Yes, I'm talking about Christmas.
Not sure whether it'll still be white on Christmas day, but we've got several inches of snow outside right now. We've had mornings of ZERO degrees F, that’s minus 18 C (yikes!!!) Two days of school cancelled, and two days of two-hour delays (because it was so cold and icy at bus stops). And another several inches of snow coming tonight.
We've lived in some crazy places but in terms of weather, Indiana gets the whole range of crazy. Last month, it was tornadoes (none in our town but plenty across the state). This month, it's winter storms, bitterly cold, ice and snow.
Not sure whether it'll still be white on Christmas day, but we've got several inches of snow outside right now. We've had mornings of ZERO degrees F, that’s minus 18 C (yikes!!!) Two days of school cancelled, and two days of two-hour delays (because it was so cold and icy at bus stops). And another several inches of snow coming tonight.
We've lived in some crazy places but in terms of weather, Indiana gets the whole range of crazy. Last month, it was tornadoes (none in our town but plenty across the state). This month, it's winter storms, bitterly cold, ice and snow.
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| It was chucking it down! |
And Christmas is coming, and it's an emotional time, isn't it?
And it should be. It's about news of great joy for all people. Surely that's something to get emotional about. Deep, soul-stirring feelings of gratitude, love and adoration for the Saviour, the Hope of nations. Awesome times of singing, worshiping together, with carols that have been sung for generations...we'll be doing that at the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church.
But those happy songs on the radio about families being together and having a jolly old time, and everyone being home for Christmas can just rub salt in the wounds for so many. It's a time when we do miss those we love, those we've lost.
Every time I hear that Elvis song right now, it hits a chord - you know the one, the drool-y, cheesy, bluesy classic Christmas song, "I'll have a blue Christmas without you".
It hits a chord because family is a billion miles away.
And Storly will be away too.
He leaves for Haiti on Tuesday, and he’ll be gone over Christmas. He'll be attending Cece’s wedding (she lived with us in Haiti, and is like family. Storly’s representing her family, giving her away, as he’s the closest older kind-of-family member to her). We’d all be going if we could, but finances won’t allow it, unfortunately...Christmas in Haitian sunshine sounds just perfect right now! But we're very excited for Cece and her hubby-to-be Newton, and for their new life together. (And Storly better come home with lots of details about the wedding!)
And Storly will be away too.
He leaves for Haiti on Tuesday, and he’ll be gone over Christmas. He'll be attending Cece’s wedding (she lived with us in Haiti, and is like family. Storly’s representing her family, giving her away, as he’s the closest older kind-of-family member to her). We’d all be going if we could, but finances won’t allow it, unfortunately...Christmas in Haitian sunshine sounds just perfect right now! But we're very excited for Cece and her hubby-to-be Newton, and for their new life together. (And Storly better come home with lots of details about the wedding!)
Storly will also be hosting a radio towers expert, who'll be checking out all specifications to replace the old radio towers at Petite Anse (the big project we're working on) and reconfigure all the technical stuff so that the radio signal from Radio 4VEH will be the best quality sound, reaching as far as possible across Haiti and beyond on 840 AM. Storly will be leading some year-end staff stuff, and is a part of the team to be presenting the live all-night Christmas Eve radio show. We’ll be listening (and you can too, at www.radio4veh.org/en click the Listen Live button).
So we're celebrating Christmas early - on Sunday, in fact, so it looks like it will be white, at least for us.
And while Storly's away, I'll be finishing up work on some end-of-the-year fundraising (The Radio 4VEH Christmas Matching Gift Challenge especially), some Thank You's to those who have given, getting up to date on project plans and funding for the Petite Anse AM Towers restoration project, and sorting out more details on our 'becoming missionaries' process.
I'll be walking through the last week of school with the girls, doing some fun stuff like making a gingerbread house with Esther. And then I'll be managing that delicate balance (for myself, and for the girls) of celebrating a beautiful, joyful HOLYday with my most-loved-one away. There may be meltdowns, but hopefully not all three of us at the same time. There'll probably be some snuggling on the sofa watching movies too.
So, Christmas here might be white.....there'll probably be moments of blue, and knowing our girls, there will be plenty of red and green sprinkles (that we used to decorate some cookies a few days ago, and I later found some sprinkled all over presents under the Christmas tree), and an overdose of pink.
I'll be walking through the last week of school with the girls, doing some fun stuff like making a gingerbread house with Esther. And then I'll be managing that delicate balance (for myself, and for the girls) of celebrating a beautiful, joyful HOLYday with my most-loved-one away. There may be meltdowns, but hopefully not all three of us at the same time. There'll probably be some snuggling on the sofa watching movies too.
So, Christmas here might be white.....there'll probably be moments of blue, and knowing our girls, there will be plenty of red and green sprinkles (that we used to decorate some cookies a few days ago, and I later found some sprinkled all over presents under the Christmas tree), and an overdose of pink.
But even before we celebrate Christmas, today, we celebrate Esther. On her 6th birthday. Wow, time is flying. What a blessing she is!
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| Happy 6th birthday, Esther! |
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