Mommy Amy finally made it back to Sonrise on January 12, 2010! (and I am personally writing this, but I just had to say that “Mommy Amy” was back!). What a blessing and joy to be able to hug my little babies and kiss them over and over. Sonrise is such a special place – divinely appointed by God to serve as His haven for these precious babies that He has entrusted to us, and it was an overwhelming feeling to be able to once again set foot on what I believe is God’s hallowed ground.

I will be posting much more i the weeks to come about the lateest news on Sonrise, the babies, what God is doing, future dreams and plans, the workers, etc! But for now, I just wanted to say, it was so good to be back. I am now back home in America, but will be writing about experiences, the babies’ funny antics, personalities, etc as I always have much more time stateside than I do while being a full-time mommy in addition to directing and running a baby orphanage (I had the privilege of running the home completely while Damali took a much needed break! What a blessing to her and me!). I can’t wait to post new pictures, stories, updates about everyone – especially the newest additions to Sonrise – Oh my, how children are precious in His sight! (and mine! ). Thank you for your support, prayers, encouragement, etc and emails are always very welcome! Thank you!

God bless you!

Auntie Lindsey finally made it to Sonrise!

Lindsey Warren is a dear friend of Amy’s and she left the United States a couple weeks ago to visit Uganda, particularly Sonrise Baby Home and Musana Children’s Home. What a blessing she has been – and what a trooper! When Lindsey arrived, none of her luggage did with her! All 4 suitcases did not make it to the airport wjen Lindsey did, and she was forced to go without them for over a week – almost a week and a half! Bless you, Lindsey!

Lindsey wet to Musana Children’s Home first (musana.org) and was able to work with the over 70 orphans there while also doig some pharmacy/nursing work! Lindsey is a pharmacist and is in her last series of rotations in different hospitals and hospital departments before she graduates in May of 2010! And through a series of God-ordained evets, after Amy got home from Uganda this summer, she was able to tell Lidsey about her trip and all that God was doing in Uganda. Well, Lindsey’s 5 week off rotation was coming up in November, and God started leading Lindsey to Uganda during her time off from pharmacy rotations! Isn’t God good??!!!?

So, there she is – in Jinja, Uganda serving the Lord and being His hands and feet! Praise His Name! Amy just spoke wth her on the phone a  few minutes ago and gave her orders for an updated Sonrise family photograph!! We shall see how she does! All babies must be smiling and all looking at the camera at the same time, while sitting quite still….we’ll see how this goes! Thanks, Auntie Lindsey!!!

What a blessing this lovely day was! We met up with Mandi Johnson (a new found sister in Christ who also has a burden for these precious Sonrise babies!) at First Baptist Church of Gardendale, AL on Sunday, Nov 8th after a crazy Saturday of phone tag and arranging and re-arraging plans to make this happen! Well, God ultimately made this Orphan Sunday day happen, because it turned out absolutely beautifully
The First Baptist Church of Gardendale, AL was hosting an Orphan Sunday emphasis day, as the entire month of November is orphan awareness month, and they graciously agreed to let us come and set up a Sonrise “booth” persay in the atrium area. So, I (Amy) and several dear friends loaded up into my sister’s car (bless her!) to head to Alabama to share about what God is doing at Sonrise Baby Home! We left at 5 in the morning on Sunday, arrived at the church at around 8:30 and met Mandi Johnson for the first time! What a blessing she has been! She has such a passion for the Lord and His work that is is just contagious Praise the Lord for her sweet heart. So, we set up necklaces, our tri-fold board, bags, purses, etc at our little “booth” on the tables that were also graciously provided. We had such a great time meeting the wonderful people of FBG and sharing with them about Sonrise. God moved in the hearts of His people and we were able to sell necklaces and bags and such, and also have a few baby sponsors join the Sonrise family! Praise the Lord!
We drove back to Athens, GA late that night wit ful hearts that were in awe of what God had done. We look forward to being able to continue to speak about Sonrise, and we are praying that the Lord will bring many speaking engagements along! We would love to come and share about Sonrise Baby Home to any group, organization, church, Sunday school class, etc! Please contact us if you have any place at all where we might share about what God is doing at Sonrise! Bless you!

Welcome to the family, Baby Mark!
Baby Mark came to us on November 11th. He was born on October 30th to his 15 year old mother who died during childbirth due to excessive bleeding. Her father told her that she could not go to the cliic or hospital to have the baby because she disobeyed him by getting pregnant. I can not imagine what the father must be feeling now after the loss of his daughter, so please keep him in your prayers. I also can not imagine such consequences for my sins and mistakes, and I feel so blessed to have a heavenly Father who casts our sins as far as the east is from the west.
But by the grace of God, a woman in Baby Mark’s village heard about him and came to Sonrise to ask if we had room to take him in. Funny story, but we were told originally that Baby Mark was a girl! Surprise! Oh, Ugandan miscommunication!
We gave the lady some money for transportation to bring Baby Mark to Sonrise and were told to expect them on Sunday. Well, Suday came and went without any word on the little newborn. Then we heard that he was goig to arrive on Tuesday, but he had malaria which had gotten very bad in the last hours and the ladies weren’t sure if he would be well enough to travel. So, we bega praying that Baby Mark would be well enough to travel on Wednesday, as he desperately needed food and medicine. Baby Mark had only been fed tea and water since his birth. No one could afford any milk. And aften times in Uganda, no one wants to take responsibility for new babies, so they go unnamed after they are born. But Baby Mark was coming to Sonrise Baby Home and he was going to belong! He was going to have a name!
By the Lord’s grace, Baby Mark arrived at Sonrise late Wednesday afternoon after a very, very long journey. Betty was also visiting and helping Damali during the move, and receiving the new baby, so she was on hand to help! And guess what?! I (Amy) was also on gmail chat with Betty eagerly awaiting the arrival of Baby Mark! I was just a little excited.
So, they gave him a bath, and immediately began feeding him a bottle. What a blessing to be able to give another little baby nourishment and love. Baby Mark is now growing and feeding quite often. He also loves to cry and be held all of the time! So, nightttimes have been particularly diificult, so pray for strength and endurance for Damali, and the staff as the care for this newborn that God has graciously entrutusted to Sonrise.
Welcome to the family, Baby Mark!

Moving Day has arrived! Due to problems with the old house, such as plumbing, landlord issues, using the land, etc. we thought it best that Sonrise Baby Home should relocate to another home. So, Damali and Richard began looking for houses and the Lord led them to a couple particular houses that they believed would work best. With this move would come an increase in rent, but the Lord came through in unexpected ways and the mother of a dear friend promised to pay for the rent indefinitely! Praise the Lord!!! After settling wth the old landlord, and clearing up all paperwork with the new one, Damali, Richard and staff began packing up the house to move – not an easy task with babies and toddlers! Damali said you can only imagine how crazy it was trying to pack everything up with toddlers running around pulling everything back out and babies crying and wanting to be held! Craziness ensued!!!
One rule in Uganda (and I guess in America?? I haven’t ever really thought about it!) is that when one moves from a house, it must be completely repainted! The entire inside, and because the babies had marked on the outside of the house, the outside had to be painted as well! Paint can be very expensive, and the kind that is on the outside of the house is three different types and even more expensive than the inside kind. So, on top of having to move and change locations – everyone became painters!
Now, the babies have two rooms instead of just the one. Auntie Nora is sleeping in one room with the youngest ones and then Juliet is sleeping in another one with the older toddlers. In the old house they were so squashed together in the one room so at least now they have some breathing space. With the extra space, there is room for two more bunkbeds (with room for more, but immediate space for 2!) At the moment one baby does not have a bed so we really need to buy another bed. God has blessed the home with more babies, but as of yet, not all are sponsored. We are praying that God will provide for each baby as they come into Sonrise Baby Home with sponsors to support their little lives.
This compound is much bigger and nicer than the previous one, and we are thankful! Our prayer is still that God will provide the money for us to buy land and build our own compound with room for expansion and growth into a larger baby home, children’s home and guest house for volunteers, but all in the Lord’s timing. We would love to be able to house 50-80 babies and show them the love of Jesus! Please join us in this prayer as we rejoice over God’s provision for the new house, and as we hope for new provisions for the future!

Hello, everyone! We are officially moving to our new website blog and we hope you will be checking back often to follow all the happenings at Sonrise! To find out more about the beginnings of Sonrise, how God moved in the hearts of His people to help starving and dying babies in Africa, please visit our first Sonrise blog at www.sonrisebabies.blogspot.com! And please also visit Amy and Jessie’s blog at http://web.me.com/jdrob/Site/Welcome.html to learn more about how they became involved with Sonrise Baby Home and how God touched their hearts to change the world through saving babes in Uganda!

Thank you so much for your interest in God’s work at Sonrise Baby Home! It is our prayer that God will use this ministry to bring glory to His name, and that you will also be led to join us in saving Ugandan babies in the name of Jesus! May God bless you!