You Always Need Your Mama!

Vicki Ostermann • November 17, 2014

I cannot begin to explain to you how wonderful it was to have my mom spend three whole weeks with us! Four months was by far the longest I have ever gone without seeing my mama! No matter how old you get you will ALWAYS need your mama!

It didn’t take long for our fridge to look like Granna was here!

We started her visit with a surprise! Our girls knew that Granna was coming, they just didn’t know when. So after waiting for what seemed like forever, she arrived! I had the girls busy upstairs so that Granna could enter our compound without them knowing. Once everything was ready, Daddy called us downstairs and there she was!!! There were shrieks of excitement and tears of joy! You can watch it for yourself here:

We enjoyed showing Granna around our home here and our favorite spots in Jinja. Uganda isn’t something new to her as she has visited my sister several times over the past years. We also let her catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation the first week she was here! I know she enjoyed spending lots of time with our girls! She even helped them with homework via candlelight when the power went out one afternoon! I took her to a baby cottage that I volunteer at one morning. Holding sweet babies is always fun! We also took mom to Kilombera Weavers, which is near the girls’ school. The weavers here make beautiful textiles by hand on wooden looms. Their work is amazing!!!

Homework with Granna with no power!

Game night…Twisted Farkle!

Then came Halloween! It was so fun having mom with us to come up with costumes, bake Halloween sugar cookies and make caramel apples! We came up with a cat, a Texas Ranger baseball player and Sleeping Beauty!

We managed to get in some adventure time as well! Uncle Chuck had given the girls money for their birthdays just before he passed away. We wanted to use the money on something adventurous that Uncle Chuck would’ve enjoyed. So we picked quad-biking (four wheeling) through villages and by the River Nile! We had SO much fun!!! I thought the fun had ended when Granna lost momentum on a slanted road and her quad-bike fell over on her! Luckily it was above her leg and didn’t touch her at all! We were so worried! We sure have a tough Granna!

Paytyn got a last minute flute concert in for her and then it was time to say goodbye. We enjoyed having her here so much that the girls tried barricading her in! Vanessa and I travelled with her to the airport that evening to see her off. It was sad to see her go, but we are already counting down the days until she returns with Grandad to celebrate the girls’ birthdays in the spring!!!!

Family is such a gift from God! We miss each and every one of our family members terribly. Being away from our loved ones is by far the toughest part of our saying yes to God. I’m so glad that love transcends the miles that are between us! Until next time….

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