It's been a while since I wrote something and we have heard from many of you wondering if we were still in Africa! Unfortunately, the blog writer has been sick for a while and when the writer is sick, then she doesn't go out much and when she stays in hibernation... that doesn't make for good blog stories :o)
So, what was Christmas like for us? Well, we waited until the last minute to finish our Christmas shopping; although it didn't take long this year to finish, and we didn't have everything ready for lunch on time Christmas day! Doesn't sound much different than normal in our family whether we are in the States or here in Africa :o)
One adventure was looking for Christmas wrapping paper. We've seen some and knew that it existed; but the hunt has been on for over a week and none to be found. We went back over to a large shopping center where rumor was that they had some. They did not! What were we going to do? A six year old has to have presents to open Christmas morning. I had decided to resort to birthday paper; but couldn't even find that! I was beginning to get a little upset. By now, it was Christmas Eve. So, what does any good husband do; but go out in search of any paper. I didn't care at this point if it was the Arabic Times! He returned a little while later with some paper. He said that he had found a stationary store that had a bin of different types of paper. It was rolled up in rubber bands. When I started to unroll the paper, it turned out to be scraps of small pieces in various sizes... but it worked and I was grateful to have it!
Another adventure was finding the ham everyone wanted for dinner Christmas day. We had "heard" there was a butcher on the outskirts of town... banished probably by the locals. A friend took Franklin there to show him where he was. Of course, when they went earlier in the week, the guy didn't have any ham. So, Franklin had to leave a deposit to come back on Christmas Eve and see if there would be any then. He went back the other day and the guy had these little, bitty hams. So, we had to buy like five to feed everyone that was here. It was too funny! We were excited to have ham for dinner; but then decided that it had a funny taste to it. All the meat here does! I'm told we get used to it eventually... It definitely wasn't a Honey Baked Ham!! But served to be a good substitute for our gathering. Did I say we have been pork deprived lately??
Alex woke up Christmas morning and to the delight of every child began ripping into the two presents we would let him open from us! All the rest were from grandparents, aunts, and uncles... so we wanted to wait to skype them so they could watch Alex open his presents. Thankfully, Alex was distracted by some friends coming over for dinner because there is a seven hour time difference between here and home! Once we got a chance to skype, we realized our internet wasn't working! What were we going to do?? This happens from time to time; but never for a whole day... and certainly wasn't happening to us today!! Thankfully, one of our friends let us borrow something that worked and we were able to have a few, short conversations with our families! What a blessing that was... we didn't realize just how much we would miss them on Christmas Day!
One of the special moments of Christmas day was the birthday cake we had for Jesus. It was wonderful to see the sparkle in the children's eyes when they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. What a reminder of such a blessed gift through the faith of a child! I'm so thankful that it doesn't matter where we are and whether we have wrapping paper or ham... we have a gift that was given to us many years ago on a dark and lonely night! Jesus left everything he knew and loved, the splendors of Heaven... to be born in a manger. He knew when He left what his future would hold, the death on a Cross... and He still came for each one of us! It's hard for me to wrap my mind around His love for me when I think about His life and His death. Every Christmas I'm drawn to Mary and how she treasured everything she heard and saw surrounding the birth of her son in her heart. This year, we treasured the hope that Christmas brings to our hearts as we watched those around us lost without this same hope. May they one day know our Lord as Immanuel! "For unto us a child is born... unto us a son is given, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will take away the sins from the world!"