2015!

Grace is talking to herself and singing as she does while playing with playdough on the porch, Sarah and Emma are in the kitchen baking and the boys are working with James on a lego star wars x wing fighter...or something like that! 

I am taking a breath. This year has been one full of blessings and challenges. As life seems to be anyway. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium, which we just watched (again!) with the kids on the holiday break. The character played by Dustin Hoffman speaks of life being a series of breaths, beautiful and full. 

Sometimes the breaths I take seem to be in a panic of gasping for air, waiting for the next thing to happen or be thrown at me in this life. But slow steady breathing, relaxing breathing are what make us get through life a bit easier. 

2015!

At this point of the year as I look back I can just say, we made it! We got through the year. We are all still alive and in one piece, and the Lord has helped us and carried us through! 

The year started out with a great blessing of James and I being able to celebrate our 20th Anniversary.  We had a party with some friends and then took a week long trip to the Seychelles.  We had the best time we have ever had. It was absolutely beautiful and so peaceful and relaxing. We thank God for drawing us more and more together in love than we were when we married. We also were so grateful for the opportunity and for air miles saved to fly us over to that little piece of heaven on earth.  (And now we just HAVE to go back there some day!) 

Running our own businesses this year has been very challenging. MacSpeedy’s has grown so much in just 1 year. Last year James and I started a little competition whoever could reach 20,000 Kwacha in sales from our own business first could chose our Anniversary destination. The Cakery won. Now we look at MacSpeedy’s and in just a year they were around 300,000 Kwacha in sales. James has done an amazing job and I am so proud of him!   The Cakery continues to have a lot of potential and in the last few months we have gotten our tortilla chips into 10 different supermarkets in Zambia. (4 of them are in the Copperbelt) The fact that both of us still have companies and staff that we employ is a huge accomplishment in the face of Zambia’s unstable economy...We just have to keep telling ourselves that when it can be very discouraging. The older kids have been able to help out with the Cakery and that has been good for me and for them to be part of the family business. 

In the early summer the power outages become worse and worse. The problems were and are not able to be solved with a quick fix. The dollar went from about 6 or 7 kwacha to 13 kwacha at one point before “stabilizing” ( relative word) at 11 kwacha for the past few weeks. Many businesses closed down and people started to panic a bit. We had fuel shortages a few times this year as well as a gas crisis. Everyone was scrambling to get gas for cooking so that the gas companies couldn’t keep up with the demand. 

Thankfully when you really look at life, there is a whole lot you can live without and do without if put in that situation. Not that it is easy by any means, but it is doable. 

Our kids have faired well in this newer “storm” of life. They have had a good year and done well in school.  When we first started the year I was homeschooling Jackson and Caleb. They did fine with it but by September we were ready to put them back into a different Zambian school that some of the other kids were going to. I just simply did not have the energy or time to homeschool them in light of other responsibilities and truth be told, I am SO done with homeschooling. Baking together, reading books together, playing games, hanging out outside, those are the things I enjoy about the kids being at home, but that has nothing to do with school. 

Somewhere mid year, Emma asked to come back home for school. So she and Sarah are the current ones at home doing their school via DVD programs and correspondence. They are doing well with it and also helping out when needed in the Cakery. 

In July, Sarah and I went back to the States for a family visit. We also checked out a few schools that she was looking at. It was great to see our families. We will be bringing Sarah back in August to start College. She is waiting to hear on Scholarships from University of Kentucky as well as Vanderbilt before deciding on which school. Those are her top 2. She was accepted into Auburn, Samford and University of Alabama and given partial scholarships at those schools as well. She did amazingly well on her ACT,  a 33 and so we are very thankful her hard work is paying off! 

She has had several friends move away this past year and another dear friend, her closest one here in Zambia leaves for school in Mauritius in a couple of weeks. 

Sarah turned 18 and is now referred to as an adult in the house, meaning she can do pretty much what she wants. This is not so cool to all the other kids!  I try not to get too emotional yet over thinking about her leaving to move across the world and start her own life. She is such a blessing and joy to our family, it will definitely be a time of adjusting next year. 

Ian and Sarah both started piano lessons this year.  Sarah had a few recitals this school term and is looking forward to using her christmas gift of popular songs from Musicals. She really likes Musicals, the Sound of Music being her favorite. 

It was Ian’s first time to play and he is doing well, despite the “babyish” nature of the songs he is playing. :) He is also doing well in school, enjoying his friendships there and is developing his writing skills in his free time. He really has talent for writing and I am eager to see that develop. Last year while I was needing an office at home, Ian shared a room with the 2 other boys and I think I can say over a thousand hours were spent in Lego mania on the floor in their room. He is still so easy going which is a great blessing in this family!  He also has been helping work at the Cakery as well. In the new year he will be working there for about an hour before school and after school. It has been good to see him maturing in responsibility and developing into a fine young man at 16 years old.

Emma (14 now)  continues to sing and dance her way around the house. Literally. Probably the highlight of her year was helping pass out programs and being involved in the fundraiser aspect of a show put on here in Lusaka by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She loved it and still talks about it. They will be coming again this year and Emma is hoping to be involved in it even more. It seems to have given her a taste of the “Arts” and I think she is hooked. She continues to be a help with the kids at home and especially our friends babies at church. Our friend Julie runs a baby home and she will often bring the babies to church and both Emma and Grace (and myself) are all to eager to snatch them away as she walks in the door.  She has been very adaptable to different school and home situations and seems to be doing well now at home again. I would think being the only white girl in your school, while coming into the teenage years in this culture we live in ‘could’ be a bit too much!  She is helping more in the kitchen and with dinner prep on some nights too. 

Caleb (11) is starting a rabbit breeding venture. He got a rabbit a few months ago and then its mate disappeared in the yard or was taken out by some other animal. (not sure on that one) So for christmas he just got another female rabbit yesterday so we will see if this is successful. He is very responsible and good with animals and continues to be an outdoor and nature loving kid. He is a conservationist at heart as well and talks about when he has his own home it will be solar powered and self sustaining... He won’t eat foods with GMO’s and will search the labels of boxes at home. He’s not at all “in your face” about it, he just learned about it in science at home so he will quietly pass over the occasional Doritos.  He is also very much opposed to the idea of us running our generator for any other reasons than keeping the refrigerator running, and is often the one telling everyone else in the family they should get off their devices...This kid is on to something! :)

Jackson (9) got fish for his birthday this year and is doing well keeping them all fed and not becoming attached to them so that when they die because of whatever reason or the power goes for days and the pump doesn’t work and they end up dying, he takes it in stride.  He still loves to eat and his questions everyday mostly revolve around whats for breakfast or dinner, etc...He is still very wiry, growing tall and skinny. He likes to help me in the kitchen and says that he would like to be a chef when he grows up. He has developed a comic streak to him and enjoys making up jokes and having people laugh and occasionally performing for the family in a comedy show. He has done well at his new school, and along with Caleb participated in the swimming “gala” as they call it here. (Swim meet).  He and Caleb swim at home pretty much every day that they are able. It makes me happy and reminds me of the hours in my own pool at home growing up in Florida. 

Grace is finally growing! At 7 years old she seems to have hit a growth spurt and now is outgrowing shoes and clothes that she had previously been wearing for a year or two. She really enjoys her school. Though I think she often has conflicted feelings about her family. A new school meant new explanations to every one that asks, “Is that your mom Grace?”  “But, she’s white?”   Some days she doesn't even want to acknowledge us when we pick her up from school, myself or when Ian gets her to walk home she will ignore him until they are outside the school grounds. Other days she is hoping I had time for a shower after working out, because she wants to “show off” her mom to her friends and have me walk her to her classroom. Moms here don’t do the whole sweats/yoga pants school drop offs! 

Many times, it is emotionally wearying to understand all that is going on and how to deal with it properly. 

She LOVES babies and other little kids, and is VERY empathetic to anyone sad or having a hard time. She is still an early riser and a talker from the get go at 5:30 in the morning. My favorite christmas present for her this year was an alarm clock that has a separate sleep and play light that comes on. SO if the light is still on the girls sleeping, then in theory she is to stay in her bed.  She was in a program at her school and does enjoy the spotlight...like, ALOT. 

She is my Pick n Pay buddy. Most quick trips to the grocery store are just for Grace and I. She likes us having our special thing we do together. 

James and I are trying to put more and more margin into our lives. It is a work in progress. I am continuing on with the HOPE Kabanana work, though this last quarter I had even less time to devote to it. We had the kids come to the house for a swim day and that was great fun as usual. James continues to preach 3 out of the 4 sundays at our church and has been asked to help in other ways there this year as well.  As we look at the new year, I am hopefully going to be trying to back away “a bit” on my hours and time at the Cakery to something that is more manageable in raising a family. I enjoy the work, but it IS stressful many times, AND given the choice between being at home more, and not just physically, but “really there”, and working more, I don’t want to lose sight of what is truly on my heart, - which is to be there for my kids. This working outside the home mom thing is a challenge. Especially with a big family. And with living in a 3rd world country. Seems like doing anything even after 6 years now, just takes SO MUCH energy!  We look forward to 2016 being a year of finding more balance, and margin and joy in our daily lives. The Lord knows we need it and it’s a good desire to have so I anticipate that prayer being answered. 

Thanks for reading this “blog/letter”. 

I just started writing, not really knowing if this was going to be a family update letter or a blog. 

But its been a few years since I’ve sent out any letter, so here you have it!

May the Lord bless you this year, in 2016.