Christmas Eve, and here I find myself writing a blog while Malaki sleeps; it's been nearly 2 months of not writing... (I know, it's bad!) I purposed to do this blog to keep our family and friends posted on our family life.. I hope to this a little better in the coming time. We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and a fulfilling new year, to our family and friends we love you and deeply appreciate our relationships we have together. The last months have been a time of growth, pruneing and beauty to say the least. For one, we are pregnant and expecting our next child in June (which is amazing!). I'm just getting past all the morning sickness and thankful to see my "feeling good days" approaching. If there is no complications in the pregnancy I will give birth here in Burundi again.
Isai just returned from the USA for one month and it feels great to to have him back...! Was is hard, absolutley! Mix morning sickness, with my sweet 19 month son, with loads of work and traveling often... I was definutly able to test many personal limits! Many miracles and amazing testimonies took place as Isai traveled sharing the heart of God for His broken and hurting children here in Burundi. Isai raised his voice for the voiceless and we were awe to see the Lord move upon so many hearts to respond and take the choice to help change lives. We have new team members in the US, new partners and an amazing team, truly we are honored to labor beside them. Over the month that Isai was gone, I had some huge perspective changes about life... things I can say I wouldn't of seen as clearly had I not had so much time to ponder on them. As hard as it was being apart as a family I know we are stronger and wiser for it, and it feels undescriable to reunite with man your in love with after a month... it was beautiful.
As soon as Isai arrived back there was a million things to do from visits from possible partner organizations to Christmas trees and decorating to gifts and orgnanizing the 4 - 50 pounder bags he brought back! I was so touched to see that every material need we expressed for the kids, people made it happen. Our family was extremely blessed with so much and I could never thank all of you enough for giving. To all of you who sent gifts, thank you for spoiling us... we greatly appreicate it :o)
Today, I sit back and can't stop thinking of how blessed our family is... and for this we have this inner joy bursting out from within us. Yesterday, we had a visit from the city of 50 youth to celebrate Christmas, it was a blast! Today, we are doing Christmas with the kids and staff and tomorrow we are welcoming some of the responsibles and siblings of our children to join us for a small lunch in the afternoon. And finally the 26th, the kids are off for a week to visit their villages... A full few days ahead of us, I can't wait to see the joy inexpressable on our kids face when many of them "celebrate" Christmas for the first time.
Merry Christmas to all! All our love...
On Saturdays, we bring the kids to this beautiful flat ground near the house where alot of the neighbor kids play soccer. A normal sight: seeing grazing cows chase the kids in the midst of the game. When we get together with friends, we find ourselves doing things that we would never think of doing... like putting yeast dough on sticks and roasting them on the fire. Awesome discovery for both the sweet and salty tastebuds! (Malaki had mud everywhere, because it had just rained, hints his hair!) I have to say, something I appreciate most about living in Burundi is the opportunity to share and grow with so many different cultures and nationalities. I love culture, differences, alikes, accents, languages and so on... but theres something special about bringing many different backrounds and people together in the Kingdom of God. It's beautiful to see how vast and uncontainable God is through His people, He created, in His image.
