is going to be married.

Kate and Angel have agreed to wait till we get home for the wedding (well, Kate already said that she was :) We will be back from October-Janurary. But i knew that they couldn't wait that long for the engagement pictures, so I messaged Kate and told her that I was super upset that I couldn't take them. And last night she messaged me "We're waiting till y'all get back to take our pictures." No matter how much I told myself "No tears." They still fell.

The amazing couple, Angel and Kate!

Congrautlations to Kate and Angel!! I'm so happy for you guys!!!!! And I love you both dearly <3

p.s. What do you think of the new design?? My photography name is still Silla Jo Photography, but since i post more then just photography my blog's name is Simply Silla :)

Home

Home.  Home is where you can rest.  Home is where you lay in bed for hours and eventually fall asleep.  Home is where you want to scream into your pillow. Home is where you can’t stop laughing. Home is where you argue.  Home is where you laugh.  Home is where you fight.  Home is where you smile.  Home is where you cry.  Home is where you make memories.  Home is where memories are being made.  Home is where you love.  Home is where you hate.  Home is where you feel safe.  Home is where you begin. And home is where you end.

Home is not a building with a roof and bricks. It’s not a warm bed with a nice pillow underneath you. It is where the heart is.  It’s where your family is.  It’s where you are.  And home is here. Where I live.  In Uganda.  Even when I want to scream.  It’s home.  Even when I want to run away and never come back, it is like a mother’s embrace whenever we drive into the driveway.

Sometimes I want to lock myself in my room and not talk to anyone, but when I hear Garrett’s laugh it’s like a bucket of cold water being dumped on my head on a hot summer day. When I cry in my pillow and pray for God to me take back to America and Annie says, “Even though we don’t like Uganda sometimes, God still wants us here.” it's a reminder that even my little 8 year-old sister knows where home is - not where we want to be, but where God wants us to be.

Home is in my brother’s kiss. Home is in my sister’s smile. Home is in my mother’s hug. Home is in my Dad’s laugh. Even when times are hard, I know I’m home. Because by the end of the day, when I crawl into bed, and close my eyes, I feel at home.

Laura and Benji playing Phase 10 :)

Annie and Garrett! I told them to smile, and this is what I got <3

Annie underneath the tree in our yard :)

Katelyn and Me <3

my Mom and Me :)
Photo credit to Danielle Gordon

Presenting..our surprise!

Ok so I know i'm a bit late on posting the surprise, but our power was out for a day, then our internet was out for 2 days, and our power has been out all day today! :( But here's the surprise!

On Friday the 13th (our anniversary of being in Uganda for 1 year) we went swimming with some of our friends here, while Dad was in Kampala getting the last of our things. Now I knew the surprise was coming (it's kinda hard not to HEAR things in this house :P) So after swimming for 3 hours we headed home and waited Dad's return. Once we heard his horn honk at the gate everyone ran out to meet him. And this little fella was at the wheel with him :D 

This is Severus (named by Me! But agreed on by everyone :P) Isn't he so cute?!?! He is....part German shepherd and....well we don't actually know what kind of dog he is! But he likes to be in the center of attention (like yesterday my mom and I were cooking in the kitchen, which is small as it is, and he laid right in front of the oven...) 

He's a super sweet dog though, and we're very happy that Dad brought him home to us :D