Dana’s Avenue

Jonathan is officially off work now until next year.  (Yay!)

We’ve gotten Christmas gifts from family.  (Thank you!)

A bunch of Christmas cards have come in the mail.  (Thank you again!!)

Jonathan and I have adopted our role as Santa looking for gifts for Asher’s first Christmas.  (So far…  a soccer ball.  Don’t tell him…)

We’ve also gotten each other a little something each.  (Okay, it’s hard with no Target or Best Buy but we managed just fine.)

I have been baking Christmas goodies and singing Christmas carols.  (Fa la la la la la la la la.)

The Christmas lights are plugged in.  (Mainly because we don’t have power, these will run on the generator, and they give off good light.)

We have the Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Frostie the Snowman, and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer to watch.  (Thumpity-thump-thump.  Thumpity-thump-thump.  Look at Frosty go…)

And I’m EXCITED!!  I love Christmas and it’s practically here!!  I’ll be spending my time until then wrapping gifts, baking a Red Velvet Cake, pumpkin pie, and Jello Cheesecake (that I got in a care package), and wondering what Santa is going to bring me.  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…just like the ones I used to know…where the treetops glisten…and children listen…to hear…reindeer in the snow… 

Hummmm….Hummm….Hummmm…Hummmm…..Hmmm…Hmmm….Mmmm..Mmmm…Mm….

Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness.  To your opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect.

~ Oren Arnold

Cheka is by far the doggiest dog I’ve ever had.  He loves to be outside.  He chases bugs and frogs, eats bones and rocks, digs in the dirt, and jumps around in the grass.  I mean he’s like a real dog!

By contrast Teddy goes outside, sniffs around, does his business, and makes a b-line for the door.  He could care less about bugs or rocks or dirt or grass.  He’s content to be in the house, at my heels, guarding his food, or trying to escape the baby’s grasp.

I’d love to leave Cheka outside more but at this temporary house I just can’t and honestly I don’t like standing outside while he plays so he doesn’t get as much free time as he probably should.  Jonathan does take him for a walk every day and I do let him out.  I just can’t wait until I can do that more often.  I let him stay inside for free time some but that is such a strain on my nerves.  Trying to keep him to his 1 toy and away from Asher’s toys - trying to keep Asher from pulling his tail or sticking his hand in Cheka’s mouth - and all sorts of things I don’t want happening between them.

Hmmm…  Our groundskeeper just arrived…maybe he’d keep an eye on Cheka for me.  I think this is a good idea!  Off to let Cheka out of his kennel (which he goes into freely when we tell him to thank goodness).  That’s going to be one happy doggy dog.

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” ~Larry Wilde

So here’s our Christmas tree.  We got it in Nairobi for under 5 bucks.  We went for a small one so we could put it up on a table out of the way of curious little hands.  On the tree you see ornaments that my mom made me when I was little.  And next to it a snowman my dad made me (he turns wood - I think that’s how you say it).

Of course right now our tree is in a box with our other Christmas stuff.  We might get it back out.  We probably will.  At least for Christmas Eve and Day.  I don’t want Asher’s first Christmas pictures to be decoration-less.

But all in all I like my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

When I first started going to church regularly on my own as an adult I learned a lot.  I heard a lot of preaching and teaching about the truth and what the Bible says, about what is right and wrong, about what we should do and shouldn’t do, about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, heaven, hell, death, life…

The people I heard speak sounded as if they knew THE TRUTH and I believed it was THE TRUTH. 

But now I wonder this…

There have been many brilliant people who have prayed fervently then studied the Bible thoroughly wanting only to understand it purely.  And about all of them disagree in at least one area. 

They can’t all be right.

And if these brilliant people aren’t 100% right then my beliefs aren’t 100% right.

So my mind is open to discovering what false beliefs I have.  I just hope I never throw out the true ones to adopt false ones and hold onto lies rejecting the truth.

I wonder why these things are so hard to understand completely and clearly.

This last week or two has been pretty hard on us.  It’s a lot to take - the moving, power outage, water shortage, and temporary living situation.  Add to that not having a good way to separate puppy and baby, not being able to leave puppy outside by himself, and this nightmare of a house search…  then add to that the holidays and all my decorations coming down, having nowhere to really put them here…  And it’s understandable why I’ve been a little down and discouraged.

But then something happened.

Jonathan put on some Christmas music and we made Christmas sugar cookies.  I wore my little red and white apron that I got in Nairobi.  Asher was asleep in the living room (most of the time).  And it was just fun - rolling out the dough, cutting the shapes, baking the cookies, then decorating them. 

And for that evening everything was okay.  I didn’t care about all the hard stuff anymore.  I guess that’s what nostalgia will do for you.  And going through the challenges makes me enjoy those sweet moments even more. 

I know things won’t always be easy and life won’t always be pleasurable.  We’re not in heaven yet!  But the bumps in the road won’t make me miss the joy of the journey.

Again…

Another move but this time I’m super excited about it!  We finally found a house!  Here are the details:

3 bedroom, 2 bath, area for a garden, up on the mountain with a great view, out of the main traffic areas of the neighborhood, in the same neighborhood with co-workers (but with none as actual neighbors)…

We really like it and feel like we’ll be happy there.  With every house though you have your trade-offs and for this one - well - it doesn’t have water going to it yet.  The houses up on the mountain haven’t gotten water from the city yet but they’re working on it.  And in the meantime we can have water trucked to the house to fill up our 4,000 liter tank.  We’ll make due.  They say the water will be fixed “in a few months” but we’ll see how that goes.

We should be able to move in by the end of the month although we’ve asked if they could get us in before Christmas since there’s not much to do.  The sooner the better!  Just thinking about being able to leave Cheka outside more, being able to really put things away, having all of our belongings in one location again, being able to put up Christmas decorations, and just being in our own space - I get excited!

This whole process has really tested my faith.  At one point I got so discouraged I felt we’d end up living on the streets and God said to me, “Is this all it takes to rattle your faith?  The house hunt being hard is enough?  After all I’ve done for you, a bump in the road like this discourages you?”  I said, “No.  Well.  Yes, actually.  This is all it takes.  Please forgive me.”  And from then on I really hung onto my faith in God and He did provide a house in the timing that we needed a house and in the price range we could afford.  Of course He did these things!  Oh me of little faith…

The theme I see running through Psalms as I’m making my way through them is declaring praise to God so in light of that I want to say “God is great!  God hears and answers prayer!  Praise Him!  Praise Him!”

Now my prayer is that we stay in one location at least a year.  But I leave it up to God as He knows what’s best for us and we trust Him to take care of us.

Just how do I do it?  More importantly, why do I do it?  I’m crazy.  That’s the only explanation I have.

I have tried my best t keep Cheka away from Asher’s toys.  I pick them up.  I get him away from them.  Over and over and over and over thinking one day the lesson will stick.  Except there’s a saboteur in our midst.  And it’s ASHER!

Just now I was watching Asher play with a toy.  He dropped it.  Cheka went to pick it up - with his mouth of course.  I slapped it away before it got there.  Asher picked the toy up, put it in Cheka’s mouth, then into his own mouth.  Gag.

So I officially give up trying to keep Asher’s toys 100% away from Cheka 100% of the time.  I’ll do my best but my success rate just isn’t going to be what I had hoped.  If Asher would work with me that would certainly help but you try reasoning with a 9-month old. 

I found an article online called something to the effect of:  “Housebreak Your Puppy in 7 Days”.  Well that sounds good to me! 

So we started the schedule for Cheka on Sunday and it’s going great so far!

He already knows how to sit.  Now we’re working on “stay/come”.  Next will be “lay down”.  Then…I’m not sure…I guess the doggie training as far as commands will be complete.

According to “the plan” we should have a housebroken puppy who can sit, stay, and come on command by this weekend.  Yay!  Now how long before he’ll want to quit chewing on things?