December

Apparently its "catch-up" time.  

The season between Thanksgiving and Christmas just seems fly by! I didn't get a chance to do much other then just survive during that time. 

There were sweet love notes from the kids to us....

And some nasty spills...

And cuddle time with the favorite orange "nigh-night"...

And the time when the older sisters dressed up the youngest brother....

And the return of Noll the mischievous Elf....

And preschool Christmas Tea Programs.....

And letters to Santa Claus...and letters FROM Santa Claus....

And praying for Daddy each day that he was gone from us....

And and excess of sugar goodies....

And my attempt to re-make my Jesse Tree Ornaments which led to hours & days & weeks of frustration as I burnt batch after batch of detailed fimo clay ornaments....

And St. Nicks Day...

And Christmas Tree Hunting....

And our first Advent Calender (which I absolutely loved doing this year!!!)....

And paper snowflakes....

And, of course, the traditional Christmas Light Hunt with the Cousins....

 And teacher Christmas gifts....

And sleeping out under the lit up Christmas Tree....

And some silliness too...

Oh, and then there was the time that the little guy got a hold of markers....

And our only picture of the kids' Christmas season, which so perfectly captures our family....

 And then, the day that everyone was waiting for, CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 All of that....packed into a mere 25 days or so.  Wow.  No wonder I'm exhausted!!!
 

Our Life in Song...Christmas Letter 2012

Our Life in Song: 2012

I’ll Be Home for Christmas – It’s been a year-long process, but Rich finally made it to South Africa and is helping out as a camp counselor for 3 weeks.  We are eagerly awaiting his arrival back home!

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – You can bet that we will be doing a LOT of kissing when he gets back home!

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth - Cannon (6) has managed to pull out 4 of his own teeth in the last few months…most of the time while sitting in his first grade classroom.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree - Maeve (4) at any given time can be found dancing around to a tune that she is humming.  She lives constantly in a pretend world filled with butterflies and rainbows, and she is loving Preschool!

Pretty Paper – I find Brynn (8) more and more  often sitting quietly drawing.  She loves to sketch, color, paint, and create.  And I love watching her get lost in her work. 3^rd grade is going well for her.

Little Drummer Boy – Nolan (2) leaves a trail of destruction following him wherever he goes.  I just had to pull the baseball bat out of his hand before our Christmas Tree took another beating.

The Friendly Beasts – Our pets have multiplied.  In addition to the 10 year old dog, we now house a fish named Dash, and a rat named Buttercup. 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things – Relaxing trips with family,  having dinners with friends, hearing the laughter of my kids as they play, blogging, a warm cup of coffee in the early morning while browsing Pinterest, opening our home up for two sweet boys from Burundi, and learning to lean more and more on the grace and fulfillment that only comes from my Jesus.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – to steal the lyrics from one of my favorite songs “Tears are falling, hearts are breaking, how we need to hear from God. You've been promised, we've been waiting, welcome Holy Child. Hope that you don't mind our manger, how I wish we would have known. Long-awaited Holy Stranger, please make yourself at home. Bring your peace into our violence, bid our hungry souls be filled. Word now breaking Heaven's silence, welcome to our world. Fragile finger sent to heal us, tender brow prepared for thorn, tiny heart whose blood will save us, unto us is born.
So wrap our injured flesh around you, breathe our air and walk our sod, rob our sin and make us holy
perfect Son of God. Welcome to our world.” (Chris Rice – Welcome to Our World)

                                                                                                               Love from Us to You!

                                                                                                              

A Thankyou Note

 From Rich:

Well I’m back! What a gift it was to be greeted by Angie & the kids at the airport with “Welcome Home” signs.  As anticipated, being away from the family proved to be the most trying part of my trip to South Africa, but this only made our reunion that much sweeter. 

Thank you for all your prayers & support for Angie & the kids while I was gone.  Numerous people filled in the empty gap of my presence while I was away. One of my biggest fears was that in my absence Angie would discover that I really don’t do much around the house.  I must say, it was a sense of relief to hear that there were some chaotic moments for her. 

There are so many experiences that I had that I would like to share with you & I find it hard to briefly summarize.  The first week was summer camp in Stellenbosch, about an hour outside of Cape Town. We did 2-three day summer camp rounds.  Over 100 kids from many different townships were bused in, to spend a few days with us.  These kids were from the poorest neighborhoods, infested with gang violence, drugs & often lacking the basic necessities.  One kid that especially stood out to me was Neipha. He came wearing only a t-shirt & shorts. No shoes, jacket or sleeping bag.    

The first round I was the cabin counselor for 9 boys (ages 8-14 yrs. old Carlo, Damien, Earl, Griffin, Henro, Jaden, Marlo, Reyno, & Neipha.)  These kids, who could never afford & would not normally be given the opportunity to experience a retreat like this, had been anticipating all year for CSA to come back to their township and take them to camp. 

As we walked back to our tents the first night, I think it was obvious to all of us who the new guy was.  I must admit that night felt very lonely as there was much talking, yelling & laughing all in Afrikaans.  All I could do was smile.  Most of them speak English & could understand my instructions, but I, on the other hand, had a hard time understanding their Afrikaans-accented English.  The only thing that enabled me to be their counselor was the fact that they were very respectful & grateful to be there.  I soon realized that all they needed from me was to get them water, Band-Aids, or piggy-back rides.

My second round of campers were equally rewarding. This time I got to co-counsel with Jermaine.  This was a real treat.  Jermaine, who is 21, was also from the townships.  He came to know Jesus through the ministry of CSA as a camper himself.  He is a bold witness for the faith.  The kids really respected him & his story.  We all clung to his every word as we could see the spirit of God working in him.  Many kids received Jesus into their lives because of his testimony. 

One night I grabbed a guitar & began playing some old riffs.  Jermaine, who is a talented singer, began to improvise.  It’s hard to explain, but was like two cultures colliding in harmony.  We definitely needed some work & I wish we could have had more times like that together.  Jermaine was sincere, passionate & humble.  I will miss Jermaine.

On the second half of our ministry, we stayed in a hostel in Strandfontein, Cape Town.  From here we did several day rallies.  We simply drove into the center of a town, paid someone to let us run an extension cord from their house, set up mikes & speakers, & began with songs, dance & the game ‘Simon Says’.  Someone would share their testimony, or some other teaching (all in Afrikaans). This would generally be followed by specific separate teachings for the boys & girls.  Then we would hand out lunch & clothes. Again my role in this was primarily to hold kids on my shoulders…which I was happy to do.  I had a nickname almost everywhere I went.  Sheamus….who is a WWE wrestler who I apparently resemble.  I would catch kids staring in awe.  Many thought I was the real thing! 

Finally I visited Robin Island – the equivalent to Alcatraz except that the cells had been filled with Civil Rights activists who opposed the political apartheid.  The tour guides where all former prisoners who shared first-hand their personal horrors.  Here we saw the cell that Nelson Mandela, who was referred to as “father Mandela” by our tour guide, lived in for 26 years.  Mandela inspired the political reform that broke the apartheid in 1994.   

What was ironic about this experience was the statement our tour guide kept making. “We are all now one in south Africa”.  This was, in a sense, the theme of the tour & I wouldn’t argue that there has been great progress made in South Africa, but my overall experience was that this country is clearly divided.  In the center of Cape Town is the gaudiest mall I had ever seen, & next to it was a mega church, with stadium seating, & state-of-the-art music & lighting.  But drive 10-15 minutes in any direction & you are in the projects of Manenberg, or an unsanitary pig farm where kids walk half naked among heaping piles of trash.  These people are pushed to the outskirts of society, & largely ignored.  Blacks are clearly still second-class citizens.  This nation is ripped apart & still suffers, physically, emotionally, & spiritually from the apartheid.  Although South Africa needs to progress further in political, economic, & educational reforms, what became obvious to me was that they suffer from the more fundamental problem that ALL human beings suffer from.  It could be called moral poverty, selfish ambition, vain conceit, etc.

What I love about CSA is that they really do love people in their outreach.   Giving them lunch, if only for a day, encouraging people with a handshake or a hug, but more fundamental is that the Gospel is preached, & individual lives are transformed.  What South Africans need, & all people need, is spiritual reformation through Jesus Christ.  God changes the hearts of individuals.  The Americans went to share Christ’s love & did a great job, but the core of the ministry was the South African team.  Each had their own personal testimony of God’s salvation in their own lives.  Mind you, they still live in their townships, yet they are so rich.  Their freedom was not in moving from second-class citizens to first-class; their freedom was that they are now citizens of the kingdom of God.   They had joy not because of lack of pain; rather they saw their pain as purposeful in relating & reaching out to their fellow South Africans.  Their testimonies were moving & reached many people.  I believe the fields are ripe for the gospel in these townships, for in their physical poverty, they have relied on God & His providence which has made it easy to rely on God’s grace for their spiritual poverty.

Thank you all for making this experience possible for me.  I feel so privileged to have been able to go.  I feel that the CSA ministry is powerful & you have indirectly touched many lives for the extension of God’s kingdom through your generosity.

                                                                                                                                 Rich 

He's Home

Thankfully beyond measure.
Husband home. 
4 children to hug me goodnight. 
Warm home. 
An old, happy dog at my feet. 
Food to feed us. 
A God with endless grace, who loves beyond measure.
 
Joy.  
Unspeakable Joy.

2 More Sleeps

I can hardly contain the joy that is in my heart!
He's coming home soon!

We are in the home stretch.
Two more days....

I am, of course, looking forward to the extra set of hands around the house, but more importantly I am craving time with my best friend.
I am yearning to talk to him, without the skype delay.
And send him text messages without having to calculate the time difference.

The kids need to hug their daddy.
They need to have him tuck them in at night, and then talk him into five more minutes of some ridiculous story that will put them all in fits of giggles.

I need someone to meet eyes with over the dinner table as one of the kids does something that is totally inappropriate and uncalled for, yet completely normal.
I need someone to help buffer some of the questions that come up during our morning devotions.
I need someone to affirm that even though I TOTALLY lost my temper, that I'm still an ok Mommy.
I need someone to snuggle with on the couch after the house is quiet.
I need someone how laughs at my jokes.....cause the kids just don't get my sense of humor sometimes.

2 more sleeps!
Can't wait!

Day....whatever.

I don't actually know off the top of my head what day it is.  I mean, I KNOW what day it is, but I can't remember how many days into his trip it is.
What I DO know, is that I haven't heard a peep from him since Saturday. 
Which is 3 days ago.
Not a text.
Not a skype.
Not an email.
Nothing.
Nada.

But, surprisingly, I'm OK.  Had this happened at the start of the trip, I think I would be in an entirely different place right now mentally. 
Maybe rocking on the bathroom floor, in the dark, with the kids screaming at me from outside the locked door?
Maybe?

Thankfully, we've had quite a few really good days.
Days that I a can't stop smiling because my friends and family have made special efforts to call me, text me, offer help, etc. 
I feel so incredibly blessed!

We've had our share of midnight wanderings of sleepless kids.
We've had our share of humidifiers going in the bedroom all night long so that little ones can breathe through their stuffy noses.
We've had all that.
But we've also had dinners that were delivered to my door.
We've had nights of watching America's Funniest Home Videos and laughing together.
We've had unbalanced meals that the kids said were the "best they've ever had".
We've had prayer for daddy every morning at the kitchen table, and awesome talks about our Jesse tree ornaments.
We've had drives where kids are singing, and sometimes crying, but mostly singing.

We've also had busted water pipes that required calls to my dad and the father in law to come fix.
(Which answers a HUGE question about why our water bill has been so high for awhile now).

So, I don't know exactly what day of the trip we are on, but I do know that I have 5 more sleeps until I get to wrap my arms around my hubby's neck and kiss and hug and talk and kiss some more, and more and more.
I've got 5 more sleeps until I get to hold his hand.

5 more sleeps until my love is back!

Day 10

I look at the calender and I think "really???? 8 more days???"

We have definitely settled into a pretty good routine. 
Mostly good for me, because the kids are in bed by 7:30 each night. 
Thank goodness for the early darkness, and children who can't read clocks yet!
Although, (just a side note) this plan kind of backfires on me, because since they are in bed so early, they seem to be up earlier too......

I enjoy some of my evenings, because I have full control of what I watch on TV.
I've finished a few shows, watched a few movies, worked on some crafts.
But I find that I am not really eager to climb into a bed...all by myself.

Rich is what I call a "diagonal sleeper".
He usually lays on his stomach, with his arms out at the shoulders, with arms bent, hands under his head.
Then, for whatever reason, his legs head diagonally down the bed, until they are as close to the opposite bottom corner that his head is on.
This leaves me this awkward (yet strangely comfortable) misshapen triangle spot between the sharp point of his bent elbow, and his legs which are fully on "my side".
And I usually curl up in that spot, and fall asleep pretty quickly.

But now I'm having to rearrange pillows and make a little spot for myself to curl up in. 
And its COLD in my bed without his body heat!

Needless to say, I find myself staying up a *smidge* later then I should be, because come 6:00am, when my alarm goes off, it's hard to pop right out of bed!
But I have figured out how to program the coffee machine....and I am getting good at taking out the trash.... There's always a bright side right?

The kids are starting to get sick of me.  I think they have reached the point that they no longer are excited to see "just me" in the morning.  Maeve got really, really, really clingy for a couple days, and I couldn't figure out how to shake her.  She was constantly in my space, grabbing my clothing, sitting half on my lap.  Rich reminded me that he does pick her up, every. single. morning. and hold her when she first gets up, so I have tried to do that as well.  And it seems to be working.  
Cannon wants to wrestle, and practice arm pit farts, and talk Lego's with me...and I'm doing my best to not get hurt, and show some interest in all that "boy" stuff.
Brynn is getting to the point where she is picking fights with me, just because.  It's been...fun? Ha!
Nolan starts every morning full force, yelling for me to get him out of his bed, and ends each day with just as much energy, and I am just stinking tired of being the only one who has to keep up with him.

8 days left.
8 days left.
8 days left.

Day 7

Woah.
Can we just say "highs and lows"?

I had a great day Monday. 
Got the kids off to school...on time.
Delivered Maeve to preschool...on time.
Cleaned the house, did the laundry.
I was in "the groove".
(High)

Tuesday I did the school drop off, and then took the two littles to the inlaws house, and then did a happy dance to have my first time alone, in almost 5 days. 
Until I got the call from the school that Brynn had just gotten sick...as in puked in the trash can in the nurses office.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
(Low)

I picked her up, wiped up her tears, cleaned the puke that had hit the floor, and then went home, and lost it.  Again. For, like, the bazillionth time.
(Lower)

Fast forward 24 hours...cause no one wants to hear about me hovering over her, asking her every 3 seconds if she is ok, if she needs anything, if she feels sick, etc, etc, etc.  I'm a terrible mess with this kind of stuff.  
We seem to be in the clear. Its been 24 hours, no puke, and she is bossing everyone around again, and complaining about homework.  Life is back to normal.
(High)

Then we have the opportunity to go see the Asante Choir one last time before they leave the country.  One last hug from the boys who shared our home with us.  One last really long good bye hug.
Abdul was smiling as always. He had heard that I wasn't feeling well, and was sad to not see Rich, but took it in stride, and went to help break down the sound equipment on stage.
Patrick...now that's another story.

Patrick.  The quiet one.
The one that wouldn't look us in the eye for awhile.
The one who did the dishes so "vigorously" in the sink that I had to clean food and water off the curtains. 
The one who gave hugs, just for passing by in the hallway. 

He saw me across the courtyard, and brought me his bag, and said, "I'm ready to go now". 
How do you explain to Patrick that he actually can't come home with you?
That since your husband is gone, he can't stay in your house because of the rules.
That he was 10 min from home, but couldn't go there.
How????

So I just gave him a hug.
And he said, "I don't understand. You are here. I am here. We can go now."
And I just hugged him again.
And then he wouldn't let go.

And I held it together.
I asked about Jackie Chan movies.
I asked about Bruce Lee.
I asked about anything I could...just to get to talk to him for a couple more minutes.

And then we had to go.
I waved, had one last sweet hug, gathered my kids, and left.
I looked back one last time. 
He was sitting with the rest of the choir.
He will be fine.
I will miss him like crazy, but he will be fine.

If I could, I'd keep that boy in a heartbeat.

Day 4

So......
It's been 4 days.

First off, I thought this was going to be the fun part. 
That the first couple days would be almost like a mini vacation, and then I would start to really miss him as time went on.
Boy was I wrong. 
The first couple days were hard.
Really, really hard.
I had a little breakdown on Friday night, and had to call in my mom to come and stay the night with me. 

Moms always make it better.

We are now settling into the routine though, so I see it getting easier from here.
I have been able to skype (a whole new experience for us) a few times, and just hearing his voice has made such a difference in our days!
Sadly most of the conversations have resulted with me mad at the kids...cause they get so silly to see themselves on the computer, and end up making faces and doing weird things while I am trying to talk to Rich. 
Those kids...

I'm trying to get up extra early so that I get some solid time in prayer and the bible before I face the day.  I am definitely leaning on that as I think about doing this for another 2 weeks.  The other night I flipped open to Psalms 29 and ended my day reading this....

"The Lord gives his people strength.  He blesses them with peace."

What a sweet, perfectly timed, wonderfully applicable verse to fall asleep to.