Thanksgiving In Burkina.

We had a different Thanksgiving than we've had for many years past.

This was our first major holiday in Burkina Faso, and the first Thanksgiving in years and years and years that I haven't spent with my family in Hilton Head. And when I say family, I mean 50+ aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, nieces, brothers, sister-in-laws....we're like a small army. We do Thanksgiving big, and it's the only holiday that we ever see family being in the Air Force and always living too far away to make traveling convenient. So Thanksgiving is important to me.

And as I stood in the kitchen the night before Thanksgiving to make pie, it hit me that I was standing in the kitchen all alone. There would be no family in there with me this year. There would be no one coming in to talk to me, or harass me. No one to help me prep. No mom. No sister-in-laws. There would be no chorus of cousins bantering back and forth.

It was painfully quiet. And I couldn't help but cry.

I cried from the absence of noise and delightful chaos that this holiday has always had. I cried at the loss of family time. And as much I as love being here and wouldn't trade living in Burkina for anything....I just resigned myself to the fact that it was okay to be sad and miss family and it didn't mean I loved being here any less.

So, I turned on some praise music and let Jesus fill my kitchen and slowly over the course of the couple hours that I was in the there I found solace in Jesus' presence.

Thanksgiving was also different in the way that Sydaleigh had to go to school. Seen as how we live in a country that does not celebrate or recognize our American holidays...Isaak had the day off from work at the Embassy, but Syd still had school. It was kinda odd. And just felt weird and bizarre waking up on Thanksgiving and having a school day. I think next year I will give her the choice to stay home if she wants too. But her school had a Harvest Celebration that day, which is close to Thanksgiving, so we headed over to her school in the morning to hang with her for a little while.

I received a note saying that Sydaleigh's class was in charge of bringing veggie trays and dip for their feast....but I'm all like, "what kind of veggie tray do they expect me to bring?!!"

A common veggie tray in the states consists of carrots, broccoli, celery, and grape tomatoes.

In Burkina Faso there is no such thing as grape tomatoes, there is no broccoli to be found, I have yet to see celery...and their carrots.....dude, the carrots here are way bendy....what.is.up.with.that? I should not be able to bend a carrot like that without it snapping.

The only veggie left I could think to include were cucumbers. Soooo, I sent a whole plate of 'em!

Sydaleigh's class and the other younger kids singing a song.

When we got home I had some more food to make, but this time I wasn't alone. I had a little helper for the morning. :~)

She is really good at rolling up some crescents, let me tell ya. 

I loved working in the kitchen with that little lady. It was different from what my days normally look like, but it was nice to make some memories with just my family. So, we rolled ourselves up some crescents, got the rest of the food ready, and looked forward with eager anticipation to dinner with good friends.

I made a yummy chocolate pudding pie. It was suppose to be a chocolate torte, but turned out like pudding, which was fine with me because that's really what I was wanting! Really, you can't go wrong with chocolate and heavy cream and even if it turned out like mush, it would have been a chocolate mush and still tasted good. :~)

We had dinner with Jean and Andy and their kids at their home, and feasted on turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and rolls, pumpkin pie and chocolate pie. It felt as much like home as we could get!

The kids swam and swung. And we talked and laughed and rested.

So that was our day. I think next year the shock of being so far away will have worn off and it won't be so hard. But it still turned out okay. It was good. And I was thankful and felt blessed.

(Marvelly, little stinker thinks it's funny not to smile in pictures right now. )
(Oh, and a special shout out to Bekah and her dad who I got to skype with on Thanksgiving, and my mom for getting to hear her voice too! Made me so happy!)