Its been a while....

Well I know that it has been a while since I have posted.... almost 5 months... And now Zion is almost 8 months old! I can't hardly believe it!

And in even better news Enkaiye will finally get here on the 11th of november....

And that is pretty much my life right now... so, I will be writing more later... i'm at work right now!

Impassible Divide?

I am sitting here on my bed once again at the end of another long day. I am holding my sweet three month old baby in my arms, while watching John Sewart on Comedy Central, as is my nightly ritual. And I feel miles away from a world that I love. Where I would fall asleep at night to the sound of hyenas, crickets, and songs being sung at villages in the distance. Not to the sound of an overwhelming amount of commercials enticing me to buy a pair of Nike shoes by puppet versions of LaBron James and Kobe Bryant.

As I sit here there is no seemingly significant cross-roads in my life begging for my attention, but I feel somehow like I have come to a point where I have to reconcile myself with all of the parts of me.

I am what you might call a citizen of the world. Others call us who have grown up seemingly gliding between home cultures, host cultures, school cultures, and personal cultures. I have often described myself as someone who has multiple personalities. I don't know any other way to explain how easy it is to be here and be there at the same time. I feel like two different people when I am here in the US reflecting on how I feel so at home in Maasai. Life asks such different things of me there than it does here.

I have lived the past seven years here in the States feeling like it is somehow OK to leave one world behind while I live in another. Now I have reached a point where I need to bridge the gap that separates Lacey from Sialo. So, I guess my attempt at doing this is going to be to tell my story. It might not mean anything to anyone else, but it is important to my daughter who is half of me and half Masinta. She needs to know that the divide isn't impassible. That you can be both here and there.

Time Flys

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I last posted!! So much has happened.

I am now the proud owner of a round trip ticket to Nairobi!!! I will be in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganada for over 11 weeks this summer. I am so excited I cannot even begin to put it in words. I feel emotions that I have not felt in a long time. As though I had been pushing them aside and back for the past 5 years because I didn't know if this would ever happen. It is.... I am coming!!

I am sure that you will hear a lot more about this in the days to come. In fact I leave in 74 days!

Well this week we have been keeping a 2 year old of a friend of mine from Chicago. Her name is Jaiya and she is the best thing since peanut butter!!! Here are some pictures of her that her mom has on line. I will post more in the days to come!!

"P.S. I love you"--- Old Loves and New Loves

This weekend was very ordinary and somehow extraordinary at the same time.

On friday I went to Muncie with an old family friend. She was a missionary in TZ the same time that we were there. Since her return to the States, she has gone through a very nasty divorce after her husband left her for another man. On top of which he doesn't have much to do with their two children, one of which is terminally ill and so it takes a great deal of personal strength to deal with that situation- let alone by herself.

Whenever she has to go out of town to take her son to Chicago or Mayo Clinic I usually house sit for her and watch her dog. It has been so obvious to see and feel the level of suffering she and her children have been through, that I try and do specail things for them while they are gone. I will have my dad come over fix the leaky faucet or the cupboard doors that don't latch. I will do some deep cleaning for them, just things that I know they don't have the time to do themselves on a regular basis.

It is funny when I think about the history of my family's relationship with this family. She didn't like my family, my parents, or my sisters then entire time we were in TZ together. Her husband made tons of trouble for my parents and I personally didn't know if I would ever be able to forgive them for the harm they caused my family. And then they came back here, and my heart broke for them. As hard as they ever made life for us, I would have never wanted this same kind of harm to befall them. I recieved so much healing through this.

Well, about two weeks ago she called and asked if I wanted to go out with her on friday becuase for the first time in ages she didn't have the kids this weekend. I of course said yes... I mean she is a fun lady!

We went to see P.S. I love you at the theater. Her ex-mother-in-law suggested the movie to her, saying that she would really like it. I don't know what kind of curel toucher her mother-in-law had in mind, but watching a movie about spoucial abandoment through death and divorce is about the worst for a woman who feels alone in the world. It was a good movie...a real tear jecker-- but not the kind of movie you see on the one free weekend you have because your former husband has finally made time to spend with his children.

After the movie we went to Carols O'Kelly's for dinner (a mexican/irish resturant? interesting indeed!). I didn't know how to handle her emotional response to the movie- or just how desperate she felt about her life right now. I kept thinking, I am not equipped to talk to her....I am 23, single, never married, never divorces, no children, no terminally ill children, not 40 something....I was freaking out in my mind.

I didn't know what to do other than hold her hand when she cried, laugh when she smiled, and hug her when she needed. It was all that I could do.

Contrastly, I was woken up the next morning by my older sister in my bed with a giant smile on her face. It was her birthday, but that wasn't the source of her happiness. She had just gotten back from a wonderful date with a guy that she really likes....She was beaming from ear to ear. This guy seems to be great for her and he really likes her. She desirves to be adored!!

It is intersting to see how love gained and love lost, old love and new love, broken hearts and healed hearts are birthed with the passing of the other. I can't help but feel though that we are meant to have partners in life. It seems as though it is just too hard to handle the down times alone, but it also seems that the good times are not complete without someone to share them with.

Christmas

Well, Christmas was just lovely.

It was very quiet. This was the first Christmas in 7 years that it was just our family (and Josephine). I brought back so many good memories of older times.

We had our traditional christmas fare....Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, herb roasted potatoes and carrots, greenbean cassrole, homemade rolls, walnut salad, ham, and apple cinn cake...just like the old days!!

Here is Callie..... :0)

Dad at Christmas Dinner....

Mom...I know she is going to love this picture...

Myself....at Christmas Dinner

My ever lovely sister, Erin...

And Tito (who loves to have her picture taken) and Josephine (who doesn't like having her picture taken) :0)

After Dinner we watched the Notebook....it is funny because I always think "my poor dad...he has all girls and so he has to watch these 'chick flick' movies all the time" and then he informed us that he has grown to like them! I guess having no boys will do that to you!

This was before the movie.......

This was after the good Notebook cry....

Even mom cried!

Kenya

Kenya is in chaos right now. I heart is broken for this broken country.
I pray that our Father will grant peace to those in Kenya right now and those who are away watching their world shatter from afar.
I pray for a hedge of protection around all people right now, that they might see the limitless mercy and grace of God.
I pray also for the leaders, whether legitimate or not, that they would put their own personal agendas aside and look toward what is best for the people.
Death is never the best thing for one's people.
I pray for peace to prevail!

TAPP

We are up and running...for the most part.
The TAPP web-site is up and everyone should visit it.

http://tapphope.org/

I have been working with TAPP for the past year and I am so excited that we have gotten this far....Thanks Davo for all of your hard work on building and launching the website!

This is the process of making the beads in Uganda.....

The Beads then look like this and are made into....

These beautiful necklaces...and bracelets...and earings...and purses...etc

Then we they are shipped to the US TAPP Branch here in Anderson....and Christy and I, along with the whole gang take over from there.

This the Door to out TAPP Office....we just opened the office in October....
We have been working really hard and I for one am so excited at what we have accomplished in such a short period of time!

God has been so good to us and He had been doing some amazing thing!

Thanks everyone for your hard work!!