I'm out of POSITIVE.

I have exhausted all of my positivity for the month. With my smile and my optimistic outlook, I was able to look strong and feel strong. Without the strength to smile about the fact that I'm sitting here blogging by myself on Christmas Eve, I'm jus an eighteen year old kid who is too far away from her family. I've cried too many tears for December to handle and I want to yell and my skin or sweating because my mind cannot accept that it is 90 degrees on Christmas Eve. I want all the palm trees to turn into Christmas trees and I want to wake up on Christmad morning in my bed in Virginia. I miss the childish anticipation that Christmas puts into each one of us and I miss the complete and perfect happiness that comes from simply enjoying the company of those who have been put into your life. It's hard to enjoy fellowship when you're by yourself.

There are people around the school, of course, but Christmas here is a time to be busy. It's a time to travel ad to see as many friends as you can. Since I have no one to travel to or with, I am left watching faces (some familiar, others not so much) come to and fro as they enjoy their chaotic Christmas. For some reason I thought that Christmas here would be exactly like Christmas at home, except hotter. I thought families would stay close and that people would gather here and eat food and enjoy conversation and friends. Instead, parents are traveling to see their own parents while kids hang out with their friends. Some are enjoying beach trips or other day-long vacations that were planned in advance. I was unaware that all of this would be happening, so I neglected to make plans for myself. That's why I'm here, just blogging.

I know that Jesus is with me, and I know that there are people around and I know that I have friends. Don't worry, I'm not going to die of sadness (I don't think). I'll be fine. I just felt the need to tell you all that I'm exhausted and homesick and that, at last, there are no more positive spins for me to put on the situation that will make it anything other than: I'm feeling alone on Christmas and I miss my family.

I hope you appreciate your Christmas a little more than you would have before reading this.

much love ALWAYS, Christie

FAMILY defined

An immediate family is defined as “a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.” Extended family is simply defined as “all the descendants of a common ancestor.” Those are dictionary definitions, just words on a page in a book that exists simply to define other words. A dictionary is a cold and heartless thing. It defines cancer as if people’s lives haven’t been destroyed by it. It describes a heart as simply an organ, not something that decides who we love and who we hate. A dictionary houses terms that mean the world to one person and mean nothing to the next. According to the dictionary, the people who mean the most to me in the entire world are just “a group” who happen to have descended from the same forefather. I would like to fill you in on what the dictionary left out.

An immediate family is the core of who you are. They make you or they break you. They are the ones who are either there to pick you up if you fall or the ones who leave you there to brush off the dirt. A family brings both joy and pain throughout your life and you wouldn’t exist if it was not for them, and they would not exist if it were not for those before them.

I know for some of you your family has been a source of hurt and the reason you cry yourself to sleep tonight. I know for others your family is difficult and crazy and but hard as you try, you can’t make yourself get away.

For me, instead of being a source of hurt my family has been a balm for any hurt I might be going through. Instead of being the reason I cry myself to sleep at night, my family is the reason I can go to sleep knowing that, as long as we’re together, everything will be okay. My family can be difficult and crazy, yes, but (despite the fact that I am in Africa as I write this) I’ve never tried to get away from them. My family is my core and they have instilled in me the values and qualities that I possess today.

This Christmas will be hard without them. I’m going to miss Kari being the only one who still gets excited enough to wake us all up to open presents. I’m going to miss waiting for Dad and Tyler to get up before we start celebrating. I’m going to miss waiting for Mom to make her coffee (it seriously takes her AGES) before we all gather in the living room by the glow of our Christmas tree and open gifts and laugh and talk. I’m really going to miss eating too many cinnamon rolls and thanking Mom for the socks and perfume and the gum that will inevitably end up in our stockings. However, I’ve never experienced Christmas in the middle of summer, so this should really be something.

All that to say, family is a beautiful thing. And not all of us get to experience this joyous “group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.” Is that really what family is, though? Biological ties are impossible to break, true, but sometimes there are others in your life who turn out to be more loyal and loving and honest than any family member you’ve ever known. In my humble opinion, that’s family too. My (uneducated but heartfelt nonetheless) definition of family is this:

Those who will be there for you when nobody else is. Those who will speak honest truths into your life when everyone else is offering empty affirmations. Those who find joy in just being together. Those in front of whom you have no problem eating as many cheeseburgers as you want. Those who will never criticize in order to tear you down, but instead in an effort to help you become a better person.

That’s family. And if you feel alone during this holiday season when families are all gathering together, don’t forget that every single one of us have the same Father. Therefore, according to the cold-hearted dictionary, which defines extended family as “all the descendants of a common ancestor”, we’re all a big, happy, crazy extended family, whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas…it doesn’t matter. We’re all bros up in here.

XOXO

love love LOVE,

Christie

[only 10 days until Christmas Eve!]

STOVE PROJECT : $500 needed

GOOD NEWS! Many of you, perhaps, have heard that I am raising money to buy two new stoves for Royal Kids School. An anonymous donor has just told me that if I can raise $500 by SUNDAY NIGHT, they will match that amount, equaling in $1000 – enough to buy one of the stoves! Below is information about the stoves and why they are a worthy cause to give to. I will also give you the link to donate money towards this project. Thank you for your support and thank you to the anonymous donor who has generously made this offer!

INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL/WHY STOVES WILL HELP :

Royal Kids School has two kitchens. One kitchen is a sort of shack right outside of the school building and the second kitchen is newly built and is located on the other side of the school. In the new kitchen there are two large stoves fueled by firewood that are used to cook for the majority of students. In the old kitchen there are multiple small, charcoal-fueled stoves used to cook meals for the staff and for the students with dietary issues. There are three problems that these separate kitchen present:

1.The charcoal is expensive. To use charcoal everyday costs more than the food itself and cuts deeply into the finances of the school.

2.Walking back and forth between kitchens to retrieve cooking necessities, while it may seem trivial, is exhausting when it’s added to the work of cooking for over 300 people every day

3.Sometimes, to try and conserve charcoal, the small meals cooked for the staff are prepared on the large stoves. Because the large stoves are extremely hot, there has to be more food than necessary cooked, resulting in wasted food.

So whichever way you look at it, savings are being drained by the use of charcoal (about 4400 schillings per month), and food is being wasted in the effort to conserve charcoal.

WITH $2000, two new, small stoves fueled by firewood could be purchased and moved into the new kitchen where the larger stoves are. The old kitchen and charcoal-fueled stoves would be no longer necessary, therefore eliminating the need to buy charcoal every week, and resulting in extra money that could be used towards paying salaries or towards food and other necessities for both the day-time students and the boarding students. Because the stoves would be smaller, there would be no need to cook large quantities for smaller staff meals, therefore eliminating food wasting. The food would then last longer, and money would be saved for the school in this way as well. This is a cause that will help the school in the LONG RUN and will help them save money for YEARS to come.

PLEASE CONSIDER and pray about helping out with this project. If you feel led to donate, go to THIS WEBSITE where you can give however much you desire to give:

https://gcr.cloverdonations.com/royal-stove-fund/