Programa Navidad

Ahh, we are now officially on Christmas break! I am so looking forward to being able to sleep in a little bit more and not hit every morning with a rush. Yesterday they had a little performance at the school with each of the boys' classes. It was a mixture of cuteness and chaos! Julian was enjoying it at first, but then got stage fright or something and got a little scared looking. When Evan's class walked up on stage a teacher grabbed Evan's arm to place him in the right spot and that made him mad, so he stood up there upset during the whole song! DJ did great! He knew the song and the motions and was able to participate, but he was standing in the back and we could hardly see him. Each grade sang a song and then went and sat down. It was ok, but by the end the kids were getting bored and wanted to go home since Mama and Papa were there, but they had to wait with their class.

We are looking forward to some down time. It gets pretty hard on me going back and forth to the school 3 times a day (Dom takes them in the morning, otherwise it would be 4). The boys are really excited too. We got some Christmas decorations up and a couple of presents under the tree so it is beginning to feel a little like Christmas here. We sure miss everyone and it is especially hard this time of year! But, we are creating new memories and learning how to keep traditions alive on the other side of the world!

Missing a piece of home...

This morning I woke up to the rush of the day. Getting kids dressed, fed, ironing hubbies clothes, all in about a half hour time span. I was grumpy, kids were grumpy and now I sit here emotional in a quiet empty house listening to the rain outside after looking through all the updated pictures on Facebook. I should be spending time with the Lord and I will after posting but just wanted to say how very much I am missing family and friends. I think being away for so long you really realize that life continues on even if you are not there. Like in some magical way only my kids are growing and everyone else is staying the same...(NOT) Seeing photos of kids growing, families celebrating holidays together, puts me back in reality. We are here, they(you) are there. Seeing my nephews and nieces growing without us there leaves quite an ache in my heart at times. I shouldn't have looked at the pictures this morning, but I did. With how the day started, well it has just made me even more teary eyed. It is amazing the wave of emotions that you experience when you live overseas. It is something I am still learning how to adjust to and some days are much better than others. Today is one of those days and I suppose I will get through it, but it is so very hard. I am missing PEOPLE, not things...just family and friends! Missing creating memories with my nephews, being able to talk daily to my sister, hearing my kiddos run into the arms of their grandma, driving to a friends house...seeing people who are familiar.

The bottom line is that life is a journey with many crossroads and paths and today even though it is difficult I choose to cross the path of thankfulness and not fear. I choose to walk down the path that says I am thankful that I have so many wonderful people in my life TOO miss, thankful that HE has given me wonderful friends, and thankful that He has called us here, thankful that we have a job, thankful for the Internet which makes it easy to connect with people. It could be much worse, and I am grateful.