Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Amanha!

I'm dreaming tonight
of a place that I love
even more than I usually do
And although I know
it's a long road back
I promise you
I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
and presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
And it's a reality!!!

I'm so giddy that I feel like a child on Christmas Eve! Tomorrow the kids and I will begin our long journey across Africa, then back across Africa, the Atlantic and up the Gulf of Mexico to Houston! I've packed and repacked and now all I can do is pray that God will give me the strength and patience that I KNOW I'm going to need during my 6 hours of "airport" time and my 25 hours of "flying" time with the kids. Ha! If I survive this, climbing Kilimanjaro should be a breeze!

Facebook has been down again for the past 4 days so I imagine I wont be able to make a post before we leave tomorrow.....but I will just as soon as my plane lands at IAH!!!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Frustrated & Bits and Pieces

It is going on 6 days now that we haven't had Facebook! It is a problem that we are all having here in Luanda Sul. If I see "Oops! This link appears broken" one more time I'm going to scream!

Thank you all for your emails! I'm doing fine, just can't get on for the time being. I'm on my final countdown....6 more days until we board the plane.....destination: The United States. I get chills just saying it!

Two other things on my mind:

1) I've been a stay at home mom now for several months but yesterday really hit me as an "Ahh Ha" moment. Carter had a music presentation at school and it was so unbelievably amazing to just "go" and enjoy it. I wasn't worried about lesson plans for a sub, asking permission, and most of all I wasn't rushing here and there. I had a little moment to myself after his precious performance. This is what it's about!! I'm so thankful!

2) Tomorrow night I am hosting a dinner party for my drivers, guards and maid. I've invited their families to come. I feel that it's important that we as a family acknowledge and appreciate all that they do for us. I'm excited that my children will participate in passing out gifts to their children. This will be a teachable moment for them and we've spent the past several nights talking about the meaning of Christmas and how it's better to give than receive. The menu will be beans, rice and chicken, a traditional African meal. Of course I will add an American flare...cookies and sweets! It should be fun and rewarding and we're really looking forward to it. None of them speak English except one of my drivers so my goal for today is to write a little speech in Portuguese....and hopefully deliver it without too many laughs!

That's it for now. I hope Facebook decides to work out its problems for us on the other side of the world, but if it decides to be feisty a little longer, you can always reach me at victoria.hagan@yahoo.com.

Cheers!