PLEASE CHANGE YOUR THINGIES!!!

I AM NOW AT http://kristiapplesauce.typepad.com/ ; OKAY, THANKS!!!!

I am still here. Okay, not here, but there.

Just like all great bloggers before me….I have decided to move on to greater and bigger and more fabulous things. Not to say that I am a great blogger;I am just saying that WordPress can no longer hold my great big stories any longer. They can no longer hold the fascinating depictions as I describe them to you. As I write, I need more space and more of a layout to show you what I am saying in pictures and in word. So I am in fact moving over to Typepad. Yes, I am a trader. Typepad it is. Not because I love them more, but because they were the ones that a dear friend sponsored for me. Yay! So without further ado…please come over and visit. It is not completely up and running smoothly as of yet, we are still working out the kinks and bringing all of the posts from here to there (that might take a day or two) but might as well start now, right? So pa-leese change all of your settings to Kristiapplesauce.typepad.com/ Okay? Okay! Thanks.

Aphelele

Ap-a-lae-lae: All boy. This kid screams BOY! He is jumping off of the couches and tree branches. He shoots webs out of his wrists like spider-man. He crawls up your body and does a somersault off of you. He cartwheels all around the property. He is super cool. This kid is fantastic. He has all of the girls wrapped around his finger. Aphelele is so funny, he tickles you and then he is the one who laughs. He is really smart in school, but is finding it a little hard to find his “English words”. He’ll get it though. We love this kid.

Bongeka

Bone-geck-a: Shy and funny. She is a little awkward at times as she is transitioning into “teenager” but she has a heart that we should all long to have. She can’t figure out to play with the little girl things that she is still holding onto, or be more mature like her older sisters. We all encourage the first. She has an awesome imagination. She asks to help whenever we are doing anything. She didn’t win any of the races at the competition…but she entered all of them just the same. We are so proud of her. I am blessed by this one.

Lisakhanya

Lisa-kahn-ya: Princess. She rules the world and knows it. She insists on holding and kissing you and telling you - you are loved at any and every moment of everyday. This girl is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s. She has this incredible way of battin her eyelashes and smiling and you have no control left…so then you are forced to hold her and then hold her some more until your arms hurt. But it doesn’t really matter, because by then she has fallen asleep, and is snoring and that is even more cute. She is so stinking smart. She is the one who while the big girls where learning how to ride their bikes by uncle Dan and uncle Mike, Lisa was in the background teaching herself in two days flat. Stinker. That was without training wheels.

Siphokazie

Seep-O-Kah-Zee: Pure sweetness. Okay, so I probably will start each one with that. She is so fun. She is under two and somehow finds her way out of the house and into trouble whenever we don’t have our every eye on her. She has this fantastic giggle and chubby that when put that together you can’t help but love her for days. Right now, it is “winter” and so we are a chilly in the mornings and evenings, so they bundle the little ones in 6 or 7 layers (not kidding) every night so they don’t catch cold. We always laugh when you go to pick Sipo up, because you can’t find her in the bundle. She just “wonders” in the glory of little girl and it is pure delight. She was the one that was laughing and playing the hardest in the 4 plus 2 post…so fabulous. I love her so much. She has eyelashes for days and makes you want more of whatever she has. God’s delight…That must be what it is!

A protest

All fired up. That’s me. I think about things that I am passionate about, and that list is pretty dang long. Probably too long. There are things that seem to find me and it starts to happen. My face gets all hot, and my vision blurs a bit and I start to burn. Those who know me well know that soon to follow will either be some sort of outburst of emotion, or sarcastic remark, followed quickly by a flamboyant departure, if I didn’t manage (during that time) to wrangle in my opponent in a hot-tempered debate. I really hate this characteristic about myself. I really do. For example, while at yet another church visit last week (we have yet to find a Godly, sound, Biblical church here) we were sitting and waiting for the plate to be passed and as the preacher began to speak on why we should all give our money…he promptly announced that “If we desired to have cash money in our pockets, and if we wanted to rich beyond our imaginations, then we needed to quickly give all of our money into the offering and God would give it back 10 fold, in the form of dollar bills.” WHAT? Yes, we promptly gathered ourselves and walked out of the middle of the service. A first for me….but not a first for me to make a great big spectacle of myself to prove a point. Another example? Okay. Today while getting my hair cut, the guy was asking me what I was doing here in South Africa. I was kind of short, not totally indulging in all the details because he didn’t seem like he really cared anyways, and he said very matter of factly “Yeah, all those people keep having too many babies and can’t support themselves and it is a shame. Then you have to come (meaning missionaries) and it is a mess. You and I have to work and make our own money, why can’t they?” As calmly as I could I responded with “That is a pretty strong generalization.” and followed with “We are here to help as many people as we can, hungry people are hungry people” and something else that was lame. All I saw was fire and I really just wanted to kick him in the face and tell him how sad his life must be for thinking so shallow. I wasn’t quick on my thinking as I just wanted to leave and as quickly as I could get out of the stupid chair. I am in awe of those people who can turn conversations around, who can reflect that glorious light of God - regardless of what is happening in the conversations around them….me, I am just struggling to breathe most days.

Things that matter Vs. Things that don’t

Things that matter:

Family who love you and know that you love them; Friends that rock; Relationship and surrender to Christ; Knowing how to hacky sack; Long walks with your beloved; A good pair of sunglasses; Children who want to spend time with you; Realizing you are right where God designed you to be; Knowing how to pronounce all the kids names correctly at Oceans; Rocking the kids to sleep; Hearing your family’s voices; Hearing “I love you”; Holding Kayren as she learns of her and her husbands friend who died in the war fighting; A good, solid un-interupted quiet time with the LORD; Feeding hungry people; Having compassion; Not being so mean and angry about things not going my way; Karyne’s husband fighting a war, and being in harms way; The reality that God is the only one that matters.

VS.

Things that don’t:

The lady that didn’t drop her cake; The internet not working; My bad additude and whiny behavior about it not working; Worrying about all the things I can not control; Trying to be in control; Me; The selfishness and unforgiveness and hurtful behavior I have allowed to creep into my heart; Not knowing how to hacky sack; The dog not being potty trained; The people who tell us how to park and where to park and how to un-park and then making us pay for that service; The car getting crashed (yes, the new/old one); Starbucks; Me!

I re-use zip-locks…I used to think that was white trash. Now, what does that make me?

I wonder if Jesus was sad when he said to those listening “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” I mean of course there was a lesson to be learned and if you cross reference all of those scriptures you will learn more of what He was talking about…but in that split second, when he knew that his family was there to see him and he had to make that decision…do you think that it was hard? Do you think his heart ached to see his mom, and greet her with a kiss? I was always taught (in Bible college and in various sermons along the way) that it is God first, family second and church/work third. But seriously, here in South Africa, that all blurs together. Daniel and I work and pray and feed the kids and fight and cry and do homework and laugh and put up fences and play games and have meetings and it all blurs together. We do it hand in hand and there is no separation. I knew that there would be a sacrifice coming here, but I didn’t know that it was going to be my family. I knew that there was going to be some sort of blow to our relationship…we would have to adjust (only talk of the phone once a week, if that…e-mail, what-ever) and now, those things are coming into question. Am I to have no communication? Is that what God is calling us to? We found out that the reason for our e-mail dilemma is that we are only allotted 1 gig of space per month for internet use. I don’t even know what that means. But split between the 3 of us, you get 7 days of use. So now we either have to use the internet café and have no solid communication with our family and continue to blow through the money; get unlimited use and to blow through the money even faster; or we stop talking to everyone. I know in my heart that we are home I just wonder how long I can go without talking to those who love me from home.

 

Mathew 12:48; Mathew 6:1; Mathew 7:21; John 15:14; Hebrews 2:11

Care packages

So from what I can tell is that we are hit and miss with the mail. We get it, we don’t get it, I don’t know. So far, we have been getting all the mail that our families and friends have sent us (unless of course, we haven’t :0 ) So, for your questions, we have been able to receive padded envelopes that fit into our standard P.O. Box without any problems…we don’t have to pay extra to get them out, and they weren’t riffled through. Karyne received a 10 pound box from her mom a couple weeks ago and had to pay to get it out and it was pretty banged up…so that was a little tragic, but it got here and it was love from home…but it still cost to get it out ($3.50). So what we think so far is if we can keep them really small, then that is the way to go, so it doesn’t cost us on this end.