happy thanksgiving and bid in the auction

It seems terribly odd to think that this will be the 3rd of the last 4 Thanksgivings that I've been in Mozambique, away from the holiday cheer and the familiarity that this week used to bring. I find that I try not to think about it because it may hurt. Too much reflection will likely lead to tears, homesickness, and, if not careful, further exhaustion. With all that being said, I've committed myself, with a friend, to preparing a Thanksgiving feast on Friday this week for about 20 of my "family" here. We've been laughing as we've been drawing up the menu because we don't know if we'll be able to find 1) TURKEY 2) PUMPKIN 3) SWEET POTATOES and definitely not 4) CRANBERRIES! We even Google searched for alternative options for turkey on Thanksgiving. Thank you Mr. Google but we are not vegetarian. I think what that really meant was there's no alternative for turkey on Thanksgiving. But, in Mozambique, chicken (AGAIN!) may have to do. It promises again, to be a different Thanksgiving.

While my Thanksgiving is different in Mozambique I want to share what a Minnesota friend is busy adding to her holiday hustle and bustle. In honor of November being National Adoption month in the States my friend Carrie is having an auction of hand-crafted items that she and friends have made. And, much to my surprise, yet delight, Carrie has decided to hold this auction on behalf of Nede and me! Please, even if only just for fun, check out Carries website to see what she's doing, you'll see a familiar face. Her specialty is cloth baby diapers but she has other things available as well. Take a look http://hyenacart.com/stores/mudbuttclothdiapers/ She'll be donating 100% of the money earned to support Nede and me. I KNOW! Isn't it amazing all we have to be thankful for??? So, go ahead, make this click http://hyenacart.com/stores/mudbuttclothdiapers/, go crazy bidding for fun things and...tell everyone you know!

There's bound to be more Thanksgiving stories as this week unfolds.
Until then. Be thankful.

abundant life

Nede + Love of Jesus = Abundant life

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:20

Holding on to truth here!

another proud moment

I'm taken back again about what it feels like to be a mom and to feel so proud when your child does something new. It's really quite something to experience. My new favorite thing is watching Nede wobbling around on her bike trying to avoid that bloody spill. As you'll see, she often doesn't even know where she's going. She is so out of control. Shame. Doesn't help that her mom gives her a bike with NO brakes of any sort! 

I'm so proud of Nede...

Children are a gift from the Lord;

      they are a reward from him.- Psalm 127:3

AMEN!

where am i?

As would be expected after being in a place for coming close to 2 years my surroundings are feeling pretty familiar. Even though it's familiar to me I'm reminded many of you probably have no idea what it looks like here. So, I thought I would send a few pictures to give you an idea. Many places it's not the greatest idea to stick my camera out the window so this no fantastic photography. 

I live in Chimoio, Manica province:

This is the road to my house:

This is the gate into my house:

This is our property:

And the entrance to our house:

This is Shoprite, the grocery store. If you continue up this road our house is less than 100 meters to the right, off this very bumpy road:

This is La Plaza, the best cappuccinos in town. I usually drop Nede off at school on Monday mornings and meet some friends here to start off the week:

And this is Nede's school:

This is the post office, corrieos, where I love to collect my packages. Most things get to me unless something enticing is written on the outside of the box, someone else then chooses to help themselves: 

This is the market where I buy all my fruit and vegetables:

Right across from the market is Vapor, the best pizza available for miles:

 That's all for now. As familiar as this all is I am far too often reminded that I am not at home here. I will always be a foreigner. No matter how well I know the language, not matter how much cultural understanding I think I have, I will never know what it's like to be born and live my life in a place like this. I wish it weren't so but, I don't fit. I'm often frustrated by the different world-views that I try to conjoin. Impossible. I guess culture is culture no matter where I am, the only saving grace we have is to try to live in a Kingdom culture. This can and should be my attempt no matter where I find myself. And I guess, this is part of my journey where I continue to find out what Kingdom culture even is. Nede and I will always have a different culture, won't we? It's my desire that the culture we represents most is a culture that Jesus would smile upon-- being part of "thy kingdom come..."

And when I look at this airplane building that's being constructed, I have no idea where I am!!!! It seems like it belongs in Epcot, not the outskirts of Chimoio. 

 

 There it is. It's seems like I'm in a very strange place.

aspirations

"Mom, when I grow up I want to be a doctor and a princess."

a husband

Last night Nede and I read the Creation story in her new Children's Message Bible.
We discussed it and tonight at dinner she said,
"Mom, why don't we just take out a bone (as if to grab one of her ribs) and make a husband?"

i wanted to be like dad

I'm always surprised by the things that Nede is teaching me.
Today was another one.
I've just recently got the courage and motivation to start exercising more. I've found a safe place to run and have remembered how much I do have a passion for it.
Because Nede has heard me say that I go running after I drop her off at school she's been asking to go with me.
"Mommy, after my nap can we do running?"
"Oh, Nede it's so hot after your nap!"
"Hot doesn't matter."
"We'll see."
Well, today when she woke up there was an obvious storm rolling in and, with Nede's fear of storms, I knew going too far from the house was not an option.
"Why don't we just jump rope for exercise today Nede? It's going to rain."
"Okay. But I don't have running clothes?"
"Oh, yes you do. You can use any shorts and a tank top."
"But I don't have like you."
"Oh, yes, how about these shorts, this tank top? Look it's similar to mine. And put on your socks and shoes."
"Look Mom these socks are short like yours!"
Off we went to jump rope. Nede soon got tired and started running laps around the yard. "Look how fast I am Mom." (She really is fast, I think and has quite the endurance.) The we did go outside our fence and ran around the neighborhood for quite awhile.
I started thinking. WOW! Just because this is something she knows I do and enjoy she is SO interested in it! Is that where my desire for running came from? Well, YES! I wanted to be like my dad. Of course I did. I learned much from my dad. A whole lot more than just pacing myself. I learned stick-to-it-ness, I learned about positive thinking, I learned about the power of positive thinking, I learned discipline, I learned to push through the pain, I learned to not give up, I learned to fight, I learned the benefits of caring for my body, I learned that hard work pays off, I learned to work as a team, I learn to encourage, I learned to set goals, I learned that little that is worth it, comes easily.
Hmm...it seems all these things that I learned as I admired my dad are coming in handy now. Before I returned to Mozambique I remember a dear friend saying to me (although I didn't really want to hear it), "Dara, I think that you have to go as if you're prepared to run a marathon."
I'm now brought back to more words from my dad from when I ran my marathon, "At mile 22 you may hit the wall and it may feel like you're starting over, the last 4 miles may feel as difficult as the first 22."
Again, how right he was.
I am running another marathon. I may have hit the wall hard but I'm still going. I can't give up. And boy, is it going to be worth it.
And all from wanting to be like Dad-- a pair of running shoes and Dad.
I'm still putting on those shoes and wanting to be like you, Dad. Thanks for teaching me more than how to run!

birthday

The last three days have been filled with blessing. There has been so much excitement and energy around this house that I wouldn't doubt if you felt it from where you're sitting. Today was Nede's 6th birthday. This girl has been singing "Happy Birthday" to herself in the bathtub for the past 360 days. When it came her time to sing how old she was, she was ready!  Again, I have these emotions that I continually am shocked by, I don't anticipated them and they grab me out of nowhere! Yesterday was another, when she sat in front of about 20 of our friends and her little voice sang, "I'm 6 years old now, I'm 6 years old now, I'm 6 years old now, my friends, I'm 6 years old now" I was stinking proud of her. This child who a year and a half ago I was worried about because she was not talking and withdrawn, now exuberates confidence, has a heart of compassion and as we were getting ready for bed this evening she sincerely said to me, "Mommy, thanks for my presents." 

I'm not sure whose life has changed more since 2008 when I first met this little girl in a ragged yellow dress. 

One of the highlights of the party yesterday was when this little girl confidently (and innocently) stuck her donkey tail on another girls party hat!! She was so determined that I couldn't even get her facing in the right direction.

Nede's biggest disappointment of the weekend may have been that the wings of her "pharaoh" (confusion with "fairy") dress don't actually make her fly.

If there was some sort of meter to measure the happiness of a child, Nede would be off the charts! My prayer for Nede's life is the promise that Jesus gave when he said,  "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." (John 10:10, The Message). 

It's no wonder Jesus also says to be more like these little ones. How much different would my life look if I lived in the now and didn't worry? Finally, as Dr Seuss says from one of the gifts Nede received, 

From sun in the summer,

From rain when it's fall-ish,

I'm going to protect them, 

No matter how small-ish!

Amen Dr! 

If I Give to You My Love

I don't think I totally understand this song but I think it's how I want to live. I'm sure it's what I believe. I'm confident it's what I'm called to. I struggle with it. I share the song with you because... I think it's beautiful.

Thank you Kate Hurley for giving me something to cry out.

we, we're dying like the chickens

I started writing this last week sometime and never finished it. Mainly because I didn't know how to. Here's what I had written and I'll try to conclude it after the happenings of the last few days. I still don't know how to properly conclude it 'cause I'm one confused girl, in one difficult place:

I had a conversation with one of my guards today. As per the usual news, someones baby had died. My guard explained it as a "bad spirit". When I inquired more he said, "Senhora! The baby was fine one day and died the next! That's not a bad spirit?"
I don't know what it is but I know that it's one of the many things that makes Mozambique so difficult.
Our conversation then moved to the population that is dying from malaria, and then I brought up the words that I've never heard my guards speak, HIV.
"OH SENHORA! HIV!"
Then he said it, "We, we're dying like the chickens."
I didn't really understand this analogy at first so I brought it up later. "What do you mean you're dying like the chickens?"
I still don't understand completely but the gist of it is that people go buy, or raise, a chicken with the sole purpose to kill and enjoy. The life of a chicken is short-lived and not valued.
I see what he means. Human life, like the chickens, is held quite loosely too. A death is usual conversation.
My guard also shared of a woman who was hit with a car just by my house. She, the baby on her back and the young child in her hand, dead.
Three more, gone.


This is where I ended because I didn't know what to say next. And then, on Friday evening we had a bad hail and wind storm. Thankfully I and 2 friends were safe in my huge concrete house. And, though it leaks like a sieve and a window got cracked and a number of other things were damaged, we weren't in danger. My house isn't made of mud with a grass roof. I don't have tin sheets of metal moderately secured as my roof that could fly off and detach someones arm (apparently that happened). I wasn't walking with my baby on my back in the market with no place to get away from the pelting hail which would bring both to their death (apparently that happened too).

I still don't know how to end this message. I write out of my own confusion sometimes. What I don't get is  why is it okay that so many die around the world to things like AIDS and malaria? Why, for 28 years of my life, did I not know about this? I didn't even know to care. They don't show this on the news in America do they? Not often, that's for sure. It makes me crazy that just because we in America aren't "dying like the chickens" that we ignore this, or are too afraid to face it and make it personal.

I may sound angry but I am, I'm mad at HIV and mosquitoes and the lack of the worlds response. This isn't how it's suppose to be. This isn't what the Church is supposed to be doing. We're called to more, much more.

It makes me sad that my guard compares the value of his life to that of a chicken. He's worth more. They all are.