Torn between two worlds.

July 26, 2009. 9:43pm Kampala time.
It is hard to imagine that our time with the kids is already over.
While the days have been long and chaotic, and many of us come home exhausted, time seems to fly surrounded by these children - they are so easy to love.
Today has been a day of halves for me: this was the first day I really stopped to think about the life I left in America a week ago, and my heart strings stretched across the ocean. And yet, as I said goodbye to "my" kids this morning, I felt the strong pull of the heart strings that have latched onto Uganda. And I've realized my heart will forever be pulled between these worlds.
My morning was filled with sweet moments. I spent three and a half hours with my two beautiful 7 year-olds, Jelis and Patricia. We sang, danced, took pictures, and opened God's book (as they call it here). Our second day here, Patricia became sick from contracting Malaria, and I could tell she felt like an untouchable. What a blessing it was this morning as she realized that my love and God's love for her could not be separated by a sickness. Later in the day, I had an opportunity to talk to Faith. She is 18. She speaks wonderful english, is a fabulous singer and loves to dance. We talked about her desire to visit New York and what it is like to fly in an airplane.
We piled into the bus, and I (unsuccessfully) tried to hold back the tears as we said goodbye. I can hardly comprehend what the condition of my heart will be when I return to America.
But I leave confident that we have been the hands and feet of Christ to these orphans, even if only in a small way. And that is thanks to many of you reading these blogs. So thank you for sending us, but know that we aren't the same people you sent.
We are mzungus. We are dancers. We are winners ;-)
And we will probably force most of you to look at the thousands of pictures we've taken in these few days. We can't wait to come home, but probably for each of us in some small or large way, we are home here. And we are not ready to leave. But as life moves on, so will we, confident that God is guiding our paths and thankful that His plan for our paths brought us here.

Writing from between two worlds,
-Melissa Rau