Looking for Beauty in Simplicity

This past week turned out to be one of those weeks that you makes yourself try to remember the good parts. I hate to admit it, and this isn't a reflection on those we went to visit but at this point I find myself thinking that this trip was a really big mistake. Please tell me you've experienced a week such as this and know what I'm talking about.

And so, I'm going to do the unthinkable; I'm going to list everything that went really wrong on this trip:

I got flu sick the night before we left.

17 hours in the car to get there.

Helena screaming "I no wanna buckle!" for about half that time.

The girls' difficulty sleeping in a strange place resulting in a lack of sleep for Jeremy and I the entire trip.

Total upset of routine resulting in lack of sleep for all of us (I really do like some structure!)

Jeremy loosing his wedding ring on toboggan hill.

Ophelia hitting a tree with her face and loosening a permanent tooth on toboggan hill.

The girls getting homesick- me too actually.

All of us missing our small but established family traditions around Thanksgiving (mostly food related but not only).

Missing our family traditions to start the advent season.

Ophelia developed a pretty bad cough.

17 hours in the car to get home.

Me coming down with a terrible cold on the way home complete with aches and fever- seriously, I had only been sick a week before too.

And though this didn't really happen on the trip, it did happen while we were on the trip: our house was broken into and our DVD player and VCR were stolen.

But the thing that I'm the most upset about is that in truth, we couldn't afford this trip. I never really talk about our finances here and with good reason but things aren't that great. Actually, they're pretty bad and now they are worse. I have been diligently working as I can and searching for a job to hold us over (but the job market isn't that great as many of you in Houston know) while searching and waiting for where God has us next to continue our ministry. Jeremy has been trying to build his private lessons back up but we're just barely making ends meet right now and that's if there is nothing extra. Jeremy's mom generously helped out with the trip but in order for our car to be able to make it to Colorado we had to spend everything she sent on the car and ended up spending the money for our bills and what little we had hoped to set aside for Christmas on food, gas, and lodging. We can't afford to replace the stolen items right now and I'm not even sure we can afford to buy a Christmas Tree let alone all the other stuff that goes along with Christmas such as, oh, gifts for the girls. I'm ok with telling friends and family that we can't exchange gifts this year but trying to explain this to the girls is a heart break. Some of you know that it really takes something to make me cry, this has. I called my mom last night and balled.

So, now for the good:

LOTS of time together as a family- mostly in the car of course.

Visiting relatives.

Sledding for the first time.

Jeremy found his ring- thank you God!

Ophelia has stopped sucking her thumb and the tooth that hadn't come in is well on it's way thanks to the tree.

Ophelia turned 7 while we were there.

Visiting Focus on the Family and getting to go to Whit's Inn and go down a three story slide (I kid you not).

Hearing Jeremy play his composition that he is hoping to get published for his family- he is a musical genius!

The girls making new friends with their cousins.

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with our bigger family.

The trip home seemed easier than the trip there.

We're mostly healthy.

Our computer, my grandmother's jewelry, our CD's and DVD's, our musical instruments, and other small but still valuable (at least to us) things were not stolen.

My mom reminded me that things always seem to work out and she's right, I need to remember that God knows what's going on in our lives even when it seems we may not fully understand. When I was little (and I'm sure Preston and Rebecca remember this well too) there were a few Christmases that we had very little, almost nothing but I also remember some neat events that came of that including me not knowing we had little until I was much older. My mom's creativity and resourcefulness as well as others sometimes generosity still helped make the Holidays memorable. And my parents never allowed gifts to be the point of the season, often encouraging us to share what we had with others still less fortunate as "Christmas Angels." On year mom made Rebecca and I "cabagge patch dolls" (and Michelle, a neighbor friend felt the need to show us our were fakes...) and dress up clothes- one of the best Christmases I remember- fake dolls and all.

All of us build up expectation for our holidays or for trips and vacations and sometimes things turn out just as we imagine them but most of the time they do not. This trip helped me to appreciate our home, our family, and how God has miraculously supplied all of our needs. My holiday "mood" is slow in coming this year, it seems strange that I'm not up to my eyeballs in rehearsals for Christmas plays and choir concerts and that I really haven't yet listened to Christmas music this year when I usually start a little in May and then regularly in late July and early August. The most of done is to make a simple rehearsal CD for the children in our church- I'm directing them in 5 songs but today as I was working with the kids I smiled to hear the kids sing "Away in the Manger." There is much beauty in simplicity, isn't there?