I'll be home for Christmas (part four)

I'm trying to make peppermint patties tonight. Something I never would have even considered doing in the USA. Something that was outside the realm of reality this time last year. This time last year in Gulu, there was VERY limited electricity, no cheese, and I couldn't figure out how to bake with the local sugar. Our Christmas feast last year was... creative... a lot of hard work... and NOT like "home!"

But what a luxury - that I can have someone send me peppermint extract and chocolate chips, I can buy powdered sugar...

We spent the day at our friend's village, visiting with her, her family of orphans that she has taken in, and two of the Home of Love children with special medical needs. We ate a feast and delighted in hearing her testimony of God's grace and provision in her life. Her home is full of love, mercy, and joy. Her home is bursting at the seams with clean, happy, Christ-loving children and teenagers who delight in having her as their mother.

There is not a single Christmas decoration hanging, no hint of a Christmas tree. This Friday before Christmas could have been any Friday. The garden still needs to be tended to, the water needs to be brought from the well, the floor needs to be swept...

I miss the hub-bub of Christmas, the glow of Christmas lights at night after the children are in bed, the house is silent, and all other lights turned off. But our friend is living out Christmas day in and day out. Taking in the orphans, caring for the widows (James 1:27), all with the joy of an incarnate Savior who didn't tithe his blood, but gave ALL of his blood that was necessary to redeem us.

That's Christmas! That's where our home should be - not in the peppermint patties, the turkey, the Christmas lights, the festive gifts, the fun of children opening gifts. Our home should be in the daily living-out of our religion, a daily manifestation of our incarnate Savior. I pray that I will be home for Christmas.

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Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...

New Stage of Life

Gracie has entered a new developmental stage. She now is active and has been rolling all over the floor. We cleared out a little living room so that she would have room to roll around - she's rolling front to back, both directions. She also has been much easier to get up on all fours - it used to take 3-4 adults to cram her into the crawling position due to her resistance. She now even spontaneously gets into a semi-crawling position on her own. In the crawling position she's been weight bearing even on her right arm (but always in combination with her left arm). She also has been rocking a little in the crawling position as if she gets it that this is a way that you can move! It's been so exciting. But it also makes her much more eager to be down with other kids and moving around. She's in a very active active stage, always moving, and wanting to move. She's also taken, not just a huge interest in other kids, but also interest in toys a bit more. She's so fun!

Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl...

Rattins living Coram Deo

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