Christmas Has Arrived In The DR!

     Christmas is here!! If you could only see me now as I type these words, you would see me grinning from ear to ear as I belt out Celine Dion's version of O Holy Night:) For those of you that don't know, I love Christmas! I love Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas food, Christmas cheer, todos (all of it).
     Since BEFORE Halloween, people here have been decorating for Christmas, so it clearly doesn't seem weird to me that our house is decorated and it's only November 13th! It made me really happy yesterday as my roommate, Jess, and I went shopping for decorations, came home, put decor up, and listened to Christmas favorites by Michael Buble, Mariah Carey, and NSYNC. It reminds me once again that our cultures aren't so different, there are plenty of similarities. For instance, we both like to have a reason to get together with other people, a reason to host and serve, a reason to decorate and celebrate. We all have this need to belong; the desire want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. That isn't an American thing, Dominican thing, English speaker thing, Spanish speak thing, it's a human thing and when our differences seem so extreme, I need remember that we all want to be a part, so why does my behavior seem so exclusive instead of inclusive?
     As you go out this week and start looking forward to the holidays be reminded that the people in your family, behind you in line at Wal-Mart, your servers at restaurants, and plenty of others want to be included this holiday season as well. Whether that means being a little more patient as the lines get longer, restaurants become more crowded, or family plans get changed for the 5th time already, remember that He has already gone the distance for us, so our response should joyfully willing to attempt the same.
     Pictures will be up later when our house is fully ready for presentation:)

To Bathe or Not to Bathe?

      I have been meaning to tell this story for a couple of weeks now and keep forgetting to, but it's worth it so here goes. Sometimes here in the DR one might find him/herself without the usage of water for any amount of time from a couple of hours to a couple of days. When this happens to someone, they must make some decisions such as; do I go without a shower today and hope it will be on tomorrow or later tonight? Do I go over to a friend's house and hope they have water, when it's a strong probability they won't but at least you would all smell together? Or if it's raining do I play in the water and pretend that was a shower? Or last option is to collect rain water, which yes is not the cleanest and really defeats the purpose of taking a shower, but at least it's water and you hope the soap action will overcome the rain water. So, when one has options such as these, you normally pick one of the top 2, but what happens when you have already not showered in 2 days and your neighbors don't have water either? Well, you guessed it you resort to the last option is showering with rain water.

     So, how does one bathe in rain water you ask...here are the steps of that process:
- Collect as many tupperware bowls, pitchers, buckets, vases, or whatever else could be used to hold water.
-Set these apparatuses underneath your gutter pipes for water to run off into them therefore collecting water.
-As one is full you take it to the bathroom and wait for the next to fill up.
-Repeat process until you feel you have enough water to bathe, shave, wash face, flush the toilet, etc.
-Then get in the shower, lather up and pour a bucket of water over yourself to wash off the soap.
-Repeat until you are fully cleansed and take pride that you have just taken your first "bucket bath".

oh the joys of the dr:)

dad moments

      Every now and then I experience what are called "dad moments". I think of these like little reminders of what dad would being doing, saying, telling me, acting like etc. It's been 3 and a half years since dad has been gone and yet I still get teary eyed at these dad moments (I hope I always do).
     You know those times where you are brought back to such a sweet place and you want to stay there forever? Maybe that time for you was at Christmas as a little kid hiding on the stairs at 5 in the morning, or getting your first car, or taking driving lessons, or having your first child. Childish happiness. Blissful ignorance. No cares in the world. Some of these dad moments for me are sitting in his lap at any age for any reason and knowing I was always safe there. Performing and knowing that I could always look into the audience and see dad's eyes watching me. Mickey mouse pancakes cooked just for me. Welcome to my dad moments.
    This past weekend there were several groups of parents in visiting and I felt very much at home as I was suddenly surrounded by "Howdy!", "yall", "fixin to", etc. Even though it's not your family around, somehow it feels like home. I found myself clinging to the fathers more during the weekend b/c I now crave that fatherly attention. As any good father would do, they bestowed upon me as an adopted daughter their fatherly treatment. This included singing my theme song (Rockin' Robin) whenever I came around, joked around with me, made me laugh, and made me mickey mouse pancakes!
     This, of course, brought me to a dad moment. These are things that dad was known for in his lifetime: singing songs and being life of the party, encouraging others, making others laugh, and making mickey mouse pancakes. These men didn't even know dad yet through some fatherly vibe somehow knew that was exactly what I needed. Needless to say the weekend was buenismo (really good!) and then at times was hard to remember what dad was like and to know I don't get to experience that physically from him anymore. Hard concept.
      Good thing that isn't where the story ends. Although this is hard to deal with, there has been growth. Growth looks very different at times in other people and sometimes I want to see concrete evidence that I am a different person than before dad died, but I have to say that I don't know if I see or have that concrete evidence. I still struggle with a lot of the same issues as I did beforehand. The difference I see now is where my focus is in regards to dad's death. During the first 2 years my focus was very much inward and self-seeking as I would respond to everything happening TO me. Now, I feel my response and view isn't so much about me. This is how it's supposed to be. Our focus is to be on the grander picture which is Christ not us.
     May you take a moment and see the bigger picture today which is Christ, not you, not your job/role, not your present affliction...JUST CHRIST.