This is Life: Things We Love about Chogoria, Part 1

I know we are only one month in, but thus far we are really enjoying our life in Chogoria, Kenya. Want to know why? Here are a few things that I love about living here:

1) Margin. More to come on this later, but essentially meaning "the space for your mind and soul to breathe" (definition mine). This is an absolute must for living overseas (or anywhere, actually...) and we are enjoying it and protecting it!

2) Beauty. Ok, so I don't have snow-capped mountains as my backdrop (like in Bundi), but there is beauty all around this place. Flowers (some exotic, some that bring nostalgic memories of my mother's garden), greenery, symmetry, balance...Chogoria, at least my small corner of it, is beautiful.

3) Sacred Spaces. One hole that I was constantly trying to fill in Bundibugyo, was a consistent place to have peace and quiet and simply let my soul breathe (read #1). I had a small little chair next to my bed that I tried to make my "sanctuary", but usually it was occupied by a pile of clothes waiting to be folded, and a disastrous room that desperately needed attention. It took a LOT of work (ie: candles, music, fan, deep-breathing with my eyes closed, lol...to get into that solitary place) Here in Chogoria, I have one room that I have dedicated to making a sacred space. It is dual-purpose as this is where we homeschool every day, but it is a place where my and the children's minds open up, breathe in, and feast on the goodness of Jesus. I knew we would be spending a lot of time in this room, and thus have made it a place that we can enjoy whenever we enter.

4) Light. There is something about rays of sunshine streaming through windows that just lifts your spirits and lightens your day. The Lord knows my need for lots of light, and has given me a home in this season that has a whole wall of windows that allows natural light to pour through every day. It is truly one of the greatest gifts...

5) Predictability. Now, granted, this is relative. When you move your family from America to Africa, you just resolve that you are going to give up a certain level of control. But to be in a place where you can actually pretty well predict what your day and week is going to look like (and know that you actually have a greater than 50% chance that most of those things will happen), it is SO NICE. It is a stressful thing to be bombarded all the time by unexpected events in which you are having to constantly change course of action throughout your day. Do unexpected events happen in Chogoria? Absolutely. The guy working in our bathroom dropped a hammer in our sink, and we are still without a bathroom sink 3 weeks later. We had to evacuate our house at a moment's notice last week because of an ongoing flea infestation. It's just life. But for the most part, being able to project what is going to happen in the near future is a luxury that we are lapping up!

More to come on how God is blessing this season in Chogoria...