Merry Christmas to all our Family and Friends!
My heart is full and overflowing with contentment this
Christmas season. As I mentioned in a Facebook post, this is both my and Rob’s
first Christmas ever away from our families. I have to admit that I wasn’t really
looking forward to it and it seemed that the kids weren’t looking forward to it
either since they wouldn’t tell me what they wanted for Christmas. In past
years, that has always been an easy question and some of them would have a list
that took up a full page. Not this year, every time I asked, they would have a
blank stare or just plain ignore me. Finally, one of the kids said, “Well, we
really don’t NEED anything so why don’t you just tell our grandparents to make
a donation to the Children’s Ranch or something.” What? Wow! Huh. Every once in
a while, your kids just melt your heart.
A couple of weeks ago, we decided to give a gift to a friend
of ours who has been helping us build at the ranch for the last year. We wrapped
it up in typical Christmas wrapping paper with a bow so that looked pretty and
presented it to him. It was a small package about the size and shape of a book.
When he saw the gift that we were presenting to him, he teared up. He said that
he has never received a Christmas gift in 43 years. (He is 43 years old). He
then said that Christmas is when they get their clothes that they need for next
year and that is all. They aren’t wrapped. So, even though the gift was
something as small as a book, he knew it couldn’t possibly be clothes or
something ‘practical.’ I had always heard that it is better to give than to
receive but this moment really made me realize the true joy in giving. It was a
very impactful moments for our whole family.
Two of our neighbors came over this week and dropped off tamales.
This is what everyone here eats for Christmas, it is a very special meal that
takes a lot of time and effort to prepare. We were honored to be included in
this tradition and we enjoyed eating the tamales today for our Christmas dinner,
since we had the ‘American ham dinner’ on Christmas Eve. They were delicious.
 |
| Jonathan enjoying the tamale at our 'casual attire' Christmas dinner |
It is a
tradition in my Norwegian family to open all of our gifts to each other on
Christmas Eve after our evening dinner. Well, as soon as the kids woke up, our
youngest asked, “Are we opening presents now?”
I replied
with, “No sweetie, we open gifts after dinner so not until it gets dark.”
About an
hour later she asks, “How much longer until we open gifts.”
Again, “not
until it gets dark.” A while later she asks what time does it get dark? And finally
when she started to ask how much longer until it gets dark I lost it and told
her, “If you talk about opening presents one more time today, we will not open
them at all! Let’s enjoy our company while they are here!” Grrrr. We were not looking forward to a Christmas
alone so we invited a couple in our ministry to share Christmas with us. They
came over for the day on Christmas Eve and we had the ham dinner with them. It
was so much fun to play games and share some time with our ‘new’ family here in
Costa Rica.
After our friends left and I announced that it was time to
exchange gifts, my sweet little baby said, “I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see
everyone open the gifts that I got for them.” Stab me with a dagger right in
the heart. So that’s why she couldn’t wait for us to open gifts.
As I read back over these different experiences that we have
had in the last week, GIVING seems to be the theme for our family this 2015
Christmas. We don’t consider ourselves anyone special. We are just a regular American family who
happens to be living in another country as our way of serving God. We always have food and clean water. We have a clean, safe, comfortable place to
live. We often bicker and argue like
everyone else. In spite of us, God is
working in our hearts to give us a perspective that we probably would not have
found back home. Knowing that is what fills my heart this Christmas
season.
Thank you God for giving us the greatest gift of all. Jesus.
I now have a glimpse of the joy you must feel whenever a person humbly and gratefully
accepts that gift. I love you. Amen.
Yvonne
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