vacancy & africa

It is hard for me to sit here in my quiet house with "more that words" playing in the back ground and the sun setting on my dinning room table. I cannot help but reflect on what has happened in the last 48 to 72 hours. My house that seems to always be filled with noise and sound only echos the sounds of my ipod and the typing of the keys. 

So what indeed am I thinking about? This last week I spent time in Catalina with good friends and a small crew of family enjoying the surroundings as we meet to celebrate my dear friends dan & annie's wedding (that is wedding number 4 of the summer that I referred to in a past post). Its strange how much people can truly become brothers in your life. Dan is a friend, amigo, roommate, and brother, which makes them family. Annie's brother's toast at the rehearsal dinner was ended with this final great line, "May you love each other as much as your family loves you" and it hit me...such power again in those words as two families begin to merge. Such a bond with family. 

Family is about pissing each other off, sticking up for each other, laughing with one another, giving up your room as they visit, making fun of each other, picking up boyfriends from the air port before they even have meet them, killing spiders for you, speaking on behalf of you, telling you when you are being a mean, loving you because you are who you are, makes tortillas together even if its been 2 years since the last ones, understanding that you are stressed, praying for each other, standing along side they decide to go to Africa for a month, and standing along side you as walk down the isle. These are the things that make family both Blood related, and Life related, truly real family. 

 

Ps.

I want to talk about Venessa's humble spirit and her journey to Africa to hold babies...but time is running out. I will post again soon. But know that She should be landing in Africa now. Pray for her safety, her heart, her health, the children and local adults she is working with, and her spiritual and emotional well being. Not only is Venessa in Africa but our blond friend Julia "bruin" is in Kenya (she boarded her plane sunday, Venessa boarded her plane monday) at the same time as venessa is in Namibia.