Mary

Those crazy, screaming kids you hear outside laughing and thoroughly enjoying the snow, are probably mine!  Emma prayed and prayed last night for snow, and this morning was blown over at God’s answer!  So after they snarfed down their breakfast they bundled up and ran outside.  Emma says to me, “Mom, do the snow pants go on over your clothes or what?”  Wouldn’t do much good under your clothes, now would it?  They are having so much fun!

We are getting ready to have a Christmas here today with about 29 or 30 coming over.  We love being able to host and there are some coming that we haven’t seen yet since we came back.  So we are excited.

I just wanted to share about something I was reading about the other day.  I was reading in Luke 1 verses 29-38 where the angel came to Mary to tell her that she would be pregnant with the Son of God.  Now, that would be amazing!  One minute you are scrubbing floors and the next there is an angel standing in your kitchen.  Mary wants to know how this can be?  The angel talks about how the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and how nothing is impossible with God.  I would imagine that news like that would take some time to sink in.  But just like that the Bible says Mary replied, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.”  And then the angel left her.

That would be a quiet moment.  Sitting there pondering what had just happened all alone.  Thinking things like:  Who is going to believe what kind of a morning I had?  How is the Holy Spirit going to come upon me?  When?   Will I feel different?  Oh, my!  What is Joseph going to think?  Me?  Carry the Son of God? 

Who do you think she told first?  If it was her Mother, I could imagine the Mother feeling her forehead to make sure she was well.  Or Joseph secretly thinking in the back of his head that maybe Mary was lying.  Or her Father thinking that he needed to protect her from getting stoned or ridiculed by others once she starts to show that she is pregnant.  Mary was an amazing girl to have such a heart for God.  It was not an easy task that she took.  But look how God blessed her. I want to be a woman with a heart like Mary.

You have to take a look at this clip:

http://youtu.be/kWq60oyrHVQ

Going to the Mall

Saturday we took the kids to see a family in Milwaukee that has a ministry to missionaries.  They help with debriefing, and transition.  Garth and I have met with them twice, and thought it would be wonderful for the kids to talk with them as well.  It turned out to be quite helpful.  The kids loved having someone to tell their stories to.  Everything they are going through is a normal part of transition, and culture shock.  I am glad that we went.

After that we decided to all go to Southridge Mall to see the Christmas decorations and do some shopping.  It was Christmas of 2006 the last time we went to a mall at Christmas as a family.  It was a bit crazy, and crowded, but we still had a good time.  We got our picture taken with Santana Dotson, and Leroy Butler of the Green Bay Packers, took the kids to the Disney store, Cale rode in the train, and we found a funny, glow in the dark mini-golf place.

Sunday we went to my parents for a nice meal and them decorated our own gingerbread houses.  They were very unique and creative.  It was a lot of fun! 

I put some pictures below.

Hope you are enjoying the season!

Love

Rachel

A Not-So-Normal Night

One of the traditions we had as a family before we went to Indonesia was to take a trip to Chicago each year at Christmas time.  Well, yesterday the kids had a half-day of school, and since Cale was feeling so much better we decided to start the tradition back up.
We love to see the store front windows of Marshall Field’s (now Macy’s), walk around Millennium Park, go to Christkindlmarket and look at all the booths, get a hot pretzels etc.  Well, it was busy like always.  Lots of people walking quickly with arms full of bags, people bumping into us, and we were bumping into them.  But then we came around a corner, and there was a Nativity set up with the Hallelujah chorus playing.  And people were stopping to stare.  It was beautiful!  It is amazing how the sight of Jesus can make you stop in awe.  The sign by the Nativity said “Keeping Christ in Christmas.” 
That is what we need to do.  Find the time to stop, and be in awe of what really happened that night so long ago.  That is what Christmas is truly about.  Not the hustle and bustle, the perfect tree, and the pile of presents.  But a quiet birth, a son that came while so many were asleep.  A normal night turned extraordinary!
Merry Christmas!
Rachel

Just a glass a day

So the other day I was talking to a German chemist.  He was telling me about the best anti-malaria, anti-dengue, anti-mosquito bite medicine known to man…Jack Daniels.  He said that if I would have drank a glass or two of that diluted every day I would never had gotten a mosquito bite the entire time in Indonesia.  Funny, huh?  That was one thing I never tried!  Boy, missions in our area would have been quite different if all the missionaries had taken that advice.

Our systems here in America are trying hard not to get every cough, cold and virus that is going around, but so far we haven’t been that successful.  Wyatt stayed home from school on Friday, and now Cale is sick with a fever.  It is up to 104-not sure why.  All these new germs that we haven’t seen for four years.  You don’t see that many colds in Indo, or chicken pox for that matter.

I read an interesting quote today.  It is written from the stand point of a child.  This is what it said:  “I wouldn't mind being grownup if I didn't have to get up & be grumpy right away every morning.”  It is funny, but for many, it is exactly true.  What about me?  How do I come across to my kids.  How do I come across to their teachers?  And the other people that I bump into when I am tired, or feeling grumpy?  I feel like I am always in the process of finding new things that I need to work on.  But it is a good practice, because I don’t want to be the kind of person that sits in the audience listening to the preacher thinking that the message is for those around me and not for me.

Your humor for the day:  I have to share this picture of Garth that we came across.  Guess which one is him?

Love you

Rachel