If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

I'm paying the price for not keeping up with my blog this week.  Is the price too many words?  No.  Too many pictures?  No.  The price is that I cannot write out the words eighteen, nineteen and twenty and have it fit on one line in the post title--so I had to decide if I was going to not spell them out and bug myself because all of my other posts have the numbers spelled out or spell them out to be consistent, but have it take two lines and bug me.  That seriously was a dilemma for me.  And I'm still not feeling 100% comfortable with the choice I've made. The past three days have been super fun and super boring.  Classes are finally over for the residency portion of grad school.  The last couple days were excruciating in terms of staying engaged.  Twenty hours of class time for six classes all packed into two and a half weeks is a lot.  But I have had the best times these past few days with my cohort.  I am so thankful for...

Yesterday started out perfectly relaxing.  It was the only day for the whole summer that I didn't have to set an alarm to be anywhere--that was a nice thought heading to bed--but I woke up at 5:45 anyway.  We all just chilled around the house for the morning and it was great to not have to be thinking about anything.  We headed up to the school for some WiFi and fellowship around 9:00 and then we began our adventure about three hours later. A couple of friends from school joined Braner Party of 7-minus-1 for a trip to town with the goals being lunch, money exchange, and craft market shopping.  Lunch and cash were a success and then we headed for the market.  We walked. And we walked. And we walked. And we walked.  Then we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction so we turned around, headed back UP the hill and walked some more.  Have I mentioned that Rwanda is the Land of a Thousand Hills?  Mt. Kigali (where downtown is located) is ...

After a final day of Cross Cultural Skills & Understanding and some good Braner naps, we headed to the Commissioning Ceremony (aka Fake Graduation, aka Fraduation).  It was a great night.  We took tons of pictures, laughed a lot, hugged a lot, cried some, were proud of ourselves and of one another and were a little sad that many of those dear friends in that room we may not see after next week.  What a blessing this Master's degree has been for me already just in terms of friendships. The speech went surprisingly well.  Sylvia, the representative from the IDEV (International Development) cohort went first and it was perfect.  She is so sweet and wise and sincere.  It was great.  Then Lauren introduced me and said the most special things about me to the room.  The tears began then, but I think that I did a fairly decent job not blubbering my way through my speech about our wonderful LORG (Organizational Leadership) family.  I'm proud ...

This day 15 post is being written on day 16 because apparently in Rwanda you have a data usage limit per day and I exceeded it last night by downloading a movie--didn't get to blog or do work or homework.  Interesting.  It did end up being a HUGE blessing, though, because I got my graduation speech for tonight written and that would not have happened had I not exceeded my Rwandan data limit! Yesterday was a hysterical day of class and friendship.  It is good friends who make boring things tolerable!  I am thankful for my friends here at Eastern/Rwanda. I also had some great moments with Hays yesterday.  Maggie took the littles to nap and he remained back at school and I am thankful for the times I got with only him during tea breaks.  I love my boy. Last night we had an unofficial 4th of July party (laid back hang out time) at my house with many of the second year students.  I think it was nice for them to get out of the dorms and just relax in ...

We've been talking about so many wonderful things here at my residency in Rwanda.  I love going to a Christian school for my Master's where the Christian part is really important (quite unlike my experience at Baylor for undergrad).  All of us are doing great work outside of the classroom all based on a love for people that stems directly from our love for Christ. Anyway, we were having a morning devotional, led by a student and she told us to close our eyes and make a mental picture of the word "abide."  She wanted us to have a literal picture in our mind of that word that we could access throughout the year.  As soon as I closed my eyes and for no apparent reason at all, this is the picture I saw (Phil Gibson, you will love this more than anyone). I opened my eyes quickly because I thought, "that's weird."  Then I closed them again to that picture and it all came together for me.   If you know the story of "The Giving Tree," it is ...

Today was fairly ordinary in terms of a school day--can you call a day where I am living in another country with my five kids and surrounded by dear friends ordinary?  Maybe not.  But it was a day filled mostly with class-Cross Cultural Skills & Understanding to be exact.  It could be a great class, but today I think the teacher may have even bored himself.  It has great potential and maybe tomorrow will be better. I did have a good day laughing with my cohort, though.  I'm thankful for the people I am in classes with--on this journey with! Meanwhile, my friend and classmate, Chantal, who lives in Kigali, arranged for Gabby to get her hair done.  So, she and Hays headed to a Rwandan woman's house for a day of braiding.  Adoptive moms, get this:  the style took about five hours and cost only $21 US.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??  It is nearly worth the price of the plane ticket (not really, but on a braiding day I would said it would be)...

I am so happy to be in my bed tonight.  Oh my.  What a day! We finished up Practical Financial Management and it was great.  I can't believe that I enjoyed my accounting class so much--I think I was just so ready to learn how to actually do accounting that it was refreshing for me. After class, we ran to the dress shop to pick up the kids clothes.  They are SO CUTE!  I cannot wait to post pictures of them wearing them on Saturday night! Then we hopped on a bus and headed three hours out of town to a tea plantation and factory.  Why did I think that a six hour bus trip after a half day of school was a great idea (especially when I have a paper due tomorrow and a new class starting)?  Mostly to get the kids out of the house and to give them more of Rwanda.  Let's go see the country.  This is our time to be here, so I am making us be here fully!  (And I'm exhausted because of it--in a great and complete way.) So, the bus rid...