The Recommendations Series

I’m starting a new topic for some of my blog posts which is called “Expat Mama Recommends...” each post with this title will be a different tip or piece of helpful info I’ve learned ranging from cooking and food to toddlers and toys and everything in between.

Most of my tips will be specific to Africa, or particularly Congo, so I doubt my readers will find it particularly helpful, but if you find yourself heading for Africa with little people, then you can be on the lookout for my “expat mama” posts.

“Unto you is born this day...”

Almost all the children we know are Herdmans. They are fighters. They come from broken homes. They don’t know how to read. They lie and steal and hit little kids. If they had a garage door to slam up and down they’d be doing that for sure. They wear ragged, dirty clothes that are often falling off, tied on with string and full of holes. They have a mean cat, or more likely a mean dog. They look out for each other and they teach the little ones to be just as mean as themselves.

It’s Christmas time which reminds me of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” What a story. What a special time this is.

This year, we plan to do our annual Christmas party that has become a tradition, and have flocks of children pushing and crowding, yelling and shoving each other. We will hand out candy and balloons and read the Christmas story. It will be chaos. Something like trying to organize a Christmas play when all the main actors are Herdmans.

But this year, in the midst of the gifts and candy, the pushing and the outrageous noise, what we really need is Christmas to become real to these kids just like it did to the Herdmans.

We need the beauty of Jesus to overwhelm Imogene. For her to believe that He came for her. We need Leroy, Claude and Ollie to give something away instead of always taking.

This Christmas, we need Gladys to understand that the good news is real. That she would hear “Hey, you!” and realize that angel is talking to her.

Family photo

My phone is no longer able to take photos, but a friend took this one of us, so I am counting it as our annual Christmas picture. Unfortunately the girls weren't up to smiling.

Clavie practices fancy hairstyles on a friend