Valentine's Weekend with 10

This past weekend we had the chance to play parents to 8 kids, while we hosted the 4 kids of fellow missionaries as they went out to do a medical clinic, making a total of 10 in our house. We've done this before, and it was great - I know a lot of people think I'm nuts, but I actually find it easier sometimes with more kids, because they all have someone to play with, and I never have anyone come up to me saying they are "bored". We tend to do things in a more organized way just to get everything done in an orderly fashion. Maybe some would call it the "assembly-line" mentality - call it what you want, but it works. I am a creature of routine and order. This weekend we decorated Valentine cookies (around 150 altogether) and they disappeared by the end of the weekend. We also had other friends drop in, the more the merrier! I think there is something in me sometimes that craves the crowd of kids, as if I was made for a large family. I love the special closeness everyone feels, and the sense of belonging to something special that only exists in a big family. I love seeing the older kids pull together to help the little kids along, and everyone sharing a little piece of the bigger task, getting it done faster. It's the same special feeling we get when our whole extended family gathers for the holidays. It is a feeling of community and togetherness, sharing the knoweldge that together we are something more than merely the sum of each individual part.

Remembering Christmas 2008

This will be our last Christmas in Africa (that I know of). I have been trying to make it memorable, but it has been a challenge. We came home from five weeks of travel pretty exhausted. We had two days to unpack, clean the house, bake and make all the food for a celebration of nearly 30 missionaries at our home on Saturday before Christmas. We somehow managed to team together as a family and get everything done, including raking most of our 1/4 acre courtyard (our African worker we hired was nowhere in sight for those two days). I tried not to stress about it too much; thankfully all turned out well. The festivities and fellowship were great, and we had some memorable moments with friends, celebrating the season, the blessings, and God's gift to us.

Then the next few days I was so tired I barely had it in me to wrap the gifts that I had saved up and set aside for our kids. Thankfully I had planned way ahead months in advance. I have had to pack up a lot of our home, put things in garage sales (we have had five so far), and narrow down the remaining items that we had brought out ahead of time as gifts for this one last Christmas. I wanted it to be special.

Unfortunately three days before Christmas the president of this country where we live and work died, and the military staged a coup. We were on the internet almost constantly communicating with people, asking for prayers, and monitoring the situation as closely as we could. I found myself even more exhausted. Finally on Christmas Eve after dinner, skyping with family, and taking in all the political events my brain shut down. Ok, I'm not a super mom I guess. Just weary from all the uncertainty, but trying my best to make memories in the midst of uncertainty for my family. But for a brief hour or so while we ate our traditional Christmas dinner in candle light with Christmas music in the background all the other realities faded for a while and the "magic" of Christmas permeated our home. We watched a video reading of the biblical story of Christmas, and sang Christmas carols.

I am thankful for traditions, which bring us together and help us have something familiar to hold onto in unpredictable times. I am thankful for the promise of a future in heaven, a home where we will never have to be in transition and wonder what familiar is.

Today, Christmas Day, we woke to parades and cheers as the local people welcomed the change in government, and glimmers of hope for peace are in sight. Let us cheer together the coming of the Prince of Peace who alone can bring us real peace no matter what is happening around us. May His peace ground us this holiday season, whatever we may be facing.