support

Every morning I walk into the kitchen to get some breakfast and exchange a "Good Morning, how are you?" with Grace, Ben's nanny, and Gina, the housekeeper. I've enjoyed getting to spend more time with them, linger a bit longer in the kitchen or in my room while Gina's cleaning just to talk to them more. It's not my natural inclination to slow things down and just enjoy people. But I'm enjoying learning that and praying that it'll continue. Gina takes 3 buses to get here and lives far away. She leaves her house at 5:30 but doesn't get to our house until around 9 every morning. She keeps this house looking beautiful. She's a very talented seamstress but when her business went under she just took the first job she found. I love her passion for sewing and for people- things beyond a mop and a broom. She's a quiet woman but once you talk with her, not at her, she just lights up and has a beautiful smile that brightens her whole face. On Friday, I told her that my parents will be coming soon and that I'll be traveling with them for two weeks. I didn't think she'd remember, or really care honestly. This morning after our greeting and while I'm finishing up breakfast she asks when they're coming. And in the most simplest yet touching of moments she looks at me and says, "I'll be missin' you."

I hate to admit it but I don't think I'd stop and spend as much time with a housekeeper in America. And I've been really convicted of that. Gina is a beautiful, wonderfully caring woman who just wants to feel special. I'm thankful that I can see her through God's eyes, and though I fail many times, I can let His love shine through me to reach out to her. I pray that these realizations will come with me back to the States and that I can continue to see God's sons and daughters as the beautiful people they are, all created in His image. I can't wait to share more later about the other wonderful Ghanaian women I've met and spent time with here.

This post, however, is about my realization after Gina said this sweet thing to me. Here I am sitting at work just itching with excitement for my parents to come here on Friday. They're traveling for a day, spending a week and a bit in Ghana and five days in Zambia and then another day's travel to go home. All along I've been excited for them to experience what I'm constantly talking about at home. I've been looking forward to showing them around here, allowing them to experience my daily life in Ghana. But most of all though I'm just so antsy to show them where I left my heart- at the Ng'ombe slum- and let them experience the sheer joy of those children and women so in love with the Lord, living with so little. I've been viewing these next two weeks as just another two weeks out of my 10-week stay here. But this is a big deal. My parents are taking off of work, spending a pretty penny to come here and more to experience life here, and they're putting themselves out there to live a life so much different than in the States, ridding themselves of many comforts of home and opening themselves up to so many new experiences. I confess that I take that for granted sometimes. Actually a lot of times. Sitting down to think about it all though, it's beyond incredible. It's beautiful. It's selfless. It's touching. It's loving. It's Jesus. I'm thankful beyond words that I have two parents so supportive of my passions, helping me discover them and celebrating in them. They WANT to see the future site of Clothed in Hope. They WANT to see the sights of Ghana. Most touching of it all, they WANT to do all of this with ME. I don't think I tell them enough so I'll say it now. Thank you Mom and Dad for radiating Christ through your actions, your words, and your guidance. Thank you Mom for being the Proverbs 31 wife and mother. Thank you Dad for caring for us, supporting us, leading our family, and raising me and Mark the Ephesians 6:4 way. Y'all bring so much joy to my life and the support I have from y'all means more to me than I'll ever be able to express in words. I love y'all.

So here goes to these next two weeks, surely filled with joy, confusion, unmet expectations, tears of joy and of pain, bittersweet feelings from last summer in Zambia, many laughs, smiles, and most of all, love.