happy hours in the days of my life.

i don't really have anything to say, but i thought i should write something happy since that last blog was so deep and thick and probably only understood by me and god. which is cool, but let's move on to something more comprehendable.

so, my parents came and went. melissa came and went. now it's january 11th, 2007 and i have a really unique year ahead of me for so many reasons. i'm living another year in south africa (god willing). i'm starting yet another new job in conjunction with the fish hoek drug center, living hope, and the community of capricorn. i'm coming home to visit, fundraise, and GET MARRIED. i'm having a wedding, a honeymoon, and i'm coming back to south africa with my husband!?!? those are the obvious things.

then there are less obvious things, plans "undercover" as the kids would say. god and i are talking about lots of things and apparently he wants me to be more patient, less defensive, more vulerable and honest, less sensitive, more prayerful, less afraid, more self-controlled, less worrysome (how is that word spelled?), and more hopeful than ever before. i keep telling god he picked quite a year to bring all this up, but then i remember that the "obvious" and the "undercover" are very intimately connected.

a friend of mine, chris reid, just moved to portland oregon. he's a part of this church with a website of substance. and as chris has shared, it's all it claims to be. their primary objective is to live in community and to put relationship with god and others at the forefront of everything they do. if i lived in america, i feel i'd move to portland and find a life there. but anyways, that's just a random thought.

i feel my relationships with certain children here are reaching a deeper place. or at least my understanding of my place in their lives is much clearer. my love for these kids is so deep and wide, i cannot escape it or shake it. it's in my blood. and i'm learning about some changes i need to make in order to love them even better. after nearly a year in their life, i see how the opposites of some of my character defects are found in living in right relationship, in godward relationship, with these children. so, in a sense, this might be a year of them guiding me rather than the opposite. it's summed up perfectly by a grandfather with his granddaughter at the mall the other day. i was taking poem to the doctor and we stopped off at the mall to print some photos quickly. we got onto the elevator, and the grandfather looked at me and asked if i was poem's "guardian". i said no, just his friend. then he asked poem, "so is she looking after you or are you looking after her?" poem in his full charm and humor, smiled his big-lipped smile and said "i'm looking after her." strangely, i feel that to be true these days.

so, how's that for happy? happy happy happy. here's some pictures of my last month.


me & keaton.


me & ryan after a mexican dinner, where i ate some much-needed chips and salsa.


a family picture? looks like it. tino, tessa, and baby ashley e marco!


mel and i back together!!!


suprise ashley! our lunch date got burned down by an electrical fire on december 6th or 7th. so we improvised and ate a pizza made by a chinese colored men who spoke white afrikaans.


i stopped dead in my tracks when i walked into the bathroom and saw this. a literal throne!


capricorn kids club monday thru thursday of this past week. i learend 4 kids worship songs in afrikaans!


broadway musical practice or new school shoes for the big man on campus? oh poem, how i love thee! (check out proud mom in the background!).


mel and i had a lot of long talks on the beach. this was our last one before she left :(


goodbye melissa! we miss you already...