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I'll be home for Christmas (part one)

I have a strand of gaudy colorful blinking Christmas lights this year.  And electricity to run them some nights.  Last year, I couldn't even figure out how to find paper to cut our snowflakes in the dark.

I have five children this year - last year I had three.

Josh is director over all the ACTION ministries in Gulu this year - last year we were trying to figure out how to buy tomatoes and drive on the left side of the road.  I failed at five different attempts to make fudge.  I couldn't find cheese or vanilla in Gulu.

So much changes in a year.

Especially this year.

I've hit the wall - mix of culture shock (shock is hardly the word), extreme stress, repeated threats against our team and ministries, five young (needy) children, and ... you name it!

And it's Christmas-time.

Normally, I would have been the first to decorate my home for Christmas.  This year, we have been so busy to the max, that my tiny partially decorated Christmas tree is propped in the corner, only decorated because we hosted the staff Christmas party and I thought it would be a nice touch.  My prized strand of Christmas lights is draped over the window bars.

It's not snowy.  There's no hustle or bustle.  Just an increase in the price of meat.  There are really no Christmas presents to think about buying here. (Although I do want to buy some comfy chairs someday for our bedroom... but that's a big project - I don't have energy for that!)

This Saturday, my sister-in-law and her husband will arrive "home" to New Hampshire for time with the family.  My sister will be doing the same - joining my family in Pennsylvania.  People on facebook, in a different world, are complaining about post-office lines, snow-days, stiff fingers from wrapping so many presents.

Last Christmas, we were hosting Home of Love children - stressful, to say the least, but exciting because we had waited SO long to be here and have those children in our home! This year, I have a desperate need to just be with my family.  Hunker down, cook American-style Christmas food, turn on the fans full-blast, play soothing Christmas carols, be HOME.

But, what a blessing it is that I have such a strong family network.  As I long to see my family, tuck the kids under fleece blankies in new footie-PJs, play games way too late into the night, laugh at Isaac's shinanigans till I'm crying, put Gracie on my mom's horse, I realize that this longing fits right in with what is weighing so heavily on my mind these days: how to best care for orphans.

I have an earthly family, I belong.  I have a heavenly Father who will never abandon me.

What does this mean as we seek how best to care for the 60+ orphans in our care?

I'll be home for Christmas... but what does that mean for our 60+ children who are now "home" in the villages for Christmas, but don't identify with home at all?

...to be continued...
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