6 Months of Wedded Bliss...and Home for the Holidays...

It has officially been 6 months since Donovan and I got married in May! Since then we have seen/done/experienced many crazy adventures...
I cannot believe that 6 months have already flown by. I honestly feel like it was yesterday when we even met at Nyack College. And I am more then happy that we did because I am firmly convinced that no other man on this planet could stand to be married to me. Im way to moody/crazy/spontaneous/weird/outgoing to have a serious, pensive man. God knows what He is doing when He plans marriage. It's all in His timing.

Well we are T-minus 20 days till we head home. Now that its under the 3 week mark, it's weird to be planning on going home. I have mixed feelings about being back in America. With Christmas coming, I cannot help but feel the "normal" nostalgia of the holidays. I love the music, food, decorations, lights but what I don't love is the superficial mindset of all the materialism. I know there are many people out there who don't get sucked into the materialistic Christmas and for that, they deserve respect. Because I know its difficult. I just wish the 5+ billion dollars that America spends on Black Friday every year was put in a different area. Considering there are people all over the world, even America where people don't have food or warmth. Yet, most of us cuddle up next to our fires and our cups of hot cocoa and enjoy the "joys of the Holidays." But what sets us apart from the people without food to snack on? Or the people who don't even have a home to put lights up on, or a tree to set up? What about the people who don't have a closet full of winter jackets to choose from? Or what about the people in Africa, India, Cambodia, Thailand that live everyday just trying to survive, as they ask whatever god they believe in to just provide enough food to keep their families alive. Is it just that these people were born in a different place and time as us "fortunate ones" and all that separates us, is just where God placed us? So, we are blessed. And I know I take advantage of that blessing everyday, especially during the holidays, but I hope this year, where I have experienced a culture not built around "living richly" but "richly living" that I have seen true happiness isn't all that you can buy, eat, own, or wear, its about family, love and faith. I want to be a person who sees life as a chance everyday to live my life in love. To love all those around me, to letting my faith in the true God expound to everyone I meet.

I hope when my husband and I return home we take a bit of third world with us. So early on in our marriage, we have seen parts of the world where others choose to shut their eyes to. I hope Donovan and I continue to search out people and cultures that live lives of true thankfulness and beauty. These are the people that are indeed truly blessed with their hearts of content and spirits of gratitude.