Displaced Christmas

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David…He went there to register with Mary…While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.” ~Luke 2:4-6

We are far from home this Christmas. I am not just referring to friends and family, but to our physical home here in Africa. We’ve been away for almost two months now and I wasn’t really looking forward to Christmas. Kind of wanted to skip it this year, but we didn’t. Got me thinking about the first Christmas in a new light. I’m guessing Mary wasn’t quite where she wanted to be either.

 Homemade decorations this year consisted of paper chains and snowflakes.

 

Hannah enjoying her first Christmas gift (wrapping included)!

Our attempt at a family photo between Christmas dinner with friends and naptime.

Unexpected

Unexpectedly, one of the guys who works for us informed us that he would be away, starting the next day. Unexpectedly, Joey ended up working the last two Saturdays. Unexpectedly, our solar panels stopped charging our batteries. Unexpectedly, Joey was up till midnight last Wednesday trying to finish a paperwork project. Unexpectedly, we had men digging trenches and laying pipe in our yard this week. Unexpectedly, this left us with a large hole in our sidewalk (which, incidentally, interrupts our drainage for the whole yard and washing machine). Unexpectedly, this project ended up cutting off water to our laundry room and one bathroom.

I generally don’t like the unexpected. It usually isn’t pleasant or convenient. Good “unexpecteds” are generally called surprises. I’m ok with those!

However, the unexpected is not always bad. Since the day guy was gone, I have enjoyed having the yard to myself during the days. Joey really enjoyed that paperwork project. With the new pipes (hopefully) comes a new source of water to supplement our rain catching system. On top of all this, we also received unexpected heavy rains several times this week. Such a huge blessing to have our tanks full and the dust levels low!

Joey and I have  gotten good at expecting the unexpected. I am still working on being thankful for it in ALL cases. One thing I keep in mind, we serve a God with whom nothing is unexpected or out of His control.

P.S. Wrote this just over a month ago and never posted it. Today is Thanksgiving and we are in the midst of more unexpectedness due to the current happenings in our area of the world. Glad the conclusion above remains true. 

The Long Weekend

Joey has been home which usually means it is the weekend. However, not this time. He has been home sick for five days now. Hannah got sick on Saturday and shared with Joey. Then he shared with Dorothy. So far no one has shared with me yet and we are hoping that will continue to be the case!

 Thankfully, we are blessed with girls who handle colds pretty sweetly. Plus, Joey is able to do his flight scheduling job from home. So, we pretty much have enjoyed hanging out, staying hydrated, and keeping the hankies handy.  

Just for Laughs

Well, it has been a bit of a long day. So, tonight I thought I would experiment with an idea I had for a moment of peace in the midst of everyday duties. Dorothy was in bed and Joey was getting Hannah down. So, I popped on our wireless headset (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) and started the dishes to the sound of some good calm music.

Then the music changed…very country. What?

As I heard the chorus, I went in search of Joey. I found him right where I expected, messing with my music and bringing laughter and fun into our home. Sometimes it does a lot more toward relieving stress than any old soft music!!!  

Settling In

We made it! The girls did really well and it was an uneventful trip. Thanks so much for your prayers!

We’ve been back in Bunia for over a week now and are starting to feel settled. The girls both had a bit of trouble with jet lag, especially Dorothy. I don’t even know how Joey and I handled jet lag as we were up with the girls often enough that we’ve been able to sleep anytime, anywhere! Thankfully, both are sleeping through the night again and are settling into a good daytime routine as well.

It has been wonderful catching up with friends this week. We also have been spending time getting our water, electricity and kitchen back up and running. And unpacking, of course! 
  

Dorothy helping unpack my biscuit cutters!

Grounded

If you read our last post, you might remember that it ended with the words, “Next post from Congo!” Well, that’s not exactly how it turned out. We woke up early on Thursday morning to finish packing before our scheduled flight that afternoon. I went out to run an errand at 6:45am and came back to find that Kathleen was sick. We soon decided that traveling was out of the question. So, we ended up rescheduling our flight for next week. Kathleen is feeling quite a bit better and will hopefully be back to normal in time for our flight next week!

We appreciate all the prayers this week and would appreciate your continued prayers next Tuesday when we actually travel!

Hopefully we will be able to post from Congo soon:-)