Thanksgiving

Though Thanksgiving is not a holiday here in Mali, I feel like I must at least comment on the fact that it did occur. The missionaries do actually get together for a meal, but it’s just not the same as being at home. Since I was in high school, I have had a tradition that my quiet time on Thanksgiving is only that of thanks and praise. It has become one of my favorite times (I also really enjoy the end of the year and I look back at all the Lord has done in the year). It starts out with the obvious: God, family, friends, home, etc and then always gets into even the smallest of things- the trees in our yard that provide shade, that I’m finally losing my baby fat, that I now have two potty trained kids, that 80 degrees in the house actually feels cool, etc. I am always left amazed at the kindness of the Lord and all that he has blessed us with. So here are a few things I am thankful for this year:

My God and Savior who loves me. He is faithful when I am faithless. He does not treat me as my sins deserve. He is patient and good. He is love, hope, joy. He is the giver of all good gifts.

My Brett, he stands beside me, pushes me to be better in whatever I do. He is my best friend.

My boys. They bring me so much joy. My heart melts each time they give me a hug, flash a smile or give me a kiss. I love that Silas can now lean in and give me a kiss! Love it!

My family. I love that we are close and support one another. I love that when my uncle died it was never a question of if, but when and how I would get to the US and I knew without even talking to my sister that she would be on a plane from Korea as well. I am so thankful for a loving and supporting family who are not just family but my friends.

Mali. I am thankful for being here, for the people, for our work, for this being home.

Help. I am thankful for our house help- Jeremie, Marthe, and Bocar. They are fantastic and they add to our family. Don’t know what I would do without them.

Hope

I feel like a theme the Lord has been teaching me this year is hope. I’ve actually written about hope before but just feel the need to do it again. We have this wall hanging that says “faith, hope, love” and one day Brett just asked me why I thought hope was included in the three the Lord mentions in 1 Corinthians 13. He completely understood the faith and love but always wondered about the hope as I myself have in the past. As we were talking it hit me, though, that hope is what separates us from those who don’t believe. We have hope in Jesus, in his death and resurrection, and in the glory that is to be revealed, which is heaven. So when tragedy happens, as has just occurred in our family with the sudden death of my uncle (or the sudden death of Brett’s dad the year before) or miscarriages or job loss or whatever, we can have hope. Hope that Jesus has not nor will He ever leave our side. He walks with us through every single pain and hardship with us. Hope that this is not all there is. Hope in the life eternal in heaven where there will be no pain and no suffering. No tears or sadness. Hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Each time we go through a hard time, especially a family death (which often seem to be sudden in our family), I am reminded again of how thankful I am that we have Jesus. I cannot fathom dealing with tragedy without Him, without his hope.

Romans 8:22-25

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Isaiah 40: 28-31

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

We have a walker

We (finally) have a walker! (and yes, I know the picture doesn't show him walking, but I haven't gotten one yet, so this cute smile will have to do). He has been taking steps since 12 months but really hasn't been interested in walking. Crawling is much faster for him. Two days ago he just started walking, I mean 20 + steps and standing for a few minutes at a time. Yeah! I personally find it wonderful when the boys start walking here as it decreases all the dirt that cakes up on their legs and feet. It's really quite gross. So here's to a little less dirt on the legs!

Happy Birthday Brett!!

Happy Birthday Brett!!

I love you with all my heart and I hope that you have a wonderful day! Since I am here in America and you in Mali, I can't do much today but I wanted you to know that I am thinking of you and thanking the Lord for the WONDERFUL BLESSING of YOU!!!

You are my best friend, an amazing father, an incredible teacher, a man of wisdom. I love you so much! You make me a better person. You fill my life with joy!

I hope you have a good day and that you feel the love we are sending you today!!

Love,
Sheri

Harvest Party

Last night our team had a harvest party. It was so much fun. The moms here are so creative and enthusiastic when it comes to stuff like this. They put the whole thing on. Parents and people from the visiting team manned the booths. Since our boys are little, we didn't have to work but just walked around with the kids. There were about ten games. Smash the bottles, ring toss, cake walk, Frisbee toss, face painting, popcorn pop, bean bag toss, licorice race, marshmallow game, a water game where you shoot the bottle down the tube with a water gun, then a game with shooting little men with a bow and arrow, and throw the sponge on a person. The kids had 15 tickets each to play the games. It even rained a little which really made it feel like fall. We had loads of fun! Thanks to our team for putting it on! We enjoyed it!

Me trying to explain the smashing can game (just throwing the ball to knock over the cans).

Ring toss

so excited to get the candy

Kenan really enjoyed this game. I just love watching his expressions.

And the face painting. Batman wanted a spider web with a spider on it.

D likes getting all tatt'd up.

The marshmallow game. so cute. You are supposed to suck the marshmallows into your mouth and then spit them out and place them on the circles on the paper. This is to be done without hands. (for the older kids, the marshmallows were mixed with dream whip to make it more challenging). But sweet Kenan didn't quite understand and used his hands to pick up the marshmallow, put it in his mouth, then take it out and place it nicely on the paper. so cute.

Dawson knew what to do.

The final seconds...it was a perfect tie! :)

Silas just enjoyed eating. Here's the cupcake from the cake walk.

then a crunch bar. Ok, he ate two crunch bars, but they were little.

It was such a fun evening. We then roasted hot dogs which a team member had gotten from Dakar. For a little bit, we felt like we were back in the States enjoying all the fall festivities!

The hazards of living in Africa

We enjoy living in Mali but the job does come with some occupational hazards. Poor Silas has had to deal with a lot of them in his short life.

1. Having your mommy's "special friends" (HIV positive) follow her home, come pick you up and kiss you on the lips all before mommy is out of the car. (I've mentioned this before, but still deserves to be in the list).

2. Getting abcesses. Not sure what breeds them so well here, maybe it's the heat, but so many kids have them. Silas had several during hot season from where his heat rash became infected. Last week (or maybe two now) he had a huge abcess on his leg. Brett had to cut it open with a scalpel and stick scissors in it to break up all the pus and get it out. Yuck. I wasn't allowed to be there with him when he did it, though I heard it over the entire peds building because he was screaming so loudly. So he's just gotten over this and finished his antibiotics.

3. Cutaneous Larva Migrans. You get little parasites that bore into your skin and then start crawling around. The entry point is on the right and then you can see the little worm-like line which goes left. (the worm isn't that big, that's his path). thankfully this is easily treated with one dose of albendazole that went down nicely with some jello.

4. Cuts. Our house is a child proof as possible for a house in Africa. Our windows, which are made of metal, open into the house and are just at a child's level when standing. Our chairs that sit outside are also made of metal and do not have nice rounded edges. Both Dawson and I have had stitches in our head thanks to our windows. Today Silas joined us, but because of the chairs outside. I was sharing my breakfast with him and he was coming to get another bite and just slipped and hit the corner of the chair. I knew before I even saw it that it wasn't going to be good. Thankfully we have an in house pediatrician and he was sewed up (2 stitches) in no time.

He wasn't too upset about it...at least a few minutes after the fact. (this is a terrible angle for him, so he looks kind of funny, but I wanted to show proof that he was in fact happy after the stitches). He is a cutie, just look at the above picture. :)

You can even get a "I'm 1!" picture. Really, he was just pointing at the camera, but it looks like a good first birthday picture! :)

This isn't related to the hazards mentioned above (unless you say he is still nursing because his mother has become too accustom to seeing children nurse until they are 2 or 3 and thus 14 months isn't really a big deal) but we've decided it is time to wean. I actually don't mind the normal feedings but the problem is he thinks that I am his own personal drink machine and he can get free refills whenever he wants. Even this isn't too bothersome but the problem is that it makes him too attached to me. Brett can play with him all morning and he is fine, then I take him and he just cries all the time because he wants a drink. Or when we are with people, he won't go to anyone but me. So I need to cut the cord a little more. I really have no desire to do it but I agree that it is best. So pray he does it easily. Except for the morning feed, the others are really more for comfort in my opinion as he doesn't drink a lot, so it is really dealing with the comfort/ soothing issue when I will no longer give the breast. I'll start tomorrow. No more on demand feeds and I'll drop the afternoon feed. Will see how it goes.

Life is Good

This post kind of goes along with the last one but I felt like it just had to be its own. I have been thinking lately how blessed we are here. Life is good. Though we’ve been through some challenges here and would say we have walked through the hardest two years of our lives here in Mali, we are doing well. I feel like the verse in 2 Corinthians 4, We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." Or as it is written in the Message, "We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. “ Praise be to God. And though I feel slightly uneasy to say we are doing well for fear what might come next, I am at the same time glad to say it. We are settled in here as a family and content. Dawson goes to school and seems to enjoy it. Though he was giving me a hard time getting ready and into the car in the mornings, he now is better (probably because I found out Brett told him I would send him in a cab with Jeremie if he didn’t shape up). J Kenan does well playing at home and Silas of course is happy with seeing his favorite friend each day. I enjoy working at the hospital in the mornings. It’s the perfect amount of time. I can “do something” with my mind in the mornings but still have time for the boys each day. Life is good. The boys sleep well most nights. We have power most nights. We are good. And though we don’t have a dryer, I now have a room to hang up clothes. We have a bathtub now! No dishwasher or vacuum , but I have Jeremie who helps around the house and washes dishes and cleans…and cooks. What a guy! We don’t live in a neighborhood with all our friends nearby, but we do have sweet friends here. We are so blessed to have the Diarras around. Alison is a dear friend to me and Dawson loves Hannah. She is a blessing to have at school so she can help him understand because as Dawson says, “she can speak like us and them.” J We have a pool which is awesome. It provides a place to go and relax. We have an unfinished hospital where the boys love to play. Sure it isn’t a playground, but they couldn’t think it was more fun. They love playing up there. It’s actually hard for me to get them to go to the pool instead. They love playing at daddy’s work. We have three wonderful boys who play together. Even Silas is starting to play with them. It’s sweet. Life is good. I am so thankful. I’ve always known this is where we were to be. I’ve always had that peace. I just feel like now we are truly content and happy. I feel like we’ve been content where we are for awhile but the happiness is a relatively newer thing, if that makes sense. As I look back on the past two years, I would say most of our problems haven’t had to do with Mali or Malians, but they just get caught in the crossfire. But we do enjoy them now. Sure it is hot, but we have A/C in our bedrooms for the night to help us sleep. What a blessing. And though our family and friends are far away, we have email and facebook and skype. I actually haven’t physically met my niece or my two cousins’ kids who were born right around the time of Silas, yet I feel like I know them well. When family has been sick, even though I haven’t been able to be there, I’ve been able to talk to them. I will always remember the times I got to talk to my grandfather while here and telling him that I would see him when I got back to the States (and praise the Lord, we arrived just a couple weeks before he passed away). So we can be with family even if we aren’t really with them. Missionaries today have it so easy compared to the past. Only getting letters from home every few months- and as people say whatever was in the letter wasn’t even relevant by the time the family got the letter. Often no electricity. Definitely no AC. No real communication with family and what was going on in America. We are so blessed. So blessed. This is easy. We don’t miss much of the things in America. Sure there’s no Pizza Hut or Papa Johns- but the homemade pizza is pretty good. No Taco Bell, but we have hard taco shells now and soft ones when they are made. No Breyers but homemade ice cream hits the spot. But of course, they are things that can’t be replaced. Like fall. I miss this time of year. Going to football games (which I only did a few times when I had the chance in college, but now really miss that), pumpkin patches, trick-or treating, the leaves changing colors. And of course, all these things with family and friends as that is what makes them special. But still, we are grateful for where we are and the memories of all those things back home.

I feel like part of this whole contentment/happiness thing comes from me just being more ok with who I am. I almost feel like I’ve had a coming of age in the last year or so. You’d think this would have happened before now, or at least I thought I’d know who I was by now, but I guess I’m slow. I’ve just been learning more of who I am, who the Lord has created me to be, and learning to be content with that. I am 28. I am a wife. I have three boys. I live in Mali. I’m a nurse practitioner. I’m married to a pediatrician who is trying to open a peds hospital for an area of over 120,000 people, for which he is the only pediatrician. These things shape me and cause certain things to proceed…

I am a mother. Of boys. I am learning that this is my highest and most important calling, aside from loving the Lord and my husband. This is the role that can show me my sin and areas of growth more than any other. I get to see my sin in myself but also in my kids and pray it doesn’t take root in them. I want my boys to know the Lord more than anything else. I want them to never know life without Him. I want them to know scripture. But since there is no Sunday school or any lessons they hear about the Lord outside of our home, this falls on me. I want to be better about talking about the Lord with them at all times, about anything. I want to be better at teaching Dawson scripture (we are only through G of the alphabet verses). Little by little, we will get there. Another reality is that Brett works a lot, so often I am with the boys alone. This means my house is often messier than I like it. There are often toys all around. Many things are often broken by the boys. There are three boys- they are a little wild at times. Lots of energy floating around. They are often covered in dirt. Though I want to eat all our meals at the table, this doesn’t happen. My goal is just lunch time at the table with the boys (Brett is never home for lunch though I have house help then). I don’t even try at dinner most days. My boys don’t get baths each day like I would like. They don’t wear clothes. I’m happy to have them in their underwear (though I plan to start getting Dawson in shorts as well even around the house). I am trying to get more order in life now, so I do make the boys pick up their toys after room time and one other time of day. I don’t really cook dinner. We have our big meal at lunch and we eat leftovers or something easy at dinner. My boys watch more tv than I like, though it is starting to improve. So these are some of the things that have taken a lot of time to get used to, but I’m ok with them now. This isn’t how it is always going to be, but this is how it is now. Also, I am not crafty and creative. I don’t sit down and create things with the boys. But even when I do try, they aren’t interested. I am glad I have house help. I am so glad. I am thankful I can use them throughout the day. I thankful I can take them on trips like I did for our field forum and we always had another hand around to help. I used to feel like because I used help, I wasn’t a real mother. Or just weak and couldn’t do it by myself. Maybe I could do it by myself, but there is a lot more joy and peace when there is help around. And no, I won’t use a nanny forever or take people on trips to help us with the kids, but it is nice that it is possible right now. This is huge for me to say I am ok with this. This doesn’t make me less of a mom, if anything, it makes me a better mom. No I wouldn’t have this if I was in the States, but if I was in the states and planned to stay there, we probably wouldn’t have had kids so close together (or at least we wouldn’t have tried to). We would have spaced out, but we wanted our kids to be close and have each other. That calls for a little craziness for a few years, esp here where you don’t have the places to go and friends to meet up with and just say you’re having a crazy day. You can’t just run out to Starbucks for a drink or go to Barnes and Noble and sit talking with a friend while your kids play with the trains. Thus, it is nice to have someone around to help.

I am a missionary. I want to be involved with the people. I want to know the language. I want to be a part of the people’s lives. I don’t want to live in my own bubble. I want my kids to be a part of the culture as well. So that means, I work. Dawson goes to school. We have a nanny in the mornings to watch the younger two. I’ve finally learned that this doesn’t make me a bad mother. Just different. I love my boys with all my heart but I don’t want to home school. I want my boys first and foremost to know the Lord and His love for them. I also want them to know that the people we live beside are lost and in need of a Savior. I want my kids to grow up seeing this as their ministry just as it is ours. I want them to be a part of the work here. I want them to be able to translate for visitors when needed, thus, they need to learn the language. I find that highly important.

I am not a prissy girl. Never have been. I never thought this would be a struggle I dealt with here. Never thought I’d have to worry about looking nice and having stylish clothes and a nice house but this actually has been big for me. It wasn’t as much of an issue when I was in the States because I thought I was going to Africa and wouldn’t have these things so it wouldn’t be an issue. But in reality, you can be stylish here, people bring tons of stuff over. Your house can look very cozy and well put together. This is the first time I’ve had a house that we planned to stay in for a long time. Little by little it is getting homier, though it will never be like others. That’s ok. And even if I want in my mind to be cute and wear makeup or whatever, it just isn’t me. I’d rather be comfortable. That’s what will win out in the end. That’s who I am. I am also not good at hosting. I like people to come over, but it stresses me out when it’s a group. It isn’t easy for me. I like people to feel comfortable in my home and let it be theirs but I’m just not a good host. I have seen the gifts the Lord has given to other wives here. They are hosts. They are good at it. Really good at it. And though I used to beat myself up that I wasn’t like that, I’ve just learned to appreciate their gifts and let that be. That’s not my gift and that’s ok. I can just thank the Lord more for them because they have a ministry that I don’t. We are all needed. I don’t need to be like everyone else.

Enough confessions. That’s it. Truly, though, I am thankful for what the Lord has done and how He has taught me and grown me. I am thankful to be here in Mali. I am thankful to be learning who He has created me to be.