thoughts on now

Where do I begin? I haven't done anything to keep the blog going because I simply worked and coached when I returned back to the States from village life and didn't feel the need, the importance to post about such things. In short, I needed time to readjust living back home again. I loved my village life there. I loved the people and the ministry opportunities I was given. I was given the village name Nazziwa (it has no meaning, but I chose that for me to become the meaning). I wept a lot before I left Kubamitwe. I could not imagine what leaving it behind would look like. I cried a ton more when I got to Fort Worth. It was hard. I hurt. A lot of healing God had to do. I started the blogging world when I was preparing to leave for Uganda in 2010. Sad to say as I begun updating the blog again last week, I lost all my previous posts. All of them. I bawled. I managed to copy about 7 of the posts and perhaps I'll re-post them someday, but not now. Bittersweet. I changed my current location on here from Luweero to Fort Worth. It's little things like that that bring a flood of tears and waves of emotions. "To Africa and Beyond" will stay. I couldn't start all over with a new blog. That's where this has all started and now it will continue on with the life after village living. 

A lot has changed since my last entry. I have traveled approximately 70,272 miles since 2009 - the girl who use to content herself with the idea of staying in Texas. Bogus. After 6 months of being away from home and my boyfriend, I came back, started working, coaching Jr. Varsity volleyball (with my sister) for a home school program PT Warriors. What a very exciting year learning things together as a team. We traveled to Springfield, MO to play in a National tournament (the girls first tournament ever!!!) and got 2nd place! Least to say Kathryn and I were thrilled/proud of these girls and the opportunity we had to coach them. 

Daniel and I's relationship continued to grow. Someday, I'll have to go into detail about how we knew each other from childhood, but no way on earth would we ever end up... Well, married like we are now. =) On April 16th, of 2012 my sweet boyfriend sat me on a tree, told me (for the first time - even though I knew this way before with the twinkle in his eyes) that he loved me and also asked me to marry him! I said yes! Which was followed with a lot of "wows" as well. We had a ball being engaged together and walking through new things hand in hand. Our engagement was 5 months long and [I] was the one who ended up being impatient at waiting and always asking, "Tomorrow? Let's just do it tomorrow." On September 23rd, (yah, that hot 90 degree day) we joined together as husband and wife. Three weddings in my family in less than 2 years. Crazy good. Seven months of married life has been wonderful. I love having Daniel around and doing things together with my bestest friend and most of all being his lady. I love being a Brantley!

Since then Daniel and I have been quite the travelers. Now that Little B is coming it has helped us slow down and soak our time up. We are preparing for a family of 3. I can hardly believe we're nearly there. August 25th (although only 5% of babies actually arrive on their due date). I love seeing Daniel's sweet smile whenever he talks about Little B. The birthing classes begun last night (for 10 weeks!) and it was a blast! We laughed and learned together with 5 other couples which was fun. More on that later.

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for bearing with me. I knew this would be the hard one to write. Try to recap over the previous couple of years - too much. Til next time,  Mweraba