Am I the only one who is always surprised when Christmas comes? It creeps up on me and it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it will be over soon. I spent the last week at the escuela trying to survive each day. I started counting each day as victory...yes, on Wednesday, one of my kids exposed himself to another child and I had to yell at him like he was three years old. And yes, I got the best present of my three years teaching ESL, a squishy pink bear phone case...and yes, four kids sang Christmas carols to the adults in prayer meeting on Wednesday night and sounded like an army of little voices...I hugged some older folks' necks at the nursing home Wednesday night...and played with my friend's little girl on Saturday night, all the time wondering where the years have gone with that one. Life is busy...it happens so fast...and I try to do my best to seize it, to go as much as I can because really, it's not my obsessive need for social interaction, it's that I love these people and the ways we can be present to each other.
I have a wonderful family. I drove a long time in the rain yesterday to get here, to be with them for the holidays. I love the memories they created for me, and that we still create. I love that they know me and still love me. I love that with family there is a deep connection that cannot be severed or even explained to others who have not lived the connection...the connection of hard times and joyous times, of being so committed to each other that the thought of losing them is like losing life itself.
And while my family cannot be replaced, I am so thankful for the ways that family has been extended to me. Before I left, one of my friends asked me, "When are you coming home? Notice that I said home referring to Jeff City." And yes, it is home. God has been gracious enough to allow me to pour myself into people there, and more than that, others have opened their arms and hearts and homes to me. There aren't people I would rather be with. God has connected us in ways that only my heart can grasp. It cannot be expressed. They are family to me. And it's primarily because of the way my family loved me and taught me how to love others.
As I write this, my dad is playing the piano, filling our home with music...Thank you for being present to me--Mama, Daddy, Grandma, Bethany, Jamie, Melonie, little girl Miley...so that I can be present to others.
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