We spent Christmas in Spokane this year. My brother and niece as well as my sister were up from Texas so we all converged at my parents home. It was good to be together.
We've been striving to make Christmas more and more simple as the years come. Thankfully, my parents are in on it too. Geoff and I stuff each others stockings with small, mostly edible gifts but don't do anything outside of that. We got Jaron a little pot and pan set. We didn't exchange gifts between parents or siblings. It was fantastically simple. I don't miss the volume of gifts. I don't miss shopping. I don't miss the gift bags, the bows, the wrapping paper, the clutter. We budget for Christmas - putting a sum of money away each month and each year we take a percentage and give it towards Advent Conspiracy. This year we got to give even more of it away.
The year is wrapping up quietly. Geoff has a lot of vacation to use (you know, we save it all up - just in case a miracle happens and we get to go to Burundi . . . ) so he's been working half days and spending extra time at home. There are a lot of hopes and dreams that we have for the coming year. The main hope is that we will be able to travel to get our kids in Burundi. There are still some hoops to jump through to do that - but we hope that this is the year . . .
4 comments:
I am hoping with you, friend.
I am so with you on the simple Christmas!!!!! We don't even buy our kids gifts because we know they will have plenty coming... this year it was all about Jesus' birth and I love that! Next year I want to de-clutter His birthday even more!
Praying for you and your kiddos... praying you can all be reunited this year!
I am praying with you for this year too...I think of this prayer often.
Thanks for being an encouragment to live simply and love Jesus!
Hi ... my name is Dan, I'm from Oregon, and I live in Burundi working for a Christian organization. Your blog popped up in a Google Alert I get for anything related to Burundi. Your experience with trying to adopt kids from Burundi shocks me. Worst care scenario is that you're being scammed, best case scenario is that the people you're working with are incompetent. I'm sorry to be blunt, but you need to know the realities. Who are you working with here in Burundi? If you'd like, I'll do some checking around. You can contact me at dan.brose@gmail.com. Thanks.
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